9/11

Townhall.com ^ | September 11, 2011 | Mark Baisley

[Kaslin]

I still have my unused airline ticket from September 11, 2001, ten years ago today.  My wife and I had flown to Washington for a week’s vacation that included a White House tour, a visit with our Congressman, and some play time in the Atlantic Ocean.  We were driving our rental car back to the airport late that Tuesday morning to catch our flight home when we heard the news that changed all of us.

This tenth anniversary will remind every American of their personal story of that morning and the quandary of trying to comprehend such ultimate viciousness.  My personal ruminations were at a peak the following day, at about three hours into our five-day drive home when we passed within three miles of the impact site of United Flight 93.

How could four teams of men so purposefully commit to the murder of thousands of people, including themselves?  What kind of pep talk would convince nineteen functioning adults to trade their own existence for the glory of a mad narcissist?

The clinical question of how people can sometimes overcome their natural resistance to cruelty was best answered in 1961 by a Yale University psychologist.  Dr. Stanley Milgram set out to discover how millions of German citizens could have been so complicit in carrying out the abject barbarity of the Nazi Holocaust.

In his 1974 article The Perils of Obedience, Dr. Milgram summarized the results of his earlier study: “Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority.”

Dr. Milgram’s evidence that people tend to surrender to authority is convincing, even when they are instructed to perform extreme behavior.  In his famous 1961 research, an elaborate laboratory setup was used to convince an unsuspecting subject that he was part of a memory experiment.  As the only innocent participant in the study, the subject was instructed to administer an electric shock to another man every time that he gave the wrong answer to a series of questions. 

 

Of course, the Shock Generator machine was just a prop and the recipient of the electricity was an actor.  But, under the supervision of another actor in a lab coat, the subject increased the voltage with every wrong answer, even beyond the danger warning levels on the machine.  The process was repeated with 40 subjects, producing consistent, disturbing results.  A fascinating, seven-minute video of the Milgram Experiment can be seen here.

 

The months that followed September 11, 2001 uncovered an Iraq that had been systematically subjugated by a phenomenally cruel Saddam Hussein.  Videos of his seizing control of the governing council disclose the rapid implementation of a long-laid strategy.  Motivated by legitimate fear, Council members who pledged their loyalty to Hussein were issued hand guns with instructions to dispatch their uncommitted friends.  The videos reveal the terrific misgivings of council members to submit to Hussein’s authority.  But, they did so, executing 450 of their fellow councilmen.

In the heat of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, American Private First-Class Lynndie England posed for photographs while humiliating several frightened, naked Iraqi prisoners  -- an act of sadism that she would never have contemplated ten months earlier in her life as an employee at a chicken processing plant in West Virginia.  But under the aggression of Specialist Charles Graner, Private Lynndie England and her fellow soldiers tarnished the heroic stature of America’s military in the Abu Ghraib incident.

We must consider deeply the character of the leaders we choose and never surrender authority to rulers who trust more in themselves than in the liberty and responsibility of the citizens.  The selfless champions who founded our nation of freedoms left us with a legacy and a treasure trove of proven philosophy.  Looking back on our great history, reflective of the ten-year-old scar that we wear, consider these final two verses of our national anthem:

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore

That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,

A home and a country should leave us no more!

Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand

Between their loved home and the war's desolation!

Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

[SuziQ]

The last stanza of the “Star Spangled Banner” is my favorite. I first heard it 35 years ago, when hubby and I were living in Tallahassee FL. Back in the day, the TV channels signed off at midnight or 1am, and they always played the national anthem when doing so. The local PBS station’s version was two women, one playing guitar, singing just this last stanza. I thought it was prettier than any rendition of the anthem I’d ever heard.

[Christian4Bush]

bump

[stevie_d_64]

The morning after rant...

I think for the most part folks know how I feel about what happened yesterday, ten years ago...My position has never waivered...

What I saw, of what little I could stomach, in the way of rememberance, and what “Wife-Unit” wanted to watch, was the Pentagon ceremony with the President laying a wreath at the crash site and to say a few words and let the memorial take its course...I actually thought that that was the best thing, and to leave the politics a subtle digs aside yesterday...

What I saw yesterday “after” the Pentagon service was what causes blood to boil...And this is only what I observed, and not that I believe it was planned to any great detail, but I did see something that bothered me...

After the service the president made his way to the “chairs” portion of the memorial and wandered around and was caught up with with some supporters smiling and wanting to meet and greet the president on this occasion...As I watched I couldn’t help but notice the tone and demeanor of ALL of those folks pressing the flesh with Obama in the midst of those markers...Some were cutting up, almost laughing a bit too much, looking starry-eyed and giddy at the thought of meeting their president...Most got a chance to get their picture taken with him as he was shaking hands and chatting with those folks, using their cellphone or smartphone cameras, nothing particularly professional or quality about the picture taking, just more of an opportunity using what you had there at the time...Probably got those pics up on Facebook or Twitted them before the news folks cut away to go do other things...

What bothered me the most about that gathering was in effect what I would call, simply, a campaign stop, a re-election event with the way everyone was carrying on, in the midst of all those who were murdered ten years ago, in what was supposed to be a more reserved tone...

Call me a prude, call me a racist, I don’t care anymore...I just don’t believe that was a time to carry on in such a manner to demean the purpose of everyone gathering there yesterday...

Just my opinion and observation...

/morning rant

{what I wrote last week, basically]

I for one am offended by the notion that our government, that dropped the ball leading up to that day, is telling us how we should feel about the anniversary of 9/11 this time...

I want to feel emotional about it...

I want to be angry about it still...

I know what is responsible for these senseless acts of terrorism, I do not need to be told that I should temper my passions about bringing the fanatical and pure evil, that has perverted a religious faith (that I do not, and will not subscribe to) into something it is basically not supposed to be...

I want those perverted individuals to be taken out, because they sure as heck want to see me, my family, friends and nieghbors, my countrymen killed as well, in the name of their faith, or their interpretation of that faith...They have always wanted that, and I think that is something we should never, ever let go of...

Just my opinion...