The Invisible Sign

9/11 — As I See It …

Working in the communications industry at the time, I was with colleagues when the first plane hit as we watched on the break room television.

Then the second plane hit, and I knew from past experience that the building was going to collapse, and my heart sank, knowing what was about to happen and that there was not time enough for everyone to escape.

The evil people that engineered that attack knew exactly at what level to hit and what the result would be. That intense heat would explode concrete and melt steel.

And it did.

For me, what is even sadder than the deaths of all those thousands are the reasons it happened, and there are many.

What is even more disheartening, and more terrifying, is the fact that those reasons still exist in the hearts and minds of those evil people who are willing to continue murdering and slaughtering.

America lost its thousands, and the CDC estimates more than 96,000 people have already been diagnosed with physical or mental health conditions resulting from exposure to the dust, smoke, debris, and trauma of 9/11.

But it doesn’t end there, does it?

Look at what it triggered worldwide.

According to our Internet findings, Brown University’s Costs of War project estimates at least 4.5–4.7 million direct and indirect deaths resulting from the wars undertaken after 9/11 in the major post-9/11 war zones.

About 940,000 were deaths from direct violence; an estimated 3.6–3.8 million more resulted indirectly from things such as destroyed health systems, disease, hunger, infrastructure collapse, and displacement.

So, there is a lot more at stake here than just that tragic loss of those on American soil.

The repercussions continue to echo through the nations of the world.

Has anyone even considered gathering the religious and political leaders into one room and knocking their heads together the way grandpa used to knock some sense into his sons?

We cause these things!

We are the terrorists!

Every one of us around the globe who continues to wave our flags and chant our slogans, and taunt one another with our wealth and power!

We begin our wars at the lowest levels of our existence when we teach our children to COMPETE, COMPETE, BECOME THE BEST, OVERCOME THE OPPOSITION.

Then we go into battle on the soccer fields, the competitive games on which we spend hundreds of billions of dollars while we cheer for our teams, our people, and we encourage one another to continue to hate, revile, and oppose one another.

Then we sit back in our recliners and say to one another, “What is wrong with this world? Why can’t people just get along with one another?”

As Walt Kelly put it:

“WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY, AND HE IS US!”