Remembering 9-11-01
It was 1986, and I was in New York for the first time. My associate and I were in “The City” on business. As young stockbrokers who were changing firms, we were required to travel to Wall Street for additional training. During off hours, like most visitors, we toured New York as much as possible. One evening at dusk we found ourselves at the foot of an impressive elevator bank where a man wearing a tuxedo greeted us. “Welcome to the Windows of the World,” the gentleman said. He must have uttered those words literally hundreds of thousands of times. The elevator doors opened and within seconds, the two of us were catapulted 110 floors to the top of the World Trade Center
Does God have favorites? Does he or she with all the wisdom of the universe chose one people over another? Does our place of birth, which results in nationality, culture and frequently religion, doom or propel us? Do you have the right to tell me your God is better than mine? Will you die for it? Those that planned and executed the 9/11 atrocities claimed to do it in the name of God. Where exactly then does that leave the rest of humanity?
The Dark Ages, specifically the time between 500 A.D. to 1,000 A.D. was a period in human history when surprisingly little is known. Turmoil was the human condition; Rome was gone; urban life had vanished; illiteracy was everywhere while barbarian hordes warred for land – certainly not representative of a period that most in the civilized world would aspire to repeat. The Crusades followed. Starting with a speech given by Pope Urban II on November 27, 1095, approximately four hundred years ensued with Christians trying to impose their beliefs by force on the rest of the world. The dogs of war were unleashed. A millennium of time has passed, yet how much have we learned?
In the business world, one discovers early on to avoid discussing religion and politics. Passions run so deep on these subjects that you are just as likely to offend as to endear. After September 11, 2001, the collision of values caused by religion, politics and business has never been so intertwined. Hence here we sit, 13 years later, at the intersection of all three in this new-world or as “The Who” once lamented in a song, “new boss…same old boss.”
The difficulties we confront are not faced by one nation, people or religion but by all mankind. Like it or not, we are all tied together. Like it or not, we have the military strength to end our existence or the beginnings of technology capable of greatness beyond our wildest dreams. Challenges abound and in the subsequent environment, tolerance and intelligent leadership are at a premium.
Nevertheless, since that terrible day in September, radical positions using the visceral have surfaced with their own, seemingly heartless agendas. Our patriotic duty, as we see it then is to guard individual liberties while subsequently promoting affluence through the expansion of international business and a free marketplace. Thus, through education, hope and freedom, we can drag the rest of the world into the 21st century.
The single greatest tribute to those who were lost on that tragic day would be to make 9/11 a turning point in history. Let’s bring opportunity and freedom to every corner of the globe. Let’s do our part as the international business community and expand free markets and capitalism beyond the enemy’s worst nightmares. Most of all, on this the 13th anniversary of that incomprehensible day – let’s never forget.
Dedicated to my father’s good friend, his son lost in tower two and all those who perished September 11, 2001.
Posted in: Miscellaneous, Uncategorized on September 11, 2014
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