Monday, September 11, 2006

9/11/2001 - 9/11/2006

The following is a post I sent to an e-group of mine on the morning of September 12, 2001:


Damn, I've been beside myself for the last 30+ hours now. (and seeing as i ate mexican last night, it's not the best place to be).

This is just so massive a thing (in every corner of every aspect) that the best anyone can do is attempt scattershot commentary or accounts. It's just maddeningly massive in scope. As they keep saying in the news, i too get the feeling that for a number or reasons, nothing will ever be the same.

This is all really testing the bounds of my pacifism. There are some very ugly doors being opened in the wake of this, which i suppose is the surest sign of victory for the 'enemy'. Despite my befiefs [sic], i too feel that vibe, that populist tendency to want to burn and bomb afghanastan [sic] to the roots to find the fuckers responsible... This is a very scary time. Not just due to the acts themselves and what they reveal about airline security et. al., but the opertunity [sic]this state (of mind, of near-martial law) affords the jingoists, the militarists, the trigger-fingered, the racists, the whole massive, world-wide rush to judgement [sic] and thus punishment. The US public (understandably) seems to have given their blessings to the feds and this leaves us in some real pretty shit. As it stands, we have the backing and the sympathy of almost the entire world. One or a series of ill-advised or emotionally provoked retaliatory attacks can easily swing that balance. And as we learned from the archduke's assassination in the WWI pregame warmup, all it takes is a simple, little shifft in world-public opinion and we might just find ourselves in the crook of a full-scale, world war.

Here in Boston today, the city is nearly shut down if only because everyone is locked into tv coverage (the fuckers picked today to turn off my goddamned cable too). There is heavy police movement and presence as i drive around the much-less-than-normally crowded streets. As the New York attacks were based out of Boston (at least partially) the FBI is also a major presence here. In fact there was just a massive raid on a hotel here netting 3 suspects and a bunch of evidence. Or so we're told. Apparently, there is also a raid or two in Florida, which shouldn't surprise anyone on this list, because, hey, it's Florida.

For me one of the worst aspects of all this is the loss of the Police and Firefighters who all responded to the first crash. Watching the (very newly promoted) NY fire chief on tv last night you could read the utter dejection and despair in his eyes. And indeed he said "I don't know how we [as in the fire dept., but by association everyone] are ever gonna recover from this."

Anyway....

I also hope that nobody on the list had relatives, friends or associates in the affected areas.
and all you new yorkers, DC'ers and others, start taking photos or sound recordings or interviews...

Get out there and get YOUR point of view...
FUCK the news networks, FUCK the gov't info agencies...
They serve their purpose, but what the hell are these newsgroups for (or the whole internet for that matter) if not that?

Off the soap box,

-bryan

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