"You humans do like to live in the past, don't you?" Zeus said out of the blue from his place on the futon next to me. We were watching the evening news as one of the networks competed to be the first to show footage of the Twin Towers falling for the millionth time prior to midnight on September 11, 2011.
"Well I guess." I paused to think about that for a moment. "But it's important we never forget." Normally I would feel foolish replying with such a cliche, but since this was a conversation with a dog, I wasn't about to allow myself to become too bothered and immediately resumed mindlessly watching the news. They had begun playing footage of the collapse of the second tower now.
"Never forget what exactly?" Zeus' tone indicated the fact he was a canine didn't inhibit his ability to be annoyed by glib responses to his questions. "I mean remembering the dead is one thing, but it's not as though they're flashing the names of the victims on the screen or interviewing the families of the fallen here." He gave a slight nod toward the television screen. "It's just the same video of the buildings crashing to the ground over and over again and they've been running it since before I was born."
I squirmed a bit in my seat. I really didn't know how to answer him. Though I was loath to admit it, the truth was the constant drumbeat of 9/11 video and references for the past ten years, together with all the war footage and commentary from the two conflicts that followed, had frankly left me numb. I had long ago lost the ability to find any politician or reporter who gave a speech or did a story on the subject sincere. It was like never being allowed to simply mourn and move on. A person could almost come to resent the dead if all the guilt associated with doing so didn't keep getting in the way.
"So tell me, does your species enjoy post traumatic stress disorder or something?"
My god, he treats his questions the same way he does a rope. Talk about someone who could do with learning to let go. "I just don't think people want to ever see it happen again" I finally answered.
"Seems to me it's more likely to happen again with you all constantly dwelling on it so much. If you just put up a memorial or something and went on with your lives..." Zeus glanced back up at the television mid sentence. "Oh good, they're replaying the scene at the Pentagon now." He waved a paw mindlessly toward the screen.
"One of our philosophers once said those who forget history are doomed to repeat it." I replied.
"Yea, well those that keep reliving it are doomed to repeat it a lot more often." He raised his back leg and scratched an ear. "Look, the terrorists couldn't forget American meddling in the Middle East, now America can't forget the terrorist's attacking them on 9/11 because the terrorist couldn't forget America's meddling, so America does some more meddling...Seems to me the answer here is someone doing some forgetting, or at least some forgiving."
I opened my mouth to say something, but Zeus wasn't quite finished yet. "Or more to the point, stop remembering only what the other guy did to you and start recalling a few of the things you've done to him."
"Like what?" I asked.
"Oh, I don't know - propping up dictators, overthrowing democratically elected governments in places like Iran. That turned out well, didn't it? You know, little things like that that really win over lots of hearts and minds." He stuck his snout in the air. He was obviously feeling he had once again demonstrated his species' superiority. "Or you can just keep watching 9/11 reruns and spending trillions on wars until someone decides they've had enough and attacks you again providing you with a convenient justification for all those trillions you spent bombing the hell out of their country. Then you can do it all over again, except with a different attack to replay over and over for a decade or so. If you can keep it going on long enough, maybe you'll at least be able to forget who started it."
With that Zeus hopped down off the couch and headed down the hall, looking from side to side as he went. "Anyone seen my bone?" He shouted.
"Next time I want a pet I think I'm buying an ant farm" I mumbled to myself as I picked up the remote to begin channel surfing. I'd heard somewhere they were rebroadcasting 'Apocalypse Now' this evening.
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