9/11 and all it means to me

I live in Washington State. I was not anywhere near NYC on that day but I still felt every blow.
The way I heard about it. I was checking my Yahoo email and saw the first report on the home page. I thought it was some kind of weird joke to begin with but I saw more reports online so I turned on my tv. And I watched again and again, over and over as those planes flew right in to those buildings.

In the years since then I have heard many theories as to who and how this happened. The groups of people who were blamed for the tragedy. The reasons they did it.

One of the most terrifying things I watched happen, was the governments unabashed glee in tightening its noose on our freedoms and loosening the restrictions on what it can and cannot do without any watchdogs.

The good, the bad, and the truly ugly attitudes that many religious people took after this tragedy inspired, terrified, and sometimes just left me open-mouthed in disbelief. Some saw this time as a way to reach out, support and encourage one another regardless of personal beliefs. Others saw this as a great time to point fingers, to hate, to say 'see! i told you we shouldn't have let them in!'. And others used this time to hurt, to burn, to kill; with no proof, no evidence, regardless of whether or not someone could have had anything to do with it.

9/11 taught me that we humans can use a life changing event to open up, grow, reach out or to close ourselves up even further, curl ourselves tighter around our preconceived notions and shut others out.

This may not bring me much praise, but much as I know 9/11 was a tragedy, we Americans are so privileged and protected that this one instance of violence shook our psyche and still disturbs us 10 yrs later. There are places around the world that see violence 1000's of times worse than this every day.

Every day.

Every day.

Every day!!

I know that we know it intellectually but I feel that there is a sense that we are more entitled, better somehow and deserve more protection. So though my heart goes out to those who lost their loved ones 10 yrs ago. My heart goes out even more to those mothers in Lybia, Somalia, and elsewhere who just lost their child/ren last week, yesterday, today.

I know, hate me all you want. But 9/11 did open my eyes. Did make me realize that we are not immune to tragedies. Did make me more aware of our governments actions and that there are ways I can help others who, even in America, need help.

And that's My 25 cents...