Truth and Death

    9/11 is one of the most important moments in recent American history. It started (or at least justified) a war, sparked worldwide controversy, and forever changed our cultural landscape. Songs, stories, poems, apologies, in a single afternoon millions of lives were changed, and thousands were silenced.

    People dance around the subject all too much in my opinion. It makes people uncomfortable and sometimes even ashamed, and if it makes them neither of those it makes them angry. So we use euphemisms and meaningless phrases such as "never forget", as if simply repeating it enough will cement it in history rather than whichever historian fate smiles upon.

    Let's look at some numbers. In relationship to war, 9/11 was practically nothing. More than a hundred times than many Americans died in Vietnam for no reason at all. Even as recent as Iraq, the death toll of American soldiers is 4,425, and they were sent over in the name of ending the death caused on that September day. Of course, if you look at the Iraqi casualties in that war, estimates range from 100,000 to 1 million. Strange how we don't talk about those as often.

    Still, there must be a difference between deaths in 9/11 and war casualties, right? War is often justified, and the destruction of the towers was a brutal and senseless act of violence. This argument holds up less and less the more I think about it. The fact is, war has killed millions upon millions upon millions of people, often for nearly meaningless reasons in retrospect. Do those who die at war feel any differently about it than those in the towers? I doubt it.

    So why are we so adamant to never forget? Why do the lives of those thousands weigh so heavily upon the American people? Maybe because for once, the brutal deaths aren't oceans away. They aren't fought "valiantly" in filthy trenches with dozens of pounds of equipment strapped to their backs. They're regular people doing regular things who never for a second thought their lives might be on the line. They could be you.

    Death is everywhere. Cancer, suicide, murder. Slightly farther away we find starvation, water deprivation, disease. To think that because we humans have built ourselves a pillowfort or two, death is any more preventable is foolish. But that's what we have to tell ourselves to make it. So when two planes slice our tallest pillow into rubble, it rattles us to our very core.

    By the time I have finished writing this, it will be 9/12. The CIA estimates that 108 people die every minute. Most of them probably don't have pillowforts built for them. I doubt many of them look like me. But that doesn't mean that their deaths are any less valid or tragic.

    We are mere steps away from a true global community, united past skin and history. But for us to take that step, we need to realize that everyone dies. Everyone mourns. Over three thousand people lost their lives unjustly that day, but they are a mere droplet in the ancient pool of billions.

   Life is short, death is random. Love more than just thy neighbor.