Today is the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center and Pentagon and the foiled hijacking and crash of the fourth airliner in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, resulting in 2,996 deaths.  It would be odd for me to wax too pompously on those incidents, because I have lived in Busan, South Korea before, during, and after the attacks. I don’t have any special insight into the national mood. And, not to be sacrilegious, but this day in history is far from a happy one. As I write this, I’m listening to Abdullah Antepli and Hussein Rashid discuss the “American Muslim“.

A fellow ESL instructor, Brian Lamb,  called me in the late morning about some horrific reports on the local TV news about attacks in the U.S. My wife and I were arguing about “something”, and she was rushing out the door. I turned my TV on almost mechanically, contemplating leaving Busan more than any concern for the attacks. The images of the twin towers on fire and collapsing horrified me. My wife subsequently saw the same images, and then returned to console me. Whatever we were discussing neither of us can recall now. But, the line from 9/11 to our wedding in 2002 is direct. 9/11 will always have this significance for my wife and me. It’s the day of conflict and forgiveness.

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Filed under: Academia, bhtv, History, Politics, Religion, USA Tagged: 9/11, abdullah antepli, hussein rashid, islam, pentagon, world trade center