9/11's Place

Nine eleven was not a life altering moment for me. I remember what I was doing when I learned about it. I was working and had to put off learning more til later. Now it is five years later and still I’m wanting to learn more.

It seems that, for me, 9/11 initiated pretty much the opposite view of world events than it did many others. I just was not particularly struck by it. [I was surprised and amazed that such happened. I was intriqued and interested in learning more. But it didn’t hit me like a ton of bricks.] I did not then begin demonizing Muslims. I did not fear for my safety or security (although, I live in a safe and secure country, it must be said). In fact, I did not really change at all, save for shifting my intellectual interests onto the Middle East (which necessarily meant shifting it onto the U.S. and Israel, I was soon to learn). I guess I did not view this atrocious act of violence as particularly distinctive in the world context. I mean, wake up. This kind of thing happens all the time in many places throughout the world, albeit not always on camera nor so spectacularly. No. It was not the event but the response(s) to it, that got my attention. As has the controversy surrounding the event including what precisely happened, who knew about it and who did or did not do what, when, where, how and why.

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