There Are Always Multiple Stories

Originally posted on LinkedIn on September 11, 2021.

Like many of us, I too remember where I was on September 11, 2001.

I too was shocked, scared, sad, angry—wondering what this meant for me, my friends, my family, the country, the world.

I too felt sorrow for the needless death. I too felt compassion for those who lost people they knew and loved and would never see again.

I too was confused and struggled to know what to do, how to react, what to think, how to move forward.

And, perhaps like you, I began to learn my history.

I learned that 28 years earlier to the day, on September 11, 1973, the CIA backed a coup in Santiago, Chile that left democratically elected president Salvador Allende and thousands of others dead.

This coup installed Augusto Pinochet for the next 17 years, one of the most brutal dictatorships in history.

I learned about similar CIA-backed coups in Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), The Congo (1960), and dozens of others.

I learned that history is written by the winners. And that the winners aren't always the good guys.

I learned that history is never an either/or, a good/bad, a right/wrong binary.

There are always multiple stories. There are always multiple truths.

And there are always people telling the true stories.

The question is: are we willing to seek out, listen to, and believe those stories?