where were you when everything changed? when the world turned upside-down? i don't think there's anyone who doesn't know where they were and what they were doing.
the night before, i'd gone to the diner with my friend petra, who was flying back to austria the next morning. it was a good night; i got in really late. i'm sort of ashamed to say that when the planes hit the towers, i was sleeping. i didn't wake up until my father came home around 11, yelling up the stairs to me.
"wake up, america is under attack! they hit the pentagon, and the twin towers are down!" and i rolled over and said "what the hell are you talking about?" i didn't believe it, i couldn't grasp it, but i got the note of total panic in his voice. my father does not panic. and i went downstairs, and turned on the tv, and started to call every person i could think of who would possibly be near danger. and thank whatever powers there are, they were safe.
and i still can't make sense of this, one year later. because i don't think there is a way to make sense of terrorism. however much everyone tries to. i still can't grasp the number of dead as a number of people. and the number of missing. nearly 3,000. people. more than the number of people i went to high school with. a number that isn't a number. that can't be people.
and so we bombed afghanistan. killed thousands upon thousands of people. imprisoned muslim-americans without due process, denied them lawyers, and held people incommunicado for months. and now we're talking about bombing iraq. i had such hope that bush would rise to the occasion. that his cabinet could, if he didn't. it is truly misery to me that i was wrong. they've used this tragedy again and again to grasp at more power for themselves, to overturn citizens' rights, to talk about building internment camps for enemies of the state.
today, i mourn, and wish for peace. every day, i mourn, and wish for peace. i have no taste for vengeance.
dona nobis pacem.-beatpoetgrrl
 |
 |