9/11

 

9/11

Yes, it was a long time ago.

Yes, terrorism like that has not to this date been seen again.

Yes, an entire generation has grown up without knowing what it was like to witness it.

That does not negate its importance in the events that followed, nor in the events to come. The attack on the twin towers was a massive turning point in our shared history. September 11th remains the reason civilization has the feelings and beliefs it has regarding Islamist extremism. Perpetration of evil at that magnitude, where thousands of lives are destroyed in a veritable instant, lives on through recorded history, and affects its passage.

If America passes away like parchment in a fire, and the human race moves on into a deep unknown future her history texts will remember America, and they will remember a few specific things: that it won its independence from the greatest empire of its day, that it had a civil war, that the civil war begat extreme differences within its society, that it fought in two great wars that affected the destiny of the world, that it was attacked viciously by a foreign entity bent on its destruction on 9/11, and that its end was ultimately spelled by overspending, wars abroad, division from within, and corruption from on high.

Et voila, history repeats itself.

Does that make September the 11th any less meaningful? Absolutely not. 

The place and time for these tragedies is different, but the purpose remains the same.

The burning of Rome sent madness throughout society and made them deeply prejudiced of the Christians. The burning of the Reichstagh sent waves of fear throughout Germany securing Hitler's short reign as supreme dictator. The purge in Russia rewrote Soviet history, spreading fear and paranoia through Russia, and Stalin's dictatorship was assured, as was the totalitarian government from there until now. Putin is just as much a thug and murderer as any of them. 

The Cultural Revolution drove all rebellion and feelings of retribution from the Chinese citizens, and secured Mao as Chairman of the Communist government, and secured his vision to remake Chinese culture.

A fearful people are exponentially easier to control.

It has been 19 years today since the twin towers fell. I walked into work this morning and looked at the 60" flatscreen hanging on the wall.

And there they were.

The two great, boxlike structures that used to dominate the Manhattan skyline. I paused and lingered on the screen. Something like sorrow and nostalgia entered my heart. It was like seeing the living, breathing image of someone familiar who had passed away. You never get over it. You simply learn to live with the loss.

I was serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that day in 2001. I woke up with no dread, nor the sense that something was wrong. We were enjoying the feeling of encroaching Fall. 

My companion and I had a regular morning. We rose on time, had scripture study, companionship study, ate, and got ready for the day. We had interviews with our Mission President, President Michael C. Cannon of the Kentucky Louisville Mission later that afternoon.

It was something to look forward to.

But first we had a 9:15 AM appointment in a nearby town. Elder Bostrom was 20, and I would be 22 in a month. Two oblivious young men, fresh out of their teens, having the most interesting life experience they had ever had drove to the appointment, got out of the car, glanced inside the open front door on the television screen saw two smoking craters and a screaming red headline.

We had missed the attack, and the collapse. But we were there for the aftermath. Confused and deeply concerned we were let into the home.

"What ... happened??" I asked.

Our investigator Pamela, for "investigator" is what we called persons interested in the church, said something about the World Trade Centers being attacked, and I had a flashback to 1993. The FBI in cahoots with a high ranking Egyptian soldier attempted to blow out the foundation of one of the buildings.

Shocked, to say the least. They kept panning back and forth between the Pentagon, and the craters. They replayed the footage of the attack on the Towers. They showed the collapse.

Every image was unbelievable.

The footage was absolutely unreal.

Watching those enormous, magnificent buildings crumble like so much dry earth was devastating to behold.

"This was Osama bin Laden." I said. I know I mispronounced his first name as Oksama.

"What?" asked Elder Bostrom.

"Osama bin Laden." I answered, "He's the only one with the resources to pull something like this off."

Neither Pamela, nor Elder Bostrom had ever heard of him. But the world would know who he was just a few hours later. We left her home soon thereafter. I do not remember the conversation Elder Bostrom and I had, or if we drove in silence. to pick up the other Elders for interviews.

We arrived in Salem, Indiana within 30 minutes to pick up the other Elders for interviews. The air, or maybe just the feelings in my own heart and gut were of fear, panic, disgust, devastation and above all - shock. We were all so deeply impacted it would prove detrimental to our efforts in the coming months.

Imagine trying to live a righteous lifestyle, driven by love for your fellow man and genuine concern for their eternal welfare. Then imagine being witness to one of the grossest acts of evil in the history of mankind. The contrast was what ultimately destroyed us.

Here was Lucifer in all his darkness and glory spitting in the faces of we mere mortals, and flexing the muscles of his influence on the world. The adversary, the enemy, the fallen, influencing mankind to commit gross evil from behind the scenes for millennia. Our efforts seemed minuscule, and quite frankly pointless in contrast. The opposite is true, but what a day for Satan.

We tried not to buy into the panic. There was a line twenty cars long to the gas pump, and we had to weigh in our naive young minds the consequences of ignoring the mania. In the end we decided to err on the side of caution, and waited in line for fuel.

An hour later we were in New Albany, greeting our fellow missionaries in shock and dread, the spirit completely squashed out of us. President Cannon, who always had a sharp smile and glowing compassion in his striking blue eyes looked trapped, confused and concerned. When it was my turn to interview with him I asked him right out, "What is going on?" hoping for some prophetic answer, or some semblance of sense.

I do not remember his answer. It did not match my extremely high expectations, and amounted to a very honest and helpless "I don't know."

You could see the worry and angst in every Elder's eyes. Something tremendous had just upended reality, and all of us were traumatized. I would later identify the cause of our lackluster performance in the months following September 11th as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It was epidemic all across not just The United States, but across the world, and unfortunately across the Kentucky Louisville Mission.

Optimistic by nature we missionaries tried to find the sliver lining in this horrifying mass murder. In the scriptural world God would warn the population of the destruction to come should they continue in their wicked ways. The people would either repent in sackcloth and ashes, or they would dismiss and even murder the prophets and continue on in their wickedness.

The only thing that would bring the people around to remember the Lord their God, and be humbled was when the promised destruction befell them. What The Book of Mormon reveals about this kind of incident is not that God smites his people for their wickedness, although that has happened. He rather withdraws his protection from the people, allowing destruction to come upon them. The same  destruction that had been held back due to their obedience. The nature of God and religion makes a great deal of sense if you are able to dig up these valuable little nuggets; intricacies and observations.

On 9/11 we saw destruction befall our people. The silver lining we hoped for was that people would be humble, and more willing to accept the gospel that we had to teach. 

Initially they reacted well. They were sad, united, and deeply patriotic.

But they did not react with humility. Nor did they remember their God.

They became fearful and angry. They wanted revenge. Later many of us had friends and family join the military to go to war. As the days progressed it became obvious that nearly everyone I met or knew was only one or two degrees away from a victim of the attacks. That woke me up to the continued devastating impact the attack had on the people.

I had an affinity for latching myself to tragic events. They were the things that were most real to me. They brought home the reality that I was not living in a movie, and that the world as I understood it was different from my own perceptions. I clung on to September 11th as a moment of patriotic fervor, and as a tragedy that united We The People. 

As I learned more about the events of that day my veritable rose colored glasses faded away. I love my country, and to witness it thus betrayed made my spirit sick. I wondered what other delusions I had entertained, and dedicated too much energy and time to their revealing.

In the end I learned to observe 9/11 by remembering the 12th of September, 2001. The day we stood united in a sense of common decency that had been obliterated before our eyes. The day we did not identify by our tiny, insignificant differences. The day we stood up from the ashen fallout of so much death and fear, looked defiantly at those who would have us divide and destroy ourselves and shouted with ONE accord: We are Americans! An attack on one is an attack on all! We are the light of the world, and we will not hide, we will not cower, and we will not fear!

When we lived up to that declaration - that became my celebration.