Sunset

Yesterday, Thursday September 10th, the rain that had been falling steadily let up and the sky cleared slightly just before the sun set signalling the end of yet another day.


I was aware of many changes going on - the season's move from summer to autumn as the breeze was chilly, blowing a wet spray into the air.

What the dawn would bring, I didn't know beyond the expectation of another day at work and continued struggling with two projects I barely understand. Both of these projects deal with computer-based learning systems - one is for "low-verbal deaf" students and strives to teach them basic English sentence structures. The other is labeled "Multiple Intelligence Teaching Approach" that seeks to use "Problem Based Learning" to overcome 'non-learning' on the part of secondary (High School and Collage) level students that are bored and "disengaged" from their class(es).

As the light left the sky last night, I was also aware of the sounds of passenger jets overhead as they were on their approach to a landing at Philadelphia International Airport. The noise of these jets has changed over the years - the wailing whistling scream has become a more throaty organ-like humming throb. The noise was, in an odd way, reassuring - indicating life goes on - day in and day out - with or without me.

Eight years ago, the skies were silent.

I recall sitting in my office that fateful day working on a project quite different from the ones I grapple with today and seeing the news on CNN's website showing videos of something I couldn't comprehend. Airplanes flying far too low, flashes of fire, billowing smoke and raining debris.

I remember thinking that the bravery and nobility of mankind shone brightly in the bleak darkness of the cruelty and savageness that day.

Today, it is eight years later and ... have we gotten any closer to ending the hatred that climaxed on that day? Sadly, I doubt we have even begun.

In our remembrance of the many acts bravery and sacrifice and the tragic loss of the innocent - we need to remember that the violence that caused them is a universally human condition that we need eternal vigilance to guard and to protect against - and for which we need to find a solution.

It may be idealistic and naive on my part - but I believe that the solution probably doesn't lie in the direction of extermination and termination but rather in understanding motivations.

People that see other people as "regular folks just like themselves" do not hate each other - nor do they call the others "axis of evil" or "monsters" - they see them as neighbors, to help and to aid when the need arises.

I don't suppose my opinion will be terribly popular but I have to wonder just what it was that caused the people to strike out against the USA on September 11, 2001 - How many times has the USA meddled, interfered and plain "messed things up" in the middle east? How is it that one day we give weapons like Stinger missiles to Bin Laden to use against the Russians; aid to Saddam Hussein's Iraq for use against Iran, and the next day they just "aren't our buddies anymore"?

Just what strings were attached to those weapons and what (probably broken) promises were made to them? Were they 'justly' angry at our government?

I understand that how they expressed their anger at a "country with a superiority complex that listens to no one" was misguided and most unfortunate.

...But think about it... work your way past the overheated rhetoric ... What were the actual and real causes for the obvious results? I don't claim to know - I don't - but I won't buy the U.S. Government's self-protective sound bites - without reasoning, proof and critical thinking.