Sunday, September 11, 2016

Unrequited Anger

Most everybody has experienced unrequited love and are probably better people because of it.  But unrequited anger is very different and is a cancer on the soul.  Maybe, that is the natural long-term consequence of 9-11.

That is how I feel about the 9-11 attack on all that I love.  Many fellow Americans share this unrequited anger.  Fifteen years is a long time to carry such anger so deep inside . . . too long.

I know, aside from watching the Pentagon burn from my office window, I was not directly affected by the tragedy.  Thankfully, I lost no friends nor loved ones on that day.  Maybe, I have no right to be angry . . . but I am anyway . . . fifteen years later.

Since that day, I have hit nobody.  I have shot nobody.  I have dropped no bombs on anybody.  I have let others do all that for me.  That is just another reason that I am still angry!

I am angry because we have a whack-a-mole enemy.  We defeated al-Qaeda, and we will defeat ISIS in the not-too-distant future, but what will be next?  There will be another fanatical foe.  World War II was a terrible war, but it was not a whack-a-mole war.  This is a new and more-frustrating type of warfare.

Dick Cheney said the Muslims hate us because of our freedom, which was simplistic.  Fareed Zakaria thinks Muslims developed a warped impression of Americans, based upon the writings of one socially-conservative zealot who traveled in the U.S. during the 1950's.  Maybe, they are both right, but I see little hope, until sane Muslims figure out how to marginalize their lunatic fringe.  All religions have fanatics, but other religions marginalize them in varying degrees.  Unfortunately, there is no way we can require Islam to marginalize their lunatics.

Maybe, we can mature past anger and begin accepting mindless-religious-violence as part of our normal day-to-day business.  Or, the unrequited anger will continue to build, with unhealthy consequences.  This anger must be vented, or we must somehow mature past it.

More importantly - far more importantly - I pray that the families of the 9-11 victims do mature past the anger and discover enough peace and forgiveness to find the happiness they deserve!