It's as good a time as any, to go back over my experience on that awful day. I remember it as vividly as if it were yesterday morning. As if it were this morning, sometimes.
I was on my way in to work, listening to WGST, waiting for the replay of David Letterman's Top Ten List. The breaking news "swoosh" sounded and I heard that "a small plane" had hit one of the World Trade Center towers. Now, just the other week, somebody in a parasail had fouled the torch of the Statue of Liberty. So, I thought that this was some brainwipe in a Cessna whose stunt had gone awry. Only when I got in did I hear that both had been hit. I tried to connect to various news websites, but the national ones were all jammed. So I hit upon the idea of connecting to some West Coast newspapers' websites before their patrons woke up, because I knew they would be receiving wire photos and reports. I finally got through to the website of the Sacramento Bee. I later sent their webmaster a thank-you for his hard work. I was so stunned that it wasn't until after lunch that it occurred to me to turn on the radio.
I got home and ate dinner in front of the TV. It was a cacophany of video loops, guest experts, officials, and reporters doing stand-ups at or near various newsworthy locations.
It's hard for me to even look at my own usenet postings from that week on google. I'm grateful to have had that outlet, though.
One thing I still can't stand, is hearing people call it a disaster, or a tragedy. Katrina was a disaster, and Oedipus Rex is a tragedy. This was an atrocity. It's important to call things by their right names.
More ruminations later...
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