Marash Girl was at the Newtonville Post Office, shipping books from OldCornerBooks.com to her customers, when her postal worker friend walked out from the back room, face ashen. "Hey, Ann, what's up?" Marash Girl quipped, hoping to urge a smile onto her friend's face. "A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center," Ann's shaking voice answered. "My son -- he works in Tribeca, just a few blocks north of the World Trade Center. I have to get home and try to reach him," thought Marash Girl. Which of course, try as she might, she could not. All telephone lines to New York City were inoperative. In a panic, she kept trying to call, to no avail. Alone with only her books for company, Marash Girl silently prayed and in answer to those prayers, her son called to report that he had witnessed the crash of the second airplane, but was alive, and walking north out of New York's Financial District with thousands of other New Yorkers.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Peter Bilezikian and 9/11/2001: Newtonville, Massachusetts
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For those who lost loved ones on that day, their lives were forever changed. As someone who was personally touched by 9/11, I ask: What has the USA learned from that day? My answer: Aside from becoming more fearful than it was before, this country has learned nothing, I mean NOTHING, from that day. Here we are, at the 10th anniversary, and there will be a ceremony with the 9/11 memorial now open at Ground Zero. The general public gets together once a year to commemorate the tragedy (of course, the families and friends of victims, I'm sure, remember the victims everyday). Then, we go on with our daily lives the other 364 days of the year like nothing ever happened. Did the country change? Yes, for a month or so immediately after 9/11/01, it did. But, in the long run? No. There was no call for collective sacrifice by our out-of-touch leaders. The country went to fight two wars without raising taxes (actually, lowering taxes!) or initiating a military draft. Our leaders sent other families' children off to fight their wars. Most of the country went to the mall and tuned into their television sets to watch ridiculous and mindless programs. Furthermore, we have become increasingly distracted by our electronic gadgets. We don't know what's going on (or care to know what's going on), never mind around the world or the rest of the U.S., in our own cities and towns! Civic engagement is seemingly at an all-time low. Just look at recent voter turn-out. How did this come to pass? After Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941, teenagers lied about their age to join the military, so that they could do their part. Can you imagine that happening today?
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine a U.S. president declaring Islam a religion of peace?... which explains the unimaginable reality in which we are now living.
ReplyDeletesteyn on 9/11: The first named victim I was aware of was the wife of the Solicitor-General, Barbara Olson, whom I sat next to at dinner a few weeks ago. She was one of the “blonde former prosecutors”, which sounds like a rock band but was the standard shorthand for the good-looking female commentators who turned up on CNN every night during impeachment – she was smart, witty, a fearless scourge of the Clinton Administration. She’d postponed her trip to California by a day so she could wish her husband Ted a happy birthday on Tuesday morning and so found herself on American Airlines flight 11. She had time to call to tell him her plane was being hijacked and that she had been hustled to the back of the cabin with the other passengers and flight crew. By then, the Solicitor-General knew that two planes had deliberately crashed into the World Trade Center. He told Barbara what was happening –that she wasn’t in the hands of some jerk who wants his pals sprung from jail and a jet to Cuba but cooler customers with bigger plans. A few seconds later her flight ripped through one side of the Pentagon.
ReplyDeleteI’m sure Ted Olson, in the course of the day, saw some of those TV pictures of taxi drivers, merchants and schoolchildren in Egypt, Lebanon and Palestine passing out candy to celebrate the death of his wife and thousands of others. This is not terrorism - five guys in ski masks plotting in a basement. This is war, waged in the shadows but openly cheered by millions and millions of people and more covertly supported by their governments, including some who are, officially, our “allies”.
if you had lost your son and your father his grandson, i wonder if you and your father's response to the attack would have been the same.
there are certain events in life which concentrate the mind wonderfully.
@AnonymousIn response to Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteMarash Girl's father lost many relatives in the genocide of the Armenian people perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire, including both grandmothers, a grandfather, and many other family members, in addition to losing all the family's property, livelihood and ancestral lands.
Those were Marash Girl's great grandparents and ancestors, and inheritance. And yes, the perpetrators were Muslim, and yes, in answer to your question, we still responded as we did.
On that day grandpa knew that Muslims all over the US would be penalized and marginalized for something they had nothing to do with. I imagine that must feel very scary. Grandpa probably thought so too.
ReplyDeleteThat is a wonderful story. That says it all and there is nothing I can add.
ReplyDeleteIgnorance of Islam makes understandable your response. however, nature never forgives ignorance or stupidity.
ReplyDeleteAs I understand it, the Armenians got hit twice, once in 1895, and again in 1915. What is the old saying?
ReplyDeleteThose who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it? Alas, you were hit twice and you still do not get it?
You and your dear Dad did the "Right Thing" on 9/11 but maybe you have to be an Armenian to learn to do the Right Thing.
ReplyDeleteLet me see, now, hmmm... the Waffen SS, now there was a group of very nice people, WHEN not in uniform. But, when the trumpet called, snap went the dragon, and puff, the uniform and the goosestep and the genocide. Ahh...you of little faith, with your ad hominem arguments passing for pc. You line up to march, not to pretoria, but to...can you guess?, I bet not.
ReplyDeleteNow that is just plain nasty, and unnecessary. We have many fine educational institutional in this country (both private and public). May I suggest you enroll in one and educate yourself on so that you will no longer make prejudicial comments on blogs in the future.
ReplyDeleteGrandpa and many Armenians were saved by their Muslim neighbors in Turkey who risked their lives while others "followed orders" and conducted genocide. I guess Grandpa understood that it is only by loving our neighbors that we will be saved. That is, after all, one of the great commandments. And if that's not hard enough, we must simultaneously pray for our enemies. May we have the courage and mercy to do both.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this beautiful story, Marash Girl.
ReplyDelete'Now that is just plain nasty, and unnecessary. We have many fine educational institutional in this country (both private and public). May I suggest you enroll in one and educate yourself on so that you will no longer make prejudicial comments on blogs in the future.'
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting, and telling response. exactly the response the soviet authorities had to those who disagreed with them. call them insane, send them to a mental institute, re-educate them, and if that did not work, well, then, send them off to further parts of the gulag. the comment above spoken by 'anonymous' is a classic fascist response. to those who disagree, send the offending naysayer off to re-education camps, or worse.