5 years later......

This is the third time I have started this post over from scratch, though while this time occurred because of technical difficulties I think this was for the best as on my way to school the barrage of stuff hit me and gave me more fodder for thought.

Where was I 5 years ago….

5 years ago I was working at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. I was getting in about 9 o’clock then with my schedule (which was highly flexible at the time), I remember most the stream of wild and crazy news stories... Everyone at that time had a different rumor or story before the second plane hit. My first thought was when I heard that a small passenger plane hit that it simply was not right. It did not make sense. I heard some one else say they heard the small plane had a missile on it. In this world where we have instant 24 hour news what struck me (mutedly then) and still does today was how in this time of crisis it was like a giant game of telephone.

The President was in my town, reading my Pet goat in that famous picture we all seem to remember. I remember how after the visit he gave some encouraging words to the students and teachers at Booker Elementary before heading off. This speech really makes me to this day remember that Bush could speak well if he spoke to his strengths.

I was not afraid or even all that shocked, though I must admit I to was struck by the images and how they seemed so unreal, so much like some fancy movie special effect.

I made my choice about what I wanted to do with my life then, something I have modified somewhat and may modify again now that the wheels have turned. I had gotten myself on a decent financial footing and god knows when I will see that again with my re-entry as a college student.

People talk about the World Changing on 9-11… the world did not change and we as Americans did not really change all that seemed to happen was we hit a snooze alarm. We have had 5 years of searches of every passenger to try to restrict weapons, as numerous new acts have happened where spotting the suspect –not a suspect device- proved those ideas as faulty.

We got into the politics of the Islamic world, it seems by its nature Bin Laden, and his top echelons are now sitting comfortably in Pakistan in a region their government can’t control.

On Glenn Beck I heard a woman say that our freedom is why they are beating us. Glenn argued (and rightly so) it is not our freedom that holds us back but it is our fear…. The only fear I think I can find in this situation

…our fear of ourselves.

We have as a society done truly awful things to racial and ethnic minorities, and as such, we are unable to risk the possibility that we would do it again. And we have created through our politics a power in being the victim, a power that people lacking in a certain sense of ethic and morality exploit.

That’s not our freedom, that’s our folly.

In my college paper I see this folly again and again

The fact that 19 hijackers could alter American foreign policy so drastically is still a bit overwhelming. These attacks created a new era - a War on Terror that would root out terrorists and their appeasers.

But the nation's success in this endeavor is highly debatable. Violence in Afghanistan - you know, that place the United States originally invaded seeking to crush the Taliban and Osama bin Laden? - is escalating. The Iraq war has cost too much in terms of American lives and money, and the Iranians continue to defy calls to halt uranium enrichment (though a hefty dose of skepticism is warranted for intelligence estimates of anything).

Oh, and don't forget those North Koreans; they round out the "Axis of Evil" of unresolved crises.

Their is a critque that is legitimate in all these words


and yet look at those words. The kind of Marxist societal divisions which failed in Marx's time (as good socialists and communists fought and died for their country in WWI and WWII) seem to be born out in our own age.

-though in the authors defense he eventually gets to the point that "they are all bumbs" but thats not his lead and in the papers its the lead that matters not whats bellow the fold-


again from my school paper

Hundreds of millions of Americans will spend the rest of their lives coping with the havoc 19 determined individuals wreaked on this society five years ago. Remember the day's events as they happened, not as someone wants you to believe they happened. Everybody's experience on that day was unique.

Don't let anyone sell you your memories or manipulate them for personal or political gain.

These are the people who felt the world changed for them, yet they end up doing what they always did

9-11 was an awful thing because some 3000 people or so lost their lives, but what we saw in just a flicker for hardly a year... that is at the core of who we are as americans at our own deep level.

and sadly two so is what we see represented by the folks in my school paper.

I was a militia sympathizer back in the 90s but let me say this

When you focus to much on the wrongs of your country you lose the ability to see the big picture

You lose it to when you focus to much on the good

and this War on Terror, this generational war, is all about the Big Picture.