Thread by @_pamcampos

9/11 is a tough mixed bag but ultimately it’s all hard.

A reminder that we are complex beings and although trauma makes it more difficult, we can hold multiple competing thoughts at once. /1

I continually feel a lot of complicated thoughts about the traumatic event that terrorized entire people’s and lost us so many brave emergency responders. I abhor the violence & bigotry bred from that trauma that continues to be pervasive. /2

I have complicated feelings of deep gratitude that a teacher rushed our history class in front of a TV to watch the 2nd plane hit in real time. I think abt how seeing that terrorism in that moment differed from my countless hours analyzing terrorist acts in the military /3

Having experienced significant racism & xenophobia in my youth, in the military, as a veteran and in my life, the entrenched and inextricable #Islamophobia tied to 9/11 and in the name of national security grates me religionnews.com/2018/09/10/sev…

One of the most impactful moments of my life was sitting in a classroom learning & being mentored by an FBI counterintelligence agent who was a core team member on the scene on 9/11. Like myself, his parents were immigrants and his words will stay with me forever /5

& I dont care for the #NeverForget slogan. I think ppl can’t forget that tragic day. Or hate crimes they mayve experienced thereafter. But many have lost sight of the bigger picture & the endless war that started & has been continued by capitalizing on our fears & trauma

I’ll end with this important piece by @JoeQuinnRWB that deeply resonates, esp this:

“We’ll say, “Until Valhalla,” after hearing the news of another brother killed, but perhaps preventing more brothers from dying is just as worthy of their sacrifice.”
nytimes.com/2018/09/10/opi…