after the attacks

I see this meme every year at this time.

I miss 9/12. I would never ever want another 9/11, but I miss the America of 9/12. Stores ran out of flags to sell because they were being flown everywhere. People were Americans before they were upper / lower class, Jewish / Christian, Republican / Democrat. We hugged people without caring if they ate at Chick-Fil-A or wore Nikes. On 9/12, what mattered more was what united us, than what divided us.

This was not my experience. The week after the attacks was very difficult. Everyone was upset, and people were cranky. Aside from arguments about whether we should "bomb them back" (despite the fact that "they" didn't bomb us), I felt that even strangers on the street were much less friendly.

I don't know if this is a case of selective memory, of if it really was different elsewhere, but I don't want it to be like that again. Even now, with the political situation and Covid, I don't get that feeling on the street.

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race

Someone posted the thing where Morgan Freeman says Black History Month is ridiculous. My response...


We shouldn't treat individual black people differently in our interactions. I agree with you there.

There are successful white people in all areas of American society, but black people are underrepresented in many areas. Kids need examples to look up to. Black kids need to see examples of successful black people, so they can say "I could do that!" Too many black kids just feel like it's not worth it, and that they'll never succeed because they don't see many examples of success.

How much black history do we learn, that's not brought up because of black history month? How much of that would go missing if there was no Black History Month?

I think that if everyone can agree that black people do important things, and that there's nothing wrong with being black, then being black can be normalized in this country, and we can start to get past the issues of race.

And if those of us who don't have a problem with race don't talk about it, the only ones who talk about it are the ones who have a problem with it. What happens when the majority of people don't think about race, and the KKK is the only ones using their voice? Then all those people who don't think about it start thinking about it, and somebody has got to counter that voice. That's where we are now.