September Song

Gotham canyons amidst fields,
Spires soaring, soaring, like eagles–
Aging leaves among the green;
The hint of tomato soup in the air.

Reddish warmth to awaken to
But evening chill beckons, in the time of
Not-Quite-October.

Lovely day, beautiful morning, take me in your hands
Familiar life with its promise
Prosaic hours punctuated by the
Memorable.

The child at his desk, the clerk at his books
The judge in her chambers, the chef in her kitchen
The banker in his counting-house, the fireman at his station
The cop on her rounds, the ticket-taker at her booth

Lovely day, beautiful morning, take me in your hands
Familiar life with its promise
Prosaic hours punctuated by the
Memorable.

A hum turns into a roar
Tiny ants on concrete ribbons
Extending along a suburban web.

Over city, over field,
Over lake, over river,
Over trees, over hills,
Over bridges, over rooftops-
But always, always, through the clouds.

We are told, in the halls of schools,
Of tiny, tiny water droplets, or perhaps ice crystals
Floating soundlessly through the air
But in the safety of our seats
We sit, stare, and wonder
What we see there
Beyond the myriad shapes we see from below

A rabbit, a horse, maybe a bird
An apple, or perhaps popcorn
A boat, a truck, a bicycle
An airplane…

Familiar day, morning Prosaic, take
8:46 a.m.
Promise me in your hands life hours
9:02 a.m.
Fragments jumbled, voices smoky
9:37 a.m.
Nervous farewell, hushed prayer that
10:03 a.m.
Punctuated the Memorable.

© DSE
11 Sep 2007

Today, of course, is September 11. There’s so much out there on the web, I’m not sure I’d do any good by adding to it. Although it’s our collective national tragedy, it has more meaning to New Yorkers and the denizens of DC who were there that day, those who experienced the pain firsthand.

Two places in the deaf blogosphere that I think are good places to remember and share are Ridor’s blog, where he’s posted his own memories of that day, and invited his readers to do so. If you feel a cathartic need to share with a community, I recommend heading over there, or a similar site.

A fellow lover of history has posted a lovely, haunting poem in remembrance of 9/11. To experience Der Abschied, go to Bellamoden.

In remembrance. 9.11.01

Today, of course, is September 11– a date that for those of us who witnessed it will never be forgotten. Red-letter days like these checker our history books; but while they have meaning for decades, even centuries beyond, the most emotional impact of any event is on those who lived through it. My students sat through videos and movies of the civil rights era protests, and discussed Vietnam and Watergate, but to them, it’s exactly what it is: history. For those who lived through those days, read about or saw the events as they happened, and especially those who were eyewitnesses, it’s a completely different take. To use September 11 as an example, I experienced the horror of that day along with the rest of you, but for someone who was actually in NYC or D.C., or knew someone who was on the flights, in the Pentagon, or was in the World Trade Center that awful morning, it’s vastly different.

So today, like many others across this nation, I’m remembering September 11, from my own vantage point. While I have no problems with ceremonies, remembrances, and the like, I do have a serious problem with certain elements of our society abusing September 11 for their own purposes. Chief among them is our “President,” who has invoked “September 11″ as a mantra or response any time anyone wants to question or challenge him about anything. But many in his administration are guilty as well, along with many right-wingers, religious extremists, and their ilk. What these people attempt to do, and what they seem to have done well so far, is plant fear into our minds, our hearts, our souls. They’ve abused history and a solemn day in our national consciousness just to instill fear in anything that happens outside our front doors.

Unfortunately, fear is not the best way to go about anything. As FDR said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror…” The same is true these days as well– rather than let ourselves get tangled up by our own psychological fears, we need to assess how we’ve reached where we are now, figure out what’s wrong, and set things right so that we can achieve our best. While many people may disagree on how to achieve that, we need to first vanquish the fear that has dominated the national discourse the last few years.

We also need to look at the issues and problems we have before us in a rational manner. Since September 11, religious extremists here in the U.S. have browbeaten us over the heads with the Bible, with the word of the Lord, the wrath of the Lord, the anger of the Lord… An angry, patriarchal God– where have we heard that before? An angry Allah inciting his legions forth… It’s the flip side of the same coin. Jesus is the Messiah in Christianity and a prophet in Islam. Why can’t both religions look to his counsel, and less to the harsh commandments of bellicosity from the Almighty?

Fear and religion– they’ve gone hand in hand for a long time, as anyone who’s read any of Jonathan Edwards’ sermons or listened to an imam’s fiery speech can attest. How to promote peace and love, which are the ultimate tenets in so many faiths? While I could tax my brain and lay it all out for you, I’m fortunate to be able to save my fingers a bit of work, since Bill Moyers gave an excellent speech on Wednesday, September 7, which was excerpted and presented as an article on Salon. Here is his piece: “Hostages to Fear.”

My wish today is for there to be increased peace, love, and understanding among all peoples by the next September 11. The first step, I think, is to conquer fear in all its forms, and try to establish bonds of commonality. An impossible task, you say? Perhaps, but that’s fear talking…

September 11, 2001 was not a day any of us will ever forget. What has happened since has colored all of our lives in different ways, whether we were anywhere near NYC or DC or rural Pennsylvania or not. While I agree that terrorism needs to be combated, I strongly disagree with the present efforts of doing so. Even more than that, what really bugs me is the hypocrisy of the righteous, sanctimonious people in this country who lambast anyone hailing from the Middle East, Central Asia, possessing dark skin, a questionable surname, a particular piece of clothing, or even holding a belief in Islam, and then conveniently ignore the fact that we have our own home-grown extremists in this country.

It also pisses me off that any form of dissent by “unacceptable” groups is potentially an act of terrorism, yet those who have actually committed violence are shuffled aside, out of sight. Yet they’re still there, and the things that they did still echo through our collective consciousness, even if we choose to be blind. For example, we’re rapidly coming up on the tenth anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. The principal actors who perpetrated that unforgivable calamity are either imprisoned or dead. Though McVeigh is dead and Nichols et al are in prison, their ideological kin still roam among us. Go up to rural Montana sometime, or Boundary County in Idaho. Look in the reaches of the suburbs and rural areas of dozens of states. Right-wing groups, extremist bands, fanatical religious separatists, neo-Nazis, the KKK… they haven’t vanished or melted away; they’re still with us.

The proof of this appeared in the news this week, with the arraignment of Eric Rudolph. Rudolph has pled guilty to the 1996 Summer Olympics bombing in Atlanta, as well as three other bombings, including a gay nightclub and an abortion clinic. His day in court allowed him to deliver a rambling screed filled with bigotry, hate, and extremism. He’s now bound to prison, and this will probably be the last of him for a great long while.

Well, that’s that, you say. But that’s not true. Rudolph isn’t alone. There are others who hold the same beliefs as him, who could very well cross the line into terroristic acts.

You might say, “Well, abortion is murder. Safeguarding the unborn is justified.” I strongly, vehemently disagree. Whatever a person’s stance on abortion, violence is NEVER acceptable. Whatever you might think of Rudolph’s beliefs (and you may be a reader who agrees, even in part), he is and was a terrorist. It bothers me that people just sort of shrug that off.

Let’s step back for a moment here. What’s the definition of terrorism?

“The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons.” [American Heritage Dictionary]

Webster’s has a similar definition. Let’s see– Rudolph anonymously set bombs at properties or sites [Olympic Games, a nightclub, a building that housed in part an abortion clinic] that went off. Bombs by their nature are forceful and violent; weapons of war that have no other reason or purpose for their existence. Rudolph stood up in court and said he did this because he believed “force was justified” and wanted to send the message that abortion, homosexuality, and what he termed the promotion of “global socialism” was unacceptable. Let’s see, those are ideological or political reasons, if I’m not mistaken.

Open and shut case of terrorism, if you ask me. Yet did the headlines scream “domestic terrorist” or “domestic terrorism”? No, instead we were told that the “Olympics Bomber” was given a life sentence. Our media obviously isn’t willing to explore and expose cases of domestic terrorism, much less educate the public that extremism at home is as much or more a danger as the so-called “towelheads” overseas. What about our government? Well, it seems that our gummint has decided to cast a blind eye. Congressional Quarterly noted that in Homeland Security reports, certain groups were excluded. While I have no use for the tactics of groups such as ALF and ELF, it’s beyond appalling that there is a partisan divide between what groups our gummint will keep an eye on and which ones they will conveniently pretend don’t exist. They’ve got one eye on the ballot box and the other aimed elsewhere, as they plug their ears and try to wish it all away. But the Tim McVeighs and Eric Rudolphs will pop up again and again, and we will have cause to regret any inaction. When you have doctors targeted and killed, and judges and their families threatened and murdered, you can bet there’s domestic terrorism. Extremism of any kind is dangerous. I just hope we do not suffer additional consequences by further ignoring the existence of such hate-filled, tortured people.