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From
the Other Side of the Edge….
The
End of Innocence…
By Joe Facinoli When did the Innocence end?
Was it at the finish line in Boston?
September 11, 2001? Earlier? When???
Was there one, single event or time, when the innocence of this country
simply disappeared? Or did it gradually drift away from us, under the
weight of too many gut wrenching shocks, and mind numbing tragedies,
for us to endure?
Did it happen on November 22, 1963? On that sunswept street in Dallas, when the cheering stopped, ….so suddenly?
Or was it December 7, 1941? On that sunny Hawaiian morning, when the whole world just simply, ….stopped.
Were we ever innocent? Or were we just naïve enough, or arrogant enough, to think so?
When did we lose it then, that which we thought to be so sweet, so
unencumbered, so wholesome and virtuous? When did we first
notice that something was missing from our perfect and endless horizon?
When exactly was the End of the Innocence for us?
Or was it always just imagery, conjured within our fertile, self
absorbed minds? A well crafted American fantasy, filled with our own
kind of dismissive naivete, not seen nor heard, anywhere else on earth?
Did it go away in 1945, after Hiroshima and Nagasaki? It should have, certainly.
Or was it in ‘68, that most horrific year, when we lost Bobby, and
Martin, and thousands more at Khe Sanh, and Hue, in the Tet Offensive,
and when Chicago made politics and cynicism, synonymous? If it didn’t
go then, we had no hearts.
Is the loss of innocence the price we must pay, for personal freedom,
and individual liberties? Reality may say so, but what a sad tariff, if
that is as true, as it indeed seems to be.
Of course, anyone with a brain or a heart, would certainly recognize
that the never get over, never get past, never get clear of, game
changer for all national thoughts of innocence,..…was 9/11. A day with
the clearest blue skies one could imagine, forever ruined by events
that were so completely un-imaginable.
And where does Boston, our current nightmare, fit into this dreadful roll call of unspeakable events and dates?
In its own way, it is perhaps the most biting, and the most invasive to
our collective psyches, and our need to preserve this sacred
simplicity. Simply, perhaps, because it is the most personal, the most
publicly documented, and hits closest to home, for more of us.
While 9/11 was by far the most egregious, and the most monstrous,
appalling, and shocking, it was just too much for simple minds to
balance out, and to completely grasp its full magnitude or meaning.
Huge buildings fell down, thousands died, skylines changed, planes
could not fly, and even Wall Street closed (at least, for a couple of
days), but just what the hell had happened?? We could not fathom, nor
imagine.
And, there were virtually no survivors. No planes to be found, no
buildings to look through, no bodies to bury. It was all over, this
calamity of calamities, and yet, we had no one to tell us about it, and
the perpetrators were either dead, or thousands of miles away, and
laughing at us. No way, in everyday terms or thoughts, to balance all
of this.
But in Boston, ….this is personal. There are survivors, there are so
many terrible stories we can hear, and identify with, and there is a
balance, an indignation which can be vented, suspects that are real,
…..and here, and efforts to apprehend them, to be applauded.
The most festive of days, at the most celebrated annual event in that
city, was destroyed by two young “locals”, and possibly others, who
ripped at the core of what millions take for granted, and at things we
all know and love, and can relate to. We understand this one, at least
the personal things that happened to people like us, and that’s what
makes it harder to swallow.
So much more of what was once pure, and good, and fun, and easy, gets
lost after every one of these atrocities.Even as bad governments, and
greedy politicians, jump at the chance to take advantage of them. They
all try to make more speeches, enact more laws, and fight to show more
indignation than the next, and then quickly pat each other on the back
for doing a “great job”, after the horse has already left the barn.
But things get lost, important things, just the same.
Slowly, little by little, it erodes,….our national innocence. Then,
just as clandestinely, the underlying and unrecognized (but always
there now) fear and trepidation, gradually takes over. And then out the
door with peace of mind, comfort, and tranquility (and maybe a few
rights and freedoms, along the way).
There were many more such happenings, all contributing to put us where we are now.
Oklahoma City and Timothy McVeigh, the D.C. ‘beltway’ sniper, John
Lennon’s senseless murder, the Israeli wrestling team at Munich, the
American hostages in Iran in ’79, the Connecticut elementary school
kids this past year. And too many others.
Boston may only be the latest, and perhaps not even the worst, but it
may be just the one, that last nerve to be touched, the final straw,
that pushes everyone over the line of understanding, of just how a big
a loss we’ve endured.
We get past these things, somehow, and we move on. But we are different after them, and not in a good way.
And we lose something. Something that children have, wherever they are
from. Something that only adults can lose, when they do bad, stupid,
selfish and senseless things to one another.
Something, that once lost, cannot be recovered. For it is
then,….truly,…the End of Innocence, however we choose to define
it.
Godspeed to all who have fallen prey to these things,…. so senseless, so selfish, and so very stupid.
And just what can we expect next? Anything, that’s what. Anything.
Joe Facinoli
(Joe can be reached at: joefacinoli@gmail.com )
Intelligent Response Encouraged !!
© Copyright 2013, Joe Facinoli
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