Why?

Today was the fourth anniversary of the day that changed America as we know it.  I can't believe it has already been four years since radical religious fanatics' hijacked airplanes and crashed them into our buildings.   I am just as affected by it today as I was the day it happened.  I still see the burning towers and it moves me to silent tears.  I was watching the Discovery Channel, one of the few channels on television worth watching, last night.  They had some really good programs on about the families of some of the people who lost their lives in the tragedy, which left me deeply saddened.  One mother, a police officer, left behind a baby girl, and her father, a cop as well, was left trying to raise his daughter alone, and give her memories of a mother she will never know.  I hope she always knows her mom was hero, and I hope that she grows up just as carefree as any child should.  There were stories of daughters, mothers, fathers, sisters, sons, and brothers.  There were stories of regular people who thought they were safe going to work, and there were stories of the brave men and women who gave their lives trying to save other lives.  They put names and faces with the victims and did so in a heart touching way.  My tears fell uncontrollably as I listened to their stories.   It still seems so unreal, things like that are not suppose to happen in America, but it did happen and can happen again.  We as a people tend to forget and move on way to quickly, and the simple fact is that we must remember, and we must not let our guard down and allow something like this to happen again.  

I like most of US citizens have a hard time understanding how a group of individuals can take life for granted and strap on a bomb or hijack an airplane in the name of a God and kill themselves and others.  After the 9/11 programs were over they had Suicide Bombers: A Cult of Death.  I would recommend watching it if you didn't get a chance to see it.  It was a frightening program, but very insightful.  It really did a good job of showing how mindless we as humans really are.  Things like The Manson murders, and Jim Jones' cult, and those Haley's Comets nuts, and Hitler came to mind as I listened to the narrator, whose name I now forget, tell the story of how it all started.  It frightened me because there is always someone willing to die for their cause no matter what cause that might be, and there are always people who will use that to farther their own gain, even if it has nothing to do with the cause of the people.  It has happened time and again in the history of man kind, and will continue happening until mankind no longer exists.    

The suicide bombers are no different than the American's who kill doctors because they work in an abortion clinic; they believe with all their hearts that they are doing the right thing, and when you have a leader telling you your God loves you and you are going to walk hand in hand with him for giving your life in the fight against evil it makes it even more right.  If the Pope started telling people it was good and right to kill the abortion doctors, and everyone who murdered them would be at God's side, people would be lining up right here in the USA to do the same thing that is going on in the Middle East.  It would start with Doctors, and move on to killing anyone who didn't share your belief that abortion was wrong.  There would inevitably be someone who jumped on the bandwagon not caring either way about abortion, but saying they did, saying they cared deeply, because they see that they can get these mindless drones to do their bidding.  They start telling these fanatics that they have to get rid of all people who do not believe that abortion is wrong, these babies killers, murders who are doing the work of the devil.  They show them pictures of women getting abortions, and they tell horror stories and they make them believe that they will go to hell if they don't get rid of every person that is against them.  They tell them it is the only way to stop abortion.  They give them lists of names of people who are against them, they do the work they get rid of these people without knowing them, without checking the facts on weather they are for or against abortion, and they mindlessly kill because they think it is the only way to stop the evil.  They are working on the side of good, and yeah they have heard that this so called leader is just trying to farther his own gain, but if it helps their cause so be it, because he is on their side.  No one bothers to tell them that Mr. So and So on the hit list is pro life, no one tells them that he is the father of 4 small children, and a loving husband, and active in his church.  No one tells them that he and their leader had an argument about the price of milk, and that is why he is on the list.  Years go by and people start raising their children to believe they are fighting the good fight, and now we have generations of people willing to kill and die for what they believe is right.

That is the best analogy I can come up with to explain it to myself.  I can clearly see how these things happen, but for just as clearly as I can see how it happens I still do not understand why.