Fukushima by Magnetic North (and Taiyo Na)

- TAIYO -
i remember 9-11 how my city cried for heaven
how people perished no matter what style of reverence
i remember tribeca buildings falling all day
missing people everywhere all the years of mourning
what made it worse was our leaders '05 you could see it
with katrina they didn't feel it they were just greedy greedy
just like fukushima good bad made clearer
it's salt to the wound when your leaders just leave ya
but that's when the lion's roar that's when you fight for more
that's when you figure out there're things worth dying for
it's only when the days dark you discover brave hearts
i know a girl from haiti motherless who has the same heart
my heart goes out to each and every one of you
children of the future will be greater because of you
i don't write songs for the fortune or a buzz or two
i write for my people hope you feel me love for you

- CHORUS -
i'll cross a stormy river
dig the deepest tunnel
build a bridge over
any length to love you
i'll bear any fate
carry it double
however much the stretch
i'll go any length to you

- THERESA -
i don't even know the half only seen the photographs
reporters telling stories from the view inside their cul de sacs
so i sat eyes glued thinking of your loneliness
choking back the tears and blinking back condolences
a lowly gift cuz your world is rearranging
on the train sat beside a girl with paper cranes and
she feels so ashamed cuz she'd rather send a benjamin
but maybe hope's the better currency for this millennium
life is but a dream but a dream is all we hope for
like the light you cannot stifle shining behind closed doors
like the song you shouldn't sing you sing until your throat's sore
like the love that never dies though life itself is so short
and your beauty is resilience
holding on to nothing but the fact you will rebuild again
and I know you will rebuild my friend
we'll go to any length no distance is too significant

[CHORUS]

- DEREK -
rebuilding is a struggle i feel it you feeling crumbled
your spirit's still recovering conflicted with god above us
have we been punished why what justifies suffering nothing
i see no reason for people to lose their homes from right under
maybe it's mother nature's way of saying we need a change
crusades of war and terrorism synonyms of the same
so filled with hate in our veins and racist youtube tirades
still makes me sick hot 97 played the tune on the waves
but i can't sit here in shame just hoping and praying
this ain't no dream within a dream there ain't no totem to save 'em
it's as real as it gets when you realize death
cuz when you lose someone you truly redefine strength
so i'll utilize this pen
my arms don't reach across the seas but songs move any length
any length to love you
rest and peace to all the fallen your strength is eternal

Ground Zero Sum

An Old Old Story: Ground Zero Sum by An Old Old Story

[soundcloud link; via An Old Old Story; HT: Experimental Theology]

Twins and Towers at Ten

"It's been ten whole years already? Wow! Hard to believe." Many a father will say something like that while shaking his head in disbelief, when his oldest approaches the 10th birthday. It's a milestone, not just for the kid, but for the parents. It's a head-shaker because I am reminded that on that day, 10 years ago, my life changed forever. In some ways, it has passed very quickly. In other ways, it seems like it's been every bit of ten years. There are two distinct things, though, about the ten-year anniversary of my dadhood. The first is that I became a father of not one, but two little bundles of joy that Tuesday morning. Abby was born at 8:48, followed by her brother Jacob at 8:50. The second is that their birth marked some rare joy in the midst of the darkest day in our nation's history. As my wife was in labor, a nurse came in and told us that an airplane had crashed into a skyscraper in New York. I turned on the labor room TV in order to find out details. But a minute later, a painful contraction led to a gentle but firm request that I switch off the TV and hold her hand. (I'm not sure how my hand-holding could make contractions better, but I had seen enough sitcoms to know that when your wife is in labor, you should be as accommodating as you can.) So off went the TV, and the plane incident was completely gone from my mind as we went into the operating room. I scrubbed my hands, paying attention to instructions from the nurse to get the dirt that was under my fingernails. I watched as the anesthesiologist stuck a needle in Beth's back. A few minutes later, I held her hand while chatting with the the same anesthesiologist as the surgeon and nurses prepared for the Caesarian. Before long, the nurse tapped me on the shoulder to alert me to a beautiful sight. I think my heart stopped momentarily as I saw my crying little girl, Abby. Her cry was so sad, and I melted. Her brother came out crying, too, but his cry was an angry one, and I chuckled. I was told they checked out just fine, and everything was right with the world. As far as I knew. [continue]

[via James Williams]

Who we are 6 years after 9-11

[via Streak's Blog]

Five years out from the attacks, why do we still know so little about what really happened that day?

[via Common Dreams, HT: Mainstream Baptist]

Nonviolent 9/11

This day not only marks the five year anniversary of 9|11, it also marks 100 years to the day that Mahatma Gandhi launched the modern nonviolent resistance movement. Completely ironic, isn't it? It makes me wonder where in the world we would be without the shining model Mahatma left for us. Certainly the Civil Rights movement here in the US would have taken on a very different flavor if Dr. Martin Luther King had not emulated Gandhi's movement for nonviolence. But still, I can't help but believe we've made such small strides following in their footsteps. Where are the Gandhis and Dr. Kings of our time? ....

The first lesson [my grandfather] taught me was to understand anger, and being able to channel anger into positive action. He said that anger is like electricity. It is just as useful and just as powerful, if we use it intelligently. It can be just as deadly and destructive, if we abuse it. Just as we channel electricity, bring it into our lives and use it for the good of Humanity, we must learn to channel anger in the same way. We can use that energy for the good of Humanity, rather than abuse it.
~ Arun Gandhi

[via Visual_Voice.NET, HT: Streak's Blog]

Don't Just Love Friends, Love Enemies

I ended up instead watching parts of the documentary on CBS, one that dealt more with finding meaning in and through 9/11 rather than trying to find scapegoats. The suffering, and the redemptive power of love, seemed far more pertinent and far closer to any truth worth finding through the tragic events of that terrible day and the days that followed.

Today, I find myself still angry at radical fundamentalisms, even as I'm repelled and intrigued by the insanely pristine logic of their deeds. Al Queida, a group who's twisted version of Islam is reminiscent of the KKK's warped version of Christianity, offers by far the more striking example. And as I watched events from five years ago this morning (via CNN's 'pipe' broadasts) I found those emotions reawakened again.

In the end, however, imprecatory psalms give way to my own faith's call to love even my enemies.

[via Blue Christian ~ On a Red Background]

The Birth of Stillness

9/11. Today is my 28th birthday and it has been just like every other day, except for all of the additional Twin Towers propaganda that has been all over the news for the last week. I’m tired of it. As tragic of an event that it was, I believe that it is time that we as a nation move on and stop coddling the psychotic nurturing of all of the immature feelings and emotions that we are still holding on to from what happened that day. Enough said about that though....

Don’t buy into the lie that everyone and everything is trying to sell. There is no money. There is no happiness. There is no greater dream out there. The only things that are real are life and contentment. Sometimes it takes work to get to the contented stage, but don’t buy the lie that says that there’s more to be had. It could all be gone tomorrow.

Happy Birthday to me? No. I just want my wife and kids and a place to live and all will be well tonight.

[via The Reluctant Disciple]

We all knew that life would change after 9/11, but not like this. We were like sheep looking for a shepherd, only now that the shock has worn away, we're wondering why we're not in a different field.

I'm not sure what saddens me more - the events and tragedy of 9/11, or the tragedy that has been the last five years.

[via Moral Contradictions, emphasis mine]

From Psalm 911 [via Prodigal Aspersions]:

Our words rained down on us like an evil snow;
like a parade held in honor of our enemy's victories.

Humans fell from the sky; Humanity fell from grace.

High places were made low;
crushed to dust that blows at our feet.
Our mighty have been struck a cleaving blow;
warriors defeated without a battle cry.

Images of horror enter my every waking moment;
burning into my eyes.
I sleep and dream, not in pictures, but in tears that do not wash,
tears that do not cool.
I awake and the sun is blocked by the smoke of a fire which burns my soul.

I have looked to the heavens and seen a terror.
I have cried to the hills and heard no relief.
I have called to the warrior and he is quiet.
I have screamed to my Lord.
I have screamed to my Lord.
I have screamed for relief.
I have screamed for vengeance.