Saturday, September 11, 2010

JACK BAUER QUIT. ARE YOU READY?


One thing that being sick and not working does for a person is that it makes time irrelevant. I don't even keep track of my own doctor appointments because I will forget them. I am sometimes completely overcome on Wednesdays when I realize that it is Wednesday. I have that "Oh crap" moment because I have been slack and not been great about finding material for Thursday. Sometimes it is easy. One of you will write something, an alarm sounds in my brain, and I know the perfect piece of footage to go with what you wrote. Those are the gifts. Other times it is harder. I have to go back through all of your posts for the week looking for something to trigger anything in my brain. That is tougher. However, Saturday rarely takes me by surprise, but only because it comes so quickly after Thursday. Thursday is my Saturday alarm.


Last night H-Girl spent the night and we had fun looking at the Cyndi Lauper videos, watching Pretty In Pink, playing board games, and today we painted each other's finger and toenails. Basically it was two days of girl stuff. The only rough part of the whole thing was yesterday when I told her about my life at her age, and how I had my neighbor to talk to about confusing stuff. She was an adult but we had an agreement that anything I said stayed between us. I then told her that anything she said would stay between us. In theory, it was a great idea, but she had nothing to say, so we were back to Square One. However, I am done trying to get her to talk about her grades and school. She knows she can talk to me because I made it crystal clear.

All that said, I had no idea that today was the 11th of September until H-Girl got picked up by her dad, and I sat down at the computer to do my blog reading. (I wrote my blog while H-Girl was was playing her computer game. She had a Moshi pet to feed or something. I don't know what it is, so don't ask me.) Anyway, I felt like someone poured a bucket of cold water on me when I started reading your posts. Holy tomole. I wrote a post on Cher and Cyndi Lauper on the anniversary of 9/11. What in the name of everything that is holy was I thinking? Well, you didn't know that it was 9/11 dumba$$. Clearly. In fact, you are lucky you know what year it is. And lots of days you don't know the names of things or how to spell stuff. Well, that makes it all better.


Cassandra was in the 8th grade when the planes hit the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. One of her teachers said that this day would be that they would never forget. In fact, everyone would remember precisely what they were doing on this day. I was in my car driving to Columbia, SC, for work. My first stop was at a plant in Lexington, SC, whose name I can't remember. This happens a lot (the not remembering). They were a customer of mine for ten years, so it should be rolling off my tongue, but it isn't. The head of maintenance was a nice man named John. In fact, all of the guys in the maintenance shop were funny and very nice. I was listening to a book on tape or maybe a book on CD, so I wasn't listening to the radio, and I didn't know anything about what was going on when I arrived. When I walked into the shop, one of the guys said, "Can you believe a plane ran into one of the Twin Towers?"

These guys are a bunch of pranksters and I thought they were pulling my leg. So, I didn't believe them. I gave them a lot of "Yeah rights," but they were insistent. They had a radio in the shop and they said, "Listen, it is on the radio." And that is what we did. We stood around this little radio with an antennae and listened. At that time, there was a lot of wonder. Was it an accident? And then the disbelief of another plane coming out of nowhere headed for the other tower. We all just stood there looking at each other in horror. This couldn't be happening. Except that it was. It answered the question about the first plane, and the people on the radio went crazy. Words like "mayhem" and "smoke" and finally "terrorist attack" were being used.




I went from account to account in a daze. The people I spoke to were equally blown over. None of us had seen the event. The maintenance shops are usually not equipped with television sets, so all day long I went from one shop to another hearing it on the radio. Listening to it in my car. Of course, the news just got worse. The Pentagon. The plane going down in Pennsylvania. The people jumping off the tops of the Twin Towers rather than being burned alive. The recordings of the last phone calls from people in the Towers and people on the planes. It was heartbreaking. All of it.


My last stop was the Veterans Hospital back in Augusta. I finally got to a maintenance shop with a television set. Every maintenance worker was sitting around the table, eyes glued to the screen, even though it was the same footage all day long. However, to me, it was all new. I had heard it all day long, but it was the first time I had seen it. The first time I saw I the plane come out of nowhere and smash right into the remaining Twin Tower, I was sitting in the maintenance shop of the Veterans Hospital in Augusta. I watched the people jumping off the towers from there, too. It seems ironic now that I watched all of the horror in a VA Hospital maintenance shop. Probably most of those maintenance workers were also veterans. There was very little talking that day. Usually my customers, across the board, are witty and like to joke around. It is a perk of the job. Not that day. It was hard just doing the job that day. Asking one of them to stop watching the TV so that we could do something as mundane as inventory their bins to see what they needed in terms of supplies. However, that was my job. It was why I was there. So, we did it as fast as possible and then returned to watching the TV.

Juxtaposed against our tragedy was the celebration happening across the world. There were people waving flags like it was a party. They were enjoying our pain. There was so much hate in their hearts for our country that they would like nothing more than to kill us all. It was a lot to take in. If there had been a massive attack on their country and 3000 had been killed, I would have felt nothing but sadness for them. I don't understand hating people that you have never met. I don't understand hating someone because of color, race, religion, or any other belief system. I learned that day there are children being raised to hate us just because we are Americans. There are people whose minds will not be changed. They will hate us until they die. In fact, it is an honor to die if it means that they get to take a good number of Americans with them.



Americans tie themselves into knots to be politically correct. We sure don't want to offend anyone. We don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. All of those people who hate us so much have studied us well, and they know that our greatest weakness is ourselves. The more time that goes by, the more slack we get. The more slack we get, the more opportunity they have. And they are just out there waiting. If you think they aren't, they will prove you wrong. If remembering the events of 9/11 are not enough to shake you up, I suggest a few seasons of 24. But, Robin, that is just fiction. If I had told you that terrorists were going to orchestrate an attack wherein they were going to commandeer 4 planes, and ram them into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and possibly the White House, you would have said that was fiction before 9/11. So, armor up kids, because Jack Bauer has retired and there is no one out there ready to save our asses. Our President keeps apologizing for our behavior to other countries when he visits, so I wouldn't count on him when push comes to shove.

It's right about now that I wish I had a really cool superpower. I think I would be Supergirl. I have always wanted to fly, have bullets bounce off me, and do some major ass kicking. Plus you could blow hard enough to put out fire. Shoot fire from your eyes. See through things. Basically, she is Superman, but a girl. I think Superman rocks. Yep, I would definitely be Supergirl. It would be totally cool to save the world. Anyone else interested in joining the Justice League?

Don't forget to turn off my music player at the bottom of the page.


15 comments:

  1. Very well said, my husband uttered the same thing this morning. They are just out there, waiting for the right opportunity to attack.

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  2. Oh man, great post. I'm sooo with you. People hate us. HATE US! Raise their children to blame everything on the stupid Americans. It's sooo sad and we sit here and take it and call each other bad names for feeling upset that people feel the need to protect themselves against others. We will be attacked again. And again and again and again. And I'm with you, our current prez will take it laying down.

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  3. My mother's birthday is on 9/11 you don't forget that one.

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  4. Ahh Robin, I sometimes wonder...
    Would it be better to be ignorant as a post?
    I have a niece who is almost my same age who watches no news. She's a huge "American Idol" and "Dancing With the Stars" fan. She'll call and ask if we watched, then express her amazement that we didn't see Donnie Osmond's incredible performance.
    A Bozama voter, she refuses to discuss politics with us other than to admit things are a mess. (Of course you know whose fault that is!)
    I'm sure her blood pressure is normal. I'm equally sure mine is not...
    I've watched four hours of 9/11 programming tonight and I've learned of hundreds of minor heroes, (NOT Jack Bauers) that worked near miracles that day.
    And that, along with the fact that you and many, many others now have their eyes open to the enemy we face, gives me great hope.
    We are at war. Let's get on with it.
    (Thanks for your comment at "Pitchpull".)

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  5. yep.
    I thought the argument with the mosque vs. the burning of the koran was very interesting.
    Both are legal...and both are in piss poor taste.
    But the only flack, real flack you get is the koran burning...why is that?
    The other building is permanent.
    It makes you want to scream.
    I was in North Carolina.
    I dropped my oldest off and came home and ther it was. I watched the second plane hit the second tower.
    I went in and woke my husband up...and told him that we were under attack.
    I know alot of people were sad first.
    But I remember being soooo angry.
    Most of me wanted to rejoin the military right then and there.
    My mom talked me out of it.
    I am a fighter by nature.
    I will never forget.

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  6. The whole world was gripped by these attacks. Sometimes I wonder at people's logic. Maybe they get swept away by the "group" feeling. I guess its easy to blame nations that are portrayed as well-to-do to explain your own misery when you are uneducated and fed propaganda since your birth.

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  7. it was all too much today dear friend....way too much. you will have to read my post. It is 2:52 and I am trying to sort enough of it out in my head so that i can get some much needed rest.

    Where is Jack Bauer when we need him?

    Godspeed Robin....Carol-the gardener

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  8. well, okay, Robin, but this is not the entire truth. Muslim terrorist are not just after Americans. There were similar attacks (altough with less victims) in London, Mardrid, it's not like America is the only victim. Muslim extremists hate on entire Western civilisation and, you know, the origins of this whole mess are quite too complicated for a single blog post. Or a blog comment. Not to mention that it was America who had first taught Osama Bin Laden everything when they'd sort of needed him (because of how it was messed up with Russia back then). I'm not saying Muslim extremists are in the right here. Of course not. I was in London in July 2005 where the terrorist attacks happened, and I really think that nothing justifies this kind of attacks of innocent civils. But it sort of pains me when people portray America as a victim. America was a victim on 9/11/2001 but since then American is anythin but. And, also, the fact that you wouldn't be happy about other people's tragedy, doesn't mean everyone would. Like this pastor from Florida who said it would be cool to burn Korans on 11th September? I think people like him would be more than glad of other's tragedy. There are such people in every single nation.

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  9. This is a topic that pushes everyone's buttons. I would respond to all of you, but most of you don't need a response. I do want to say to Misery that I neglected to mention all of Western civilization b/c yesterday was a remembrance of one specific event. However, you are ABSOLUTELY RIGHT about Muslims having it out for all of Western civilization. You are also right about Osama Bin Laden. I believe that the CIA did that w/o anyone knowing about it. The problem here is that Western civilization doesn't understand Muslim thinking; if they did they would never have made that mistake. It was huge, as in massive. As for how other people think... I can't speak for anyone other than myself.

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  10. Question for Misery:
    Did the CIA's actions in Afghanistan improve, or degrade the world situation?
    I'm irritated beyond belief at those who equate striving for good with striving for evil. Taking Viet Nam as an example, the only time we've really failed is when we've lost our focus and backbone.
    Millions of people world-wide are living better lives because of the way our tax dollars are spread around, to INCLUDE, for the most part, the actions or our CIA.
    Your response?

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  11. You know how I feel on the situation, but I definitely think we have a lot Jack Bauer types out there. Otherwise, things might be even worse off. Thanks for your post.

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  12. @Greybeard ~ I wanted to think about this before I posted. Misery is from a younger generation and is from Poland. As you know, our history is fed to us in school the way that our society wants us to learn it. For example, the native americans were not the good guys in the battle for this land even though they were here first. (That is a head scratcher, no?) As for your question about how the CIA handled the situation? Even I don't know the answer on that one. Could they have achieved the same or better result and gone about it differently? I don't know. But they armed a very dangerous man and he came back to bite us in the butt big time.

    I think about VietNam and I scratch my head on that one, too. Is the question should we have continued or is it should we have gone there in the first place? I don't know. I do believe if you're gonna go, you should see it through. The same sort of thing happened in Korea. Maybe if we'd seen that through, we wouldn't still have troops in Korea today. I don't know.

    However, our bigger problem is that people believe that Muslims quoting the peaceful passages are at peace. Keep up with my comments on the video. Don't challenge the people leaving them b/c it won't change how the think. They watched the video and that is still what they believe. That is our downfall. People want to believe that faithful Muslims are at peace.

    Back to Misery's answers... it might be insightful as to what is being taught in Poland. She is a very smart, caring, person and will answer you with what her country has "taught" her. It will be a learning experience.

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  13. I know this, Robin:
    We had Viet Nam won. The top North Vietnamese General, General Giap, says as much. He was ready to surrender, but saw how our media was turning against the war and knew politicians would be pressured and we'd withdraw.
    I flew around in a large, slow target for a year and got shot at regularaly...
    58,000 of my brethren dead...
    MILLIONS either exterminated or "re-educated" by brutal thugs.
    All because we didn't have the backbone and vision to see it through.

    Politicians make terrible Generals.
    We were losing in Iraq until Bush followed our military leader's suggestions. Now 25 million people there AT LEAST HAVE A CHANCE TO BREATHE FREE, like your friend from Poland.

    If you are uncomfortable with me challenging ignorance here I understand and won't comment again.
    (And I don't mean ignorant in a derogatory way... I mean ignorant as in uninformed.)

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  14. @Greybeard: what has VietNam to do with this anyway? I really have no idea why you even brought this up. As for America's 'tax dollars', no argument from me here. But I wasn't talking about this either. The fact that America is an economic leader should not be a justification to anything. And as for America being the saviour of those 25 million of people...I wouldn't go into such a pathos-filled tone if I were you. The truth is that life has not drastically changed there for good and, also, lets not forget the reasons the war in Iraq started anyway. Those reasons were proved by facts to be wrong. I think that my point of view on these things might be so different than yours because of a completely different approach that media take on this in America and in Poland, where I live. So, all in all, this is not my IGNORANCE, it's just the simple fact of having a different perspective. There's always more than one way to look at things.

    ~Misery.

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  15. .Said-
    Sorry. There are conversations going on at two different blogs here, and you're not privy to one of them so you missed half the dialogue.
    And if you can't agree that 25 million folks in Iraq at least have a chance at living lives without a dictator feeding them feet-first into wood chippers, or imprisoning them in "Rape Rooms", then I guess I'll have to agree with you...
    "There's always more than one way to look at thiings."

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