Five Years

Preamble: Septemeber 14, 2006
To say that this post has elicited a reaction I didn’t expect would be one of the greatest understatements of my life. Apparently a lot people who don’t know me decided to take offence at what were nothing more than honest personal reflections on one of the most important events in Human history. The fact that I didn’t do the usual and recount what I was doing on that day like everybody else and instead wrote about how I see the way the world is changing since then seems to have made a lot of people uncomfortable.

It’s incredible to find that so many people think I don’t understand the meaning or importance of 9/11. It would appear that most people couldn’t get over what I said in the second paragraph about my feelings of being creeped out. Well I’m sorry, I was. I have no disrespect for the people I was talking about, their expression is more true than mine because they lost loved ones and I didn’t, I understand that.

But it really did creep me out because it serves as a harbinger of what our society could become because of all of this. We can all reflect on the past but it doesn’t change the fact that we all have a future to live in and we have to think about what we want that future to be. Do we want to remain terrified by 9/11 and blindly support our leaders on their promises that they and only they will protect us? Do we want to give up our personal freedoms for the sake of greater security as if that will protect our democratic society? I smell an oxymoron there. Do we really expect each other to do nothing more than sheepishly say the same shit as everyone else as if that somehow makes the world the place we want it to be?

Ever since this post was picked up by Kate McMillan, I have had to endure a barrage of hate filled rhetoric and suggestions that I’m the most insensitive little faggot on the planet. Ironic when you consider that many of them pointed out some irony about my insensitivity while they point out their hatred for me and my kind. It’s been a fun week.

My apologies to Jim Scott at Salt Spring Daily News. The reaction I received over this post caused me to misinterpret his intentions when he posted part of this article, I’m sorry about that.

So without any apologies I’m re-posting the article. Many people who know me thought it was great. I have to admit after re-reading it that it isn’t one my best writing jobs but it is what is and I stand by it. If anyone wants to pick it apart line-by-line, then I suggest you have too much time on your hands, take the whole thing in context.

Five Years

A year and a half ago I was walking down a residential street in Brooklyn NY. I think it was 15th St. near the Prospect Park subway station. I came upon a block where every lamp post, sign post, telephone pole, fire hydrant and I think even the trees were all painted red white and blue. They had literally painted the flag on everything on the street. The colours were starting to fade just enough that you could tell it was direct response to 9/11. When I looked at the houses I saw that many of them had memorials in the windows, teddy bears in fire, police and military uniforms with signs saying “we will never forget”. I concluded that the block must have suffered heavy casualties in the disaster and I acknowledged their grief even if I couldn’t fully appreciate it.

But I found the place to be really creepy, not because I found myself suddenly confronted with such a public display of mourning, but because as a Canadian I’m not accustomed to such blatant displays of patriotism and I’m certainly not accustomed to people expressing their grief through patriotism. For me it served as a powerful reminder that the U.S. is an incredibly militaristic nation where the people seek comfort from their flag and the greatness of their nation will somehow carry them through. Realizing that there was a very good chance that because of what happened, the entire block voted for Bush, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough, I wanted to run. I knew I was in territory that believed that the greatness of their nation and its military would save the day and redeem their lost loved ones.

A week ago I was on Christopher in Manhattan and looking down 7th Avenue you can see where the World Trade Center used to stand. I hadn’t planned to, but started walking down there almost as if I was driven, hell, it’s only about twenty blocks. My walk took me directly to the front door of the spanking new building 7. It’s very modern with its finely wrought stainless steel base and floating clear glass panels on the office floors. It’s obviously a high quality building but the most remarkable thing about it is the way it almost asks you not to notice it. To me it wants to hide, as much as a 52-story building can hide, well it’s possible in Manhattan but very unusual. People erect buildings in that city for the express purpose of being noticed. I didn’t have my camera with me but the best place to see photos is emporis.com.

The rest of the site is still that big hole in the ground, but at least there is progress. There are construction trailers set up along Church Street where the traditional viewing area is, a lot of them. They’ve moved the viewing area to Liberty Street and the whole place is finally looking like things are starting to happen.

There is a wonderful old very ornate terra cotta skyscraper at the corner of Liberty and West Streets that still had a lot of damage a year and a half ago. I wondered how it might be possible to repair it or if it was possible at all, it dates back to the early 20th century. It’s fixed now, it’s gorgeous, I’m so glad they were able to repair it, it must have cost a fortune. There is only one damaged building left, a building about 50 stories tall. I would say it dates to the fifties and it was built to be important. I recall a few months ago there were reports in the news that they had found a man’s body there left over from the disaster. I know they are planning to take the building down, it suffered a lot of damage but nothing I thought couldn’t be repaired, what do I know?

As someone who isn’t from New York, I instinctively know that I can’t talk to people there about that fateful day. You can see it the eyes of the people there that they are witnesses to one of most horrific events in human history and they don’t want to share their stories because the rest of us can’t understand what they feel. They need to get on with their lives and every time they look down 7th Avenue or wherever, it serves as a constant reminder of what’s missing. When you look at the New York skyline now, the punctuation mark is missing.

That’s why I found that street in Brooklyn so creepy in their reaction. I find most New Yorkers to be intelligent, thoughtful people who reluctantly gained first hand knowledge that I hope I will never have to. As horrifying as it was for the rest of us, we only saw it on TV.

I was planning for a long time to use this occasion to point out how the Bush administration had exploited one of the most horrific days in human history for its own political gain. I was going to point out that September 11, 2001 was the best day they ever had because without it they had nothing to offer, no other way to justify the wars they wanted to wage. I wanted to point out that Osama bin Laden is walking free because without him the United States wouldn’t have the supposed enemy they need so badly to justify their war efforts. I wanted to point out that they crassly used the lives of three thousand of their own people to justify attacking a country that was no threat to them whatsoever. They have lied and cajoled and used the very faith and the lives of their own people to inflict tragedy and horror on this world far worse than the terrorist acts on September 11, 2001.

New York is still a fantastic place and it’s because of the people. We all spend so much time talking about the politics and all the things that have gone wrong. But there are still 10 million people in a single city who are reflecting on this day in ways the rest of us can’t imagine. To this day, they still have to live without their brothers and sisters, their siblings and partners, the people they planned to spend the rest of their lives with. When they look at the skyline, to this day they have to live without their punctuation mark.