So what were you doing ten years and a day ago?

I wasn’t exactly looking forward to the 9/11 memorial, well, yesterday.  I was sure it was a big deal; after all, CNN was airing 9/11 “specials” last week and some “match airing” American talk shows were also gearing up for the 9-11-11.  And of course I am aware of the tremendous impact of 9/11; after all, the TV was on CNN that fateful day ten years and a day ago and I remember reacting to it whilst writing the usual litany on the UP Red Cross Youth Yahoo group message board, which was the biggest thing pre-social networking era.  

I guess the reason I wasn’t initially interested was because I was a mere spectator to these events.  But of course despite the “disinterest”, instead of taking advantage of my Cine Europa pass, I stayed home and watched 102 Minutes that Changed America on Talk TV and then the ceremonies as broadcasted on CNN and BBC.  I fell asleep with the TV on, and I woke up to the same thing.  I guess grief does not really end.

After 9/11 I found myself getting curious about the Middle East, Islamic extremism, and, oh yeah, I saw Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 a few times and documentaries Beneath the Veil and The Beauty School of Kabul.  I became interested in American politics, especially their foreign policies.  I also read and watched features on Western imperialism.  Last year I finished the book In Baghdad, a memoir of a journalist who was assigned to cover the siege of Iraq. I was conspiracy curious.  I found myself angry every time the Muslim extremists were interviewed on TV and they justified jihad and demanded the implementation of the shari’a in the societies they immigrated into but at the same time I was angry at the West for claiming the right to lord over the Middle East after 9/11.  I actually got upset when I heard the news of that innocent South American man living in London who was gunned down by the police because he looked suspicious --- and yes, he kinda looked Middle Eastern because of the color of his skin.  That’s racial profiling for you.

The Hillary and Scotty show on Jam 88.3 this morning discussed  9/11, of course.  I thought they had a very interesting discussion.  The critical discourse post-9/11 ranges from the controversies on national security practices, ie racial profiling, to the essentials of cultural differences.  I guess people go either way after 9/11: you learn tolerance or you learn to suspect more.  Do we suspect every Muslim we meet on the street?  A Muslim woman who wears the burka because it was her choice?  What about multicultural societies --- do we honor cultural diversity or we demand assimilation?  Are the Americans right?

Pleasantville was aired on HBO last night; I thought the film was excellent in all its symbolic glory (I was on a ride in that arena as the cable channel aired The Truman Show before that).  Pleasantville is about change and the lost of innocence.  In the movie, Pleasantville is actually a black and white TV show, but when its world was shaken by two teenagers who “accidentally” found themselves in this world, people start seeing color... and then they cease being black and white.  I guess after 9/11 the world became more black and white but for some it merely turned into gray.  After 9/11 you learn a lot of things but the truth is that event was just a catalyst; the reality is that other countries have been having their own 9/11s which the majority of the world were mostly ignorant about.  I find it unfortunate that it took the destruction of two towers  that happened in less than two hours and not the massive destruction of communities over the course of several years to have people start paying this much attention.  Maybe you have to be a victim to start seeing color, huh.

My heart goes out to the victims, the innocent passengers of those planes, the occupants of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the heroes who braved the danger and the rubble to save the lives of others.  But the sympathy does not end there.  There are other victims as well, especially the innocent lives that were lost in different parts of the world when the war on terrorism began.

And most of all, I feel sorry for ourselves.  But I do not want to lose hope, especially for this jaded, conflicted world.