(no subject)

[katallison]

The drought did not *break* today, exactly, but it cracked; we had about ten minutes of glorious, drenching downpour, the first significant rain since July 3rd. Midafternoon, after the rain, I was walking to a meeting and felt a huge zing of energy at the feel of cool wetness, the smell of damp earth and grass, felt a great upsurge of blissful regenerative life force, like I might suddenly burst into song and start dancing about. Then I turned a corner and caught sight of the front of the student union and noticed that the flags were at half-staff, and briefly thought, Hah?? What th'--? And then, Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Without looking back at my blog entry from two years ago, I've been seeing what I remember from the blur of that day, and it boils down to these bits:

--Searching and searching for some, any, on-line news source that would load;
--Feeling a terrible need to stay calm, rational, and unflapped;
--Feeling a corresponding rage at my office-neighbor who was stridently and loudly proclaiming that It's war, it's World War Three, this is it! -- really having to throttle back the urge to scream at her SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP;
--Seeing a Bosnian refugee student in the career center, sitting hunched over in front of a TV that had been set up, sobbing and sobbing;
--Later, after the university had been closed for the day, pushing my bike through the great crowd of students walking slowly and silently toward their cars, buses, dorm rooms.

I have no Deep Thoughts to offer; there's really nothing I can say. It's started raining again outside, and that's good, and every five minutes or so I can hear planes flying by overhead.

Comments

[namastenancy.livejournal.com]

I remember feeling stunned, angry very sad and fearful for the future. Yet I understood the hate and religious fervor that created this tragedy. I was alternately proud and horrified at what happened later; the courage and strength of those who were digging out the mess at the World Trade Center, the outpouring of sympathy from all over the world, the way we pulled together as a people. Then, came the aftermath --- and Bush's push for his right wing agenda, increased police powers, "Homeland" security (does anybody remember Nazi Germany?), then war, deaths, economic depression, political isolation.
The really horrifying thing is to realize that the bigots who murdered all those people that day have actually portions of their their agenda - more death, more suffering, checks on US liberties, a less liberal and open society.
Who knows what the final outcome will be?

namaste SF Nancy

[namastenancy.livejournal.com]

Boy, I can't type a clear sentence, can I. I meant to say that the bigots who murdered all those people have also attacked parts of us that they hate - our toleration, our open society, the position of women, our democracy. All have been attacked by the backlash from 9/11. They "gave" more power to the right wing in this country to pursue their agenda, have caused wars in the Middle East, made stonger the forces of bigotry and hate.
All of which has nothing to do with Islam!

namaste SF Nancy

[planetalyx.livejournal.com]

It was a long, painful, and astounding day. I remember clinging to Kelly on the couch the first time we saw the footage of the plane hitting. We've never done that before.

Sometimes it seems much longer than two years ago; sometimes it seems like yesterday.