Remembering

Today will see, as is to be expected, a number of memorial observances of the third anniversary of the events now easily summed up in the single reference "9/11." I thought I'd have my own sort of memorial, right here.

I've always been a night owl, so getting up in the morning for work has only rarely been a leisurely experience. I'm much more apt to get up, get dressed, and get out than to linger over a morning cup of tea. The morning of September 11, 2001, was in that regard a typical one. So it was not until while driving to work that I first heard on the radio a reference (between 60s oldies) to "the planes in New York." Said in a way that implied any listener would already know what was being talked about, it left me confused.

It wasn't until I arrived at work to find co-workers clustered around a TV at the security desk, with one referring to "those poor people," that I learned what had happened.

It was about that time that talk of terrorism and attacks was spreading along with rumors of planes of all sorts crashing across the country and others of numerous planes still in the air heading for wherever.

I watched, with everyone else, the scenes of the towers collapsing. I watched, with everyone else, the images of the huge clouds of dust, ash, and smoke billowing up Manhattan streets. I tried, with everyone else, to get a grip on what had happened. I trembled, with everyone else, for the lives lost and feared, with everyone else, for what the total might be. And I wondered, with everyone else but perhaps not in the same way as everyone else, "what happens now?"

Over the course of that afternoon, amid swirls of rumors and fantastic speculation, some details began to settle and the image of a coordinated attack began to emerge. And even then, even then, even that soon, even before the mourning had really begun, the finger-pointing started, the finger-pointing that has lead us on the bloody path we have followed since.

So I thought I would remember the day by posting several things I wrote in the first months following 9/11 that had to do with terrorism and our response to it. Consider it a kind of political memorial. Yes, there is some overlap and some arguments - even a whole paragraph here and there - are repeated, but different writings were for different audiences.

If you want to skip reading old stuff - though you might be interested in considering how well (or if) what I said then has held up - I should have some other stuff posted later this evening, so just go to the first post that isn't headlined with a date from 2001 or 2002.

Responses, as always, are welcome. And if you have some memory you'd care to share, feel free to add it.

Buf it you do nothing else, you must look at this. I mentioned it way back in November, in one of my very first posts, calling it "just a reminder of what we've managed to throw away in less - actually much less - than two years." It deserves a look and a thought.