Mourn All, Or Not At All

Some might call it ignorance, others would call it selfishness. But how could
this be? How could we possibly do wrong when we only have the best of
intentions? If you find yourself asking these questions, then wake up. There
are a thousand places to find the answers, and I will enlighten you.
I do not deny that the September Eleventh attacks were a tragedy, and their
perpetrators were murderous cowards. My heart goes out to every person affected
that day. It did not occur to me at the time of the attacks that they only
seemed so devastating because they happened in a first-world country, in America
no less, police officer to the planet. Nothing of that magnitude had ever
happened on American soil, making the attacks an even bigger blow to the common
morale of the nation, and the world. But, take my word, terrible things happen
every day. Do you not see them? Do you not hear of them? Sadly, no. If you
wish to discover the true tragedy of our age, open a book, a newspaper. Go on
the internet. What is happening in Sri Lanka today? Oh, the same old thing:
rebel factions forcing hundreds of children to fight for them. Did you know
there are over 300 000 child soldiers at present? I’d bet a healthy number of
those reading this article did not. How many people die from hunger each day?
The number is staggering, making the number of American lives lost on that
terrible day look trivial. One person dies every two seconds from hunger alone.
Israeli settlers get shot, and Palestinians get shot in return. Hate crimes
occur daily in the southern states of the U.S., driven by the unbelievably
corrupt judicial system. Friendly Afghan soldiers or civilians being bombed or
shot at by their U.S. “allies”. Any of this sound familiar? Surely some of it
must. And if it doesn’t, then throw off the blindfold from your eyes. You
didn’t put it their, the media did, simply because facing the harsh reality of
life on our planet is an incredibly dismal thought.
So what is my point, you’re asking? It is simply this: if you choose, on
September Eleventh, to give a moment of silence, or a prayer, or show some sign
of respect without acknowledging the thousands of deaths that occur every day,
then you will be committing a terrible crime. Are the lives of American
civilians more important than the lives of starving children in Africa? It
would seem so, only because the state of American affairs is shoved in our
collective face, blocking out our view of the affairs of the rest of the world.
I do not hate America. Granted, I do not like America by any stretch of the
imagination, but, come September Eleventh, I will show my respect for the dead.
Yet, the American tragedy will not be the only thing I mourn. I will also be
showing my grievance for the other countless thousands who died that day. I
sincerely hope that on September Eleventh, you remember to mourn the deaths of
people all over the world, or you should not mourn at all.