Hate

There are things in life that I cannot understand. I have tried and the understanding is just beyond my ability. Twelve years ago today four airplanes were hijacked by terrorist. Over 3000 people lost their lives as a result of those terrorists desire to harm America. I remember where I was when I understood what was happening was not an accident. Prison was an odd place to be that day. It is normally a noisy and somewhat chaotic place. Not that day. By 9:00 or shortly after we were completely lockdown. No inmates were allowed out of their cells and staff were doing all the work normally assigned to them. I ended up working in the kitchen helping get meals out to the inmate population and staff. We were so busy we had no time to think or talk about what was happening in the outside world. It was in a way a relief. In another way it was a curse. When I got home I watched hours of news coverage knowing that much of what we heard that day would be wrong. There was lots of conjecture and very little verified fact. There are some things that happened as a result that are unfortunate results of the attacks that day.

There has been too much made out of the fact that the terrorists were Muslims. In the same way that not all Christians are members of Westboro Baptist Church not all Muslims are terrorists. We, as a country, have allowed too many of our fellow citizens to paint all Muslims with the same brush. Terrorist come from many different religious and ethnic groups. They are not all Muslims. Remember Timothy McVeigh? Sometimes they are just evil stupid people.

We passed the Patriot Act. It was an attempt to make it easier to find terrorists. We have, through it, allowed our government to spy on us. They have taken it to access telephone records, email communications and internet usage and truth be told I am certain much much more. We have given up some of our fundamental freedoms to have the illusion of increased security. The government doesn't want to give up these programs because they claim they are keeping us safe. I respectfully disagree. I don't want to trade freedom for security.

We have fought wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those wars have cost us a minimum of 4 trillion dollars. We have also made drone attacks or battled in several other countries to kill terrorists. We are threatening to get involved in the civil war in Syria. We want so badly to avoid another attack here that we are willing to fight anywhere else to prevent it. The loss of their citizens, innocent bystanders and non combatants are just collateral damage. Doesn't matter they aren't Americans. It does matter and it makes us as wrong as those who attacked and killed our innocents. The unfortunate truth is that those who hold beliefs that there way is the only way cannot participate in meaningful negotiations. Those who do not agree with them are not to be trusted. They are not worthy of life. Our god demands they convert or die. It doesn't matter if the believer is Christian or Jew or Muslim. To the fundamentalist if you do not believe what I do then you have no place in the hereafter and are worthy of hell and punishment.

So I don't hate Muslims because we were attached by fundamentalist idiots who held a perverted version of that religion as theirs. I hate the terrorists for what we became after their attack. I hate the Christians who cannot see that religion is about love and kindness, about judging the act and not the person. Holding individuals responsible for their actions and not blaming a group. Those who hold fundamentalist beliefs are a danger no matter what religious group they are in. They world is a glorious kaleidoscope of color and diversity. Only the simple and small minded must see it as black and white because they cannot comprehend its complex majesity. That has been the true damage caused by the attacks 12 years ago today.