Consequences
As I pause to consider September 11th, I think it might be the saddest day of my adult life.
I bought this picture at an art sale put on by local high schools for Sacramento's great "Second Saturday" art events. This was about 2008 and the student was probably 15 or 16 at the time. The assignment was to create a postage stamp. This artwork is about 1.5 inches square.
Like my own daughter, she grew up and became politically aware at a time in our history heavily dominated by the "post 911" mentality.
Those of us old enough to remember the decades before 911 will always draw a line to separate before and after. A sixteen year old today has no memory of the 911 attacks or even the five years after that. It's ancient history, as the Korean War was for me.
The older we get, the more we see the truth in the old French proverb that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
One of my earliest memories was John F. Kennedy's funeral. I only remember a tiny bit. But when I was a kid of 6 and 8 and 10, the nightly news was filled with riots and burning buildings, tear gas and turning over bus
es on college campuses. Hijacking airlines was so common that comedians had jokes about it. The war in Vietnam ended just a few years before I would have had to go.
I grew up wondering how the hell grown-ups made sense of all the bullshit and violence.
Then I grew up. And I still don't know.
To me the attacks on September 11, 2001 represent the day America woke up and realized that the vast oceans no longer protect us from global terrorism. My daughter was seven years old at the time and could not fully grasp what was going on. The life she remembers - the "youth" she remembers - all happened in the ten years after that. She's happy and well adjusted and fine. But she is absolutely a child of the post 911 America.
I think this America is a little more bitter and a little less kind than it used to be. I don't yet see any good coming out of the post 911 era.
At the same time, I look at the riots in Ferguson, MO and I am grateful that this is now a rare occurance in America. Horrible stuff happened in the "peaceful" 60s and 70s. Cities like Detroit were destroyed and are still devastated. But America is a lot less segregated, a lot less sexist, and a lot less violent than it was when I was a kid. It's not perfect, but America is a much better place today than it was in the summer of 1968.
I bought this artwork because it represents for me a generation that cannot escape 9-11-2001. Just as race riots and the Vietnam War dominate my youth, the aftermath of the 911 attacks dominate my daughter's generation.
I bought four stamps at that art festival. Three of them are on subjects such as junk food. But this one touches my heart as a sad reminder that my daughter's generation will always have this event at the core of their childhood experiences and a central piece of their political awareness.
If you have a spare minute today, say a prayer for peace.
There are hateful, hate-filled people who just want to kill and keep killing for another ten thousand years. And there's no evidence that any prayer for peace has ever been answered. But that's not a reason to stop trying.
- Karl W. Palachuk