Fox News anchor Jon Gibson recently mocked Jon Stewart over the sincerity of his tears on air after September 11th. I'm not sure about anyone else or their opinions on Fox News/Jon Stewart/Whatever; I'm sure you can tell my opinions on everything from the list of my groups on Facebook. Regardless of political persuasion, it is inexcusable to question the sincerity of something that we all, as Americans were feeling that day and for weeks to come afterwards.
Like most people, I remember exactly where I was on September 11, 2001 when I heard about the attack on the World Trade Center. As a junior in high school, walking into school, I went into the library like I always did and saw that the librarians were watching TV, a strange occurrence indeed. Naturally, I wandered over to see what could possibly be tearing the librarians away from their ever so important librarian...ing. To my eternal horror and amazement, I saw the first tower on fire, smoke pouring out of the windows. At that point, reporters thought that it was an accident. About 90 minutes later, I came back to the library. The second tower was burning. What I saw didn't look good. I remember saying to the librarian, "That one looks like it's going to fall." Sure enough...
As the school day wore on, the details of this yet unprecedented attack on our country became more horrifying. Like everyone else, I was pissed. I was sad. I was afraid. The only particular reaction I remember was, "Holy shit!" The next day, I wanted to do something about that feeling, I wanted to drop out of school first chance I got and join the Army. Whoever did this, I wanted them to pay and I wanted to be part of those making them pay. Like the rash, young teenager I was (and still am, minus the teenager part) I wanted revenge. That was my way of dealing with the pain and confusion over what had happened to our way of life and country. Others dealt with it differently as they saw fit. I didn't question how they chose to do it, we all were feeling the same thing and we all knew it and whether you admitted to it or not, that day changed you. No one questioned that, no one had to. We were united.
Now, almost 7 years later, where are we? We are in an (arguably) unpopular war, bickering and arguing over withdrawal plans and wiretapping. We have pundits and partisans and hacks and the list goes on and on. We've lost our unity thanks to a few who feed off of hatred and bigotry.
One of the reasons why I'm joining the Army is that I want to make a difference in what I feel I've contributed in getting this country into. I want to go to Iraq or Afghanistan and help do what little I can to make the world a safer place (even if our presence there in the first place was what caused it to become less safe). I'm hoping that we can start to see past partisan politics and absolutism and start to make this world a safer and better place to live in.
For those who'd like to see Jon Stewart's monologue from the Daily Show after they returned to the air on September 21st, here it is.
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