My family have been carrying on an informal email dialog about last weeks unbelievable events. My niece Rebecca in Kansas City is somewhere in her late twenties I think, and sent his comment, that I find interesting:

"Speaking for my generation, this is the first time that I can remember seeing real patriotism. It is wonderful to see so many flags and people wearing ribbons. My cousins may disagree but I don't think our generation has ever seen our country have a common goal or common enemy that bound us all together."

My sister Barbara in Wisconsin:

"Ben and I were on the road on Friday at seven, when the candlelight vigil was scheduled. Driving through small towns, we saw many neightborhoods, and groups of people with candles. It was a neat sight."

My sister Gail in Arizona:

"We went to church Friday night, a candle light prayer vigil which was very moving. the phrase from America the Beautiful 'Alabaster cities, undimmed by human tears' broke me up. I sobbed uncontrollably."

My brother-in-law Loren in Kansas farm country:

"...I was hauling cattle when I heard the news. It was really hard to believe and I kept thinking it was some kind of bad joke. Like everyone I was really saddened and mad but at the same time I was scared, knowing that [son] Kyle, [son-in-law] Brandon and all of my nephews and nephews-in-law could possibly be called into the service. I keep praying that our leaders not do something really stupid. I want the people who did it punished but I don’t want World War III...

"I think from there on my opinion differs from most. I am sick and tired of everything being cancelled, ballgames etc. This is exactly what the terrorists wanted!!!. My life has not changed. I still have to work the ground, move cattle, plant wheat, harvest crops etc. except the people I that I rely on market people, money people, USDA [sweetcorn project] etc just didn’t work for several days. I guess I am just jealous that those people just get a vacation and still get paid!! Several people I know just watched TV for 2 or 3 days but still got paid. I really didn’t have time to even watch much TV. "

If you are quoted here I hope you don't mind me taking your words and putting them on the net. I feel compelled to share what people are saying.

I for one, in retrospect especially, am glad the NFL and all canceled their games this past weekend. I would've loved to have watched a game, but it's too soon for such trivial distraction. (and football is exactly that by comparison--and I hope that identity sticks) We wanted to escape it, but we need to continue to be confronted with it so that we don't forget and so that we will talk about it -- oral history is what keeps things alive. We need to keep this memory alive for future generations to help prevent it from happening again. However, I can't help thinking that this is just the beginning.

Yes, definitely read this article about Osama bin Laden. It's very informative. This quote from the long preamble consisting of the author's backroads travels through Pakistan and Afghanistan to bin Laden's camp:

"Minor revelation: For most Americans, me included, experience with the ancients is pretty much confined to the Bible. In the Bible is a world rife with plagues and pestilence, a world where things are worth killing and dying for, a world from a time before kill ratios and collateral damage and unacceptable levels of casualties. A world of huts. A world where there is no such thing as a losing battle. In modern America, we no longer have the stomach for endeavors that don't seem like sure bets, which can make things tricky when you're up against someone who doesn't give a damn, someone who is willing to risk everything, and gladly. At Bannu, it felt as if we were crossing over into that world, where the ancient texts aren't so ancient, where martyrs are made. "

I talked about seeing a plane in the sky in my last post. A little while ago I had a similar experience when this time I heard a jetliner fly past our house on the way to the runway south of town. I couldn't help wondering about hearing a sound like that, and that close, while sitting at a desk on the 100th floor....

I finished Slow Motion Riot. Good. Very good in fact. But I wouldn't recommend it. That is, unless you are into death and killing, and reading about the utter dispairing futility of life in the inner city crack ghettos, and young Jewish alcoholic probation officer's adventures there. It was weird finishing this book while witnessing the destruction in New York. The book takes place in New York so of course there were a couple of mentions of the World Trade Center, but reading about the death and poverty while learning about the financial district...the two worlds so disparate, but only miles apart. I'm wondering what the crackheads in the projects think about the attack...if they've heard. I'd read another of Blauner's books.

I suppose one must listen to this perspective, and I myself asked in my first blog about the attack (please, do not say 'tragedy', or 'disaster'--it was an attack), "what did we do to deserve this?" I've heard things like what this article refers to, but I've yet to see any specifics. What exactly did we do that makes it worth crashing passenger jets into office buildings? And even if we did do something that horrific, what's done is done. I don't think any of those extremist freaks are going to forgive us for any reason any time soon. They will do it again and in an even grander fashion. And then they will do it again, and again. They must be stopped...if they can be stopped.

Blauner's main character's father is a holocaust survivor in his book. Part of the old man's difficulty is shame over an incident at Auschwitz where he actually killed another prisoner to claim a scrap of bread to eat. The old man tells the kid, "you do what you got to do to survive." Likewise, we, the USA, waving flags all the way, must do all we can to find the perps, and if that means some innocent people get in way....

What's most troubling though, is this war on terrorism will be just like the war on drugs. It will not be won and it cannot be won, it can only be fought.......forever.

"...--Their Bhagavad Gitas of Ignorance, Krishna's advice, Comma,The game begins--..." -Jack Kerouac, MacDougal Street Blues

We went to the fair again today. Had a pretty good time. There was a rock band onstage at the Miller Pavilion this morning, and they opened with an acapella version of the Star Spangled Banner. Everybody stood. It seems like everybody's doing that kind of thing, waving flags and stuff, but I'm skeptical that they really know what it means. We saw some really wild looking rabbits today too, and took in most of the artwork.

Yesterday, when Lucy and I were walking, we noticed the jets taking off once again from Albuquerque Sunport. Seeing a Southwest Airlines red and bronze passenger liner up in the sky, I realized that I would never look at one of those things the same way again.

Okay kids, if you really want to freak out, read this letter from an Afghani-American writer posted on caterina.net. I still haven't read the interview with bin Laden.

Esquire: Feature Story: Greetings, America. My Name is Osama bin Laden.
I didn't read this article. I decided to read the Desiderata again instead. But it's here in case you're interested. Esquire did an article on bin Laden in Feb 99. It's actually an interview they conducted in 1997.

Last night, Wednesday, Lucy and I decided to go to the State Fair in order to get away from the television. Above is a place called Asbury Cafe (not related to Asbury Park, Boss fans) where we escaped the rain for a piece of pie. The joint is a state fair tradition going back about a million years. It's operated by a cooperative of churches who donate the proceeds to various shelters and goody-goody causes, hence it's fully run by volunteers who all wear those funny busboy paper hats: housewives, retired accountants, high school overacheivers, sweet middle-aged men. And these most-well-intentioned folks sometimes screw up since they aren't used to the short order food business. The old guy (right in the middle all the way to the back) tried give my wife a piece of strawberry-peach pie with melted ala mode. After they fixed that and we sat down, they called my name again, having accidentally duplicated the order.

These are baby ostriches from the little pet barn outside the exhibition hall (for those who've been there [if you haven't been there you should go]).

Space Imaging
The most sobering and bring-it-all-into-perspective pictures I've seen yet of the attack. Overhead, close-up satellite photos, from both before and after the attack.

Desiderata
"Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

"...whatever your labors and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams; it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful.

"Strive to be happy."

The Counterterrorist Myth
A very interesting read, though not at all encouraging re getting that bin Ladin freakazoid.

There is a bullshit Nostradamus quote randomly landing in email inboxes all over the net. It's bullshit. It is definitely NOT a quote from Nostradamus at all. If you get something that refers to "two brothers torn apart by Chaos" reply to the sender and tell them they are a pitiable dupe and to QUIT FORWARDING THINGS!

Donate to the Red Cross via the Amazon Honor System.

Waffle Woman
I think a little levity in the face of disaster is appropriate. I also think I'd rather read this than write about what I've been watching on TV all day.

I've seen now the footage of the collapse of the trade center many times. Each time it drives a spear into my heart.

Why?

I think of the incredible amount of planning and organization that such a broadly coordinated attack would require. This was no band of terrorists. This was a military action. No pilot would fly his plane into a building just because some freak had a gun pointed at his head. The hijackers had to be trained pilots. And these were suicide missions, requiring a passion beyond the desire to live.

What did we do to deserve this?

I'll tell you something folks: maybe not now, but very soon, our nation will be at war.

Today I caught a Bravo profile of Jack Kerouac. A really good take on the frenchy freaky drunk. Yet another great poet destroyed by fame. It contained a lot of Jack's recorded audio material, and inspired me to spend my evening searching the fileshare wires for MP3's. I think I might have enough to do a mix CD. Since I was searching on Kerouac's name, now I have several Kerouac tribute songs to add in.

"Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life."

"I like too many things and get all confused and hung up running from one falling star to another till I drop. This is the night, what it does to you. I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion."

"I'm not a beatnik, I'm a Catholic."