I mention this chemistry professor not only because his interest in my future
meant something to me... but also because I was
never concerned with our religious differences — even when I did a class presentation on Sarin nerve gas, and threw in a quote or two regarding an Islamic faction. I mean, I knew he celebrated Ramadan, and I knew he had a white Christian wife. That was it. He was my chemistry professor; I was there to learn, and he was there to teach. Religion had nothing to do with it.
***Years prior to that, during the first Gulf war, it never occured to me that the conflict was a battle between Western Judeo-Christian ideology and Islam. For me, it was the U.S. against Iraq (two nations, not two religions), and it had something to do with Hussein invading Kuwait (to reduce it to its simplest apolitical factor).
And for as long as I can remember, I found news of ongoing conflicts in the Middle East between the Palestinians and Israelis — and the Catholics and Protestants in Ireland — to be, for lack of a better word,
disheartening.
I understood the differences between these various faiths, but I also understood their similarities. But in my teenage naivete, I
didn't understand why they couldn't made progressive use of their shared ideologies. And that, even as I studied the political conflict underlying their mutual struggles.
But the fact remains that — even as the news frustrated me — I was still somehow
removed from it. I felt badly for the people caught in the middle, but I was — and this is where I have cause to blush — I was primarily just so
glad it wasn't happening where
I lived.
***
Even with the bombings in Oklahoma... and the unabomber... threats to our daily way of life seemed to be primarily (though not entirely) domestic. Of course there was always the
fear of that proverbial "other" (a la the Cuban missle crisis, the Cold War, etc.)... but for the most part we've had it relatively easy the past few decades — and I do mean
relatively.
And then, of course, the events of September 11 serve as a rather profound interruption.
But if we can all agree that history is rife with sundry turning points, I'd argue that 9/11 was rather seismic, to say the least.
***
As though the significant loss of lives wasn't enough, the attacks also showed the American people that its government had a big gaping hole in its lines of defense. And our government, in an ego-maniacal knee-jerk, exploited this tragedy as an opportunity to strip away our civil liberties, one by one. But we were OK with this at first, right?
"If taking off my shoes at the airport will help us catch terrorists, then by-golly I'll do it!"
Right?
Right?!
This, my friends, is that "slippery slope" we studied in high school.
And as for Iraq, well... the expression "red herring" comes to mind. Or did we find bin Laden when I wasn't looking?
But this, too, is besides the point.
***I don't know if it's because I'm older and wiser (stop snickering!), or if it's just a reflection of the impact September 11 had on
me... but I find it increasingly difficult to distance myself from the daily news.
And even as I would say my faith in man is at an all-time low — even as I note just how
terrible people are to each other even in the comfort of our comparably "peaceful" environs. Even as my blood pressure rises at the mere
thought of daily traffic jams, middle fingers, crowded resaurants, threatening neighbors and my 53F apartment — I cannot help but feel a profound drop in my stomach (empathy) when I read stories such as
this.
Imagine, if you will, how you felt on September 11. Now imagine if every building you went into, every bus you rode on, every school your children went to... carried with it the very
real threat of an attack.
That, it seems, is the state of affairs in Iraq.
***There's been a lot of talk lately about throwing more U.S. troops into Iraq and Afghanistan... and then seeing whether or not the U.S. Senate exercises its "power of the purse" in an act of protest. That could mean, in a word, sending more troops but giving them
less equipment.
But here's what I want to know: didn't our meddling in Iraq significantly exacerbate the political unrest that has since thrust the Shiites and Sunnis into a civil war? Haven't thousands upon thousands of Iraqi
civilians been killed in the resultant blasts? Aren't we the least bit
responsible for that?
And here's the kicker: is washing our hands of the situation
really the best thing we can do?
A majority of the American public agrees that we shouldn't have gone there in the first place. And a majority of the American public agrees that we weren't aggressive enough in Afghanistan from the onset (if we had been, wouldn't we be gone by now?).
But no matter how strongly we feel about
these Promethean conundrums, we're all left holding our head in our hands when confronted with the next question:
What do we do from here?
***After I read the aforementioned story yesterday afternoon, my thoughts turned to Rumi, and then my professor (just in case you wondered about the madness behind this tangential monster).
Rumi — like Christ, like Buddha, like Mohammed — was a purveyor of peace. His poetry focused on love of life, fear of death, human psychology, spirituality and his frustration with the often ruthless state of the world:you have set up
a colorful table
calling it life and
asked me to your feast
but punish me if
i enjoy myself
what tyranny is this
Eight hundred years have passed since Rumi, but so little has changed.
What tyranny is this — indeed.
