Thursday, September 13, 2007

A Happy/Sad September 11th

Another September 11th and another year older in Japan. I came to this country 21 years ago yesterday, and though the date stands for me as an anniversary of a life changing event, it represents a similar kind of event for the US and the world. At 47 years of age, things personally are great. My family is happy and healthy, and I have a job that I enjoy in a profession that I value. We live in a community that functions in a country that allows us to do things like educate our children as we wish and speak freely.

Unfortunately some of what concerns me outside of my immediate personal life is far from improved. Ten years ago, I was a flag-waving patriot. Six years ago I grieved for America's losses and stood in line with a score of others in the hot Arizona sun to give blood because it was the only thing we could do. Today America's reputation is a sullied, pathetic thing. Today I plan a life here and grieve for different American losses. Liberty, privacy, dignity, honesty, compassion, ingenuity, respect, humility, equality, and justice are treasures gained at great cost and lost in a great American sell-off by a few greedy people.

My personal life is much better than it was ten years ago. Unfortunately my country is not fairing nearly so well.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Come visit my blog. I added a new feature: "My Life in Korea Radio Show" I would like you to my first co-host. If you would like to join me, email me. You can talk about the sustainable living, etc...

5330 said...

I did indeed visit your blog and listened to one of your radio shows. I'm not sure that I would like to co-host anything, but I will agree to get on there and talk about topics that your listeners may be interested in. I would like to hammer out some of the details first, both on the technical and content sides. It would be great to decide what you would like to talk about before we get started.

Let's go through the details via email.