As I write this, the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist
attacks on the USA
is tomorrow. I’m feeling mixed about the
whole thing. I don’t know if it’s
because I’m a shallow bastard, or if I just analyze things too much.
That that day was a tragedy for this country, I feel for
certain. But for what reasons? Therein lies the mixed up part.
I know where I was that day.
I was at work, in Plattsburgh,
NY; at the Pratt & Whitney
main hangar. There was a large group of
us working on N747UT that day, we had a fair sized group of contracting
mechanics helping out as well. One of
those mechanics, had his pocket radio and ear buds going. He heard about the World Trade
Center attacks
first. He started telling people around
him what he was hearing. As you probably
remember, first reports were confusing:
The buildings are on fire, there was a bomb, a plane hit the tower. Then the second plane hit, and the thought
that it was an accident started to sound a little stretched. We all began talking about it, work kind of
slowed to a halt in the hangar. A little
later on, we heard word of the Pentagon crash.
I felt angry. I was angry that someone took a jetliner and
did this. That many people died, I knew
from common sense. Whether I was
angriest about that, or that they’d used an airplane to do it, I don’t
know. Airplanes were and are, how I make
my living. I really like airplanes, I
have lots of books, lots of models, and did I mention I’ve been working on them
since the early ‘90’s?
Our head project guy, an old ex-military man, decided he
needed to gather everyone together at lunchtime, and give a short talk. The gist of it was this: He believed that what had happened today,
were terrorist attacks. And that the
best way that we personally could counter them, was to get back to work. If we let this upset us, and stop us from
doing our jobs, then that is exactly what the terrorists want, and they will have won.
I think he said some patriotic stuff too, but I forget. It was sort of a self serving statement he
gave, in the sense that it was important to him that we get back to work, so
that production on his airplane could continue.
But it was also a true statement, and I’ve tried to remember that part.
As an aside to this whole 10 year discussion, and that above
statement. I almost feel that the
terrorists have won in a way. If you
look back at the last ten years, and see how much freedom we’ve given up, for the
sake of security screenings, border patrols, data tracking, warrant-less searches,
kidnapping suspects and putting them in Guantanamo Bay. Looking at all of that, as a whole; I am saddened for what 9/11 did to this
country. And I guess I can say that if
the terrorists didn’t win, then they certainly forced us to change, and not for
the better.
Back to that day though; those of us there at work got back
to work. The day passed fairly
quickly. When I went home, I had the
experience of telling my wife what she had missed during the day. Our children were almost 2 years old at the
time, and the only television in the house had been tuned to PBS all morning
for the kids programming. PBS did not
interrupt the kids programming to tell all about the attacks, which I think was
a good thing. So my wife didn't know
about it, and we sat down and talked about it, and watched the news for
awhile.
At work the next day, we worked. And though we were working hard on the airplanes
that we had there at the hangar, there were none in the skies yet. Just the occasional rumble from the Air
National Guard F-16's from Burlington,
VT. It was a strange, planeless sky for those few
days.
Eventually, life got normal.
As it does after things like that.
At least for those not directly involved.
I look at sensationalistic things a little jaded these days,
and what the media did with 9/11 is a perfect example. For the most part, I was only exposed to US
media. The BBC was on very early, or
late at night, and I seldom caught it.
What I saw the US
media do, was their usual routine, of wringing every bit of air time out of
things as they could. Until much meaning
was lost, and the big picture perspective was completely lost.
9/11 became our symbol, our badge, our own little tempest in
a teacup of perpetual motion, that kept us motivated to hate those who had done
this to us. And, since it was hard to
hate the ones who had actually done it, as they were dead, we switched to their
bosses, who weren't easy to find. When
finding most of them failed, we flailed around the world, lashing out at anyone
we thought had any ties to terrorism.
History demonstrates the effectiveness of this.
Lost to most of us, was the perspective on the day.
Was the fact that violence took place out of the
ordinary? No, not on a global scale
certainly.
Was the number of people who died uncommon? No, it wasn't. Trolling the subject of disasters, or wars, or genocides, or
death squads, etc... on the internet shows it isn't.
The two things that made it stick out for us, was the method
and the location.
The method, was certainly sort of novel. Although, looked at with historical
perspective, it was a sort of evolutional thing. Terrorists have been hijacking planes for
years, with varying degrees of success.
The idea of a suicide plane is not new, think on the Japanese Kamikaze
for an easy example. Planes crashing
into buildings? Well, there are
accidents I know of. One in New York City as a matter of fact, when a B-25 bomber I
think it was, crashed into the Empire
State Building
during WW2.
I'm sure you can connect the dots in your own way.
Most importantly though, location. As they say in real estate, "Location,
location, location!" This attack
had it all in spades.
First, obviously, it was on American soil. A place that we has seen very little external
attack historically. Second, was what
they were attacking. The World Trade
Center twin towers was a
symbol of success, excess, and the American
Way; well at least to some people. Remember, this wasn't the first time a
terrorist had tried to bring one of them down.
The buildings were famous in their own right, and a fixture on the
skyline of NYC for anyone who has been there, or seen a picture.
The Pentagon, was a symbol of our military, and situated
just across the river from the rest of our government. We can be thankful that the other plane was
brought down before it was able to hit the White House, which was suspected to
be that planes target.
Yet another aside:
Flight 93, whether it was brought down by the direct cause of the
passengers on board fighting back to retake the plane; or by a military missile;
does not matter. The people on board are
deservedly called heroes. By all
accounts they were fighting back near the time their plane went down. That's one time that trying counts as much as
succeeding in my book.
Back to the thread though.
So we have the location. It hits
hard to home for us Americans.
Take all that shock at being attacked at those locations,
and those symbols. Now combine it with
media frenzy of coverage and opinion, and constant bombardment of video and
pictures. Add in some rampant patriotic
talk.....and there you have the point where I tune out.
It's not that I don't believe that terrorists did it, I'm
not one of those that thinks it was a government conspiracy. I sympathize, and my heart aches for those
that lost someone they knew or loved.
And I was, in general, upset about it.
Why though? And
hence, the subject's place here, in the realm of Worry.
Because here, ten years on.
I guess I'm over it. The dead are
dead, they have been mourned. The people
who lost someone, live with that loss every goddamned day, they don't need
anniversaries to remind them of it. The
people who were there, and are suffering some kind of sickness from all the
stuff that was flying around near the buildings, they also live with it every
day. I would express my condolences to
the one, and my heartfelt thanks to the other.
But I wouldn't wait for an anniversary to do it, and I sure as shit
wouldn't do it every year on the same day.
The people who were directly effected by 9/11, do not need our national diarrhea
of guilt to soothe them.
9/11/2011, will be just another day. I will treat it as such. I will work on my house, I will have lunch
with my family, I will watch a movie, I will have sex with my wife. I will not dwell on the tragedies of the
past.
I will do all of those things.
Because if I do not, then the terrorists win.
