THE FALL OF THE TOWERS
Yesterday, I
watched in horror as two passenger jets were
deliberately crashed into the towers of the World
Trade Center in New York City. The
destruction was almost too much to understand for
we are so calloused by the normal run of TV
violence and we find it shamefully difficult to
fully feel the truth of these horrendous acts.
I watched the
replays and listened to the commentaries for what
seemed most of the day and into the evening and
slowly the magnitude of this disaster enfolded me
within its terrible aura of adrenaline and pity.
As I tried to understand the mind-numbing numbers
of what was being shown, I conducted my own
internal war against my personal defensive denial
and callousness.
The forces
portrayed in the scenes of destruction and smoky
chaos and noise was overloading to my senses.
My mind is permanently engraved with those
pictures of a commercial plane with 92 souls
disintegrating into a fireball and shower of
debris and smoke and I will always remember where
I was on September 11th, 2001. NYC911.
This loss of
life and the attendant heroism and nightmarish
tragedy is akin to famous battles such as
Antitum, Appomattox or Agincort. It could
not have been worse if we had a meteor strike or
volcano eruption in the same place, for here
there were perpetrators who were once human
children.
Accidental
horror can be dealt with more easily then can the
unreasoned and cowardly actions of terrorists for
at least we know that humans are not the cause.
But here, in the heart of our country, we have
been stabbed by soulless fanatics who mistakenly
believe their fundamentalist ideas are
Allahs will. May their karma be
forever blackened and their souls erased from
eternity, never to live again or enjoy the life
force they so arrogantly took from our citizens
on that bleakest of Tuesday mornings. For
those dead and maimed, I pray that there is some
worthy compensation in the here and beyond.
Nic East,
Hill Home Forge
September 12th,
2001
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