Category: politics

During the past couple weeks, during the pain, grief, hope and heroism, I’ve been recalling something that happened to me during high school.

Desert Storm started when I was a Sophomore. I remember sitting in Madame Nelson’s French class discussing how cool it was going to be. We were going to bomb the living hell out of them. It was a movie, and we were going to watch it all on CNN. I remember bringing up statistics and cool military terms I’d heard my dad use. I felt really smart since my dad helped draw up a lot of the plans for fighting in the Middle East and was in the Pentagon’s Command Center for much of the war. He wasn’t going over there. For me, Desert Storm was very much a remote-control war. I watched it all on TV, heard about it from my dad, and never saw the death and destruction. It was all very antiseptic/Saturday afternoon TV for me.

Back to French Class. While my friend and I were discussing bombs, fighter planes and the advantages of the Abrams M1-A1 tank, there was a girl sitting next to me with a black armband on her right arm. I noticed it and asked her about it. She said she was wearing it because she didn’t like the war. She didn’t like that people were fighting over there and that we were there over oil and killing so we didn’t have to pay more for gas. That set my friend and I off. We spent the rest of class making fun of her for thinking something other than what ‘we’ thought.

I feel bad about that now. I don’t even remember her name, but I remember the look on her face. I remember feeling superior because I was onboard. I was ‘we’. I wish I could find her and apologize.

Don’t let the people who attacked us make us start taking away our freedoms. Free speech is paramount in the list. If we start quieting those who disagree with us, we’re no better than the people who did this. Especially now, in the wake of tragedy, we need to be mindful that we still have the right to free speech. I feel the anger well up when I read or hear something that doesn’t fall into the “patriotic American, nuke the bastards” world we live in and have been watching for the past week. I stop myself every time I feel that anger and remember the girl in French class who I made cry.

The kids in our neighborhood have shown an amazing grasp of the American/Capitalist dream since 9/11. They’ve posted patriotic drawings all over the neighborhood, on mailboxes, stop sign posts, everywhere. Now, if this were the extent of it, I’d leave out the capitalist part. But, our little entrepreneurs have also taken to the streets with hand-drawn flags in a milk box and are going door-to-door selling them. It’s nice to know that the future generation knows what to do when people are grieving – sell to them.

Not that I blame them, it gives them something to do, and makes them happy. They had a lemonade stand last week, and I think that’s cute. There are three of them, all girls and no older than 11. It’s so freaking Norman Rockwell.

That’s all from Lake Sterling, where we have no lake, the children are all selling something and the parents love their anti-depressants.

“You must be the change you’d like to see in the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi

via Firda

Breaking my own rule, Reid over @ PhotoDude wrote a lengthy post that pretty much sums up my thoughts. Well done, indeed.

I would hope that everyone who can goes to their place of worship today. If that’s Starbucks, a Synagogue, a Mosque or Chucky Cheese, it doesn’t matter. Me? I’ll be listening to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints memorial broadcast at noon EST. You’re welcome to come along. It will be uplifting and universal.

In LawverNews, the speech therapist showed up as I was leaving for work this morning. Maybe now we’ll know why Max isn’t talking… I’m sure he has a lot to say.

Nostradamus is still the #1 query. It’s more than doubled the query after it. If you add all the synonyms, it probably has more queries than the rest of the top 10 combined. It boggles the mind.

To that end, I’m going to try not to say anything more about the current situation. I hope and pray that survivors will be found in both the Pentagon and Trade Centers. I hope and pray that whoever did this is brought to justice and survives to stand trial.

Now is not the time for chest-thumping and vows of revenge. It is time for calm heads and still hands to make sure that rescues are undertaken safely and speedily; that investigations are conducted correctly and effectively; and that everyone try to heal, recover and put things back together as much as possible.

What impressed me most yesterday were the reactions of people. To me, the most impressive public figure yesterday was Mayor Giuliani. In the face of thousands of casualties and horrific damage, he looked steeled, calm and business-like. It was an amazing thing to watch every time they showed him. It was a striking contrast to some of the other inflamed rhetoric shown.

Ok, that’s it. It may be quiet here for a couple days. Good luck and take it easy.

This may get me fired, but I don’t care. Do you know what the #1 query on AOL Search is so far today? It’s Nostradamus in a landslide. It’s not Red Cross or World Trade Center. It’s Nostradamus. I constantly find reasons to lose faith in humanity.

There is one comforting fact though, porn queries are still way up there. I guess the libido doesn’t stop for tragedy.

I am undone. I’ve felt tears well up several times today, yet none come. I am angry. I am sad. I am tired. I want to do something. My brain won’t shut off, and I keep trying to shut it up. I hope I can go to work tomorrow, because I can’t take another day of watching CNN and watching the video anymore.

I looked at my son today, his beautiful face. He’s not even two. He ran around today like nothing was wrong. He babbled and played and was a little pill while the rest of the world was falling apart around my little family. We will continue. The world will slowly return to normal. The pain for the observers, the survivors and the families of the victims will fade over time. Maybe a lot of time. It’ll be OK…. I hope.

Unless you live in a cave, or don’t have a radio in your car, you know that there have now been four apparent terrorist attacks on American soil. I’m listening to KCRW streaming through my headphones, delivering the carnage straight to my ears. Everyone here at AOL is running up to the newsroom to watch it. I can’t. I don’t need to see it to know it’s happening, and I’m sure we’ll see enough as this things becomes clearer, body counts come out and the source of the pain is ferreted out.

I have no idea who is responsible, and I’m trying to keep an open mind. After the Oklahoma City bombing, everyone assumed it was an Muslim extremist. It turned out to be a small group of angry white men who felt their government had let them down.

Now, all the airports in the country have been shut down. They’re evacuating federal buildings, but it worries me that now the roads will be clogged and if anything else happens, emergency personnel and equipment won’t be able to reach the problem areas.

Ok, that’s enough… I have nothing else to say. I want to run home, grab my little family and hide.