:: All That You Can't Leave Behind ::

:: Thursday, September 11, 2003 ::

What's Today's Date?

Today seemed to pass in a blur. I can't believe it's been two whole years since that beautiful yet tragic Wednesday morning. That's probably the one thing that I can remember clearly, thinking to myself that the weather was perfect, the sun was shining, as I got ready for work.

I remember my mom calling me to tell me what had happened. My brother was home at the time and working at the Air Force recruiting office. He was supposed to leave for Germany the next day, on September 12th. She had just picked him up from the office since there wasn't anything for him to do, except maybe watch the television with the rest of the world. Everything was so shocking. It was completely unreal. The idea of America under attack... Even now it doesn't make much sense to me.

Work was a blur as well. I remember vaguely a TV at the bank showing repeatedly the images of United Flight 175 colliding with the South Tower. My only reference point then, and now, were scenes from the movie, Independence Day, when the White House is blown up. How amazing when a movie like that comes to life.

Those images and others are still raw for me. Later that night it was all I could do to get away from everything. My mom and brother were glued to the TV but I couldn't watch. I realized that night how the media monopoly works since practically every channel had one of the same ABC, CBS, NBC news shows. Thank God for Drew Carey! FOX was on regular programming I suppose. It was my refuge, if only for a little while.

Up until six months afterwards everyone and anyone had an American flag. They were slapped all over cars, houses, businesses, you name it, and there was a flag on it. Slogans such as "United We Stand" and "God Bless America" were the term du jour. Patriotism became the "new", "in" thing to be. Where are those flags now? I'd be hard pressed to drive anywhere in town and see maybe a few stickers here and there, as opposed to every other car.

I wonder what these "patriots" where thinking when they removed those signs. I have to wonder what justification there was to take down the flag. "9/11? That is so two years ago!" may have been one. I can't begin to count the number of people that asked me what the date was today when they were trying to fill out their checks. I wanted to slap them. I wanted to tell them, "How can you not remember what today is? More than 3,000 innocent people died two years ago today, in probably one of the most horrific ways possible, and you don't know what day it is?"

To all you false patriots out there I say, "Fuck you." Samuel Johnson was correct in saying that, "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." To everyone else, I say please take care of yourselves and each other. Life is too precious, too short, not to. Especially for the victims and families of September 11th, they know and understand that all too well.
:: Estoy_Libre 11:42 PM [+] ::
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