Picture Day in high school was never one of my favorite days. I hate taking pictures to begin with, and the thought that a photo of my face would be plastered in a yearbook for all eternity.
Picture Day eight years ago was September 11, 2001. Eight years ago, I was a junior taking a picture for some idiot publication- and it was the last thing on my mind.
That morning, I woke to the news that two planes had been flown into the World Trade Center and three thousand people had died in New York. That morning, I went to school as if nothing had changed. But everything had changed, and irrevocably so. I remember wearing my newest sweater and neatly pressed khakis, stretching my mouth into a smile like I had not a care in the world. Inside, however, I was thinking more along the lines of “Shit, we are screwed. I’m Muslim, and from today onward, we are all officially screwed.”
Well, we are still pretty screwed. At least that hasn’t changed. Obama was elected, all the while being “accused” of being Muslim, like it was some crime or disease. Bombs still rain down on Iraq, Gaza, and Afghanistan, with no regard to civilian or non-civilian.
But on the flip side, there is hope. We did elect Obama. The Iraq War has been relegated to lost-cause status. Muslim Americans have found respect and acceptance for the most part. Do we live in a world marginally better than during 9/11? I would say so.
I got to visit Ground Zero last year. The nothingness was striking: in a city choked by skyscrapers, buildings, teeming with human life–the square block was empty, with the stillness and silence to fill it. And I thought back to that picture I had taken eight years today. Frozen and still in that moment of my young life, from henceforth everything had changed. I morphed from bystander to activist, eyes squinted shut to eyes wide open.
This is in memoriam to all of those lives lost on 9/11, before 9/11, and after 9/11- due to actions of states, groups, and men with little regard for human life. Rest in peace.
Picture Day
Posted in Uncategorized with tags political commentary-USA on September 12, 2009 by SultanaPicture Day in high school was never one of my favorite days. I hate taking pictures to begin with, and the thought that a photo of my face would be plastered in a yearbook for all eternity.
Picture Day eight years ago was September 11, 2001. Eight years ago, I was a junior taking a picture for some idiot publication- and it was the last thing on my mind.
That morning, I woke to the news that two planes had been flown into the World Trade Center and three thousand people had died in New York. That morning, I went to school as if nothing had changed. But everything had changed, and irrevocably so. I remember wearing my newest sweater and neatly pressed khakis, stretching my mouth into a smile like I had not a care in the world. Inside, however, I was thinking more along the lines of “Shit, we are screwed. I’m Muslim, and from today onward, we are all officially screwed.”
Well, we are still pretty screwed. At least that hasn’t changed. Obama was elected, all the while being “accused” of being Muslim, like it was some crime or disease. Bombs still rain down on Iraq, Gaza, and Afghanistan, with no regard to civilian or non-civilian.
But on the flip side, there is hope. We did elect Obama. The Iraq War has been relegated to lost-cause status. Muslim Americans have found respect and acceptance for the most part. Do we live in a world marginally better than during 9/11? I would say so.
I got to visit Ground Zero last year. The nothingness was striking: in a city choked by skyscrapers, buildings, teeming with human life–the square block was empty, with the stillness and silence to fill it. And I thought back to that picture I had taken eight years today. Frozen and still in that moment of my young life, from henceforth everything had changed. I morphed from bystander to activist, eyes squinted shut to eyes wide open.
This is in memoriam to all of those lives lost on 9/11, before 9/11, and after 9/11- due to actions of states, groups, and men with little regard for human life. Rest in peace.
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