nmah1253.xml

nmah1253.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-05

My wife and I had just gotten married in California and we were off to Roma, Italia for our honeymoon. We arrived their in the afternoon on Sept 10th. Having a jetlag hangover, we rested our bodies to fianlly wake up hours into the night. We decided to trek out during the late hours of the evening and ultimately got lost- that's the fun of a foreign place - as long as you find your way back. For awhile all was very quite until eventually we arrived in the central nightclub area of Roma. Fortunately for us, we were 'picked' by the trendy doorgirl to enter 'Torpedo' the name of the establishment. We enjoyed drinks and each other as honeymooners are meant to do and talked with Italians about culture and the big soccer matches being played at the time. The night wore on and the jetlag set in - we left.

The next day we woke up and set out to visit the Colusieum among other points of interest. We went to the Vatican, the Ancient Ruins and roamed the narrow dark streets of this romantic city. For hours Susanne and I were lost in the beauty of it all...and, at a point I recalled Susanne asking me, 'what is everybody watching?' after about the tenth time she had asked me. All I could hear were the sounds of families having lunch, cats meeowing, far off cars honking and of course scooters. When I finally snapped out of it and heard her question, I looked around. I conciously took in the street and its inhabitants to realize everybody was watching TV's. In all the stores we passed - TV's being stared at by store keepers and their customers - their eyes glued to the TV. At that moment I remembered the previous late night clubbers at Torpedo talking about the soccer matches. "They must be watching the soccer they were all cheering about last night." Susanne looked at me. Then I looked at the storekeepers - no cheering, no nothing. "Let's go check it out" Susanne said. I shrugged my shoulders and we approached a Pizzeria. I was thirsty, "could use some water."

On my left two American teens. One was talking about how his father had been in the Air Force once upon a time - war, of all things, was their topic of conversation. A young girl walked past me crying. Soccer? So, I looked up to the TV as everybody else was doing. I peered closer. My neck and chin jutted forward and my eyebrows twitched up a bit. I was watching billowing smoke hiding rising into a blue sky? The backdrop of what looked like to be the city I grew up in? The city I where I graduated from NYU. The city were my family was. Was I watching a movie?

My brain could not make any conclusion but my eyes were beginning to. I looked to the two American teens, not understanding and casually directed my question, as if I could not have really just seen what I thought I was seeing on the small 12"x12" shady screen, "what's going on?" The first guy looked to me and said - "that's the twin towers in N-Y-C." The other guy's head fell as he said, they just fell down - two planes hit them." They walked away.

I looked to Susanne who was already looking at me. I ripped my video camera from my case and filmed until my stomach could not take it anymore and my body began to
shake. My knees became week. Susanne and I sat at a cafe'.

The waiter set a beer down at our table. "I lived in New York. I love America. Terrible. Terrible." At that moment, Susanne, being from Sweden, felt what it was like to be an American. This in Italy - halfway across the world. My head was spinning - 'what was happening.' Then the cell phones ringing. It was not hard to pick out the Amercians. All of us were recieving calls from back home. We just sat there, all of us crying at that cafe for hours, wondering, wondering, wondering.

Yes. I decided to really teach myself about my religion/culture as it relates to the world. To take in depth time to learn about others I had claimed to know about when in actaulity knew nothing about.

Just when you think all is going just fine with your life, the world, history can repeat itself in ugly ways - WAR. We need to be concious of who we share this planet with but at the same time defend our pursuit of happiness and self determination.

No I did not - but in my heart I have been.