GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA: FOR WHO THE BELL TOLLS NEXT.

Just five people shy of Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting incident that claimed 26 lives, the Uvalde Texas Robb elementary school mass shooting at 21 victims, now ranks among the highest grossing gun carnage in America. It is sad that such frequent blood spilling has tragically become part of our culture as a society. May the souls of the killed now rest.

25th AMENDMENT: ITS NOW ALL CRICKET.

Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi once questioned former President Donald John Trump's fitness to remain in office due to what she claimed was his declining mental capacity. Does anyone know what Madam Speaker presently thinks about the incontrovertible case which America is now saddled with? Just curious!

WHO WILL REBUILD UKRAINE?

The West should convert frozen Russian assets, both state's and oligarchs' owned, into a full seizure and set them aside for the future rebuilding of Ukraine. Like the Marshal Plan, call it the Putin Plan.

A HERO IS BORN.

I am staying put. I will not run away and abandon my people. The fight is here in Ukraine. What I need are weapons and ammunitions, not a ride out of town like former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani - President Volodymyr Zelensky.

IT IS WHAT IT IS.

"There is too much hate in America because there is too much anger in America." - Trevor Noah.

WORD!

A life without challenges is not a life lived at all. A life lived is a life that has problems, confronts problems, solves problems and then learns from problems. - Tunde Fashola.

NOW, YOU KNOW.

When fishing for love, bait with your heart and not your brain, because you cannot rationalize love. - Mark Twain.

JUST THE FACT.

In our country, you can shoot and kill a nigger, but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings - Dave Chappelle

DO YOU?.

“What you believe in can only be defined by what you’re willing to risk for it." - Stuart Scheller.

HEDGE YOUR CRISIS.

Never get in bed with a woman whose problems are worse than yours. - Chicago PD.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

'The best way to keep peace is to be ready to destroy evil. If you Pearl Harbor me, I Nagasaki you.' - Ted Nugent.

OUR SHARED HUMANITY.

Empathy is at the heart of who we are as human beings. - Cardinal Matthew Kukah.

WORDS ON MARBLE.

"Birth is agony. Life is hard. Death is cruel." - Japanese pithy.

REPENT OR PERISH - POPE.

Homosexuality is a sin. It is not ordained by God, therefore same sex marriage cannot be blessed by the church - Pope Francis.

CANCEL CULTURE IS CORROSIVE.


FOR SAKE OF COUNTRY.


MAGA LIVES ON: NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER!

TWITTER IS BORING WITHOUT HIS TWEETS. #RestorePresidentTrump'sTwitterHandle.


WORD.

"If you cannot speak the truth when it matters, then nothing else you says matters.” - Tucker Carlson.

#MeToo MOVEMENT: A BAD NEWS GONE CRAZY.

"To all the women who testified, we may have different truth, but I have a great remorse for all of you. I have great remorse for all of the men and women going through this crisis right now in our country. You know, the movement started basically with me, and I think what happened, you know, I was the first example, and now there are thousands of men who are being accused and a regeneration of things that I think none of us understood. I’m not going to say these aren’t great people. I had wonderful times with these people. I’m just genuinely confused. Men are confused about this issue. We are going through this #MeToo movement crisis right now in this country." - Harvey Weinstein.


RON DELLUMS: UNAPOLOGETICALLY RADICAL.

"If it’s radical to oppose the insanity and cruelty of the Vietnam War, if it’s radical to oppose racism and sexism and all other forms of oppression, if it’s radical to want to alleviate poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness, and other forms of human misery, then I’m proud to be called a radical.” - Ron Vernie Dellums.


WHAT REALLY MATTERS IN LIFE - STEVE JOBS

“I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes, my life is an epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. Non-stop pursuing of wealth will only turn a person into a twisted being, just like me. God gave us the senses to let us feel the love in everyone’s heart, not the illusions brought about by wealth. Memories precipitated by love is the only true riches which will follow you, accompany you, giving you strength and light to go on. The most expensive bed in the world is the sick bed. You can employ someone to drive the car for you, make money for you but you cannot have someone to bear sickness for you. Material things lost can be found. But there is one thing that can never be found when it is lost – Life. Treasure Love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends. Treat yourself well. Cherish others.” - SJ

EVIL CANNOT BE TRULY DESTROYED.

"The threat of evil is ever present. We can contain it as long as we stay vigilant, but it can never truly be destroyed. - Lorraine Warren (Annabelle, the movie)


ONLY THE POOR WISH THEY HAD STUFF?

“I’m not that interested in material things. As long as I find a good bed that I can sleep in, that’s enough.” - Nicolas Berggruem, the homeless billionaire.

Saturday, September 11, 2021

THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11: STILL NO CLOSURE NOR HEALING FOR AMERICANS.

ICHEOKU says this day, every year, has become the day many Americans grieve most as the pain is not going away and is only refreshed or rebooted every September 11th. Americans grieve on 9/11 not only because of the thousands of lives lost on that day, but the stark reality of their vulnerability right in their homeland, as they forever lost their sense of safety and security which the sea to the shinning sea hitherto "provided." Everybody in America is somewhat traumatized, admitted different people carry trauma differently; and although some people have also bravely soldiered on but are usually dragged back to what was and still is on the occasion of each anniversary of 9/11. 

A matter made worse because the skyline of Manhattan New York City was forever and permanently changed as a result of what the terrorists that struck Now World Trade Center desired. The authorities in New York failed to take this into full consideration when they hatched the plan for the restoration of the center by settling for one glass tower instead of two. It would have been a tribute in full restoration of the iconic Twin Towers which had graced the Manhattan skyline for such a long time that it became an identifier of New York City, in addition to Lady Liberty and the Empire State building. 

Although the glimmering glass tower is beautiful but it is not the Twin Towers; and can never be the Twin Towers, especially for the older generation who lived their lives with two twin towers on the horizon in New York City. First and foremost, one is different from two and less than two;  also the former towers were boxy while the new single one is anti prism shaped. ICHEOKU says is confident that had two towers been erected instead of one that it would have helped bring some closure to the tragedy, at least New York skyline would have been restored. But the lack thereof still gives the people the chill that not only were they so violently violated on 9/11, but also that their skyline was gone forever. 

Each day New Yorkers wake up to see a Manhattan skyline without their Twin Towers, it reminds them of the loss which they suffered on 9/11 at the hands of al-Qaida terrorists and it still hurts so badly. That void ought to have been filled and as long as it remains left unfilled, that long will the hurt feeling continue in the people until the generation pre 9/11 are completely gone; and the younger post 9/11 generation can then carry on with the only skyline known to them, devoid of Twin Towers. In fact, the terrorists won in that aspect by permanently and forever redefining an iconic American skyline for Americans. 

It is a defeat to accept their term on how our skyline should look and we are humiliated as a result, regardless of how anyone wants to spin that consequential fact. it would have been a different calculus had the New York development authority decided to change the skyline and took the Twin Towers down and replaced it with one solitary glass tower. But that al-Qaida forced the outcome is simply not the best medicine for anybody to take. It is partly why so many people are still hurting till today, even to the point of suffering PTSD; and going into mood swings and total depression on every September 11th anniversary of the terrorist attack of 9/11 2001. 

It is twenty years on and nothing has changed in the real sense of it. The reliving of the event each year on television is not helping anyone get better or over it either as it re-traumatizes them all over again. This leads to the question, is it not about time we reduced the extent of our 9/11 commemoration as it is causing more pain than bringing relief to millions of American people. Pearl Harbor attack is not commemorated in the same magnitude as 9/11 which have made it possible for most Americans to move on from the tragic Japanese induced event. So, when are we going to move on from 9/11 or will it take the dying off of the 9/11 generation to eventually reach such an outcome. 

ICHEOKU says does not know about you but September 11 of every year is not usually the best day and each year seems to be getting even worse than the year before in how sad one feels about it. It hurts so much that even tuning off televisions only masks it, because in the back of your mind, it is still that day of infamy, regardless. Although some cultures say that when the palace of a king burns, it is an opportunity to build a better palace, but is One Trade Center's single glass tower really any better than One Trade Center's Twin Towers that it replaced after it was burnt and brought down by the terrorists flying jumbo jet planes into them? 

This particular anniversary is very solemn in some awkward, eerie way. It is particularly memorable as the only anniversary of 9/11 without American troops boots on the ground in Afghanistan, fighting those who facilitated the takedown of our Twin Towers, who attempted the takedown of the Pentagon and also the take down of one other additional American landmark somewhere, before their plan was foiled by brave men and women on Flight 93 who sacrificed their lives by forcing the plane down in Shanksville Pennsylvania. Who knows what their exact target was as it could have been the Congress or the White House or even some place else. But whatever it might have been, it was aborted and for this, the nation remains perpetually indebted to those who, using fighting words "lets roll", rolled and prevented the murderous attempt.

To all those who were killed on 9/11 at the three sites, this day is to honor your memory. We remember you all and pray that you continue to rest. To all those killed post 9/11 through to  August 26 2021, fighting to avenge the deaths of the innocent victims of 9/11, we owe you a debt of gratitude for your selfless supreme sacrifice. We shall never forget, admitted doing exactly such is what will help us all heal and move on from the tragedy. But we are human beings and we seek vengeance, despite what the Bible said that 'vengeance is mine says the Lord.' After killing Osama bin Laden and thousands of people in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are still feeling unfulfilled in avenging 9/11. So, what will it take? May be we should have drawn on Nagasaki and Hiroshima experience to guide our response but we didn't. Now, it is only time that we can look unto to heal our wound; but as seen so far, twenty years is not long enough.  

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