What is remembrance without reflection? And what is reflection without honesty?
Today was a day to remember, but what are we remembering? I am asked to mourn the victims of 9/11, and I do, but what about the victims of 9/13, 9/14, 9/15…and onward. What about the thousands upon thousands of innocents killed as they slept in their homes in the deserts of Iraq or the mountains of Afghanistan? Do we remember them?
And how do we remember? Do we remember that crazy men flew planes into buildings belonging to a peaceful country? Is that what we remember? Do you have the courage to ask yourself this question: What could possibly drive you to fly a plane into a building? Answer honestly. What could possibly drive you to blow yourself up on a roadside to kill a few people?
We are taught that there are people who are simply evil in the world, and that helps us sleep at night. If there are just evil crazy people, then we do not have to actually consider why they act the way that they do, because the answer is self-evident: they are evil and they are crazy. This is a myth that has been employed by governments and militaries throughout all of history to gather armies and drive them into battle against their enemies.
The fact, however, is that people are not just crazy and evil…people are people, and their actions are responses to other actions and events.
Those who choose to see 9/11 as an unprovoked attack have chosen to be ignorant of all the history that led up to that day. Ignorance is always a choice, and it is a choice that stands in direct opposition to honesty and truth.
If my government was overthrown by a foreign military, if my people were bombed and my family killed by strange soldiers from strange lands, if my country was forced into poverty by multinational corporations backed by mercenaries…I may well consider sacrificing my life for some idea of freedom from those people, no matter how insane that sacrifice may seem. I mourn the loss of life and the negation of basic rights to people all over the world. Do I mourn the loss of American lives more than those of Iraq? Absolutely not. Life is life, and to kill one person, as is said in the Quran, “Is to kill all of humanity.” I mourn and I lament the oppression of people throughout history, and I acknowledge that oppression across all social, cultural, class, and racial lines.
Do I support the attacks of 9/11? Obviously not, but I do understand them. Besides, I do not see the attacks of 9/11 as attacks on America, I see them as attacks by the poor and oppressed against those who are seen as their oppressors. I see them as acts of desperation, not insanity. Osama Bin Laden was far from poor, but his everyday soldiers and martyrs were always, and will always be, like the everyday soldiers and martyrs in most places in the world—the poor and oppressed. Since 1945, American and European based corporations, backed by the U.S. military, have gone unchecked throughout the world, sacking governments and basically enslaving people to create markets, and provide cheap sources of labor and natural resources to feed the ever expanding consumer demands here in the U.S. This is not a conspiracy theory, this is fact. The U.S., in this way, is no different from any empire throughout history. We are no worse (though perhaps more efficient in our conquest), but we should leave our notions of innocence and righteousness at the door.
These are the things I remember, these are the things I think of, and if we do not change ourselves, if we do not reflect honestly, there will be more dates to “remember” and the corpses will continue to pile from the suburban streets of Clovis, CA to the deep jungles of the Congo, to the rugged mountains of Central Asia.
If this sounds angry, it is not. If this sounds crazy, it is not. If this sounds desperate, it is. This is a desperate plea from someone who deeply loves humanity and is tired of watching humans continue telling the same lies, dying for the same “causes”, over and over again. This is a desperate call to courage and truth.
Peace and Love. Salaam Waleykum.
