In this millennium he changed the look of our universe more than we could have imagined. Gone were the days of feeling invincible. From that terrible day forward, we would forever be less sure and less comfortable in our own land. We would invade foreign territories, and search for foreign objects on our own bodies. We would listen in as a government for sounds of terror and we would capture and torture in the name of our security. We would look upon billions of Muslims around the world, and those in our own communities, with skepticism and hatred. For us, the deaths on September 11 were a direct challenge to the world as we understood it.
We would spend almost a decade in fruitless pursuit. We would chase into caves and down endless dead alleys. And then, for so long, it appeared that he was going to elude our grasp forever. And now he is dead.
And what does that mean to us, and to our future? While the past can never be altered, does this one death change where tomorrow leads? After the euphoria of the moment passes, and the patriotic fervor quiets, then what? We want so much for this to be the start of a different conversation, one where we don't feel the desperate need to kill in the name of retribution, and our enemies don't feel the desperate need to eradicate us, and all that we stand for. In the next decade, will the death of one man change the face of our planet in ways that his life did this past decade? Or is this just the death of one man?
3 comments:
While the President was planning the important mission, a carnival barker was distracting us all with the "birther issue". Ted
Very Poignant.
Howie
A day without the carnival barker is certainly a welcome event. Instead of being engrossed in nonsense, we dealt with various emotions and memories of significance.
And then tomorrow, the carnival barker will emerge once more.
Post a Comment