In Search of Some Sanity

It's taken me three days to sit down and write this. Even now I really have no idea what I'm going to say. I assure you I'm not going to be my usual humorous self. There's nothing funny about 5000 people missing and presumed dead.

How does one react to footage of a widebody jet crashing into a skyscraper? How does when react when there are six different angles, each one more disturbing than the last? How does one react when one knows that scores, maybe hundreds, of people died in the crashes, and that countless more perished when the towers collapsed? I don't know how I should react. At first it was disbelief, then shock, then horror. I still haven't arrived at rage, but I expect it will come soon enough. What has set in is a profound sadness. That civilized, educated people could conspire to kill as many other civilized people brings a deep melancholy to my soul. All the progress we make is undermined when something like this happens. We think we live in a safe, controlled part of the world where bad things don't happen, not unless you go out looking for trouble. What happened on September 11, 2001 should remind us that this is not the case. The world is not a safe and warm place.

Quite possibly the worst thing that will come of this is the hatred it will, and in fact has already provoked. Already there are reports of mosques being firebombed. I have a Pakistani friend who has been attacked twice already. He's not even Arab, and he's taking flack for something that has nothing to do with him. What is all this hatred going to do? It's going to inspire more hatred. When people attack the Islamic world over the sins of a few violent criminals, it will provoke more hatred toward the west. The circle of hatred and violence will grow and escalate. More people will die, more innocent people.

So what am I saying? I'm saying everyone should wake up and smell the rich Arabian blend coffee. Something terrible happened, to be sure, but retaliating against your neighbours won't change that. It will only make a bad situation worse. And it certainly won't make you feel any better about what's happened.