September 11, 2001
A couple of days, my family and I took a trip to the 9-11 Museum and Memorial in New York City.
Initially, I had mixed emotions…
So much money spent by the US Government to commemorate a tragic loss.
The memorials are simply breath taking and thought provoking. Centuries ago, memorials where large tombstones, sometimes tombstones big enough to walk into…
The 9/11 memorial is the most impressive memorial that I have ever seen.
The massive size of it… makes it beautiful and awesome… but what I love most about it is that the entire memorial focuses you on what is MISSING…
You stand in front of it and look at an individuals name that you don’t know… and at the structure that is missing.
To me that memorial is such an elegant statement that says, “What is destroyed can never be replaced… and the reality that it can’t be replaced, doesn’t mean that it will alter our values or our way of life.”
“We will always remember. And, that doesn’t mean that we can construct in the place of it.”
I really hope to visit someday and spend hours just contemplating that single thought.
That’s the memorial. The museum is built underground and exposes you to the structure, to remnants, to the history of the buildings and the history of their distruction.
Under one tower is a tribute to each and every person that died that day. As I walked through, I thought to myself, our stories are all so similar, so mundane. And, yet each one is moving. Whenever you hear a child or a parent describe the loss and sadness of losing a loved one, it moves us. Even though they are so similar… or perhaps BECAUSE THEY ARE SO SIMILAR.
Under the other tower, is a history of day 9/11… of the months before and the months and the months after.
The thought crossed my mind over and over… The West values our life on earth in a different way than the extremist muslims. That is one core difference in our philosophies…
What was most apparent to me is how as human beings we can deal with general evil and general situations so very trivially.
Yes, sure, people jumped out of the World Trade Center on 9/11.
It made for some amazing stories and some memorable pictures.
So many people walk by that exhibit. They know the reality at a general level and accept it…
But when you stop and put a name on it, when you put a face to it, you feel the evil and the destruction so much more vividly and deeply.
When you think about the individual.
The woman that held down her skirt in a final moment of vanity before she lept out of the burning building.
The mother, the father, Susan, Joe, David… who died that day… then you start to feel the anger and the injustice.
When I realize not the thousands and thousands of families whose realities were altered on 9/11… but the single individuals that died… the young children who cried… then the tragedy for some reason becomes even bigger.
As a tax payer, I am glad the government spent every penny it spent on that memorial. And, I wish that every American would visit it. I wish that every human being would visit it. I need to be careful wishing.
As a human being, I want every human being to visit every holocaust museum, every memorial… I want for every human being to understand the cost of evil… and realize our own individual responsibility to find a way to speak, act and fight against it.
Evil is part of the IS of humanity…
And, it has been defeated over and over and over again… because goodness and justice reigns in rational human beings…
If you get to New York… try to visit Ground Zero.
Feel the void of what was taken from the United States and from all of us in it.
Feel the massive pain that was inflicted…
Feel the void of emotion and justice that exists in the voice of the world today, in the media, in conversation… If the rational world speaks up against the irrational, goodness will continue to rule.
Be a voice for reason.
Be a voice for good.
Be a voice for love.
Be a voice for peace.
Be a voice for harmony.
And, look for every opportunity to shift your voice to action.
I am not for increasing government spending... but I am for every dollar spent celebrating life, and remembering the lives of those taken unjustly by evil. I am for every dollar spent telling simple similar stories of loss, sharing pain, and inspiring the voice of the rational.
Is a life less valuable because it is not famous? not wealthy? not genius? not international? not necessarily unlike our own?
We value life. I value life. And, remembering and being inspired by those whose lives where taken so purposelessly and unjustly is to honor them...
Yours in remembrance and harmony,
Nestor Benavides