The chickens are coming home to roost: Reflections on 9/11 (unrated and unbridled)

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!!!!

It was the first day of class in my second year of seminary in NYC. I had slept through my alarm, and was currently missing the start of my first class of the semester. The pounding at my door was the Resident Advisor. I opened the door, in a half-woken dreary-eyed state, to her exclaiming, “Terrorists have hijacked planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon is on Fire!!!” All I could muster was a dazed and confused “Wait, what? Those are in 2 different locations???”

After telling me classes had been canceled, she continued down the hall pounding on doors, just as it finally dawned on me.

America was under attack. 

So, I leapt into action.

I was starving. I threw on some clothes, walked across the street to the deli, and got a banana nut muffin and large coffee. I then proceeded to the student lounge, where I knew they had TVs. The room was packed—standing room only. I found a corner of a table on which to place my coffee, and proceeded to eat my muffin while watching the unfolding news coverage.

I wasn’t fully awake yet, so while I followed the events, I just stood there nourishing my body—a simple enough, necessary daily function that every living human being around the world encounters on a daily basis.

In retrospect, I must have been quite the sight to some of my colleagues. I imagine there were surely a few looks of hatred and contempt emanating from some of those around me. I probably looked like a clueless imbecile, as if I were sitting in a movie theater eating popcorn. Seemingly everyone else’s jaws had dropped, most “on the floor” as they say, as we watched the first tower fall.

Was I ignorant? No. Was I apathetic? No. Was I devoid of emotion? No.

But—was I surprised? NO. And to be honest, to see all those mouths hanging open was probably as eye-opening for me as the attacks themselves were for everyone else with eyes glued to their television sets that day.

“So, wait. Lemme get this straight. You all are actually shocked that this happened?????”

This day was a long time in the making, friends. Malcolm X many years ago was chastised for saying something along the lines of “the chickens are coming home to roost.” I imagine this has been the case for many years—and, to be sure, we had seen harbingers of these poultry for many years before this event. I mean, for god’s sake, there was an attack on this very target just 8 years before!

Call me crazy, call me pessimist, call me a negative Nancy, call me an alarmist. Hell, based on my previous blog writings, you can even call me an apocalypse nut!!

Just don’t call me clueless.

Look, I get it. 9/11 was an atrocity; an act of pure, unadulterated evil that claimed the lives of thousands of innocent victims. I’m sorry that it ever happened.

But I’m also sorry for those of you well-to-do-lily-white-bread Americans who have spent the better part of your oblivious lives secure in some kind of “Leave it to Beaver” hiccup of American history; comfortably ensconced in suburban cells of segregated safety—far removed not only from the continual violence in many lands across both oceans, but even completely removed from the grotesque daily brutality that has occurred on our own soil throughout this “great” land since it was “founded” in 1492. I’m sorry that you finally had to get your wakeup call. But—and you’ll wanna take note here: THE WORST IS PROBABLY YET TO COME.

NEWSFLASH: THE WORLD IS FULL OF PEOPLE WHO HATE US AND EVERYTHING WE STAND FOR, WHO WANT NOTHING MORE THAN THE TOTAL ANNIHILATION OF EVERY LIVING AMERICAN.

But lest you think they hate us just because we are “free” (a dubious statement in and of itself); or lest you think they hate us because they are simply “bad people” (a toxic trendy phrase of our current administration): In case you aren’t wise to the world, it’s time for you to crawl out from under your rock and know the truth: this country has been poking its nose in everyone else’s business for waaaaaayyyyy toooooooo long.

Don’t know what that means?? Here is a VERY SHORT list of some eye-opening headlines (with some links for you to check out) just in case you slept through history class and/or haven’t ever opened a newspaper:

1. The US has (as of 2015) over 800 MILITARY BASES AROUND THE WORLD.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/06/us-military-bases-around-the-world-119321
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-us-has-military-bases-in-172-countries-all-of-them-must-close/

2. The US spends more on defense than the next 7 countries combined:
https://www.pgpf.org/chart-archive/0053_defense-comparison

3. Since World War 2 alone, the US has a long history of attempting to overthrow foreign democratically elected administrations—often supporting the ascendancy of dictators, who have American economic interests at heart, in their wake:
https://williamblum.org/essays/read/overthrowing-other-peoples-governments-the-master-list

4. The US is the largest supplier of weapons around the entire globe—and shockingly even to some of the very countries we deem to be “against” us.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/03/26/us-arms-sales-these-countries-buy-most-weapons-government/39208809/

5. And then, of course, there is our response to the 9/11 atrocities:
https://www.vox.com/2016/7/9/12123022/george-w-bush-lies-iraq-war


(I mean, seriously? It is astounding how many Americans actually got behind the saber-rattling of ole’ W and Dick, and supported their invasion of an autonomous country with NO TIES to the 9/11 attacks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijackers_in_the_September_11_attacks)

Of course, all of this is probably just “fake news” anyway, right? Maybe 9/11 didn’t really actually happen. Maybe it’ll just get swept under the right-wing conspiracy theory rug along with the moon landing and the holocaust; or just lumped in with a bunch of other insanity like vaccinations, Sandy Hook, the incipient repeal of the 2nd amendment, and impending Shariah Law. (The list could go on and on . . . )

Maybe we’ve reached the point where NO news source can be trusted. Maybe your spouse, sibling, neighbor, pastor, coworker and/or friend can’t be trusted either. What basis do we have to form an opinion about anything when the validity of literally everything can be questioned? For crying out loud, we can’t even trust the weatherman anymore!

But, to those who would seek and be open to “the truth,” and for those to whom this is “new”s: sorry to be the bearer of such depressing statistics. The veil has been lifted, the proverbial cat is out of the bag. And yes, the chickens ARE probably coming home to roost.

As for me?

Every time I hear we’ve been lied to: NOT SURPRISED.
Every time an LGBTQ+ person is stripped of dignity: NOT SURPRISED.
Every time a “foreigner” is attacked in America: NOT SURPRISED.
Every time an unarmed minority is murdered by a cop with impunity: NOT SURPRISED.
Every time there is a mass shooting spree: NOT SURPRISED.
Every time there is a terrorist attack either on our own soil or abroad: NOT SURPISED.
EVERY ACTION OF OUR CURRENT ADMINISTRATION: NOT SURPISED.

Sorry to be so morose. But it’s a morose day. So I’ll close with some words of hope:

Needless to say, in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, when the months-long Ground Zero cleanup commenced, I was there, on site, with my guitar. After years of leading music for Episcopal youth conference weekends, I had developed strong skills as a song leader. What could I possibly offer, other than music? Music brings healing; music fosters compassion; music begets community. And I was there, firsthand, ready to help in the only way I knew how. So, with guitar in tow, I eventually found myself (and several of my fellow seminarians) in a large circle, blocks away from the attack site, leading “call and response” singing for at least a good solid hour. Songs of hope. Songs of love. Songs of healing. For several days in a row. With the sole goal of building community. And build community we did—if but even only for an hour.

But we weren’t the only ones. It was citywide. And to see the way everyone in NYC came together for that glorious month or so after 9/11 was astounding. Simple acts of kindness every day in every way. Something had changed. And although it has most definitely changed back, in the wake of such “unexpected” devastation, it was a good time to be an American. And an especially good time to be a New Yorker. I’m not the first to say this, but it’s a shame that it takes the likes of an event such as 9/11 to bring us together in unity. Would that we could live every day as if it were our last.

Hug your loved ones tonight.

And maybe just go hug a stranger.