I wasn't here for America's bicentennial, and the chances of me witnessing the tricentennial are slim. Just over two hundred years as a country, but about four hundred since the first English colonies began settling along the east coast. That's quite a bit of time to build, tear down, build over, etc. People reproduce in that time, they expand boundaries, dump mud and rubbish into bays as landfill to continue expansion until someone decides it's time to stop filling out and start building up.
Hence you get New York City. One of the oldest settlements in the country, New York boasts an impressive history and is well on its way into legend as one of the greatest cities of all time. Americans take pride in this shining beacon by the sea. It is our Paris. Our Rome. Our Athens. So does it not make sense then that it would be a target? A wound to the heart?
I remember the morning well. I had to be to church at five in the morning for zero period seminary. Outside of Utah, Mormon kids have to go in the morning, and as I was taking gym as a zero period class I had to go to an earlier seminary class. Ugh. I'm not at all a morning person. I came downstairs to get breakfast, my dad perched in his chair as usual, watching the stock market. This was my favourite part of the morning during high school. Today being September the eleventh, however, meant that the morning ritual of discussing Wall Street was interrupted. There were more pressing matters at hand.
I asked what was going on. I recognized the towers, but not as the World Trade Center. They were simply the twin towers to me at that time. High rise wastes of material dedicated to some businesses that I knew nothing about, didn't care about, and probably would deem unnecessary. Then again I think that much of what has come about in the past century has been unnecessary. I digress. Instead talking over what was happening with the Oracle stocks I was interested in, Dad and I mused at how much the damages would cost to repair. Little did we know that this plane that had crashed into the first tower was an airliner and not a small private plane. In the wee hours of that morning, that's what they were telling us on the west coast.
I was the only one in the seminary class who knew. I was telling everyone, and no one seemed all that interested. Most teenagers don't seem to care for the news, let alone that early in the morning. We carried on with group projects about some scripture from The D&C, did some presentations... the next thing I remember is climbing into the carpool. By this time everyone knew, and this particular minivan was tuned in to a particular radio station that was speculating that terrorists were threatening shopping malls across the country, the Pentagon was hit, and the second tower was also hit. It was mass panic. The rest of the day went by in a haze. Some of my classes carried on as normal, but how could ANYONE just go on that day? My one concern was that my friend was visiting her aunt in New York and there was no way to get a hold of her. This was before texting, so there was no simple instant message to her phone. We couldn't call for days. She ended up stranded there for weeks. One of the girls I knew had gotten word that her cousin had jumped. Her last moments falling were aired on television.
Now there's talk going around of a certain religion wanting to refurbish an old building into a place of worship. This has the country in an uproar. Politicians are jumping on some bandwagon, thinking that their opinions on the matter will buy them votes on both sides of the line. Extreme Christians and relentless nationalists stand opposed, and others are ready to move on and let the mosque carry forward. I happen to think that no matter what happens, no matter whether there is a mosque built near Ground Zero or not, it's high time that Americans realize that places like New York will carry on. That history places upon them all sorts of strange contradictions.
Take for instance Rome. Rome is one of the oldest cities in the world, and the funny thing is that it's overrun with Catholics. The bleeding Vatican is in Rome, and why is that funny? Because this city was the center of an empire that stifled upstart religions like the cult of Christ. Christians were enslaved, used as lion fodder, persecuted, and murdered. Oh the irony of it all! They end up turning Rome on its head and rebuilding a new empire based on this upstart religion from the Middle East. What does this mean? Well, in this case, it means that New York has come to the point of historical maturity, of significance, in history. It's become a palimpsest of new writings upon old. A new mosque on an old ruin, both being related, funny enough, in that it was extremists of that religion who made that ruin.
Where am I going with this blog post? Oh I don't know, this one is rather rubbish I think. It's hard to put into words what I want to say this time. I have these ideas I want to put down, but there is no real rhyme or reason. I guess what I mean is that there is a time where people will have to let go. That's history, that's how other cities in other countries have been moving for centuries. The Dome of the Rock is smack dab where we have to build the Temple of Jerusalem. It may be too soon for New York; nine years went by very quickly, but what are we to do? People grow old and die, and someone in the future may try the same thing, and what do we think of that? We can't stop it. Does it really matter? Is it absolutely necessary to delay the inevitable for our own emotional reasons?
Ultimately, no matter how much politicians want to campaign this, the decision should be left up to New York. I'm over it. I've moved on. I get though that many people drive by that site everyday and probably (at least once a week or so) think of the people they knew who perished. What happened in 2001 was a national crisis, what's happening in 2010 is a local concern with national interest attached.
No comments:
Post a Comment