Drowning in Oceania
Sep. 11th, 2007 07:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tedwordsWell, six years since September 11.
Like everyone else, I remember where I was when I heard the news. I was at work, and word spread like wildfire that day. Working in Public Relations, we have a television playing all day long in the boss's office, but I remember rushing upstairs to the Executive Board room, to watch the sickening events play out. At some points, it really did feel as though the world was going to end.
I have a good friend, Elaine, who lost her niece that day. She was a flight attendant on one of the planes.
And I remember driving home that night, to the homestead, and talking to Josie and the kids. We drove over to Chad's house, and watched President Bush address the nation. He delivered a fine speech, but I do have to confess thinking at the time that I wish we had a better leader guiding us on that terrible day.
Now, flash forward six years. Today, General Petraeus testifies before Congress for the second day in a row about the "progress" we've made in a war that we've been fighting for longer than our involvement in the last war that really was about something important--World War II. All the money we've spent and lives lost, and all for a war that has nothing to do with September 11 in the slightest. And meanwhile, the man who was really responsible for the events of September 11 is still alive, dying his beard, and busy making YouTube videos, holed up in some cave in the Middle East.
Sometimes, it really does feel like the novel 1984, and we're locked in perpetual war with a fuzzy, unclear enemy, just for the sake of keeping the military machine going, certain people in power, and the population in a constant state of unease. Is there any way to jump off this hamster wheel? Please?
Like everyone else, I remember where I was when I heard the news. I was at work, and word spread like wildfire that day. Working in Public Relations, we have a television playing all day long in the boss's office, but I remember rushing upstairs to the Executive Board room, to watch the sickening events play out. At some points, it really did feel as though the world was going to end.
I have a good friend, Elaine, who lost her niece that day. She was a flight attendant on one of the planes.
And I remember driving home that night, to the homestead, and talking to Josie and the kids. We drove over to Chad's house, and watched President Bush address the nation. He delivered a fine speech, but I do have to confess thinking at the time that I wish we had a better leader guiding us on that terrible day.
Now, flash forward six years. Today, General Petraeus testifies before Congress for the second day in a row about the "progress" we've made in a war that we've been fighting for longer than our involvement in the last war that really was about something important--World War II. All the money we've spent and lives lost, and all for a war that has nothing to do with September 11 in the slightest. And meanwhile, the man who was really responsible for the events of September 11 is still alive, dying his beard, and busy making YouTube videos, holed up in some cave in the Middle East.
Sometimes, it really does feel like the novel 1984, and we're locked in perpetual war with a fuzzy, unclear enemy, just for the sake of keeping the military machine going, certain people in power, and the population in a constant state of unease. Is there any way to jump off this hamster wheel? Please?
