I finally brought myself to sit down this morning, as I didn't have to go to work for once, and watched the memorial service in New York City for the remeberence of the victims of the Twin Tower attacks. CSPAN2 covered it in it's entirety, without the usual bevy of reporters and experts to interrupt one's thoughts. It was a very simple and moving ceremony where the names were read off in groups of about 26 each by different pairs of the relatives and loved ones survived by them.
This is the first time that I really ever have made a concious effort to greive with them. I know that seems surprising, but I truly haven't allowed myself the opportunity due to my intense anger over the attacks. I am glad that I did so, and spent half of the day in tears with the families as they spoke of their loved ones and greived.
Aware that it has been five years now, I was touched by the fact that for them, the events of those days will forever cause them greif. Many are still missing their fathers, mothers, brothers, freinds, significant others and family members just as much today as they did when it happened. I know that they will never really ever stop doing so, as I too have lost loved ones in the past and know how it feels.
It has filled me with a sense of reaffirming that the people who suffer from the events of September 11th, 2001 are represenative of all people in a sense. I saw such a cross section of humanity today and it made me aware of the one thing that makes my country so different from many others-the ethnic multi-culturalism of our population. It is the one thing that people like Osama Bin Laden cannot abide. The fact that so many different cultures have merged and flourished here under a representative Democratic Republic is diametrically opposed to his Islamic Fundamentalism. For this, and the fact that we support Isreal's right to exist as a people, he was responsible for the murder of over 2700 people-not as collatoral casualties of war, but as the direct target of his so called "martyrs" to Allah.
I am now more resolved than ever to see that he, and those who support him are brought to the end they deserve. May God make me an instrument of his downfall. Osama, wherever you are know this, that I am praying for you that my God will forgive you for what you have done. I am also praying that he will use your feeble attempts to destroy what is good, to lead only to your own phyisical destruction and the elimination of your followers. You are a coward and a murderer, and God does not forget.
Sadly,
