Today marks 9 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred on the US mainland. Say what you will about the event, but there's no escaping the fact that 9/11 was the day the world changed - and changed in a very big way. Suddenly, terrorism went from something that seemed distant and remote, solely happening in Middle Eastern countries, and in the recent past of Northern Ireland. The fact is, 9/11 marks the day the War on Terror began, and the concept of terrorism went global. Barely a news cycle has gone past since 9/11 without a reporter mentioning the latest terror attack somewhere in the world, or the latest threat to world security posed by terrorism. No, the 21st Century has definitely been defined by the War on Terror, and that all started in earnest on September 11, 2001.
So while there are services and such like commemorating the victims who died on that tragic day in the US, I thought I'd use the opportunity to write a slightly more personal reflection on what September 11, 2001 means to me. And I want to do that by regaling the story of what I did on that day. I guess like most major events in the world, one remembers exactly what they were doing when extremely big news events occurs, and 9/11 was definitely one of those for me.
I remember being woken up at 7:00am by my parents, who were shoving The Courier Mail in my face, which was running with the headline "US ATTACKED", and I have to be honest - it was a chilling headline. Not something I ever expected to read it, let alone have shoved in my face at 7am in the morning. I remember getting out of bed, and reading the full coverage in the paper (and that's saying something, given I have always been anti-newspaper, and in particular anti-The Courier Mail!). I got ready for uni pretty quickly, and decided to head in a bit earlier than normal, to drop in at the Student Rep Council building and see what the vibe was like there.
Now, back in 2001 I was Assistant Treasurer on the ACU SRC, and so occasionally opened up the building in the morning if I was the first person to arrive at uni. I arrived at around 8:30am on this particular day, about 30 minutes before we normally opened up, and I discovered that the place was already open, and a hive of activity. Finding a room with several dozen uni students already in it before 9:00am is quite a rare feat, and inside the building the clear majority of people were watching the local TV broadcasts, all of whom were in Breaking News mode. This was the era before 24 hour news channels, and so to have the ABC on one TV in the room, 7 on another, Nine on another, and Ten on the last one - well, it was quite a sight.
Normally, also, the room was quite noisy, but not today - everyone was talking in hushed whispers, trying to focus on the news as it unfolded. There was a real air of worry and concern in the SRC building, and as I entered the Council office (I was Assistant Treasurer at the time) I asked about the weird vibe. It seemed we were all in agreement - the world had changed, and no-one honestly liked how it had changed.
I hung around the SRC building for about an hour, before heading off to a Drama rehearsal we had on. We were producing a stage show of Bertolt Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle at the time, which seemed like quite a fitting piece of symbolism given what was happening in the US at the time. I remember it being quite a muted affair, with a group of us heading off to lunch after the rehearsal in the uni canteen. I remember this lunch well, because all we could talk about was the US terror attack, and how worrying a development it was. I remember a few people mentioning the idea, even in slight jest, that we should all find a remote piece of land somewhere and live in an eco-commune or something, to avoid any attacks on Australian soil. A wild idea, yes, and not one made in all seriousness, but it does highlight how worried we all were at the time. I even remember being joined for lunch by our uni Drama lecturer at the time, who joined us in our discussions around what the US attacks meant going forward.
It ended up being quite a surreal day, but the events in the US left its mark on all of us who were alive at the time. It was a sad time, a worrying time, and I for one in so many ways wish it had never happened. The world has seemed a much scarier place since 9/11. But as we mark the significance of the day, and the effect it has had on those of us still here, we need to remember those who did lose their lives in the events of that day, and the families and friends those people left behind. That is, I feel, where the most significance has been left.
My hope going forward into the new decade is that we see an emergence of tolerance towards Muslins, and that more people realise that those people who carry out acts of terrorism cannot be tied up by race, or religion - it's not as simple as that. We need to remember that in this world, there are a million shades of grey, and it's only when we look at things in black & white that problems emerge. Terrorism seems a lot more complicated than anyone ever first realised, but I guess in some strange way there is a simple solution to the ills of world - that we just get on with each other.
So simple, so simple indeed...