My brother-in-law was supposed to be in the other building that came down that morning, but was running late for work and skipped his workout. He saw the second plane hit. He lost colleagues in the towers. We could not get in touch with him until early that evening. My father was across the street from the Pentagon, the forgotten part of the whole thing, and heard the explosion. I was at work on a Naval Base south of DC and had to be evacuated. I was supposed to be on travel that week and had initially booked the same flight out of Dulles, but on the Monday, until the trip was cancelled. A family friend piloted that flight on Monday for UAL out of Dulles, and got stuck in CA.
My point, while I did not personally lose anyone, I was more directly affected than many people. Yet, to me the whole thing was surreal and I really had no deep emotional reaction. I studied U.S. Policy in the Middle East in college and was not surprised I guess it came to that. I hate New York, being from Boston, so the city I could care less about. I go into work late 11 September each year so I can miss the "ceremonies" they do. I am so over it. Especially now that it has been used by politicians to push their corrupt agendas. Quite sickening.
More recently the VT shootings were a big deal. My neighbor in the office has a son enrolled, as well as a lot of other coworkers in my organization. That day was messed up. I felt more disgust, because I am anti-gun and felt the authorities screwed that up royally, seeing as how they had a killer on the loose and did not lock down the campus. I have to see crap associated with that every day on the road and at work and I get disgusted. I feel bad for the victims, but my reaction is all about how much this society sucks when I see a ribbon or whatever. Now, you can't watch college football without hearing about it. Blech!
I suppose I am just heartless.
_________________
I won?t tell anyone else how to be
You can be yourself, but just let me be me
11 Sep 2007, 8:56 pm
