i'm talking to the man in the mirror
May. 2nd, 2011 12:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kricketsTen years too late.
I came into work this morning and a realization hit me: Someone had stolen five out of six newspapers that are delivered to the library.
Who wakes up in the morning thinking: "Hallelujah, Bin Laden is dead! I think I'll celebrate by swiping a bunch of newspapers from the library?" Really? That's just sad. [And they probably would have taken all six if one of our spares wasn't always inexplicably put in the wrong spot.]
But this is not the first revelation I had this morning. Although, it is still pretty early so there could be more to come. The first revelation I had was when I was walking in the grass (which no one ever does save for me; isn't that what grass was made for?) and I thought: I don't feel any better.
Ten years.
The landscape (politically and economically) of this country has completely changed over these last ten years. A lot of people have died, not just in the attacks, but afterward. In Afghanistan and Iraq and here at home. Some quick. Some slow, like the firemen and other rescue workers who have quietly been dying due to the toxic dust they inhaled during the rescue effort. And the real crime there is not that they got sick, but how our country, the good old US of A, has treated them since they've gotten sick. The US has spent billions (with a B! And possibly a T?) of dollars on war efforts and who knows what else. And, though I hate to use a catch phrase, the country has been deeply polarized in a way that feels, to me, irreparable.
I came of age during the tail end of the Clinton administration and then grew into the adult I am today during a time when everything that I stood for was considered an affront to patriotism and something to be ashamed of. You'd think some of that would have died down by now, but just last year one of the most talked about news stories was the "it's-not-a-Mosque-it's-a-community-center" that was to be built at/by/near/close-to/in-the-same-city-as ground zero. People were pissed. And if you weren't, well then you just weren't a "true American," you know? And this year, the fury over President Obama's birth certificate was at its loudest -- despite the fact that the state of Hawaii had already verified his birth back in October of 2008.
And so, given all that, maybe it's just me, but the death of one man hardly seems worth it.
In a way there is relief. The question of where he is and if he'll ever be caught has finally been answered. But at the same time, he'll never truly pay for his crimes. For the past ten years, his punishment has only been to watch the worst being brought out in our country. Which was exactly his point. We weren't just crippled on that one day. We have been crippled ever since, and will continue to be crippled. And the man never even had to sit trial.
And even if he had, one man's death (or one man's prosecution) is not going to make all of these problems go away. These world-wide problems, terrorism and evil people doing evil things? Not going away. And it's not going to erase that last ten years and the crimes that we have committed against each other and others. (War, racism, religious discrimination, and yes, even political discrimination.) And the troops are still not all home.
I think it's okay to be relieved, to feel pride, to be happy. I would have loved to have been there to hear them saying the pledge outside of the White House last night. But I have a bit of a knee-jerk reaction when I see people dancing in the streets over what is essentially an act of war, no matter how justified that act may be. I remember feeling the (fear-fueled) solidarity that came after the attacks, as I'm sure many others in the US do. But I also remember how that sense of patriotism can be skewed into something not so pleasant.
I re-tweeted the lovely Emma Caulfield last night, some silly thing about Obama's hail mary pass. But I later deleted it because I didn't like what she said about kicking ass. I don't think she meant it in the same way Toby Keith talks about putting boots in people's asses, but I just didn't like the way it sounded. I don't subscribe to that Toby Keith type of mentality, and even though very few people actually read my twitter, I don't want anyone to assume that I do.
So essentially, this is just me rambling. Sure we had a small, but late-coming, victory last night. And hopefully our country and everyone who needs it gets the closure that has long been sought. But as the late great MJ said, if you want to make the world a better place, you have to take a look at yourself.
Just FYI, I have many reservations about posting this, because whenever I talk politics I always look back on it and feel like I could have said whatever I was thinking in about a thousand different (and better) ways and also later feel like I've left tons of stuff out, but whatever, I'm going for it this time.
I came into work this morning and a realization hit me: Someone had stolen five out of six newspapers that are delivered to the library.
Who wakes up in the morning thinking: "Hallelujah, Bin Laden is dead! I think I'll celebrate by swiping a bunch of newspapers from the library?" Really? That's just sad. [And they probably would have taken all six if one of our spares wasn't always inexplicably put in the wrong spot.]
But this is not the first revelation I had this morning. Although, it is still pretty early so there could be more to come. The first revelation I had was when I was walking in the grass (which no one ever does save for me; isn't that what grass was made for?) and I thought: I don't feel any better.
Ten years.
The landscape (politically and economically) of this country has completely changed over these last ten years. A lot of people have died, not just in the attacks, but afterward. In Afghanistan and Iraq and here at home. Some quick. Some slow, like the firemen and other rescue workers who have quietly been dying due to the toxic dust they inhaled during the rescue effort. And the real crime there is not that they got sick, but how our country, the good old US of A, has treated them since they've gotten sick. The US has spent billions (with a B! And possibly a T?) of dollars on war efforts and who knows what else. And, though I hate to use a catch phrase, the country has been deeply polarized in a way that feels, to me, irreparable.
I came of age during the tail end of the Clinton administration and then grew into the adult I am today during a time when everything that I stood for was considered an affront to patriotism and something to be ashamed of. You'd think some of that would have died down by now, but just last year one of the most talked about news stories was the "it's-not-a-Mosque-it's-a-community-center" that was to be built at/by/near/close-to/in-the-same-city-as ground zero. People were pissed. And if you weren't, well then you just weren't a "true American," you know? And this year, the fury over President Obama's birth certificate was at its loudest -- despite the fact that the state of Hawaii had already verified his birth back in October of 2008.
And so, given all that, maybe it's just me, but the death of one man hardly seems worth it.
In a way there is relief. The question of where he is and if he'll ever be caught has finally been answered. But at the same time, he'll never truly pay for his crimes. For the past ten years, his punishment has only been to watch the worst being brought out in our country. Which was exactly his point. We weren't just crippled on that one day. We have been crippled ever since, and will continue to be crippled. And the man never even had to sit trial.
And even if he had, one man's death (or one man's prosecution) is not going to make all of these problems go away. These world-wide problems, terrorism and evil people doing evil things? Not going away. And it's not going to erase that last ten years and the crimes that we have committed against each other and others. (War, racism, religious discrimination, and yes, even political discrimination.) And the troops are still not all home.
I think it's okay to be relieved, to feel pride, to be happy. I would have loved to have been there to hear them saying the pledge outside of the White House last night. But I have a bit of a knee-jerk reaction when I see people dancing in the streets over what is essentially an act of war, no matter how justified that act may be. I remember feeling the (fear-fueled) solidarity that came after the attacks, as I'm sure many others in the US do. But I also remember how that sense of patriotism can be skewed into something not so pleasant.
I re-tweeted the lovely Emma Caulfield last night, some silly thing about Obama's hail mary pass. But I later deleted it because I didn't like what she said about kicking ass. I don't think she meant it in the same way Toby Keith talks about putting boots in people's asses, but I just didn't like the way it sounded. I don't subscribe to that Toby Keith type of mentality, and even though very few people actually read my twitter, I don't want anyone to assume that I do.
So essentially, this is just me rambling. Sure we had a small, but late-coming, victory last night. And hopefully our country and everyone who needs it gets the closure that has long been sought. But as the late great MJ said, if you want to make the world a better place, you have to take a look at yourself.
Just FYI, I have many reservations about posting this, because whenever I talk politics I always look back on it and feel like I could have said whatever I was thinking in about a thousand different (and better) ways and also later feel like I've left tons of stuff out, but whatever, I'm going for it this time.