Remembering 9-11

Named by it's date, it's our generation's national horror story.  All through history the world has had them.  Eve endured the sadness of her first son carrying on the family legacy;  Noah's family endured the deluge; the Black Plague; Mongol hoards; Burning of Catholics then Protestants back and forth for a century; World War 1, the Holocaust, Pearl Harbor, the deaths of the Kennedys and now 9-11.  We all remember where we were when we heard the news and we sat transfixed in front of the TV unable to look away.

We had just moved into our new home in Willow Grove.  Baby Brianna and I were the only ones home and I had taken her to nursery school.  A friend called and I couldn't understand what she was saying, she was crying so hard.  She made me understand to turn on my TV, America was under attack!  I ran to look and got there just in time for the second plane plowing into the tower.  My mind covered up what I couldn't believe.  A plane - flew into a skyscraper - full of people - and it wasn't an accident.  Nah, of course it was an accident.  Some poor pilot got way out of control.

Except it wasn't.  It really was an intentional act of foreign mad men.  I drove frantically to the daycare to get Brianna.  I called my family who were out on the road and couldn't come home.  I was sure, like the rest of America, that this was war and we were going to die today.  I wanted to die with my family around me.  But it was not possible for them to get home and so I watched, tears pouring down my face, horrified, all day, with Brianna sitting in her playpen, burbling and playing, in her innocence, not knowing what life changing event was unfolding before our eyes.  I don't make fun of George Bush's expression when the secret service man walked into that classroom and whispered in his ear.  I felt the same way he did.  You can't take it in.

She's twelve now and studies history in school.  Yes, the kids think 9-11 is terrible.  But they can't possibly understand the real horror behind the story.  My husband is a Civil War buff.  It's his hobby to read about the battles and go to re-enactments.  But for those men, it was hell come to life.  I read about Pearl Harbor and watched the movie with Ben Affleck but I'm not as moved as was my father in law who lived through it.  I'm interested in World War 2 from a historical viewpoint and it does horrify me, but not like it did my parents, or my uncle who was an army private who liberated one of the death camps or my friend Mary who missed being gassed by days.  I'm sure the people of the seventeenth century looked back with unbelief at the burnings of religious people who didn't fit the current mold but went on with life where all could worship as they wished.

I know that the real gut wrenching, visceral reaction to 9-11 will fade with each year that passes.  I know it will still make future generations shake their heads, not believing that terrorists were allowed to get that close.  I know people will specialize in this era in history and play it out over and over like a Civil War enactment.

But for today, for us, it's good to feel the horror and to watch the pictures.  It's good to have remembrance services and make the kids sit through lessons or videos.  As has been said of World War 2, "Never forget, never forget."

Party Politics

I'm frustrated, angry and sometimes bemused about the party conventions!  I want to watch my regular shows but feel a responsibility to know what's going on in my own country's politics. 

I'm an Independent and usually an Undecided.  My vote is a paradox - I realize that the man (or hopefully one day, woman) can only do what his party tells him, and I know the basic party lines don't change.  And yet, I come down on the side of the man and not the party!  I guess I'm more group think that I think I am.

Their platform "planks" don't move me.  Promises made don't move me.  Republicans have to be pro-life although the president has no authority to do anything about abortion and even if he could, wouldn't touch that hot potato.  Democrats have to be for social programs although it costs citizens dearly in taxes to pay for them.  Year after year each party candidate shouts about being for or against abortion, gay marriage, gays in general, government spending, immigration and then does nothing when they finally get in.  I remember George Bush at his convention, speaking Spanish to his Hispanic voters, promising all kinds of perks to their communities.  Yeah, that happened.  And Obama promising a change and hope - not so much.

Some of my friends vote along moral lines.  The Christian (from the right denomination); the one who champions pro-life; the one who is anti "gay agenda".  Drives me up a wall.  How does a man's moral compass make him a credible CEO of the company known as USA?  Some people I know go for the man who looks good,  who represents to foreign governments, who is conciliatory.  Again, how does a nice guy apply to global finance and war?  Reagan was everybody's grandfather, Kennedy was a handsome playboy wink wink, Bush was the quintessential cowboy, Clinton was cool, Palin was 'just like us' soccer mom, Obama is, well, ethnic and a nice family man.  None of which fits them for the job!!

And yet, they did a credible job with what they were allowed to do by handlers and the opposition.  They had their hits and they had their misses, like the rest of we unwashed masses.

So the RNC just ended, the DNC is tonight.  There will be comparisons, we'll like and hate some of what we hear from both.  Party faithful will cheer for their guy no matter what he says and criticize the opposition.  Both will accuse the other of telling lies.  Both will trot out some sentimental character who steals the show with a goofy speech meant to make the candidate look human.  Their wives will tell us all what a loving husband she has.  We'll be told that he wants to return us to the Real America... uh, and that is???  50s?  20s?  Beaver Cleaver?  Thomas Jefferson???

But basically, who doesn't already know who they're voting for?  Between now and November gobs of money will be spent and miles clocked for last minute campaigning - when 9 out of 10 of us have already made up our minds.

Based on.......????  Promises are empty, it's all a show... In the end, we continue to vote for the man, not the party platform.  Hopefully not for his religion, or because of ridiculous smears (put out by the candidate himself to garner hype), or because he plays the sax, reminds of of the good old days or has either an assertive or 'purty' little wife.

I hope the vote is based on experience, integrity and balance.