Like many people, my life is divided into two time frames, pre-9/11, and post 9/11. That day had a profound effect on my life, even though I was 3000 miles away, and didn’t know anyone directly involved in the events of that morning. I don’t have a particularly interesting story to tell about the day itself, other than I didn’t see a single image of the carnage until I got home from work, at about 4:30 PM, west coast time. I was working construction, and had to listen to events on the radio, which gave the whole day a weird “War of the worlds” kind of feeling, that is, it almost seemed like some kind of hoax, because it all sounded so impossible.
That night, my wife and I sat in stunned silence, watching the days events over and over. As the days went by, it became almost unbearable to see any more, but I couldn’t stop watching it. An image that’s burned into my mind forever, is a man in business attire that climbed out onto the face of the building, holding on to the metal facade of the WTC, for as long as he could, until he finally lost his grip. I can’t even begin to imagine the horror of going to work in the morning, and suddenly being faced with hanging on to the side of a building 100 stories above the ground. And there’s thousands more people that had to spend the last hours of their lives in abject terror, many being forced to hurl themselves to their own death, simply because they showed up for work.
Someone said the difference between a liberal and a conservative was how one reacted to that day. A liberal wanted to understand why someone would do that, a conservative wanted to kill whoever did, and sort it out later. I was in the latter group, even though at the time, I would say I was a liberal.
Before 9/11, I really didn’t care about politics. I bought whole heartedly into the liberal meta-narrative. My parents were always Republicans, and I was an Air Force brat, so basically, I spent my life rebelling against authority. I was a registered Democrat, but never voted. I hate to say this, but had I voted in 2000, it would have been for Gore. Like I said, I didn’t really care about politics, and he never got my vote.
In the weeks following 9/11, I became a news junkie, read a bunch of books, started reading blogs, anything I could get my eyes on. I had a non-partisan approach to who I got my news from, and in all the cacophony, the voices that rang true to me were people like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, O’Reilly, even Michael Savage. Say what you will about any of them, but at the time, they were saying what I wanted, and needed, to hear.
I had a conversion, if you will. It was like I had been blind for most of my life, and now I could see. I could see the lies and hypocrisy of liberals, the selective reporting of the MSM. It was like waking up from a dream, a sudden clarity that was missing before. I re-registered as a Republican, and have voted in every election since, including primaries. I re-thought what was important to me, and gained a new appreciation for my family and friends. Our military men and women are like superheroes to me now, firemen and cops, like rock stars.
On this day, I will think about that guy on the outside of the WTC, desperately clinging to life, as well as all the other victims that died a horrible death that day, most not even knowing what happened. I will think about the heroic actions of the people of flight 93, and the firemen and police who gave their lives that day, to help others.
I’m still really pissed off. I will never forget, or forgive.
The memory of the horrors I saw that day will never fade, or grow less powerful with time. I will never try to understand, or feel empathy for the evil that did it. I will never forget.
God Bless America
A Fine Line Between Stupid And Clever 