Latter Day Sinner

Today is the 25th anniversary of terrorists taking over commercial jet liners and flying them into American symbols of capitalism and war. Some people wept that day. Some people cheered. I was asleep. I vaguely remember being woken up with news of the attack and rolling back over to sleep. I simply didn’t believe it happened. There’s a story mostly embellished about the first radio broadcast of War of the Worlds. The legend goes that it inspired widespread panic. And here we were again with another widespread panic. Nobody attacks US soil. It’s CGI or maybe propaganda. It took a week or two to convince me that a terrorist attack had actually happened.

And here we are twenty five years later. The attack is mostly settled history. More people mourn, less people celebrate. The security apparatus that the attack kicked off is still in full swing. The country is more divided than it was before the attack. For a little while that seemed to be changing. But we went back to our old ways pretty quickly. Muslims were hardly noticed before the attack. Now Islam is a lightning rod. Maybe it always was. There is something deeply political about its nature. Mohammed’s religion is one of this world in ways that Christ’s is not.

I am not afraid of Islam or Muslims. The terror attack failed to terrify me. But it has truly and deeply terrified much of the country. That is the sad truth that I remember today. When Americans hate our Muslim country men and women, the terrorists win. It’s been twenty five years and they are still winning.