Since 9-11-01

My blog is tardy today, because I struggled with the feelings generated by yesterday’s many commemorations of the 10 year anniversary of 9-11-01. Since the terrorist attacks and tragic loss of life and reactive heroism of that day, what have we learned and how have we changed as people?

We continue to mourn the victims of that day and say that we will never forget. Let’s remember, most of all, the people who died that day…the workers, the travelers, the first responders, and the terminally unlucky. All those lives and loves and dreams cut short by evil. The pain left with those who were witnesses and survived. Yet today we continue to willfully cause each other pain.

• Children bully each other in school, aiming to boost their egos through the pain of others.
• Urban gang members create their own cultures and brutal turf wars to fill the void created by weakness and dysfunction in their uncaring or powerless family circles.
• “Entertainment” features violence, perversion, and stereotypes that desensitize our youth.
• We gather friends online instead of getting out and finding meaningful ways to relate to people.
• Our politicians are allowed to throw muck at each other in the most shameful, irrelevant ways. Not only do we allow the media to follow suit, but we gleefully get caught up in the name-calling.
• Corporate executives continue to bow to greed – sending jobs and careers overseas while our friends and families collect unemployment, lose their homes, and struggle to reinvent themselves.

We remember, but what did we truly learn? To continue to lash out, hate, and be fearful?

Perhaps we can’t all be great philanthropists, but we can take steps to live our lives and do our jobs with more love, tolerance, and grace.  That's what I aspire to do.