OT: Venting (very long)

[blpurdom at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 26005

My husband Chris and I tried to explain yesterday's events to our son 
and daughter after we ate dinner.  We don't know how much they really 
comprehended.  After they were in bed, I was cleaning up the kitchen, 
going back and forth between that room and the dining room, when I 
noticed a baby picture of my daughter that I'd left lying on the 
dresser.  I just stood there staring at it and crying, as though she 
were one of the victims in New York or Washington or on the plane 
that went down near Pittsburgh.  

I thought about the fact that at one point, everyone who died in this 
horrible tragedy had been someone's baby.  Each of them had a mother 
who gazed every morning into that innocent little face, thinking she 
was the luckiest woman in the world to have this little person, and 
that goes for the terrorists who did this too.  They were once 
someone's babies as well.  I just stared at my daughter's picture 
wondering what their mothers must be feeling right now.  Were they 
devastated that their children had been responsible for so many 
deaths?  Did they agree with their motivations?

Chris and I stayed up late watching coverage on ABC.  He couldn't 
stomach the idea of watching Fox specifically because they had been 
using a really garish logo and a SOUNDTRACK.  Now, we had also been 
appalled by many networks having given the Gulf War what amounted to 
a soundtrack, but this took the cake.  I love music, but this is real-
life tragedy, not a movie.  It's not entertainment.  Much of the time 
earlier in the evening we were watching PBS, which was doing an 
extended version of the Jim Lehrer Newshour with talking heads from 
all over opining on the situation in between reporters checking in 
from New York and Washington and south of Pittsburgh.  While that was 
better (no garish logos, no dramatic music) Chris still couldn't help 
noticing that these people who were getting "face-time" seemed 
inordinately pleased with themselves for doing so.

I was particular disturbed, however, by folks bringing up Pearl 
Harbor and the US response to it.  The talking head in question 
seemed very eager for the US to make a similar response now.  I was 
very scared by this because one of the responses the US made to Pearl 
Harbor was to put all American residents--citizens or not--of 
Japanese descent into internment camps.  I dread the backlash which 
is likely to come against Moslem and/or Arabic people in the US.  

My niece is married to a man of Morrocan descent whom she met in 
France, where he had lived most of his life.  He considers himself to 
be more French than Morrocan, and certainly Morroco has long been a 
US ally.  But he is also Moslem, and he looks middle-Eastern.  Before 
someone attacks him, will they think to check his passport and birth 
certificate, to see that he is a French citizen of Morrocan birth who 
now has a green card to live in the US?  What kind of rift in the 
fabric of our culture is coming as a result of these events?

We must have watched coverage of the two large towers and the one 
smaller tower falling twenty times.  Maybe more. I'm studying 
architecture, and I said to Chris, watching them fall, "It looks like 
they're not made of anything more than paper."  He pointed out that 
it wasn't much more than that, that they were made of glass.  I 
reminded him that the glass was merely a sheath; they were made of 
STEEL.  Tons and tons of steel girders, securely bolted together, 
welded, anchored in a huge amount of concrete at the base...When I 
think of how buildings like this are constructed, and the way these 
COLLAPSED, I'm even more shocked.  It's like they changed the orbit 
of the moon by hitting it really hard.  These weren't houses of cards 
they destroyed.  They were man-made mountains.

The kids are home from school today (Philadelphia schools are closed) 
and I'm missing my architecture classes, although I called my profs 
and I'm completely excused.  Even if I'd gotten my in-laws to take 
the kids and gone to class, probably no one would have talked about 
anything but this anyway.  I'd rather be home, where I can break down 
crying and go give my kids hugs and kisses whenever I like.  Looking 
at various lists last night, I was struck by the fact that the list 
I'm on which has the highest proportion of people under 18 was the 
one list where folks were talking about being worried about being at 
war.

I sincerely hope that we are not at war, but I know that hoping 
doesn't do much good at times like this.  My heart goes out to 
everyone in New York and Washington, especially the families of 
victims (and all those courageous firefighters and police who lost 
their lives as well) and also to the people on the flight that went 
down in Somerset County here in Pennsylvania.  By all accounts, the 
people on board that flight were heroes, working to bring down their 
own plane in an area where people on the ground would not be hurt.  I 
know that many, many people will be counted heroes of these events 
before long, but I find myself incredibly moved to think of what they 
did and the thought and care they had for others even while facing 
their own deaths.

Venting done for now...

--Barb