4 Year Anniversary
I didn't realize until someone at the coffee shop brought it up, but today is the four year anniversary of the destruction of the trade towers. I suppose that's a good marker of how indelible an imprint that day left on my psyche.
A few things I remember from the day: driving to school and hearing on the radio that an airplane had hit one of the towers, and like many people I erroneously assumed it was similar to the time a single engine plane hit the Empire State Building. Going to the debate room when I arrived at school and hearing Varant say "Awesome carnage." That asshole came so close to dying. Listening to a bunch of half-assed conspiracy theories, the dumbest of which was that GE masterminded the attack so it could sell more plane engines. Lord, we were so foolish. A lot of us still are.
Four years on, and aside from the gaping whole in the New York skyline, I can't say much has really changed. Certainly the government hasn't changed. It took a little over a month before Democrats and Republicans started sniping at each other. We got a new federal agency that doesn't seem to do anything except make disasters worse. We got a few congressional committees that discovered things that should have been obvious to people with functioning brains, and then they went and turned their attention to steroid use in professional baseball. Yea, that seems like a much better use of their time and power. We got a mass media that eventually went back to focusing on pretty white girls who go missing in exotic locations. We got a war, a couple of 'em, in fact. That's fine by me, except, as our leadership seems prone to do, they lost focus of the goal. We're looking for Osama Bin Laden. We've got 150,000 troops (give or take) in Iraq and 11,000 in Afghanistan. Simple math.
I love my country. I love America. This is the greatest country on the face planet, and assuming that there are no other inhabitable planets, the universe, as well. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else, but goddamn sometimes I despair over the state of this country.
I didn't realize until someone at the coffee shop brought it up, but today is the four year anniversary of the destruction of the trade towers. I suppose that's a good marker of how indelible an imprint that day left on my psyche.
A few things I remember from the day: driving to school and hearing on the radio that an airplane had hit one of the towers, and like many people I erroneously assumed it was similar to the time a single engine plane hit the Empire State Building. Going to the debate room when I arrived at school and hearing Varant say "Awesome carnage." That asshole came so close to dying. Listening to a bunch of half-assed conspiracy theories, the dumbest of which was that GE masterminded the attack so it could sell more plane engines. Lord, we were so foolish. A lot of us still are.
Four years on, and aside from the gaping whole in the New York skyline, I can't say much has really changed. Certainly the government hasn't changed. It took a little over a month before Democrats and Republicans started sniping at each other. We got a new federal agency that doesn't seem to do anything except make disasters worse. We got a few congressional committees that discovered things that should have been obvious to people with functioning brains, and then they went and turned their attention to steroid use in professional baseball. Yea, that seems like a much better use of their time and power. We got a mass media that eventually went back to focusing on pretty white girls who go missing in exotic locations. We got a war, a couple of 'em, in fact. That's fine by me, except, as our leadership seems prone to do, they lost focus of the goal. We're looking for Osama Bin Laden. We've got 150,000 troops (give or take) in Iraq and 11,000 in Afghanistan. Simple math.
I love my country. I love America. This is the greatest country on the face planet, and assuming that there are no other inhabitable planets, the universe, as well. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else, but goddamn sometimes I despair over the state of this country.
VIEW 8 of 8 COMMENTS
haden:
thanks hun. you would be one to keep me on my toes. everyone is always weird about correcting me. just do it! if i ever pay enough attention to something long enough and notice, i would.
shesinparties:
i thought i made it clear a long time ago that i didn't want to talk to you. you are a pompous, rude short guy, good riddance.