9/11

Last Saturday was the 9th anniversary of the tragedy of 9/11. On the first anniversary I wrote a series of commentaries that aired on a television special program in New York.

This week on this blog I am posting five of the commentaries in remembrance and reflection.

This commentary is still valid for I heard this statement on the radio. A reporter was interviewing a person attending the 9th anniversary ceremony.

Quote: “ I learned everything I ever needed to know about Islam on 9/11.”

It is this type of ignorance that has kept the conflict between Islam and Christianity for centuries. The Prophet Mohammed never preached violence. Moslem extremists misinterpret the Koran just as fundamentalists Christians misinterpret the Bible. Both Mohammed and Christ taught love, tolerance and giving too few follow their admonitions of love one another.

Commentary Four:

Some thoughts today on the fear of those who are different.

A tragedy the magnitude of 9/11 can force a tolerant democracy into a society of contentious ideals and into a collection of non-compromising ideologues. Passionate certainties are always dangerous. If we find ourselves heading that way, we might want to rethink our stand for cemented thought always hardens into a shape that may not fit the future.

Our founding fathers demonstrated that all opinions are to be valued for their contribution to the whole, and maybe incorporated into the greater good, even though their singular intrinsic value may be suspect.

Shared ideals are the essence of collective growth, for they are not only the building blocks of freedom and liberty, they nurture hopes and wishes and encourage individuals to let go of demeaning ethnic profiling. When that is done the only thing left is reason.

Despite our internal penchant for prejudice, America is still the haven for the oppressed, for the dreamer, for the builder, the scholar, the poet, the artist, and the idealist, even the mystic, for all know this is the place where the manifestation of great thoughts can happen.