Dear Planet Earth:
Today is September 11. The only appropriate thing for anyone to say to America today is "I'm so sorry for your loss." Anything else would just be tacky, wrong, and unforgotten.
That publicity-grubbing christian minister can burn your sacred book or not. He doesn't matter. History is full of burnt stuff. Vikings burned bibles, Arabs burned Torahs, Christians burned everything in sight. Atheists mostly burn marshmallows and wish the others would CALM DOWN.
On NPR the other day, an interviewer said 48% of Americans view Islam negatively. That's roughly 150 million citizens of the richest, most powerful nation in the world thinking that individuals who subscribe to that system of belief are Not Good People. I know they are wrong, you know they are wrong, we all know that Islam is not responsible for any more pain and suffering in the world than any other religion. Yet a group of nasty, opium-addled, immature, stupid, ignorant, black-hearted men -- YES, they were MEN, not women -- slew more innocent American civilians than we could have ever imagined dying from any man-made weapon other than a nuclear attack.
My sentences are strained. My heart is strained. Nine years ago, I mostly held my tongue. I did my job. I told my students to just keep an eye on their government if we went to war--truth is the first casualty in war. I said all the right things, and I did all the right things, and I only took ONE lousy day off work to cry miserably into my pillow for dead and suffering people whom I did not know.
I never told the world how angry and bitter I was -- and still am.
Americans are kind. We are fair. We truly believe in equality and justice, even if we screw it up a lot. The difference -- the primary difference between terror-mongers and Americans is this: We believe in good for all.
Even if we don't always get it right, even if we do bad things, even if we screw up and stumble, and get tired and a little too arrogant or smug for our own good, we still believe. We try. We work very hard so that all of us can be safe and have decent lives and behave with dignity in the world.
So here's my advice. Quit bitching and do some good, and spread that idea as strongly as you can.
We can all do better, but at least America knows this and keeps on trying, keeps on believing.
If you give up on that, we'll be watching you. So if you're thinking that death and blood are answers to anything you hate, grow up and get wise. For even if our dignitaries and top officials say smooth and peaceful things to you, even if they give you money and ask you nicely not to turn weapons on innocent people, the rest of us do not forget. There are a lot of us, we are literate, smart, ambitious, and protective of our own. We take names.
America remembers.
