Year Ten

Scattered thoughts on the tenth anniversary:

• How can people say "god bless America" today?  I asked a believer how they can rationalize that statement and they told me that "he" works in mysterious ways. Somehow, and as much as I try to be respectful, I have to, deep down inside, call bullshit on that.  How can one justify such atrocities by labeling it with the benign "mysterious ways" excuse.  "Mysterious ways", at least to me, involve a man in a black cape pulling a rabbit out of a hat, or making a woman disappear in a "magic" box, not the complete annihilation of 3000 innocent people, some of them meeting their end in the most horrific and prolonged ways imaginable.
• And why is god blessing us today?  Why not wonder where the fuck he was in 2001 on this day.  Was he out to lunch?  Was he having a business meeting with Lucifer?  Was he simply hedging his bets on Al Qaeda and radical Islam?  After all, Mohammed Atta and company committed these acts FOR GOD.  The same god Christians worship, the same god Jews worship, the same god not-crazy Muslims pray to five times a day.  Sure, he's Allah in the Qu'ran, but guess what?  Same god. So how can people "thank god" or "god bless" anything when he's the very same god that didn't snatch those planes out of the sky on that Tuesday and say, "No, no, children. Play nice."
• If the acts of 9/11/01 don't make anyone realize that there is no god, then I don't know what else could.  Oh, wait, how about the Holocaust, Dharfur, Somalia, Andre Brevik, Rwanda, Bosnia, Palestine, AIDS, children born with cancer, children dying of starvation, people that shoot up IHOP restaurants for no reason, Michelle Bachmann, amputees (if there is a god, why won't he heal them?), war, famine, stillborn babies (bullshit that "god needed an angel in heaven"), rape, murder, pedophiles (priests, especially), and all those wonderful other things that this supposed benevolent, omniscient, omnipotent being "allows" to happen because of his "mysterious ways".
• And before you accuse me of being an Atheist because of all the bad things listed above, I will stop you there.  Sure, the horrific things that humans do to eachother are one of the reasons why I cannot logically believe in a god, but the wonders of the Universe and of our planet trump the idiocies of humanity.  How egotistical of us wee humans to think that the sun rises and sets for us.  That it was somehow "created" for our benefit.  We are a speck of a planet, on a speck of an arm of a galaxy that is a speck in the corner of an endless universe of which we are just learning about.  Our visible Universe, as detected by the Hubble telescope, shows millions, if not billions, of other galaxies, with other star systems, and presumably other planets that contain life.  We are here for a minute in the grand spectrum of things and then we are gone.  Yet people perpetuate this Bronze Age notion that we were "created" in a god's image and have this huge purpose.  We don't.  And that's ok. 

• As I said on my Facebook page, today should be a day where we remember what happened, but focus our energies on making this world a better place for our children.  How do we do that?  Well, for me, it means to stop fundamentalism in all aspects.  The United States is on the verge, if not already, of becoming a theocracy.  We are, in no way, a Christian nation as clearly outlined in both the Constitution and the Treaty of Tripoli, yet zealots and fundamentalists continue to push the notion that we are.  We must insist on a complete separation of church and state in both public lives and government.  The Michelle Bachmans, the Rick Perrys, the Mitt Romneys, the Falwells, the Robertsons, all must be removed from positions of influence. We must focus on teaching our children that EVERYONE is entitled to rights in this country: the right to love, the right to marry, the right to be a parent.  No one should be singled out or condemned simply because an ancient book, written by primitive goat herders says so.   
• Evolution is Science. Creationism is Myth.  One of them belongs in a Science class, the other in a Theology/World Relgions class. Not doing so is a disservice to the education of our children, or do we want all of them to sound like idiots?

• Let us not forget that horrific tragedies that befell sacred American soil (cough, cough, cough, sarcasm, cough) ten years ago are par for the course in not-so-lucky countries all over the world.  Children and raped and sold into slavery on a daily basis in certain African countries.  People are hacked to death with machetes for being gay, not following the same religion (oh, look religion and violence again!), going against the status quo, and other stupid reasons.  Buildings are detonated, families are destroyed, sons and daughters are lost every day in other countries and nobody blinks an eye.  Yet, when it comes knocking on our front door step, America all of a sudden, comes together and listens. 
• Well, America, you should be listening every day, to every person in every country who is victim or witness to their horrors.  We're not better than them, we're not special, and now, we're just like every other war torn country.  We're being taken over by theocrats who want to rule from the pulpit, who believe violence is the only way to conquer "the enemy", who believe "the enemy" is someone who isn't like them, and who wish to marginalize and demonize anyone and anything that threatens their "morality" and "values". 
• Sorry, but my godless Atheist morals and values never told me to hate gays and lesbians. 
• In conclusion, if I can get to one, today absolutely sucks.  And I dread the day when I will have to explain to my children why I just burst out crying for no reason on Sept. 11.  Or why the TV stays off or on cartoons all day.  Or why I hide the newspaper.  Or why, in my hope chest, there is a box with pictures in it of two towers.  Were that we were all children and didn't know about the cruelty of man.

Speechless

VNV Nation 9/11 Tribute

I take no credit for this except for its relevance even after nine years.

Switched Off

There are certain times of the year that I keep my television completely switched off. Today is one of them.

• I don't care to see images of 8 years ago splashed all over the place.
  
• I don't much care to hear about "final moments" on the "doomed airlines".
  
• I don't much care to hear heart wrenching stories about Person A that just recovered from *insert deadly disease here*and who was going home to see his *insert long lost relative* here only to snuff it it one of the world's most cowardly, inhumane, and predictable (yes, I said it) acts of violence.
  
• I don't much care to hear stories of "fallen heroes" who were just pawns in an illegal war, who paid with the ultimate sacrifice so government leaders could pat themselves on the back for "getting back at the terrorists" and "preserving American freedoms".
  
• I have no desire to listen to bloated rhetoric about "patriots" when all they're really talking about is "victims".
  
• I have no desire to hear every sentence punctuated with "god bless America". The ridiculous irony of such a phrase makes me just want to throw up. "God bless America". Really? So, where was your sky-fairy when all this happened? Was he wearing a turban and assisting Mohammed Atta and the hijackers? Because, of course, Atta and his posse did it all for Allah, and as any intelligent person knows, God and Allah are one in the same. Islam, Judaism, and Christianity all stem from the Abrahamic traditions and all believe in the same god. So, what was it? What was this supposed "blessing" America was receiving on that day? Or was it mereley "god testing us" as I am so fond of hearing? Yes, "testing". "Testing us" in such a manner that most people's remains were never found because they had been obliterated to the point that they turned to dust. "Testing us"in such a way that people chose to jump hundreds of stories to their death, rather than face the horrors inside. "Testing Us" in such a way that in the span of two hours, wives became widows, husbands became widowers, children became orphans, and parents became childless. Ah, but why am I so confused? This is the same benevolent omnipotent prick that would test Abraham by commanding him to kill his son. No wonder everyone thinks he's so "good!". Ugh, and they say Atheists are the crazy ones. Moving on....
  
• And Finally, I have no desire to continue to hear lies, bullshit, and unwarranted justifications for the murder of 3000 people by fundamentalist Muslims and the murder of almost 5000 US servicemen and women and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi men, women and children by fundamentalist Christians (yes, I'm talking about Bush and Co.)

Today should be a day to reflect back on man's inhumanity to man. Not glorify it with flag waving bullshit and young ROTC soldiers marching around thinking that we're the "good guys".

So excuse me while I don't join in in the hair pulling and somber attitudes. Enough is enough. Stop using 9/11 as an excuse for being a sanctimonious prick and start using it to serve as an example of the dangers of tyranny, fanaticism, and greed. Then maybe, just maybe, the human race has a chance......without the assistance of ancient mythologies.

UPDATE: I'm getting some really strange reactions to my post above from people who seem to think that I "don't care" about what happened 8 years ago or that I am dismissing the victims and their families. While I am not one to go back and explain myself, I feel that those who are offended or critical of my piece are not understanding what is being said and why I am saying it. This isn't an issue of "let's forget the past and move on", rather what I wish to see happening is "let's LEARN from the past and move FORWARD". If people have any sort of empathy, they don't need huge glossy still photos and slo-mo clips of the planes flying into the towers to REMEMBER the events of that September morning. As a respect to victims' families, my post above is an outcry against the sensationalism most networks and newspapers plan on capitalizing on today. As a New Yorker, I don't need "reminders" of what happened. It's as clear as day to me as though this was Sept. 12, 2001.

Secondly, I'm getting some flack for being callous and not respecting the way people grieve and cope by lambasting the religious aspect of the day. Ok folks, you know how I feel about religion. I don't mince words and I am certainly not going to change them in this case. The attacks 8 years ago were faith based. Our retaliation was faith based. Our own president at the time alluded to the Iraq war as being a "crusade in the holy land against the infidel". How anyone could find comfort in a god who would want human beings to kill each other over whose spiritual path is the "right" one is mind boggling to me. It makes no sense and I find it ridiculous.

And lastly, do not mistake my unattachment for stoicism. I was and still am deeply affected by the events. I am Switched Off because I can't handle looking at those images. My anger and frustration are my ways of coping with grief, and for that I will not apologize.

I stand by what I wrote above. Enough is enough. Our hands are not clean in this tragedy and, though the actual victims of the events are blameless, it is time for the United States and the administration that was responsible for letting something like this happen, take responsibility and stop playing the victim. The blood of almost 10,000 people is on their hands.