Time passes slowly
Old memories linger on ~
My heart remembers
Two more of the bicycle racks that have recently been installed around Randwick. This was taken opposite the Gemini Hotel on Tuesday night, a little after the incident with the police.
I’ve found myself thinking abut the past a lot lately and how much has changed, particularly since September 11. I thought the symbolism of this was interesting when I took it, the bike racks shaped like old Penny Farthings next to the Give Way sign – it felt a bit like the past, giving way to the future… and perhaps, just as much, the other way around.
Think it reflects how I’m feeling, ten years on.
Photo and haiku © CJ Levinson 2011
Beautiful photograph, Chris. Your description fits beautifully.
Sometimes, I don’t know exactly what I feel about what happened that day. Part of me wonders how it took that long for those terrorists to finally do something so catastrophic, because those folks have hated us for a really long time.
I do know I am grateful it wasn’t much much worse. That said, as it is, it was catastrophic in its impact around the world. And I feel my country has squandered the good will the world had for us, by entering two wars we really did not need to be involved in. Granted, Saddam was a sadistic dictator, but the fact remains we acted without direct provocation in that arena. Afghanistan is a bit more problematic, but at the same time, I am not convinced that the Taliban and Al Qaeda were connected before we went in there. What finally got Osama bin Laden was not a full-on attack, but a well-conducted covert operation. We could have saved a lot of lives had we simply pursued something along those lines, and not a full-scale war. True, Afghanistan needed to be free of the Taliban, but I am wondering if they will simply wait until we leave, and then try to take over again. They are nothing if not persistent.
For people to truly be free, they have to want that for themselves enough to fight to the death and beyond. Nothing less will do. I think, so far, we’ve done the right thing concerning Libya and Syria – we’ve let their people take the lead. Sure, it’s slower, but the thing is, I do not believe the U.S. or any other country has the right to be the world’s “bad cop.”
There are some things about the western lifestyle that do need to change. I am hoping the people in my country will begin to look within, and see just what we are losing the way we are going. Sometimes, I feel I live in a fascist plutocracy, with the rich – the very few of them – getting a lot richer, while the middle and working classes lose ground politically and economically.
All that said, there’s a lot for people to think about on my side of the pond. Whether they WILL think about this is another story.