The words that I am feeling today, along with the rest of the nation and families of 3016 souls, cannot be accurately portrayed in intensity by words and images on a computer screen. That's assuming it would be possible to put all I feel into words anyhow.
I don't understand how as mankind, we can be given so many gorgeous natural landmarks, such magnificent beauty, available at our fingertips on one single planet... Yet it remains divided and only distinguished by the violent issues that ensue between the continents that house it. How can as humans, we be put on this earth together and be given so much from God, whatever one's interpretation of Him may be defined by their culture, whatever name you give your higher power, it is the same God, and He did not intend for us, His children, to be so divided and so hateful.
We are all on this planet together, yet as individual countries we act as if the other is infringing on our right to exist, when we could all be beautifully well off if we could just get along. We teach our children that violence isn't the answer, that discrimination is bad and that we should love everybody regardless of nationality, race, sex, or status. So why do countries hate one another, despise the differences, and try to annhiliate other cultures when we could take the diversity and embrace it for the miracle that it is?
In the end, we will all go to the same place. There is not a heaven for the United States, a heaven for Iraq, a heaven for the Afghanis, and there is certainly not a special heaven reserved for those who risk their lives in suicide missions, hoping to prove a point that will only be forgotten within weeks amid the remaing conflicts.
If I could talk to the World, that is what I would say. I would stand in front of every single culture, continent, religious group, and leader. Their power wouldn't intimidate me, because their minds are just as mortal as your's and mine and I would be addressing their souls, not the methods and modus operandi they use for intimidation.
To quote Ozzy Osbourne (of all people): Your higher power may be God or Jesus Christ
It doesn't really matter much to me
Without each others help there ain't no hope for us....
Why does Osama bin Ladin announce he wants to Destroy Americans, Everywhere? And why does President Bush announce that our enemies Must Be Found and Defeated? Because after all, do they really need to be? What will we be proving, what will we be accomplishing? I don't feel we should sit like sitting ducks and try for peace while other nations attempt to blow us out of the universe; I think it would be a novel idea if leaders everywhere would open their eyes, smell the bitter coffee, and realize what we are doing to the world.
What are we teaching our children? What kind of world will we have made for them to live in in 50 years? They know what is going on, they see it. On September 11th 2001, the same kindergartender who, upon being asked what he wanted to be when he grew up replied with a giggle so shrill and gleeful that the words 'cirus clown' were barely intelligable, told me "They are trying to kill us. Somebody hates our country."
And for that child, what he saw that day and what he concluded will remain with him for the rest of his life.
I don't know what else to say: Or rather, I don't know how else to reword everything I've already said. So I'll leave it at this, and if you have made it this far, then I thank you for sticking through my thoughts. If there's anything at all that we can individually do for our own countries today, that would be to pray for them.
Pray for all lives that have been lost on account of terrorism and hatred, anywhere.
Pray for the families friends of all 3016 individuals lost on September 11th.
Pray for the leaders, in that the decisions they make are wise and not made in haste.
Pray for the children in hopes that they never forget what they are witnessing, but also that they realize they someday can have the power to change it.
Pray that we establish the confidence and values in them today so that they may do just that when they are the ones leading the nations.
And, pray for our 'enemies.' Because anybody whose spirit was at peace with life would never contemplate such horrific things. Maybe things are the way they are because nobody bothers to pray for the villain.
You are all in my thoughts and prayers and I hope you get through this day with strength, rememberance, and optimism.
Love Emily.