I am not the most observant person. But that day even I noticed and reflected upon the sky. It was almost eerily blue, almost eerily clear, so bright, so still, so undisturbed. But all of a sudden there were rumblings on the subway platform where I was standing, fire, plane, people above the fire will not be able to get out. 10 minutes later, I saw it out the window of the train, a gaping hole in the building, flames, smoke. No, people above the fire, will not be able to get out. By the time I reached my office in midtown Manhattan a plane was flown into the second tower, a few minutes after I stepped into the office, it was announced that the South Tower collapsed. 19 years ago. For 18 years this day served as a day of mourning for 2,977 lives lost that day, for all the memories that were not made, for all the could have beens for those that perished and the people that loved them. It was also the day to remember when this country came together in grief, strength and determination.
That day 19 years ago was not only the day we lost almost 3,000 souls, it was also the day that began our battle against international terrorism in earnest. Was it revenge? A fight to ensure we will never again be attacked on our soil? A way to show that you don’t mess with these United State of America? Whatever it was, it was a message that we wanted the entire world to see and hear. A message that 2,977 American lives mattered, that we were not going to let them die in vain and be forgotten, that every single one of those lives was precious and sacrosanct.
Today as we mark this grim anniversary, we’ve lost 200,000 Americans in the span of 6 months. And I cannot help but wonder, will these lives be ever memorialized, will we avenge them, what will we do to make sure they did not die in vain? Did their lives matter if they were taken not in a fiery explosion of an enemy attack, but by the hand of our own government? Did we avenge the lives of 3,000 people in 2001 because we cared about them or because we wanted to punish the enemy and used the lives lost as an excuse?
For more than a hundred years, US raison d’etre seems to have been to be the counter point to the Soviet Union. Even three decades after the Berlin Wall fell and Soviet Union was no more, it remains our biggest boogie man. The worst thing a US politician can be accused of is looking to bring on socialism (and by implication turn us into the Soviet Union). But few really understand what it is that they so fear. The ultimate tragedy of the Soviet Union was not lack of private enterprise or right to private property, its purported socialism, or poverty of its populace. It was the lack of freedom, including the lack of economic freedom, but also the lack of freedom to worship, have opinions, express opinions, create, protest, hold their government accountable. And when I say people did not have these freedoms, it means that these acts resulted in incarceration, torture, and often death. The tragedy of the Soviet Union was not its purported socialism, it was that it was a murderous regime that killed staggering 20 million people (by a conservative estimate). The tragedy of the Soviet Union was that human life had no inherent value, its value measured only in relation to some political ideals and the Party. Simpy put, human life was cheap.
Harmful actions of the US government combined with its inaction have now cost us 200,000 lives, and the number will keep going up. Do these lives have inherent value and therefore, people responsible for ending them should be held to account? Do we, as a country, unite in avenging these lives and ensuring that they were not lost in vain? Or did these lives only have value as it relates to some political ideals? Did we become what we most feared while fighting so hard against it? How do we, in good faith, commemorate the lives of 3,000 people lost to an attack while looking at 200,000 lost by our own hand as “it is what it is”?
Today I mourn the 2,977 people lost on 9/11/2001, today I mourn 200,000 people lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, today I mourn my city that is once again devastated and in need of rebuilding, today I mourn the country that could unite in its belief that human life is sacrosanct. #neverforget #nystrong