nmah5681.xml

nmah5681.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-09-10

I don't know if this site is exclusivley for Americans but I would like to add a perspective from a UK citizen.
I was in a meeting untill 10 minutes after the second plane went in. We came out and a guy from the sales floor told us that two planes had hit the WTC. We were all a bit sceptical untill we looked on the web and saw the initial grainy pics from the BBC. We bought a radio and listened. We listened all afternoon till it was time to get the tube home and as soon as we got in we tuned to the BBC (in my case, because I have a satellite dish, it was the BBC Sky News and CNN). We watched into the early hours then switched on again after a few hours sleep while getting ready for work.
I phoned all my relatives just to check in because we had planes being diverted away from London's airspace, tall buildings being evacuated and emergency measures being talked about on all media.
I think even then we knew the best way to combat all of this was to work on. Keep the wheels of our way of life turning and denying those who would destroy us the satisfaction of seeing us afraid and paraylised by their acts. That afternoon was horrific and brutal but we kept working through it even though what we produce is pretty trivial in the great scheme of things. We tried to get to grips with the possibilities, who and why and what would follow.
The overwhelming fellings I take from that day were fear and rage. When my children ask why it all happened I don't know what I'll tell tham, but, I will tell them that a lot of people were killed to very little purpose by others who made the greatest mistake that humans can make with each other: seeing other people as objects that only matter as a statement be they terrorists or people in government commiting the atrocity for their cause.

My life has changed to the extent that I carry a gas mask to work every day because I travel on the tube (one of the deep lines) and I have a horror of being trapped 200 feet underground whith the tunnels filling up with smoke. Apart from that I lead my life listening to nobody, especially religious fanatics of any stripe, when they try to tell me I am evil or corrupt just because I was born different to them.

That there is nothing, no matter how stupid or outlandish, that a group of people will not commit mass murder over no matter how trivial it all might seem to you.

Patriotisim is the virtue of the vicious and I think we've all had enough of that. Too many American's are using this attrocity as an excuse to instigate whitch-hunts and waving a 20 foot flag is a large part of that sort of idiocy. I'll have none of it. For God's sake, love your country but try to be aware that it has flaws.