Yesterday was the 5th anniversary of one of the darkest days in US history; the terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and Pentagon, as well as the presumed aborted attempt that caused the downing of United Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. As someone geographically removed from the events of 9/11/2001, I don’t know what I can add to all the words that have been written. Some great diaries can be seen at Sepia Mutiny, DailyKos, Firedoglake, and others (some that painted a different picture that I particularly liked were this one at dailykos; this one by Steve Gilliard at firedoglake, which points out how different 9/11 was for a native New Yorker than someone like me, also an American but far removed from New York; and a short but great one by Nathan Newman at TPMCafe).
However, taz at Sepia Mutiny reminds us that yesterday was the anniversary of a different event as well. September 11, 1906 was the inception of the satyagraha (literally “obtaining truth”) movement, given birth in thought by Mohandas K. Gandhi, also known as Mahatma (literally “great soul”). Taz also points to a great article by Nelson Mandela which details some of what Gandhi went through in South Africa and how it was similar to what Mandela himself experienced. There is also a dailykos diary on the subject.
When the pain of the terrorist attacks is so near, maybe it might help to remember that there was a 9/11 in history that produced something positive, one that helped bring independence to a nation unjustly ruled by a foreign power, and also was an inspiration to the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., so influential in the Civil Rights movement here in the US.
