Many people dressed in Islamic garb were approached by total strangers asking them if they were all right, was anyone bothering them. We realized that an entire race or a religion cannot be defined by a few evil people.
It was a day when passengers on American Airlines Flight 93 stood up to evil even though it cost them their lives.
It was a time when Rudy Guiliani was America's Mayor and late-night comedians had to cease calling George W. Bush stupid. It was a time of uniting.
Sadly, it was also a time when politicians overreracted. In the heat of the moment, Congress passed the disaterous Patriot Act, which was used to strip away some of our basic rights. Torture, almost always an ineffective way to gain credible information, began to be used in some quarters. Donald Trump whould claim that he saw thousands of Muslims cheering when the Twin Towers went down; the saddest part of this being that many people actually believed that showboating liar. Instead of using the tragedy to allow the country to forge ahead united, politicians selfishly used the attacks to further their own agendas and create a divisive country. Imagine what the world might be if, instead of a knee-jerk reaction, we moved forward with calm consideration, reason, and diplomacy.
Many first responders died in their attempts to rescue victims; thousands of others were injured by physically or by toxic fumes; it took the public outrage of celebrities like Jon Stewart to force the government to do the right thing by these heroes.
Late on Sepembter 10th, Kitty and I had returned to Virginia after driving through New York City, and found out cat Maggie (the best cat in the world) deathly ill, dying from some sort of poison. Early in the morning, we drove Maggie to the County Animal Shelter to say our goodbyes and have her peacefully put down. While we waiting for the shelter to open, the radio told us of the first plane to hit the Twin Towers; when the shelter opened and we brought Maggie in, a plane had just hit the second tower. Thousands of people that day died, and my tears were only for Maggie, our beloved cat. I used to feel guilty about that, but I later realized that I just could not cope with the magnitude of what had happened outside our own little world. I still have a hard time coping and with trying to understand the degree of hate and anguish and evil that gave us 9-11.
Here's a song that has helped me continue to cope:
https://www.facebook.com/trulyanimalhearts/photos/a.254368935037842/333785750429493/
Ah, finally broke through. It was surreal watching it happen at my workplace. We crowded into the one office with a TV. None of us believed it to be either real or as catastrophic as it turned out to be. It certainly took us on an evil journey.
ReplyDeleteI had to ride the train in that morning, as my car was in the shop. There was a certain oddness going on at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia by the time I got there, with Amtrak and NJ Transit service to NYC suspended, but nothing too clear otherwise as I walked over to the suburban rail platform to go out to Radnor. That train stopped several times, including in a tunnel, on its trip, but eventually got me there, to TV GUIDE, where we were working phones like everybody's business, rather busy ourselves in just trying to get all the coverage changes in place (even home shopping broadcast and cable channels were switching over to corporate cousin news-feeds or whatever else they could get...PBS divided ifs feeds between As Usual Kids and NEWSHOUR coverage), and watching the collapses.
ReplyDeleteOne of my friends asked, Why was it only Flight 93 fought back before the hijackers got to their target...I suggested it was because they were the only passengers on the four planes who knew that if they didn't fight back in a big way, their terrorist kidnappers were going to win, and they'd all be dead anyway. It sure felt, to me at the time, like the Murrah Building bombing...only our local xenophobes didn't feel empowered to rant against native-born Xian fascists.
And too-belated condolences for little Maggie...one can be forgiven for mourning the family at hand first and most.
ReplyDeleteSeems the degree of lack of preparation for the planes-as-bombers was keyed to the villains being Suadis, when Saudis were Bush Good Buddies. And would be Trump Good Buddies. Hatred of US power always willing to ally itself with whatever regimes seem useful, much as the powermad and elitist do everywhere, and to the detriment of the rest of us.