For weeks after 9/11, the videotaped footage of the second plane flying into the South Tower insinuated itself into my dreams. I pondered hypotheticals I would have never imagined- with thirty seconds and a dying cell phone, how would I say goodbye? Or, Would I stay and burn, or jump?

For a brief time, that horrible day brought out the best in us. There were acts of incredible compassion and heroism. It took very little time, though, for the worst to emerge. All too swiftly, things turned paranoid and vengeful.

Ten years ago, we witnessed the terrible price exacted when ideology trumps humanity. But rather than see this as a universal truth, we made it specific and remote. We reduced everything to one particular ideology and humanity that did not include us. I’m guessing this is how we were able to somehow create a line between September 11, 2001 to March 19, 2003. From that myopic, telescopic distance, we couldn’t see suffering and devastation in the bombs igniting the night sky over Baghdad, but instead, something that looked like the Fourth of July.