I wrote the first article on 9-11 about one month after 9-11-01 and submitted it to the Contra Costa Times. (I have it posted here on my blog under the date of October 4, 2001) Of course, they never published it. What a surprise.
Looking back on my concerns of the time, I am saddened by the fact that what I feared has, for the most part, come true.
In the days leading up to September 11, 2009 perhaps this is a good time to consider the following:
As a nation we have no idea what we face and would prefer to ignore it. The profound sense of hope, anxiety, and sadness I felt in those early days has faded to simply a sense of despair. Just the other day at Sunday mass, I heard the September 11th attack referred to as the “9-11 Tragedy.” Of course, the attack on September 11, 2001 was tragic; it was catastrophic; it was disastrous. Those aforementioned adjectives fittingly describe the “effects” of the attack. However, they do not describe what the attack was, what it meant, ITS BEING.
Words can be used to either conceal or reveal. If they conceal, the truth can be obscured, wasting our abilities of prudential judgment. If they reveal, we are able to use our judgement to arrive at the truth. One has to wonder, however, why we would even use language in a way as to conceal.
Our success at deluding ourselves by the use of loose language only speaks to why we will not prevail in the face of this threat. We use loose language because we are too timid to embrace what is right out of fear: we have been taught to avoid extremes. It’s true that extremes should be suspect. But to necessarily avoid anything extreme? Avoid all extremes at all costs? Our rightly understood avoidance of extremes is incomplete, at the understanding level of an adolescent. It is sophomoric. In fact, extremes do exist and are sometimes the only straight and narrow way open to us.
We also use unclear language because, quit recently, we have been taught to never judge anything; this goes along with the relativism that has slithered into our culture. We are taught that “everything is relative” (even though the relativistic statement is a logical contradiction.) Well, we are the only creatures capable of prudential judgment. It is one of the aspects of being human. We DO know there is a difference between right and wrong, we can judge, that is, arrive at a judgment. If we did not know the difference between right and wrong, these words would not exist. Words do mean something? Yes and No are not the same things. If there is a difference, how do we determine (judge) what the difference is?…Simply, we use our powers of prudential judgment. Our reluctance to commit to judgment and relativistic creep take advantage of unclear language. They are allies at war with our souls.
So, what is this threat? I am not speaking of radical Islam here (Although, that remains a significant and serious material threat.) What I am speaking about is ourselves. We are our problem. And, what I speak of here is only one facet of it.
Why can’t we see this clearly? Certainly the use of unclear language coupled with our aversion to extremes are culpable co-conspirators. To make matters worse, we lack clarity because we are swayed by darker political motives that have no other purpose than our ultimate enslavement with the promise of comfort and pleasures, the bread and circuses of our times. We lack unity because many of us are too fixated on our own pleasures and not the needs of each other. The later is perhaps of greater significance.
We have at our disposal one of the best civilizations ever conceived. It is at our disposal because it was created that way. We can serve each other with it or use it to oppress ourselves in exchange for our free will. Flawed? Yes, as all things are flawed, save for one man who comes to mind. Nevertheless, until we begin to focus on each other, to mature in our thinking, free of our exaggerated passions for comfort and pleasure that powerful people can take advantage of, to consider and judge that what is good and right is worth defending even if difficult, we will suffer even more. More attacks? Maybe. Certainly, our demise will be tragic, our future a disaster. Then, finally, those particular WORDS will adequately MEAN what happens to us in the end…tragic and catastrophic.
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