| Reality is a funny thing... Every now and then, as I watch the Bill O'Reilly or Lou Dobbs shows, in particular the segments on e-mails from the viewers to the comments that Mr. O'Reilly or Mr. Dobbs made, I get stunned! How can a single comment elicit such diverse string of views and opinions? Some viewers accuse the hosts of being left-radicals, others say, "you moved too far to the right". Number of e-mails suggest that hosts have no understanding of the subject, while some agree and complement the hosts on well-delivered and comprehensive commentary???
I've heard people suggest that it's quite normal to have such diverse range of opinions, but to me, looking at the same thing and seeing different objects is not natural. I may be too simple to understand, then again, I do not live in the 'world of gray', where many have the luxury of seeing the reality through their preconditioned personalities.
At least for several decades, I remember hearing warnings from various people and agencies here and abroad of hatred that is being spread throughout the Middle East towards the Jews, Christians and America in general. Children's dreams of becoming teachers and doctors were turned to hatred, murder and sacrifice. Yet, as always, we chose to see the reality in our own 'special way', "it has nothing to do with us". Even as we were watching the victims of the suicide-bombings in Israel in 2000, and hearing people say that the hatred is aimed toward the West as well, and we have to do something to prevent its spread... Yet, as sad as we were, the only thing we would say was, "What does it have to do with us?".
While we were spending billions of dollars 'helping' many countries in the Middle East, at no time did we choose to send our teachers, scholars and other prominent members of our society, as part of the real help. To educate the people of that region about America and its people, and counterbalance the evil that was growing in their hearts. We were too far and "it had nothing to do with us". (After all, we gave them billions! Of course, "they" [the people] never got it, but "it's not our problem" that their government misused it, with our blessings.)
So 9/11 came and we asked, "How could this happen?". Without any warning...Totally unexpected...Out of the blue..., but in reality - out of the gray, where we choose to dwell. Where reality is something that people may twist and turn, creating the world without consequences. I'm a simple person, but even I know that such a world cannot exist. Every action or lack of action will produce a sequence of events - consequences.
It became too clear for us (from out of the 'world of gray'), that we needed a commission to determine the cause(s) of this tragedy. Therefore, a "9/11 Commission" was set up and immediately went to work... looking into the building standards, thickness of the walls (of the World Trade Center buildings), communication equipment, meeting with a President, etc. So many things, so little time...
I remember a writer, giving his opinion on work of various commissions saying, "We create investigative commissions when we choose not to deal with a problem" - how brilliantly true. In all the interviews and reports I've seen from the "9/11 Commission", there was not a single comment of the real cause of the tragedy -we simply didn't care, and as always, followed our motto, "What does it have to do with us?".
What a funny thing reality can become, for many of us...
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