Boxers will say, right after a fight, that they weren't hurt. Their opponent never got to them or caused them any distress. At that moment, they are in a state of shock. A day later though...
You may never have boxed a day in your life, but when you woke up on the day after, you felt like you had gone into the deep rounds. You felt punched. You felt wounded. You felt beat.
There was no precedent of how to react... No rule book... It was just under six decades since we had been "attacked".
On that morning after... I was told not to come into work in Dallas. My now second ex wife was told to not to come into work in a skyscraper in downtown Dallas. Her parents were staying with us in Cedar Hill, TX. We watched the news. That is what we all did. Every station - EVERY STATION - was news.
I would go outside to smoke and was unnerved by the silent skies. Devoid of air traffic.
Yesterday, I watched a tribute before turning off the TV. There were fly overs at the majority of football games. I saw our President speak to the unifying nature of the tragedy.
Unity... in this country? It took the deaths of 2996 people to "unite" us.
How long did it last? Four years? Two years?
I no longer scoff when I hear a mouth breather grunt, "Murica!" Because the title "United States Of America" is not an entirely true title. People will point fingers and say This or That person has polarized us. I think the polarization started on September 12, 2001.
My personal opinion is Cheney's dick got so hard, at the prospect of snatching oil and construction contracts for Haliburton, he had to be careful not to blow out his "heart", or reasonable facsimile of what we humans call a heart, that pumps his unholy blood.
Cooler heads voted against the inevitable calls for war... Namely our current President, and a one time candidate who would have been an even stronger nominee than whatshername...
I think to all the speeches from President Retarded Cowboy, aka War Criminal. Every year, he would mention the tragedy. Every year, he would state why we spending billions in a war with a country, later to shown to have NOTHING to do with 9/11...
I also remember thinking, this is why I don't want a religious president. They put stock in make believe bullshit, as long as it makes them right, and justifies their belief in the bullshit.
People will always remember 9/11/2001. Politicians have made careers out of it. I remember a crispness in the morning air. A bagel from the Tom Thumb on Northwest Highway. Howard Stern doing what I thought was a radio bit...
And going into an empty office... Then finding everyone huddled around a TV in the conference room. It took about an hour for them to send us home.
It was a terrible, terrible day. I think it hurt more on the 12th, because we realized it wasn't a nightmare we could wake up from.
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9/11, for incoming high school Freshman is a history lesson. It happened before a lot of them were born. They have grown up not knowing of a world where that did not happen.
They also only know of an America perpetually at war. They have grown up being told that a good portion of the world hates us.
Fifteen years, and the shadow of that day still looms. We were altered that day. Forever.
Oh... and here is a site that lists all the members of Congress who voted AGAINST the First Responders or "Zadroga" Bill. Just a little something to help you vote this November.
The music wouldn't play,
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Nice
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