ABSTRACT
Amidst the devastation, my experience as a first responder on 9/11 ironically transcended the rampant suffering to discover the beauty of human interconnectedness. First responders operated as “one” by spontaneously forming bucket brigades and operating a medical triage. Radically unifying us, our common mission was to metabolize the darkness of destruction to catch and share a glimpse of hope. As a result of being a first responder, the loss I suffered with my developing breast cancer was diminished by the satisfaction of helping traumatized people.
In contrast, the attacker's Jihadi terrorism—the drive to kill in the name of Allah—was a misguided attempt to restore their wholeness and dignity. The self-deceptive reliance on a “divine alibi” to justify attacking the different Other illustrates this lack of moral responsibility.
Having social reverberations, the dehumanizing splitting that occurred as a result of 9/11 enmeshed both perpetrators and victims in primitive anxieties. This “Othering” of different cultures involves the twisted contortions of a traumatized split mind. To prevent traumatic collapse, it is imperative to listen to others’ subjectivity, respect the dignity of all, and become less polarized by acknowledging our mutual vulnerability through mourning.
