I remember where I was that day when I first read the news... I was on campus in my office, I think for office hours, when I read the first articles through Soompi. Then I switched to coverage on CNN. (I don't remember if I got live video or not.) Did I go to the bookstore, where they had the news on a TV there? Or am I just imagining that part? No, actually it was the Philosopher who was in the bookstore; I believe he was working there PT, and he reported that he saw the news on a TV. After the collapse of the two towers I was a bit numb so I decided to go home, where we still had cable and to watch the cable news networks. I remember passing by M. Krom and E. Johnson on the way down the stairs next to the Commonwealth garage. They were headed to the noon prayer service in front of O'Neill, and I was skipping that for various reasons. There were plenty of students in shock and in tears... I spent the rest of the day in front of the TV, as the MSM and the government were trying to determine what was going on, and if there were any other threats.
One can find plenty of videos and photos taken that day online... some more graphic than others, especially the photos of people who jumped from the towers. I had never been to the WTC, and had only seen it on a screen. Though I have visited NYC since 9/11, I have not gone to the WTC site--for some reason it doesn't feel right for me to do so.
9/11 victims list
Fallen warriors
"We are at war." I think I heard Tom Brokaw utter this sentence, though undoubtedly plenty of other anchors and reports were saying the same thing. Unbelievable how journalists can make such shallow statements, as if Osama and AQ were not operating before 2001. It's this sort of unreflective response to an action by non-state agents that shows us how unprepared we are to deal with reality and other peoples and cultures, or to conceive of an appropriate response.
As for looking into the religious motivations of AQ and other groups, see JihadWatch.org. Still, the claim that they wish to eradicate us and secular civilization may be true, but they will not be able to do it by invading us and engaging in a war between states. If they wish to cripple our country they could do so by going after our economic lifelines... but most commentators and pundits and the average American citizen doesn't consider how fragile life really is. We just need to find the person(s) responsible and give them a bloody nose, and everything will be A-OK.
Which brings us to the question of what we can do to find those responsible and punishing them.
For now I'll just repeat Socrates' dictum [as recorded by Plato]: "It is better to suffer injustice than to commit it."
I'm avoiding most of the MSM coverage today--most of it will just be a window into how we see life, death, God, and religion, and our views will generally be wrong. How erroneous are our beliefs if we do not take the possibility of hell seriously? And when we fail to act accordingly? "Civic" religion used to extol our supposed virtues and culture is repulsive. It would be better to pray for the victims and examine our own lives to see if there is something that we can do for the common good. (Building more Wal-Marts and defending liberalism and capitalism aren't among them.)
May God have mercy on the victims of 9/11 and those who have died because of the fighting, and may He have mercy on us who are still alive.
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I was feeling tired and so did not go to my hated job 40 miles away. Instead I went to the library and wondered at the big crowd around the public TV screens in the lobby. I joined them, and then I saw the second plane hit. For some reason, I thought the Libyans were attacking and that this was World War 3, come at last. Then the first tower fell, and I burst into tears. A strangely smiling lady asked me if I was all right, and I felt like saying, "Of course I am not all right. I just watched thousands of people die!" I went home to call my mother, and I ended up in front of the TV all day, crying and screaming at Yasser Arafat when he appeared on screen. I will never forget that Palestinian woman whooping with joy because thousands of innocent Americans had died. Not Israelis--Americans. I wonder how many people turned against the Palestinian cause after they saw her. (They had lost me already, after some of them tore apart 2 lost Israeli soldiers and showed off their bloody hands to the cameras, shrieking, "I have dipped my hands in Jewish blood!")
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