September 11 and the Demons of Violence
24 years later, the images still haunt us: twin towers exploding, belching huge clouds of smoke and ash, collapsing onto a city forever changed by the sickness and sorrow of that day. I’m not using any images of the towers on fire, they are too painful and irreverent in light of the thousands of lives that were consumed in the inferno. We remember them — those who died in New York and at the Pentagon and in a field in Shanksville, PA — and all those who lived with the aftermath of that terrible day of violence and terror. The families and co-workers, yes — but all of us absorbed elements of the bitter, corrosive aftermath of September 11, 2001.
The demons of violence unleashed that day burrowed their ways into so many parts of American life, revealing us as a fearful, vengeful, more violent nation than we thought we were on September 10. We went to war against those we thought were responsible, in Iraq and Afghanistan, sacrificing thousands of lives in pursuit of the shadowy enemy. We finally killed Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of our misery, but the terror continued since violence is not really about one person but a cultural heritage that passes among people across generations.
In our anger and thirst for revenge, America became a more divided and violent place in the decades after September 11. The politics of suspicion and division, anger and retribution widened the ideological and cultural gaps among us. A large swatch of the American population chose to build armories against impending doom — Americans own more guns per capita than we have people in this country. Gun violence is commonplace and efforts to limit guns fail repeatedly.
Rising violence has infected American politics with hateful rhetoric and appalling images filling social media and dark minds with guns and desire for bloodshed. Someone shoots through the stained glass windows of a church in Minnesota, killing two children and injuring many more, and we learn afterward that he actually expressed a desire to kill kids. School shootings have become so frequent that they no longer capture headlines. Large gatherings for games or concerts or political rallies have become dangerous venues with constant reminders — prohibitions on bags, metal detectors, swarms of police — of the dark forces that lurk on the fringes.
Political violence is rising in this polarized nation, and the murder yesterday of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a rally on the campus of Utah Valley University is the latest flashpoint. No one knows the motivation of his killer but social media is full of accusations against various political parties. Kirk’s death is a tragedy, as were the murders of Democratic politicians earlier this year in Minnesota, and many other murders or attempted assassinations against officials of all parties. Violence respects no party or ideology; violence is its own belief system.
When will the violence end? Is there any solution to America’s crisis of anger, revenge, polarization and homicidal desires? We must find a solution, and soon. I heard a commentator on the radio this morning musing about the possibility of a new civil war in this nation, and that is not a far-fetched worry. Either we learn how to make peace among ourselves, or we will see increasingly violent actions resulting in further social and political divisions.
The first step is for all of the people who believe in peace and non-violence to be more affirming of those choices. We need leaders to step up who are not afraid to counter the violent rhetoric of other leaders. We need our churches and religious leaders to step up their engagement with communities and congregations that need to lay down their arms. We need educational leaders to take on the hard work of teaching about the sources of violence and elements of peacebuilding, and to create schools and colleges that demonstrate the best of peaceful commitments for all.
We also need to demand that our political leaders set aside the violence of their rhetoric that inspires rogue individuals to commit horrific acts of violence. Yesterday, President Trump rightfully condemned the murder of Charlie Kirk, but he used language and accusations that will only inflame his followers against others. And this is a president that, only last week, had a meme on his social media website of Chicago in flames with a threatening message that, “Chicago is about to find out why it’s called the department of WAR.” Threatening an American city with violence by its own government is not a pathway to peace. And renaming the “Department of Defense” as the “Department of War” illustrates clear disregard for any hope of peacebuilding leadership in the world.
We need to purge the demons of violence and hatred that were spawned on September 11. Let’s start by agreeing to commit at least one act of peace each day.
