The 1st anniversary of 9/11/01 has stirred up a lot in me, I know, and I thought maybe it might help to discuss how we’ve been effected by the tragedy, some more personal than others.
For me, the reality didn’t hit, that is how much my life and thinking has been forever changed, until just a few months ago–long after 9/11/01. I had awakened earlier than usual, about 4 am or so, and the first thing I heard, while still in that state halfway between sleep and being awake, was the sound of the fighter jets doing their fly-overs. They never stopped flying over the DC area, IMO; I even remember seeing them when my daughter and I went out at 4 am back in November to see the meteor showers. While the jets noise continued, I began to hear this eerie, middle-eastern-sounding music. And to me, it sounded like it was -blaring- out in the street! The very first thought that flashed through my mind was that the terrorists were attacking, and not only were they attacking from the air, they were attacking by way of the ground and through music! Now, I should share that my neighbor, whose bedroom and mine share a common wall, is from Pakistan, and I suspect what happened was that he and his wife were playing some Pakistani music and simply turned it up loud, or perhaps it only sounded loud to me since I was still half asleep. As I came fully awake, I realized that it was the US fighter jets, and that it was my neighbors music, which suddenly was no longer “blaring.” And that’s when it hit me, personally, just how much 9/11/01 has affected me.
I have definitely stopped paying that much attention to things the Government tells me, since we’ve gone through, what, six or eight “terror alerts” since last September, with the latest one, “Code Orange!!” just last night and this morning, and NOTHING’S HAPPENED.
Somehow the Feds, never terribly competent to begin with, have been transformed into a sort of institutional worrywart, a national Great-Aunt Martha, the one you tune out automatically when she wrings her hands in despair as you go out the door without a hat, “You’ll get double pneumonia…”
My parents moved in with me.
I lost my job.
I went to college for a semester and a half.
My wife left me.
I wrote a highly praised module for ‘Neverwinter Nights’.
I got a new, harder, and much lower paying job.
And I’m moving to an apartment tomorrow.
I don’t think much of it had to do with the terrorist attacks, though.
I now feel this urgency to fulfill my life. Shortly after 9/11 last year I began guitar lessons, something I’ve been wanting to do for 10 years. Hubby and I have been taking more time to enjoy our weekends rather than cram them with homeowner-type tasks. That guest room will ALWAYS be there for us to paint on a rainy day. We enjoyed a vacation at a beach house and have plans for Yellowstone next year.
What has changed is that right-wingers who always hated the Bill of Rights in the Constitution (except for the second ammendment, of course) are having a field day shreading our constitutional protections from oppressive government. A person can now be thrown in jail and held incommunicado without charges for an indefinate period. Your reading habits can be probed without your knowledge. Your political organizations can be infiltrated legally,
We are on a slippery slope to a police state; an American police state which will come complete with flags, “patriotism” and the singing of “God Bless America”.
Mine hasn’t changed at all, except when I hear a plane overhead I look up and when I’m in my office and see a plane taking off (I’m near a major airport) and the flight path takes it such that it looks like it’s about to fly into a tall building (really I’m sure it’s quite far away), I hold my breath.
I would say that I’ve seen drastic changes in my life. I work at a nuclear power plant and the security is unreal. You look at what’s going on and you can’t help but realize that this is very serious business and this is our lives we are talking about. While we don’t need to be constantly looking over our shoulders, we do need to take extra caution as we continue on. Anyone that doesn’t beleive these people will hit again is in for a big shock. It’s just a matter of where and when.
Living 20 minutes from Ft. Bragg, I also see the constant stream of military entering and leaving. It is sad, and while I know that it’s necessary, it breaks my heart. I cannot even begin to tell these young men and women the appreciation I feel for what they are giving for me and this nation.
I got a new rescued dog two weeks ago, which is wreaking havoc on my normal routine, which is now just a distant memory. This, of course, has nothing to do with 9.11.01.
As a result of 9.11.01, my life hasn’t really changed much at all, except that I now worry a little about flyboy88. He does some important spying thing in the Navy… ask him, I dunno…