I had a post written up about my misadventures with Steve last night, but as I was about to post it this morning, Sean turned on the news. It doesn’t seem appropriate now, so I will just tell you this.
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I had a post written up about my misadventures with Steve last night, but as I was about to post it this morning, Sean turned on the news. It doesn’t seem appropriate now, so I will just tell you this.
Glad to hear that. –Alex
September 11th, 2001 at 4:20 pm
good, I was a little worried about Ryan, though I didn’t think he was in Manhattan… Glad Stephanie’s okay.Man. We were sitting around in the common area at Mickey House at 10 PM, and me and Masaru (the landlord) were staring at the first pictures of the smoking tower, saying, "is this real? is this a movie? it looks like CG. is this new york?" when the second plane hit. It still doesn’t feel like all the implications have sunk in. This is a new thing for america; we’ve never been attacked on this level before on our home territory. There’re only two other americans in the house, but everyone was freaking out. The british, the australian… thoughts of world war III breaking out; the economy which is already going downhill taking this as the push it needs to go completely over the brink. Staying in japan looks better and better. This morning a couple of other residents of the house got in a fight over nothing, really; just too much emotional pressure and one of them was a Jewish guy with a virulent hatred for all Arabs, who wasn’t hearing anything anyone said to him. You know, when someone says "there is absolute right and absolute wrong," I know to get the hell away from that person, but Beverly just kept trying to correct him and next thing he was trying to flip the coffee table over on her and she was throwing hard objects and we had to physically separate them.Everybody stay cool.
September 11th, 2001 at 11:55 pm
I don’t know what kind of news you’re getting over there, but it’s interesting. The reaction here, by and large has seemed to be one of numbed shock. Pretty much everyone everywhere made their way to the red cross stations and donated blood yesterday. It was really amazing watching everyone pull together to do what they can, even amid comments like "pearl harbor 2" and worries about Bush declaring war.
September 12th, 2001 at 10:44 am
Yah it was totally numb shock. No one here ay my office or our california office got a single thing done. I don’t think anyone in the US was terribly productive yesterday, and today is only marginally better. Total numb shock. I was walking down the street, and even the street kids were quiet, no one was asking for change. Weird.I personally think this will galvanize not only our nation but the UN and other world leaders. One of the things that will come from this is strength as a people and as a country, and *hopefully* as a country hand in hand with other countries of the world. I really pity the fool(s) who did this attack. It was famously quoted that pearl harbor awakened a sleeping giant, and I believe this could be the case again. I think THAT is what scares people. We know what the US is capable of in both its finest and darkest hours. I think we’re all praying that we can make this the former.–Alex
September 12th, 2001 at 11:40 am
I read a quote in the paper, forget who it was, but some military leader. More or less, he said:’We could turn the entire middle east into glass, but we won’t, because we don’t operate that way.’If you’d asked me what i thought of americans in general, and people in general, last week, I’d have given you a pretty pessimistic reply. But simply from watching how much people have come together in the last 24 hours, I have high hopes for our future as a nation and as a planet. Maybe misguided ones, but at least not everyone in office is a war hungry moron. coughbushcough…I’m far more worried about the probably backlash against arabs and muslims that has already started in some places. I know what stupid white people are capable of and I’m scared at what we might do in our greif. Far more so that I am about the war we’ll probably be fighting soon. I don’t think it’ll turn into WW3 or even Vietnam again: we have plenty of soldiers, enlistment will skyrocket in the near future, and we’ve been moving towards more of a bomb/missile/tank based military. We could pound Bin Laden into the ground if we wanted to, if we knew exactly where to pound.And make no mistake: whether he’s responsible or not, I have no doubts we’ll go after him big time now and take him down/out.Anyways, there is some hope that we won’t screw up too badly. I just hope Bush doesn’t spin this into a re-election…
September 13th, 2001 at 3:45 am
Read today about the Pentagon "girding for a long war." The military-industrial complex has a lot to gain. This isn’t going to be a simple war, but a continuous state of being for the U.S. for who knows how many years. Since you can never say you’ve pinned down the last terrorist; and even if a few surrender, you can still chase after the rest. Powell was talking about eliminating terrorism completely — well, of course that’s impossible as long as the us has any enemies. No country this large and wealthy escapes jealousy.
September 14th, 2001 at 11:56 pm