REYIS OF SUNSHINE

edwardspoonhands:

I learned two things today:

1. Nerdfighters are not afraid to tell me when I screw up
2. I am a bit of a psychopath.

So let’s start with number one. This is really exciting for me actually, though I feel like a jerk. There is an overwhelming feeling concerning my treatment of the tenth anniversary of 9/11 that I was too flippant, too silly, and did a disservice to the memory of the people who died that day.

On any given vlogbrothers video, comments are overwhelmingly positive. So positive, in fact, that it can make a guy feel like maybe that the people watching the videos don’t actually like the video, they’re just being really nice because they like HIM.

But here we have proof to the contrary. There aren’t very many people defending my position, so we can assume that, on other vlogbrothers videos, people actually really do like what I’m doing and saying. This is great news.

Thank you so much to nerdfighteria for keeping the dialog alive and interesting and civil, and for pointing out when I’m a dickhead.

Now onto point 2: I’m a a bit of a psychopath.

I wanted to say a couple of things in my video about our world ten years after September 11th 2001. I wanted to make a point about people talking about “winning” the war on terror and how full of shit they are.

And I wanted to make a point about how we imagine ourselves to be much more vulnerable to terrorists than we actually are.

And then I wanted to move on. I did not want to talk about how horrible that day was. I did not want to reflect upon our shared psychological scar. I did not want to spend more time pretending that I was “honoring” the dead when really all I was doing was being afraid for myself, putting myself in their place and feeling some shadow of their fear…because none of us need more fear in our lives.

I just wanted to say a couple of things from a few steps back from the situation. I thought maybe we were ready for that. And maybe we are…but probably the actual anniversary of the event was NOT THE TIME.

I’m an intensely rational person. I often do not feel emotions the same way that people around me do. I try to be careful and to recognize when people are going to be more sensitive to a topic than I am but this was a situation where I did not foresee the disparity.

I should have kept my distance, there were some phrases that were improperly worded and, most of all, I probably should have saved it for a day that wasn’t the ten year anniversary.

MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES: 

Also, there are ways that most people do not envision 9/11 permeating a community. The South Asian diaspora here in the United States faced such a dichotomy of us vs. them when there are only facets of us, it’s unreal. there were 645 LOGGED incidents in the week after 9/11 upon South Asians and Muslim Americans thought to be terrorists, but in reality were normal Americans going about their daily lives. CHILDREN who are Sikh and wear turbans had them pulled off of them, and kindly old men walking in a safe neighborhood were killed because of ignorance. 

There are multiple views upon 9/11 and it behooves you to look further than the surface. Lots of people and communities were affected by this day, and not just the obvious. The pervasiveness of Islamophobia and xenophobia is so strong that 9/11 took any existent turmoil and turned it against the South Asian community. 

10knotes:

“Rabbit’s clever,” said Pooh thoughtfully.

“Yes,” said Piglet, “Rabbit’s clever. 

“And he has Brain.” 

“Yes,” said Piglet, “Rabbit has Brain.”

There was a long silence.

“I suppose,” said Pooh, “that that’s why he never understands anything.”