Remembering 9/11 - Is it Enough?

Some events are etched in our minds for life!  I only wish they could all be happy ones. 

12 years ago, I was working in my home office when I received a call.

"Turn on your TV!" 

What I saw, was a tragedy; flames and smoke were billowing from one of the towers of the World Trade Center. It was a weekday and so the building would have been full of people at work.  Reports indicated that those on floors above the fires were trapped and many on lower floors had no knowledge of the extent of the damage above.  As I watched, to my horror, another plane hit the second tower of the WTC!

Reports were constant, but, information was scant.  Minutes passed; then news that the Pentagon had suffered the same fate and that yet another plane had gone down in Pennsylvania. 

What was happening?  Everyone knew, once the second plane had impacted with the World Trade Center, this was definitely no accident!

And then, as if we hadn't been exposed to enough visual devastation, the towers fell!  Right before our eyes, they crumbled, spewing a cloud of dust and debris for blocks.  Thousands never made it out of the building.  Many emergency workers who entered the buildings to assist were also lost.  The Pentagon sustained considerable damage too, but, most of the building was not affected.  And in a field in Pennsylvania, the crashed remnants of yet another plane had yet to reveal its story. 

So much loss, so much devastation; it became the news for days, weeks and months. 

For anyone over 20, you probably remember exactly where you were and what you were doing on that oh, so ordinary weekday morning when your senses were first assaulted by violence rarely seen in the Western world. 

So, what do we make of something like this?  Back in WWI, it was said, that was the war to end all wars and yet, scarcely 20 years later the world was plunged once again into another bout.  We try to analyse, lay blame and vow it will never happen again, but really, if history has taught us anything, it’s that our propensity for violence never dies.  Greed, which seems to be a contributing factor in all conflicts, is an insatiable beast, rearing its ugly head and devouring everything in its path.  It’s all the collateral damage that eventually moves us into warlike behaviour.  People, pushed to the brink of desperation, push back.  And we know the rest; Korea, Vietnam, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and countless other conflicts give testament to the carnage that follows.

I'm Canadian, so, of course my question is - Why can’t we, as Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson saw our role as Canadians, be peacekeepers? 

Somewhere, over the years we have lost our way.  

It’s time to rethink our response to events.  I don’t want anyone, in any Country around the world to wake up to the kind of devastation we saw on 9/11, even though I know that is happening right now.

Let’s make a difference and do what matters.  And, to quote a famous line from John Lennon and Yoko Ono - ' give peace a chance.'