Recovery?
9/12/2003 11:23 AM
Ok...I wrote about 3 pages on my recollections of September 11th and I thought. Man...This is too wordy. And I'm really not saying anything that insightful. So I'll just give you the highlights.

-Norb was the first one to tell me about the crash.
-I was numb.
-With each story it became more unreal
-F-16s take off from airport...I realize "we're at war"
-I got really angry and wanted to level the entire Mideast.
-I cooled out.
-I told Kendra I loved her and meant it more than ever before.
-I went home and watched the coverage all night and got more depressed.
-It was the last time I cried.

So now a word on where we are today. Last night the anniversary of the attack the networks had "Whoopi" and "Extreme Makeovers" showing the world we are just as shallow as ever. A few days after the attack I was really feeling the "up with people mood". We'll recover and the world will be a better place. Well we kind of did and kind of didn't. I don't think that we've recovered so much as we've changed our focus. I backed the president when he said, "we will rid the world of terrorism". I didn't take it lightly...I know we'd get dirty. But for one of the rare times in my life I believed "the ends justified the means". We had tried it the diplomatic way for decades. Maybe it was time to stop rattling the saber and start using the business end of it. I thought of the stories of World War 2 when people, communities gathered together and showed the strength of America doesn't lay in its war machine but in its work ethic and doing the "right thing". I hoped this would be an era of that. I think that feeling lasted about a week. I feel that we're as fractured as ever. I don't think anyone feels anymore SAFE than they did before. Both political parties use the victims and soldiers for their own gains. For a long time I wanted to think that the best way to pay tribute to those lost in the towers would be to make the world safer and better. I feel like we're dishonoring them now. We bicker about how the memorial should be built. There are congressional hearings regarding the "ranking system" of college football. I am let down by the American people and ultimately at myself because I haven't changed either. I feel as helpless now as I did September 11th two years ago.