911

September 11, 2001, started out as an ordinary day for me.  I was listening to my favorite station on the radio, and, at first, when I heard about the collapse of the WTC Towers after being hit by planes, I thought it was a hoax.  When I turned on my television, however and saw that the WTC Towers really were collapsing and smoking after being hit by the airplanes, I knew otherwise.  After two hours of seeing the same footage on TV, I eventually turned off the TV and, I've admittedly not done much listening to, or reading the news since 9/11/01, as wierd as that may sound.

To be truthful, however, the year 2001 was a very strange and sad year for me and my family generally.  My father passed away in late January of that year, due to a long illness, that had totally taken him over, resulting in the loss of coordination, balance and ultimately, his memory.  Even the top neurologist in the country couldn't figure out what was going on with my dad.   When the autopsy results came back several months later, the illness that had gradually taken him over with a complete thoroughness and eventually killed him was a rare but fatal form of encephalitis called Lymbic Encephalitis.   Since this is a fatal illness, my dad's life could  not have been saved even if they had known what was happening.  

When I heard about announcements by the G. W. Bush Administration of an investigation as to what had happened on September 11th, 2001, , I was for it, but as time went on, and the Bush Administration acted more and more irresponsibly, by invading countries that had nothing to do with 9/11, notably Iraq and Afghanistan, it was clear that G, W. Bush had exploited the momentary unity of Americans as a call to unnecessary, illegal and wrongheaded wars.  

I have never bought into the notion that 9/11 was an inside job.  However, I'm aware of the fact that G. W. Bush had conveniently tied the FBI's hands,  cut funding for anti-terrorist activity, ignored threats of Al-Qaeda about attacking the United States, and also ignored (former) President Clinton's warning about the vulnerability of sky-scrapers.  G. W. Bush also dumped one of his men, Richard Clarke, for telling the truth about not having been vigilant enough, and failing to share information with other countries in Europe or elsewhere that might've worked closely with the United States to prevent the horrific attacks on the WTC Towers on that fateful day, Sept. 11, back in 2001.

Yes, it was a wierd time, many people were shaky and frightened, and 9/11 had a definite ripple affect;  many people knew people who knew people who knew people who'd been killed in that horribly freaky event, and muslims, unfortunately, have been suspect by many people ever since, both in the United States and in Europe.  People I knew and/or talked to were afraid to go anywhere.  Four days after 09/11/01, I was scheduled to meet an old friend of mine who resided in a neighboring state for lunch and a long walk through downtown Boston.  She called me that beautifully sunny Saturday morning to beg off, saying that 9/11 was the beginning of other attacks, and she didn't want to be out and around.  However, I managed to convince her that it was perfectly OK to be out and around, and that it was better that we carry out with our plans to meet for lunch.   My friend agreed, we decided to meet for lunch downtown at a certain time, and I took the MBTA downtown to meet her.  She had her oldest kid, who was then in college with her.  We had lunch at a neat little restaurant in Boston's North End, and then walked around town for quite awhile.  It had been a wonderful day, and both my friend and her daughter were glad they'd come out.  It had been a wonderful day overall.

Less than a month after the horrific September 11, 2001 attacks on the WTC Towers, I had the honor and good fortune, courtesy of some other longtime friends who'd formerly lived in Boston but moved down to NYC years ago, to see a special 40-year Anniversary screening of my alltime favorite movie, West Side Story, at New York City's renowned Radio City Music Hall.  That Saturday, in early October, I drove down to the Big Apple for a double treat;  seeing old friends and relatives, as well as the great, golden oldie but keeper of a classic film, West Side Story.  My cousin and I hung out for several hours, walking around her neighborhood and chatting and catching up, and then she left me the keys to her condo while she and her husband went upstate for the weekend.  

Fast forward to that night!  What a Saturday night out that was!  Radio City Music Hall was packed with a friendly, exuberant crowd, and there was much applause and finger-snapping from the audience.  The film West Side Story, restored to its former glory by cleaning up, reprinting and re-mastering, was, as always, beautiful to behold, in so many ways.  Even Richard Beymer, who I always regarded as a rather weak, lacklustre Tony, came out more vital and alive on the great big, wide movie theatre screen.   To make a long story short, my friends and I had a splendid time, and I still savor that wonderful Saturday evening.  It was great to see that, less than a month after the horrific attacks on the WTC Towers, that 5-6, 000 people could get together in one place for such a wonderful event!


The more things change, the more they stay the same.

YOU're the Best!!

"Indeed, if a poor man will spend a year in prison for stealing out of hunger,
how high would the gallows need to be to hang the rich man?"
~The Patrician in 'Snuff' by Terry Pratchett

Ah, good times. How's that Springsteen song go? "Glory Days".

Now that "liberals" and "conservatives" are segregated on their own blogs I have to admit that I really do miss being able to confront them head on. Their lies never stand up to the truth. Ever.

Anyhoo, when Yahoo closed those boards I put up a blog just so any of those posters would have a place to stay in touch. Participation has dropped enormously, and it's a dried husk of what the original group used to be. But I want to share two things, because that's where I posted right after 9/11.

First is this, because it reminds me so much of a thread where we talked about "when will we be able to joke about 9/11?" The basic question was "we joked soon after the shuttle disaster, but when will late night comedians be able to joke about this?" That led to Icy's fine essay I posted not long ago. Well, read this:

The Onion's John Krewson Talks 9/11 And Comedy As A Curative

Selected quote: "I'd much rather live in a country that laughed in the faces of people who try to intimidate us by flying planes into buildings. I'd much rather live in a country that laughed at cowards like that, instead of people who got angry or people who got scared and who empowered them that way."

The other thing is, Icy posted a new essay about 9/11, today. It didn't really take any turns you're likely to expect.

We're all "tired" of "celebrating" 9/11. We don't see the value in it. It's been absconded with by extremists and hate-mongers.

I chose to ignore it and went on a 5 1/2 mile hike, today. Right after I read the headline in the local paper:

A Day of Mourning, Marches
But this 9/11 more political than others

I turned off MSNBC's replay of their broadcast that day, went to the creek, and started hiking. I ran into and talked to several people. Not one of us mentioned 9/11.

So I ended up saying this:

One thing both of your posts reminds me of is the "unity" after 9/11/2001. Memorials sprang up around the world. Flowers, candles, etc. IIRC, even in Iran.

Then Bush destroyed America.

::snip::

Now, no one seems to know who our "enemy" is. Is it Islam? Qurans? A community center in downtown Manhattan?

It's clearly not "Religious fanatics intent on attacking America".

FBI Busts Bomb Plot By "Christian Bin Laden"

::snip::

9/11 brought us together. So there is that.

So that's where I'm really at on 9/11. I'd like to see it's power taken away. After the initial sense of unity, it's been primarily used for evil.

I met Lloyd at the farmhouse he and his dad built in MN, and Lloyd drove to my house in DE. I bought his dad's book, a memoir of WWII. Lloyd's in Laos, now, and I hope to visit him some day.

Speedy has stayed at my house twice, and I've stayed at his (in FL) 3 times.

I met Alvy in Madrid. He guided me to the Reina Sofia where I saw Guernica.

Atman and I went to see CSNY's end to war tour in Philly. His wife joined us, mine was visiting family.

I sometimes park across the street from ICarol's apartment in Jersey City when I visit NYC, and we take the PATH in together. ICarol is the one who adopted one of my cats, and took the last PATH train in on 9/11. She was devastated when Tina died, and had some picture of her I sent by email to restore those lost when my hard drive crashed.

Icy and I call each other when we feel like it, and he's always available if I'm lost in NYC. The last time he called me he was shopping for an RV to live in on the streets of NYC, and wanted to stop by. I was in SD at the time, which I thought was a real bummer. He and his dog are always welcome in my home, even though I have 8 cats.

BSA has stopped by a couple of times when he was in Jersey visiting his wife's relatives. He likes my home-made beer.

I'm absolutely certain I'm leaving people out, but the point is these aren't old high school buddies, not old work buddies. These are people I met on the internet. And share values with.

So Newp, RiaD, Youf, Irev, Alma, even you, Knuck...

You're not safe.

Not as long as "Timb" is around.

You might have to come out and play. ;->