September 11, 2006
by Daithí Mac Lochlainn

Time, we are told, heals all wounds.

Indeed, five years ago, one Tuesday morning, I looked to Time to rescue me from the events now known as "9/11".

Standing on the corner of Church and Vesey Streets, and looking back and up at the unspeakable disaster overhead, I was certain that I was dreaming, and that Time, by means of my clock radio, would awaken me.

Five years later, I am still trying to wake up.

There are very few events in history and in our individual lives that "split" time.

We number history's years, BC, "before Christ" and AD, "anno Domini". For Christians, this makes sense, as we believe that two millenia ago, the Eternal Logos entered time and history. The Incarnation has "split" the measurement of time for believers and unbelievers.

Of course, there are those special occasions that divide our lives into phases, such as marriage and childbirth. How often do we hear, "before I was married" and "since my daughter was born"?

For me personally, having Guillain-Barré Syndrome was life-changing as it altered my physical and spacial perception of my surroundings. I would recall how things were "before" and "after" GBS.

This however, was obscured by one Tuesday morning five years ago, at 8:46 am. This instant was followed by the longest day of my life and still replays over and over in my waking and sleeping moments. The explosion of Flight 11 is echoed in every clap of thunder, however faintly.

Alongside the horrors, are the noble scenes. First and foremost, are the firefighters and rescue workers who were already there with us by the time we had evacuated the building. Also, there were the women of Chinatown who opened their houses of worship and community centers to provide tea, water, and sandwiches to those of us passing, covered, as we were, in dust and soot. There were the high school students who stepped out into the intersections and took it upon themselves to direct traffic. And then, the crowd gathered outside Bellvue Hospital with their sleeves rolled up, ready to donate their very life from their veins.

Life and death moved quickly around us, as none of us were stuck on a page of a children's book about a pet goat.

I've heard others who were also there speak of that morning's events as if "everything was in slow-motion". They are correct.

Country singer Alan Jackson asks, "Where were you when the world stopped turning?"

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So, too, this day has been memorialized in our colloquial speech. Often, we say "before 9/11" or "since 9/11". (I usually only manage to utter "when it happened".)

We New Yorkers take it for granted that things have changed, while tenaciously holding on to what we could. Looking out, I am amazed by that day's impact on those from a distance. While some tell me that they "can't imaging what it was like" to be in New York, New York 10048 when it happened, I cannot possibly fathom what it was like to watch it live on television.

That day affected us in many different ways.

There are those few in power, however, who count on this "timeless" quality of the disaster to exploit it for their own ends. A full year prior, some of those very same individuals issued a foreign policy paper in which they overtly salivated for a "New Pearl Harbor" by which they could garnish popular support for their dark machinations.

Believing in the "end of history", the Neo-Conservatives needed an event such as 9/11 to catapult us all from the confines of Time, leaving themselves free to trash history and its time-honored lessons. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Geneva Conventions, and "Just-War" Theory present noble ideals and were fine for their time, we are told, but of course "9/11 changed everything".

For those of us who would crave one more taste of Sepempter TENTH, 2001, this provides no comfort. The nation rallied to the support of a dubiously elected "leader", who took us into a war with Afghanistan, and failed to locate the alleged chief terrorist, using that country as a stop-over on the way to a second war. (No, the invasion of Iraq is not part and parcel of any "War on Terror"!)

Two years after 9/11, the horrors were celebrated at Madison Square Garden, as yet other parts of our own City were closed off to us who live here.

Since then, a third war was waged, by proxy, against the people of Lebanon.

Our suffering has been consistently exploited to inflict suffering upon other innocents.

The Dubya Administration has responded to our pain by spreading it around the world.

And, of course, these atrocities are perpetrated by the same bastards who cynically instruct us that asking questions is what dishonors the memory of 9/11's fallen!

Five year later, it seems, the events of September 11, 2001, have taken their place in history. Perhaps, this is the cause for the shrill panic we see coming from the Baboon Palace. Scripture reminds us, "And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars." [Matthew 24, 6]. Those who monger war and fear assure us that spectacular terror is inevitable and that those who dare to question their bellicose policies will be guilty of bringing it about.

However, the same Scripture assures us, "see that ye be not troubled".

Yes, I do believe that Time heals.

However, Time, together with Peace, must be given a chance.

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Daithí Mac Lochlainn [send him email] is a researcher, journalist, conceptual artist, community activist and shameless agitator. Find all of his writings at http://gaelicstarover.blogspot.com/