Yesterday, all of the reminders to “never forget” 9/11, made me wonder. Should we, really? Should we really forever rehash the terror of that day? My answer – I dunno. We should always remember the heroes, the way people came together to try to save lives and to help those who lost loved ones. We should try to emulate that every day of our lives – the caring, the compassion, the efforts to help out. But – we should not use that day and its memories to foster hatred and persecution of those of any one ethnic group. We should not assume that if I look like one of the terrorists, I am bad. All bad. Scary. Likely to cause harm.
Do we need to be alert? Yes. Alert, but not fearful. Always fearful. No. There are dangers in life. There are bad people. There are those who would do harm. There are those who are not reasonable, that run strictly on emotions, that believe in those who would destroy others with whom they disagree. We need to guard against becoming one of them.
Our world seems to be full of emotions, too many of them deadly emotions. We fear, we hate, we strike out. We jump on the latest bandwagon. We forget about reason. We forget that in those barrels that contain bad apples, there are also the good apples.
I heard on the news – I read in the newspaper, in the news magazine. . . my neighbor said. . . my friend told me . . . Does that make it true? I dunno.
Are guns the root of evil? Is it okay to rely on freedom of speech as a right to malign? Can I truly love my neighbor? I dunno. Do I need to believe in any of these things, wholeheartedly, without reason? Should we, really?
How about, instead – how about we give each other the right to disagree? How about we acknowledge that no one is all good, neither is anyone all bad? How about we try fairness? How about we use our brains to think? How about we relax, just a little? How about we just stop jumping to conclusions? How about we give everyone a fair chance?
I dunno. Can we do those things? Do we remember how? Should we? Really? I think I’ll find a corner and cry.
Wanderings of an Elusive Mind 
Great post, Carol.
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Thank you, Sheri.
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Reblogged this on MLou's Photography Blog and commented:
Can We Do These Things? Do We Remember How? Why Not!
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Voice of reason not spreading hatred. Thank you. Great article!
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This is such a great post, Carol. Thank you.
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Good post, Carol. Common sense is not common….sometimes it seems we ask the obvious and even that is too much.
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Great questions, all, Carol. Thanks for sharing. Your questions give us all food for thought.
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Very well thought out. If we all could spent more time in someone else’s shoes, we’d be a lot more compassionate.
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Carol — I oh-so-appreciate your line of thinking. I don’t know, either. The only thing I know for certain is that I am responsible for my own actions and I choose kindness.
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I’m of the thought that refusing to move on is akin to reliving it forever… aka “the terrorists win”. This country is known for its ability recover and move forward. And, contrary to popular thought, I think that should apply here too. But, then again, I was not shocked that our country became victims of terror… a lot of people couldn’t/can’t seem to comprehend it.
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SO well said! Thank you for adding an intelligent thoughtful heartfelt voice of calm and reason to temper the knee jerk flag waving and gun waving..
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As always, a thoughtful voice from Oregon.
The world is surely a dangerous place. Dangerous enough on its own that I think we could do a little better at not creating additional problems by undo fear-mongering. The police state that we are slipping toward is scary. I don’t like what we succumb to just because it might protect us from one really bad guy in a billion. It exposes us to lots of small evils.
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I dunno…..that sounds a lot like common sense. Something I think is in short supply these days. Truth be told, this new type of radical Islamic terrorism with its home-grown, brainwashed followers is very disconcerting. I don’t want to live in constant fear and suspicion. I also don’t want to be part of the Kumbaya brigade that prefers to ignore what is happening. 9/11? I don’t believe a person can remember the heroes and selfless acts of humanity without also remembering the horror of the inhumanity that set those actions into motion. It’s kind of a packaged deal. But we do have the choice to focus on how those positives can make us better in the future. Well said, my friend. Carol for President?!!! 🙂
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Oh my, Lisa? That would be even scarier than what I’m hearing from some of the real candidates!
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Well said, Carol. And you raise lots of good questions. And the reminder to use our brains instead of just an emotional knee-jerk response when certain words are used….
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