Eugene Grygo, Chief Content Editor, FTF News
It’s been 15 years but for many September 11, 2001 is frozen in time with all the shock, hurt and tragedy easily accessible. The full horror experienced by those who lost spouses, life partners, children, siblings, coworkers, friends and neighbors is not a distant memory. Their lives were forever changed by that day and its aftermath.
And there have been constant, ongoing reminders of the impacts of 9/11: the invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S. Patriot Act and the battles over personal freedom, the reach of Homeland Security, the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA, the invasion of Iraq, more terrorist and lone-wolf attacks across the globe, the rise of ISIS, and even long lines at airports. We have accepted that we must live by new rules, given an ever-present danger.
We also are witnessing that the aftermath of 9/11 consistently brings out the best and the worst in human nature across the globe.
Many people whose lives were directly impacted by 9/11 will get the ongoing love, compassion and support they need to survive and that’s what is encouraging about our natures. But it’s the other side that is the problem. A prime example is the ongoing horrors of the Syrian refugee crisis.
While some countries react with fear and hatred toward immigrant refugees from Syria and embrace Islamophobia, other nations are welcoming refugees and trying to fend off bigotry. Many in the U.K., for instance, say that anger and fear over immigrants of all stripes and the threat of terrorism via refugees drove the vote to leave the E.U.
It’s also hitting home as GOP presidential contender Donald Trump has called for some sort of ban against Muslims entering the U.S. — the details that he leaves out are filled in with hate. The Obama administration has been trying to strike a middle ground by closely vetting and controlling but ultimately allowing refugees to enter the U.S.
So, the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks will continue to rumble through our lives. It’s almost a given that the U.S. federal government has put a lot of us under surveillance although I wish that there were more efforts to better share and mine the intelligence gathered by the long arms of the feds.
But as we come to grips with the ongoing shocks to the system that is at the heart of terrorism, we have to do two things.
First, we have to keep in mind the ones we lost not only on the day of remembrance but when good memories force their way to the surface. America sometimes paves over the past to maintain its optimism, but we can never forget 9/11.
Secondly, we also have to give some thought to who we were on the day before Sept. 11, and we have to listen to the better angels of our nature.
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