hello, 911?

it's already been 10 years now. it either feels like it happened yesterday, or not at all. all of it seemed unreal.
i was 11 years old, in middle school. it was around 4pm, i had just come back from school and turned the tv on to get some news.
on the screen, reporters were baffled, commenting images that seemed to have been ripped from some bad catastrophe movie. the first plane had just crashed into tower 2, which was smoking and burning in some places.
i called my mother and watched her face whiten as she said something like "we were on top of these towers. we went on the terrace for the view and all. oh god."
we called dad just as the second plane hit tower 1. it was unbelievable. from across the atlantic, we watched as people screamed, ran, jumped from the windows (or fell by being pushed by others while struggling for air), died. we watched as firemen ran into this hellhole, amazed at their sense of duty and altruism.
we watched and watched, saw the 2 towers collapse, the cloud of grey dust that swallowed manhattan, we couldn't stop looking at the screen. it was impossible.
as a kid, i didn't fully grasp the meaning of what had just happened, but i sensed that something had been destroyed in america, the eldorado that everyone thought was so strong and indestructible. i felt, deep within, that i was going to grow into a scared world, that there would be more wars, that people were going to change. i was right.
later on, we were told that a group of islamic fanatics were very proud of what they had achieved. we heard the name, osama bin laden, for the first time. we listened to calls from dying people high up in the towers, to 911, their families, to anyone they could reach, either to say farewell or hope for help that couldn't possibly come. it was terrifying, to hear a man tell the 911 operator his exact location and ask where everyone was, then a scream cut halfway through because the line got cut, because the building came down, because of some asshole somewhere in the desert with a lot of money and clever brainwashed men at his service.
said asshole, and let's hope that his body got eaten by some really ugly fish now, was not stupid.
his main tool to train young boys into murdering innocents, was religion.
he could have been christian, or buddhist, or believe in living teapots, that didn't matter.
what's important is that he used human stupidity, because believing in things that don't exist is dangerous, and big believing crowds are stupid. because most humans just can't act rationally, can't do things logically, can't THINK FOR THEMSELVES.
it's so much easier when someone else does the thinking for you. the decision isn't yours, however inane it is, so that no matter what happens, YOU WERE JUST FOLLOWING ORDERS.
so if these men, who had the brains to learn quickly how to man an airplane, also had enough neurons left to wonder if what they were ordered to do was bloody stupid or not, well, maybe there would still be twin towers in nyc.
the reason why there will always be terrorists, fanatics, massive criminals, dictators and powerful madmen (we're lacking females in that category, hint?), is that there will always be obeying idiots, too scared to question the decisions that their superiors made. and then, who are they to say they're the superior ones? is there some tiny dick complex somewhere in there?
muslims aren't to blame. every religion has its overreacters. xenophobes, creationists, teabaggers, djihad "soldiers", chosen ones who merely chose themselves, enlightened ones who were told by an elephant-headed man with a dozen arms that the sky was green. or something.
it's pointless to say religions are bad for people. they become bad when people decide to obey them, without taking the best out of them or questioning centuries-old rules that have no place in today's society.
rules aren't to be followed if you don't get a proper answer to WHY they exist. if there isn't a rational reason, then don't follow it. why are women inferior in most religions? why are men more entitled to be free and properly treated? why, how are all these god thingies so powerful? do they help anyone? no? then why couldn't people live without them?
more importantly, WHO came up with the idea, WHY should i agree with it? believing in something because people around you do isn't sensible, it's called peer pressure and you can oppose them.
anyone can say no.
"no" is dangerous, it will probably get you killed, tortured, pressured into changing your mind.
"no" is difficult because no one is telling you what to do.

so today, as the tenth anniversary of a crime that changed the world, please, think for yourself, question stupid rules, say no.

be free.