A Few Thoughts On 9/11

“And the sky is filled with light, can you see it? All the black is really white, if you believe it. As our time is running out, let me take away your doubt- we can find a better place in this twilight.”

                Nine Inch Nails, ‘In This Twilight’ (Year Zero, 2007)

I spent a lot of time trying to write something worthy of calling itself a ‘9/11 tribute piece’, but I couldn’t. In the ten years since it happened, it has reached a hand into every life and sent entire cultures in wildly different directions than they were headed. Almost everybody you talk to who was alive when it happened can tell you where they were when they first heard, and if you ask they’ll probably admit to crying as the towers started to buckle and give way. I can still tell you what we had for dinner that night at my house while we watched a desperate America try to make some sense- any sense- out of what they were witnessing. I was ten years old at the time, and it felt like we had crossed into a new era. Not immediately for my day to day life perhaps, but slowly the shockwaves from the attacks would seep into every aspect of western civilization.

I believe that the fastest and most effective way to check the temperature of any culture at any point in time is to find the stand-up comedians and listen to what they are saying. The root of any successful joke is the inherent contradiction between the question and the answer. For example, look at the single most common joke on the planet: Why did the chicken cross the road? The person asking wouldn’t ask unless the answer was something specific and surprising, but the answer (and thus, the joke) is that the chicken crossed the road merely to get to the other side. The audience is surprised by the mundane nature of the answer because they expected something else, so they laugh. On a higher level, topical comedians do much the same thing by pointing out the contrast between the world as it is and the world as it should be. Why am I telling you this? Because the most popular reason for the enormous gap between the world we live in now and the world as it could be is the same one that frustrates us in our daily lives- as a species, humanity has become completely devoid of common sense.

Comedian Lewis Black noted on his album ‘The End of the Universe’ that on September 12, 2001 the FAA released a list of items that were no longer to be sold in airports. Top of the list? Knives. Before 9/11, it was possible to purchase a knife at an airport and take it with you on the plane. That doesn’t seem like common sense. Clear Channel Communications released a list following the attacks of some 165 songs that they suggested had ‘questionable lyrics’, and recommended their radio stations avoided playing them. ‘What A Wonderful World’ by Louis Armstrong, ‘In The Air Tonight’ by Phil Collins, and ‘Rocket Man’ by Elton John share a spot on the list next to songs like ‘Bodies’ by Drowning Pool and ‘Break Stuff’ by Limp Bizkit. Read the list and tell me your eye doesn’t start twitching, there’s about three songs on it that make any sense.

We now live in an era where an entire political party would rather their government fail to pay its bills than tax the wealthy. We live in an era where gays serving openly in a military setting is considered a problem to be tackled with equal fervor given to bills dealing with organized crime and rape- sometimes more. This is an era where heroes must wait ten years to truly have any recognition or closure but Snooki will never want for money again. This is an era where the elderly will be forced into searches so violent it will dislodge their catheter and they will be made to endure their flight soaked in urine, and a pregnant mother will have her insulin taken from her for fear it may be a bomb. These are not the actions of a sane society. We must not condone this!

So if we have learned anything ten years on from 9/11 it is that we must be calm and level-headed. We must accept that we are fighting wars against invisible enemies, but that does not mean we must treat our own people like sheep and criminals. We must not wait until appointed days to celebrate the truly heroic among us, nor to mourn those lost in acts of senseless violence. We must show that we as a people can stand up, act in unity for our own betterment, and demand transparency and honesty from the people we choose to lead us. We must be afraid for our safety, but confident in our security. We must ask ourselves with every decision- does this make sense? Because if we continue to chase our tails over extremely important issues, my generation may grow up in the final era before we genuinely lose control of our minds. And I don’t know about you, but I’m already meeting the children that will make up the next generation after mine and I think that every single one of them deserves to see what they can make of the world. If we don’t start using our common sense, they won’t grow up in a world worth making anything of.