Be Nice to People

I left New York on the 26th in a rushed, frenzied state to beat the blizzard (the blizzard that left, what, 3 inches in the city?).

Now, maybe it was because I was in New York City, or because of the sense of urgency to get out of the city as soon as possible, or because I watched Non-Stop on the plane (Liam Neeson saves a hijacked plane, basically), but 9/11 has been a constant on my mind.

I've read an endless amount of articles, and have watched an endless amount of videos since I've been home. I've learned chilling particulars, about the hijackers, about what happened inside of the towers and the planes, about the victims. If you want your nightmares haunted for days, then I highly recommend googling the hijacker's visa photos.

My sudden "fascination", for lack of a better term, with 9/11 has also been vocalized.

"literally wtf is wrong with people this doesn't seem like it's something that happened for real in real life literally wtf" = v accurate transcript of some proclamations I've made

These statements I've made have led to clueless rhetorical questions and expressions about ISIS and Islam extremism. A lot of "This is so sad" and "How can people think hurting other people is what a God wants?"

(I promise I'm trying getting to the point of this horribly written p.o.s. essay thing)

A family member, who shall rename nameless, was immediate to tell me their thoughts on Islam. I was taken aback by how prejudiced these statements were; they were indirectly hateful ("I know not every Muslim is like that, but how do you know the ones that aren't won't snap?"). Very "THEY ARE INFERIOR" in not so many words.

I'd like to disclose that 9/11 was a horribly tragic event. Completely devastating, in every sense of the word. But is blatant islamophobia really any better?

I can't even adequately articulate my feelings about this. I have strong feelings about racism, too, but I feel like this hits an even more particular spot because it involves religion, and believe me, I've struggled with religion.

I've looked at the world differently the last few months. I've always considered myself kind towards others, but lately that's been taken up a notch, especially towards people in the LGBT community and those of other religions.

This has been a smorgasbord of thoughts that make sense in my brain but seemingly do not when typed. The main point I'm trying to make is this: Let's just not be dicks to one another, k?



Thanks for reading, no one!

Autumn