I was with H.o.p., of course. Marty was at work. I began emailing back and forth with a musician who used to live in our little art/music complex, for whom Marty had been producing a CD. Then he emailed that he had just heard his uncle may have been the captain of the first plane that struck the WTC, but he'd not yet had confirmation. It was his uncle and though I didn't know his uncle that ratcheted up my sense of a connection, I suppose, imagining that day this uncle of a friend of ours, what he had been through, and knowing that family would have to live from then on with this terrible, intimate relationship to an event that I knew would become the touchstone of American history for H.o.p.'s generation. (I am perhaps not putting this very well.) This friend was of course profoundly disturbed by what had happened and we talked about it frequently. He also was absolutely opposed to what happened afterwards and felt his uncle and other victims had been used as an excuse.
Maybe someday it will be an impeachable offense for any holder of public office to utter the term "9/11" unless referring to the local emergency phone number.
I feel very detached from 9/11 for the reasons that you so eloquently articulated, but I wonder if I might feel something if this administration hadn't appropriated it and used it as a political cudgel. What is there to feel though? Some sadness that 3000 people went to work one day and never came home. Everything else seems a weird and shameful game.
I, too, feel a sense of detachment about remembering the airline attacks on Sept. 11th. Why is it no one mentions the people who died from the anthrax poisoning? Everything surrounding this event and its aftermath seems bizarre.
This is my first time visiting Stine Bridge. I love your blog and am very sorry about the loss of your wife, Kay. I lost my sister, Karen to leukemia many, many years ago.
Robin, sadness and empathy for those who suffered are normal human emotions, and we would be weird not to feel those things. I guess the problem is--thanks to the patriotism hucksters--that if I see a parade with a flag going by, I feel like throwing rocks at it.
Cali, thanks for your visit, and kind comments.
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