9/11 -- Same Time, This Year

So the other day I checked my TiVo and discovered that it had picked up a few programs on 9/11. Sad to say, I've been so busy I clean forgot that it was that time again. HBO had done a documentary a while back that I missed, but here it was, waiting for me on the machine, so I plunked down and turned it on. There was no annoying voice-over by some talking head, just video footage and photographs from random people - some journalists, some just average Joes/Jolenes who were near the area that day. Occassionally, this footage was interspersed with interviews with the mayor and his staff, all of whom recounted where they were and what they did throughout the day. Now, I'm against the war and all and I think Bush is a weenie -- but that's because I see absolutely no link between 9/11 (a bin Laden-hosted affair) and Iraq; certainly, Afghanistan was a stretch. But watching this, it reminded me that do what we will, evil is just plain out there. I mean, that's really all terrorism is, whether you're Irish or Muslim or Russian or American -- killing civilians in the name of your cause is, quite simply, the act of a coward. I doubt that randomly attacking countries is going to change any of that.

I didn't lose anyone in either the Twin Towers or the other two attacks, but I can remember how, for a few days, the world felt. At least, I can recall my world. Things were already strange for me; I was in the process of trying to evict a crack-addicted roommate who was finally in jail (9/11 delayed her hearing long enough for me to serve her with a restraining order at the jail), and much of my house was in disarray. I'd just arrived home from a trip to Seattle on the night of the tenth, and decided to deal with cleaning the next day. The morning of the eleventh, I called a friend and launched into the latest on the Roommate Bulletin, but she interrupted me with, "Have you watched the news at all?"

From there on, it was mostly a sit-in-front-of-the-tiny TV-in-my-bedroom kind of day (the living room TV had been secured at a friend's weeks ago to keep it from being ripped off by the roommate). There were other entropic events going on involving shifts in a relationship, and that definitely added to the fun. But more than that, I can recall the entire city being on edge for quite some time, watching the skies for stray airplanes or just bracing themselves for bombs. Every ride under the Bay in the BART train felt like it could be my last. At least I didn't work in the Transamerica Building - that must have sucked.

I can recall how everyone looked at the policemen who walked around town and in the BART stations, and the firemen who drove by, as if they were all heroes. I also can recall the war protests months later, and how those looks of gratitude had returned to thier usual mistrust.

For a few days there -- maybe even a week -- we were more or less united as a people. It only took government a few weeks to screw that up.