Friday night, after I published my comments about 9-11-01, and the eight comments preceding, I took time to read those eight additions to the conversation.  It occurred to me that those eight reflections, plus my own, were probably a good cross-section of the hundreds of millions in the U.S. and elsewhere, who in similar ways were trying to make sense of the insanity we were all witnessing in real time.

We are – we cannot deny it – a global community.  Even 25 years ago, we were not alone.  Even the casualty list for 9-11-01 speaks to that reality.  Many from other nations died in the carnage.

What follows is my attempt to fill in some personal blanks in my experience of that awful day and the days following.

AFTER SEPTEMBER 11, my first vivid memory was the silence.  We live relatively near the Twin Cities  and St, Paul airports, and their flightpaths.  Those days I walked outdoors, and before 9-11 there was often a plane heard or seen overhead;  September 12, and for a few days following, nothing.

It was a new and very unusual day in America.

By September 24, it was becoming obvious that peace was not to be forthcoming.  There were other plans being discussed.

Some time earlier in the summer we had booked a flight and accommodations for a week or two in London, England.  We decided to go ahead with the trip, and were glad we did.  We were treated very well.  We flew home from Gatwick on Armistice Day, Nov. 11, 2001.  At 11 a.m. that day, on the dot,  the PA announcer in the terminal asked for two minutes of silence, and the busy airport fell completely silent. I don’t recall even a babies cry.

At home, by November, 2001, the mood had been changing.  By late September a strategy was developing to avenge the injury inflicted on the United States, and by early October came a poll  where 94% of Americans supported bombing Afghanistan where Al-Qaeda hung out.  I don’t recall similar retribution plans against Saudi Arabia or Egypt, where Osama bin Laden and most of the airplane high-jackers were from.

I made my first visit to an antiwar protest in early October, 2001.  I didn’t know any of the speakers, nor the sponsors.  My dominant memory, even today, is of a very vocal antagonistic group of American flag-brandishing anti-protestor protesters….  WAR on evil was their message.

I became a peace activist, for three years, 2005-07,  I was President of a group of organizations, the Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers; and part of organizing committee for a major Peace Island Conference in St. Paul at the time of the 2008 Republican National Convention.   I became very aware of the seductive beat of the drums of war in competition with the gentle sounds of peace.  Maybe it’s part of human nature to revel in conflict, especially if you win by domination.  We desperately need peacemakers.

Feb. 5, 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell solemnly told the UN that Saddam Hussein was going nuclear, and Powell  was trusted.  The focus had switched from al Qaeda to regime change in Iraq.  Game on.  May 1, 2003 came the now-infamous Mission Accomplished speech by President Bush announcing the victory over Saddam.  Aside from the press releases, there was never a victory, as we all know.

For awhile after 9-11, I climbed aboard the 9-11 conspiracy train, which became very active and had reputable representatives and supporters.  That movement lasted quite awhile.  Finally the movement largely evaporated, perhaps as much from media leaders accepting the administration line that there was no there, there; joining in ridiculing those who suspected someones had less than clean hands in the success which came from the chaos.

Then, it really made no difference.  The damage was done.  There are those still carrying the torch, but they have no audience.  In this media dominated society, it is easy to bury problems, just by not mentioning or making it possible to effectively debate the issues.

And on its gone for 25 years.  Each of us have our own stories, worth remembering and sharing in our own circles.  We can learn by listening to ourselves and to others.

*

There is one further story, important to me, personally, from another time in our history.

This day, I recall another horrific day in the life of America: Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941.  Every December 7, this years 85th anniversary no exception, we will all see the USS Arizona blow up spectacularly on TV clips or newspaper photos, etc., one of the consequences of an attack by 353 Japanese aircraft.  Each time I see this, I’m watching my Dad’s brother, Uncle Frank, who I actually met as a one year old in early July, 1941, die in the explosion.  He was a ship fitter, his entire six year career on the USS Arizona.  Here’s one of over 20 photos I have of him.  He died at 26 years of age.

This year two of my daughters are going to be at Pearl Harbor, representing Granduncle Frank’s family..

A couple of years ago I got a letter from a Department of Defense subgroup that had received funding to attempt to match flesh recovered from the Arizona, but till DNA impossible to match with any casualty that awful day.  Male descendants were invited to give DNA samples for analysis, and I did.  Uncle Frank was one of the unknowns.

This summer came a followup letter: Arizona Battleship disinternment

To my knowledge, no match has been found to my uncle…at least not yet.  But several other unknowns have been identified through the process, and this year will be the first such commemoration, and I’m glad that Frank’s grandnieces can be in attendance.

Let’s have a conversation, all of us, everywhere.

Dec. 8, 1941, Japan and the U.S. became deadly enemies to each other.  At the end, four yers later, two horrendous bombs officially ended WWII.

Those of us old enough can remember the details of the ensuing years rebuilding relationships between Japan and the U.S., and the lesser known details of what may have been the reasons the Japanese chose to attack America’s outpost at Pearl Harbor.  War is simple, yet very, very complicated.  Might does not make right.

“Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.”

Each and every one of us is the solution, one action at a time.