Thursday, September 13, 2001
‘No more’ - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
“Running away -- let’s do it,
Free from the ties that bind.
No more despair
Or burdens to bear
Out there in the yonder”
-- from Into The Woods, by Stephen Sondheim
After that endless day of terror, anger, resilience and disbelief, words are no longer necessary. The adjectives are drained. The soul is saddened. The mind is exhausted with the vivid images of victims fleeing carnage; giants of the metropolis skyline reduced to shadows of evil. One obviously feels for those who have lost far more than we mere bystanders can imagine. Fate has done its deed and we must accept it. We must accept the fact that deranged half-wits have denigrated humanity to levels unspeakable.
We want it to be Monday again. We want it to be a Tuesday morning before 8:30 in the morning in mid-town Manhattan. We want to be rid of the sadness and sheer disgust towards those that did the work of fate. It seems that everything before Tuesday morning was better. We want to escape to that. We honestly don’t want the burden of seeking retribution. We don’t want the burden of telling the a child that their Mommy perished at work in that big building. We don’t want the burden of housing a heart that aches. We don’t want our collective consciousness, filled with thoughts that we wouldn’t hold unless something ‘big’ like this happened. We don’t want the burden of living after Tuesday -- always asking why them and not me?
“Running away -- go to it. Where did you have in mind? Have to take care: Unless there’s a ‘where,’ You’ll only be wandering blind. Just more questions Different kind.”
Do we become resilient in the face of such anger, that we move on simply for the sake of moving on? Do we do as those before us, in a lifetime ago, merely bind our wounds and stiff upper lip onwards?
The American government has made it clear -- and rightfully so -- that those responsible for Tuesday will be sought, found and dealt with accordingly. Make no mistake in their fervour and their passion towards seeing this through. The ‘other side’ -- whomever these brave and brilliant people are -- expect a fight, I suspect. To act so boldly, in the name of God or their ideals or their passion, is bred in the same fervour and passion that America holds at this moment.
Why can’t we all just get along?
Why can’t America yield to the fact that its superiority cannot -- and through Tuesday’s events, will not -- be accepted by others?
Why can’t ‘the other side’ accept the fact that American imperialistic hegemony is here to stay?
Should we all just run away?
George W. Bush faces not his first major test as President, nor the examination of his actual mental faculties. America and the rest of the world, sans the evildoers responsible for Tuesday, face a test that will set the scene of the foreseeable tomorrow. The test has, sadly, become an ‘us versus them’ battle of epic proportion. Those that chose to risk their lives for some grandiose plan that truly is a minority in this neighbourhood, struck first and it is up to those that want order amongst the chaos, to command that battle. And how wrong is that battle begun, with loved ones not amongst our arms at night, but trapped in some dilapidated mess of ideological mishmash. It’s up to us, to finish it.
The United States of America, according to the George W. Bush who ran for President a year ago, should learn to become humble in the face of a new century and an ever changing globe. With Tuesday and the next course of action by the United States, President Bush will have to figure out whether he’ll heed his call for American humility and at the same time be bold in defending the American trust.
“Running away -- we’ll do it. Why sit around, resigned? Trouble is, son, The farther you run, The more you feel undefined For what you have left undone And, more, what you’ve left behind.”
America must come together and exercise its will upon those aggressors responsible for Tuesday. Whether they are foreign, as is suspected, or domestic, in the vain of Timothy McVeigh, whatever happens will not only reflect on President Bush’s time in office, but reflect on America in the first year of this new century. It will affect those around America. It will also reflect upon those who came out on Tuesday and pledged support, expressed sympathy and recorded disdain and disgust towards the events of Tuesday.
President Bush has the unenviable task of being definitive. Due to the magnanimity of Tuesday, George W. Bush has no room to wiggle. He has no time for consensus, but conviction. He does have time for prayer. Prayer, that what he does is in America’s best interests and certainly in the rest of the world’s.
To some, the underlying root of Tuesday leads us to the burgeoning concept of globalisation. Accepted by America and further symbolised by the World Trade Center itself, globalisation has consequences on those that directly subscribe to its precepts and those that totally disagree. Could those that are responsible for Tuesday, been so against American economic paternalism that they felt the ire of risking their lives?
It’s easy with the benefit of hindsight to ask were that America actually subscribed to humility when it came time to co-existing with others in this small world, would Tuesday not have happened? Sadly we won’t know. Heartbreakingly those that perished -- whether crashing into others that perished in their places of work -- symbols of an America too prosperous for others -- will never know either.
Tuesday, will live in history not because of the unprecedented media coverage or the resurgence of American patriotism and spirit behind its leaders. Tuesday becomes history not because of those supposed martyrs who too perished in the name of anti-American nonsense. Tuesday is history for those that remain, us who remain transfixed to the horror. Let it be history as well to those who will follow us, so that they won’t have to live through what we’ve -- thankfully -- lived through together.
The miracle of technology was thrashed in favour of the miracle of the human spirit. Americans and non-Americans alike bound together from the sight of harrowing television images and move from Tuesday and declare that such misery will not be tolerated. It’s an ‘us versus them’ battle because they -- the architects of Tuesday -- made it so. For me, it is hoped that that unwavering human spirit will triumph over the scourge of hatred.
I am not naive enough to think that President Bush will appease his aggressor and that his retribution will be bloodless and calm. This is a fight, but I am idealistic enough to hope that the worst is behind us.
Tuesday, September 11, 2001 means a lot of things to a lot of people. It will be that day that historically so much changed, not only for Americans but for the world.
A day or so after this particular Tuesday, we just want to go away. We want to go back to less auspicious times. We want to get past this and take on the responsibility that lies behind the current angst and mayhem...
“No more giants Waging war. Can’t we just pursue our lives With our children and our wives? Till that happy day arrives, How do you ignore All the witches, All the curses, All the wolves, all the lies, The false hopes, the goodbyes, The reverses, All the wondering what even worse is Still in store? All the children... All the giants... No more.”
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .