[Oe List ...] Saipan Tribune OpEd Monday

[Jaime R Vergara]

Ground Zero: Transforming the Tragic Terrain of Terrorism
 
We visited the Twin Towers’ site in Manhattan two years ago.  We suggested then that ground zero is no longer in a pit of mangled steel on the southern tip of the former Dutch colony, but on the heartland and mindscape of America.  
 
America commemorates the 10th anniversary of 911, the emergency distress signal that took place 9.11.01.  The perpetuators of the 911-event were not oblivious of the high symbology of the occasion.  Neither should we. 
 
There are as many perspectives this day as there are people reflecting on it. 
 
The Event.  Four hijacked jets were commandeered for Washington, DC, and NYC.  The New York bound ones found their targets: the iconic twin towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan.  Of the DC-bound, one found the Pentagon, but the second, headed for either the White House or Congress, was thwarted by its passengers and crashed into a Pennsylvania field.  Some 3000 persons representing 90 nationalities died that day.
 
The Impact. The United States was stunned; officially, it descended into paroxysms of fear, and flung itself into a beehive of defense activities.  Homeland Security was born; no official questioned its expenditure that in a decade totaled half a trillion $.  There are even those who think that trade, commerce, and employment in security industries and institutions is good for the US economy!
 
The Story.  The most common in the media that is still used to plug and pluck on the heartstring of America is the picture of a nation under siege.   Innocent America got a wake-up call, the story goes, and the rude awakening is forcing it to deal with ugly global realities it did not know before.  
 
Not so.  Two views (and there are many) are contained in the comment: “one person’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter.”   Indeed, Osama bin laden, the alleged 911 mastermind, was our Mujahadeen freedom fighter against Russia in Afghanistan!
 
The American view for the last decade remains that of the victim who needs to shore up defenses against the stranger and the foreigner.  Military strategy graduated into “the best defense is offense.”  All aliens are suspect until proven innocent.
 
But there are those convinced that the United States is just getting back what it liberally ladles around as the sole sovereign empire in the world with its 150 military installations outside of its sovereign boundaries.  
 
We are solicitous of rapacious corporate tentacles, exploitative machines, addictive chemicals, impersonal engines, and arrogant personnel, yet we are baffled by the question often asked: “Why is there animosity against US in the world?”
 
Inflicting psychological fear is an established State-sanctioned tactic.  Applied in reverse,  we rejoice in the effects of the Jasmine Spring uprisings in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Syria because those who have long been downtrodden are finding vengeful voices to say “NO” to the stranglehold of their political lords. 
 
The Necessary Deed.   America transformed the tragic terrain of terrorism into the memorial gardens of the World Trade Center with cascading waters into recessed pools and an eternal pose for reflections in the shadows of the 104-floor Freedom Tower and the shorter World Trade Center 4.   The pit has turned into an architectural wonder that is worth every visitor’s time.  Good Morning America is saying, “Yes”, to a new day!
 
The deed of 911 has since evolved into an acute awareness of global experiences of terror beyond the WTC, from the continuing devastation of the planet to the seemingly endless human capacity to inflict pain and suffering on others – women, children, the helpless and the weird, the marginalized and the unprotected, of which the American hand is not clean.  What has become clear is that there is no defense against terrorism of any kind, more so of those officially sanctioned by the State.  Indeed, as commemoration occurs today in Manhattan, no one feels any safer than they were ten years ago. 
 
But we see a new ground zero swelling in the ordinary and common heartland and mindscape of America.  It is a profound resolve to segue into sustainable global economics that honors the integrity of the planet, the equitable distribution of resource and production for all, and invites the whole world, not just Wall Street, to take over ownership of its processes.  
 
America’s democratic tradition baptized with fire in its shoddy treatment of African-Americans, and its fear of immigrants that constitutes its political DNA, nevertheless moves on the consensus of et pluribus unum, and makes it a world-wide call as well. Main Street is making the call.  It invites the whole world to take responsibility for emerging a New World in common efforts among the world’s people.  
 
More importantly, we see emerging a genuine humility that is distancing itself away from the old dominating trait of patriarchy and imperialism into practices of cooperation and collaboration.  American flags ‘Made in China’ fly in porches today, a telling reality. No need to apologize.  The pride of Ground Zero is not about being a victim, but on being a vanguard in the creation of the new human; its strength is not on being fearful of others but in being interdependent in concert with others.
 
“Where?” the skeptical asks.  Go look into the mirror.  Then ask yourself: “Why not?”
 


 Jaime R Vergara 


All of yesterday, thanks; all of tomorrow, yes; all of today, let it be!

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