WTC Remains
In case you haven't heard, human remains were found this week at the World Trade Center. A lot of people are shocked by this. I'm shocked, but for different reasons. I'll warn you now, it's gonna get graphic.
I am shocked that there is a group called the "WTC Families for Proper Burial." We discovered the remains on Thursday. I am writing this the very next day. And yet, there are already enough people coming together to form a group.
I am shocked at this group's response. They want a systematic search done by experts. If you read further in the article, you will see that the excavation took place over nine months, recovered over 20,000 pieces of human remains, many of which could fit inside a test tube, and were destroyed by "heat, humidity, and time." The government put the tests on the remains on hold because they had exhausted their abilities to test these remains and discover the person they belonged to. And we just made it past the five year anniversary, so I would think that all of this is still true.
I was almost shocked that these remains exist, but not for the same reason as this group. Face it- there are rats, and this is a food source. And if the rats don't get it, the wind or rain should have carried it away a long time ago. But last month ago, bone fragments were found on neighboring rooftops. And that's when it hit me. Where are they supposed to go? I remember the neat little diagrams from fifth grade science that have food chains depicted. Bugs eat me, birds eat bugs, we eat birds... That was the most reincarnation a girl raised Southern Baptist could hope for. But if you can't get to the ground because the entire city is built upwards on top of layer after layer of concrete, there is no reincarnation. You nourish nothing. Where would the wind or rain take these remains? To more concrete.
I am NOT shocked that we still need to hold onto this. Like I said, we nourish nothing, and the same is true in reverse. We are clinging so desperately to a span of a few hours that happened several years ago that we want to cut the scar at this place we call "ground zero" open again. Make the Earth bleed, because somebody has to pay, and we haven't been able to make the Middle East foot the bill. Guys...it's over. Does that bone fragment really bring the closure you need? Is it proof enough that she died instead of leaving you? The outcome is the same either way. You will not see that person again.
It's time to let go. On my trip to NYC, I didn't go to that area. I remember. Seeing it cannot increase or lessen my memory of it. Shelley got it. The towers will not last forever, despite our fierce desire to make them do so.
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You forget the gulls
Gulls are carnivores and scavengers. Those bone fragments, as likely as not, were carried to the tops of the neighboring buildings by gulls foraging on the WTC wreckage.
As for the WTC buildings themselves, they are unlikely to be forgotten anytime soon, for good or ill. Just like people have not forgotten the Arizona, rusting away in Pearl Harbor, where it sank sixty-five years ago. Or the Temple of Solomon/Herod, reduced to a single wall of bricks in Jerusalem. And that was two millennia ago.
The WTC is a symbol. Of our impotence in the face of hostile powers. Of our impotence in the face of our own government. What else but our anger and frustration at those We the People elected(!) to govern us drives the incessant demand for that government to perform the impossible? Since the possible proved beyond its capabilities.
There will always be people who will see in such symbols a route to Attention, a route to Power. It will take a sea change in our nation's collective attitudes to shift our gaze forward, to The Things That Need To Be Done, rather than backwards to those noisy people who would bind us as they themselves are bound.
Of course I forget the
Of course I forget the gulls, I've lived inland my whole life!
Anytime soon- no. They have a lot of time left as monuments. Someday the Arizona will be forgotten. Someday, maybe even the Temple of Solomon will be forgotten, although a few religions and organizations will have to become passe' first. Someday, our little nation will not even be remembered. Hell, the Romans pulled off a massive empire, and it all amounts to a cappuccino now. And no arguments about the myriad of nations that evolved from them, because that's the point. They evolved. Nations have been born from them, and so on and so on.
Of course it's a symbol. That may be why it bugs me so much. I'd rather have actuality than symbolism. As if that one bone shard is going to allow them to have a "PROPER burial", whatever that is.
I didn't write this angry or sad. Just done. It's time we leave these things behind, 'cause so far, they aren't propelling us towards a great goal.