Mostly because everyone else is doing it, and I was beginning to feel, you know, left out.
I did not, and do not know anyone who was part of the attacks of 9/11/01. My only connection to it was just like that of the majority of people all over the world, who watched it live on television, and then over and over again until we were sickened by the notion of turning our televisions on ever again. I was awakened by a phone call from my wife on the morning of 9/11 (continuing a tradition of her awakening me with bad or panic-laden news) and told to turn on the TV, so obviously, I did not see the first plane. Unlike Bush now claims he did. I was late for work that day because I stood in my living room half-dressed, thinking about how we would be going to war with a dimwit President, and how I was due to become a father in less than a month. 17 days later, Max was born. I grabbed an old rabbit-ears TV out of the closet and took that to work with me, and basically stood around all day with cold fingertips watching disaster happen on television in the back of the shop at Budget Signs. We were supposed to have a Comics Night that night - a Tuesday - and it turned into a commiserate and discuss the events of the day' night. The following days led to a lot of erratic behavior from a lot of people, and despite uncharacteristic gestures of patriotism by many (myself included, though I thought my flag at the time had more to do with unity than nationalism) and rage-inducing emails and polemics by others, what I remember most is the feeling of goodwill that radiated from the vast majority of people, global governments, and seemingly everyone else. (Unless, of course, you were Moslem, and then I think the hate crimes started pretty much immediately.) Like many people, I always get extra-pissed when I think about what happened to all those good feelings of cooperation.
At the time, I wrote about stuff like this in what I used to call my Id, which was a journal, basically. This is my first entry on the subject:
Today the twin towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed. My son will grow up in a world that has a New York City skyline without one of the most recognizable landmarks in the American experience. This morning, at just before nine o’clock, a plane was hijacked and crashed into the first tower, which was followed shortly by a second plane crashing into the second tower. The towers collapsed shortly after I got to work. The Pentagon was also attacked by hijacked plane, which smashed into it at nearly 200 miles per hour, and it’s been on fire for most of the day. The FAA has grounded all flights in the United States, (the first time this has ever happened) the President has been bounced from Florida to Louisiana to Nebraska, and the NYSE shut down for the day, Major League Baseball has shut down a whole day for the first time since D-Day.
Rudy Giuliani has been walking around the City, wearing a mask and dealing with stuff, and Senators Joe Biden and John McCain are both talking about "acts of war." I brought my old cheap television with me to work today, and have been watching this all day and monitoring the Internet for additional information. Osama Bin Laden’s name is being bandied about already, by ABC, the BBC, and some government agencies. There were people on all these planes. The worst act of terrorism in American history. I have never seen anything like this, and that may be because this is unprecedented.
I can’t do this anymore right now...
I remember going to two vigils around this time, and I am not vigil people. I went to something in Cap Square a day or two after the attacks, and I went to a "one year after" thing at C's school in Hartford, WI. Anybody else remember those? I remember the "freedom fries" thing, and the weird "bloodlust is okay" thing I've been exposed to by current and former US servicemen since I moved here. It's only been five years, but it seems like a really long-ass time, probably because I've been in P'cola for the last three. (Yes, even in a an entry like this one.)
I acquired this back in 2002 and didn't bother listening to it until 2003, when I was unpacking our house after having moved to Pensacola. I didn't know how long it was when I heard it originally, so I kind of got lost in listening to it. This is a file of the Howard Stern Show, out of New York, the morning of 9/11. It is 2 and a half hours, roughly, and represents one of the most honest snapshots of the thing actually happening that I have heard. It's not great, it's not awe-inspiring, and some of it is actually pretty vile and stupid (there's like, 20 minutes of gay jokes, Pam Anderson shit, and bleeped swearing at the beginning of this thing), but I would compare it to Pompeii - a moment of history captured that should be taken as it is, rather for what it should have been. Interesting, to say the least. The most revealing thing to me is how slowly it dawns on them about the seriousness of this thing.
I welcome, as always, your comments and feedback. Also your own recollections.