A plane flown into a tower as a testament to an ideology. The act itself was a statement. The statement cost thousands of lives, but then that was always the point. An act of desperation to be heard on a world stage on display to everyone on earth. Those performing the act felt just and warranted because of their certainty in their beliefs. It was shock and terror and sadness, and they achieved their goals.
I can’t help but think as I sit here 20 years later that we are piloting our own personal planes toward the towering monoliths of counter beliefs in our world daily. I’ve watched in horror as cities have burned, buildings were occupied, marches were taken to the streets as pitchfork wielding mobs and statues were ripped from their foundations. We burn and pillage and loot as a testament to our own ideologies and we have forgotten or ignore the faces behind the windows of the towers that we assault. Our self righteousness teaches us that we are just and the offenders against our philosophies are so wrong that the only solution is wanton destruction. “They are attacking the very foundations of our core beliefs!” we mime as we rage against the institutions that are representative of a life that isn’t ours. Their existence is a threat to our utopian vision of a world made up of people just like us. This isn’t about “sides” or “parties”. We are all guilty.
America was never founded on the bedrock of conformity. It is often described as “the great melting pot”. In metallurgy it is common to add different elements to a concoction to reinforce the base metal’s strength, corrosion resistance, malleability, or any other desirable attribute. Carbon and iron are brittle and break. Add in nickel and chromium, copper and magnesium and you have a metal that is nearly impervious. We have forgotten that those unlike us are but differing elements. When added to our own, we become impervious, but the more we push them from our molten core, the more brittle and fragile we become.
That is the current state of our nation. Magnets dead set on turning our backs away from one another so that we are naturally repellant. We have forgotten that when we face one another and look into each other’s eyes, we naturally attract. We were founded as the great mixing basin. We welcomed those who weren’t allowed to thrive in their homeland under a banner of freedom. We were sure to fly that banner at our gates so that all who came would know the reason for our founding.
Today I watch in disappointment as we are retreating into to our holes and caves, dimly lit with propaganda emanating from a digital screen and killing our sense of periphery. We once looked around at the abstract bounty of our nation and knew that we were stronger together. Now we hide and confine ourselves to lead lined bubbles claiming that we are protecting ourselves from the dangers outside. We wonder why we are having a hard time breathing.
As I reflect on my life, I realize with great sadness that we are regressing. The only solution that I can fathom is that we need to break down our self imposed walls of righteousness and admit to ourselves that we are stifling our sense of wonder and learning. It’s past time we gather under the banner at our gates and remember what it means to stand United. Be the America that we were on September 12th 2001. We have never been stronger than the alloy that we produced by coming together on that day.