Was it worth all that war just to win?

[pearwaldorf]

I was on the bus today, like I was six years ago, and I saw this weird-looking shirtless dude holding up an American flag. Cody and I looked at each other all confused, and then he said, "Oh. Today's September 11th." He woke me up that morning after his mom called him and we turned on the TV.

That was the day we got satellite hooked up in our new apartment. I wonder what our installation guy must have thought, watching all those fuzzy images sharpen into the twin towers burning, over and over again.

For no reason that I remember, we went downtown on the bus. I saw a prayer circle around the flagpole of the Standard Insurance building. There was a huge flag draped over the Meier and Frank building across the street from Pioneer Square. I was vaguely comforted by its presence in a way I haven't been since.

MTV was (even more) boring for weeks after that. Every time I see the video for Coldplay's Yellow, I think of late September 2001.

I don't want to say that the world has forgotten, but I guarantee that what we call "news" from 9/10 back then and 9/10 yesterday wasn't all that different. Eventually the horror fades and we all refocus on the trivial and mundane aspects of life. It's human nature. And then something else happens and we wonder why we didn't see it coming before. The thing that makes me saddest about 9/11 is that it has indirectly caused so many things that I never thought possible from this president and this country, and if I wasn't suffering from outrage fatigue at it all I would be angry and resentful. All I can muster is cranky. It sucks.

Comments

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much how I feel, too. I'd feel a lot more affected by all the memorial stuff going on if it wasn't all "OMG people died terrorists evil support Bush rah rah rah!"

As it is, have more feeling about the fact that it's also my anniversary as a smoker (my timing, let me show you it!), even if that feeling is shame. :/