On villains and vengeance.

Earlier today, I had this half-formed thought that I shared on Twitter: “The danger of basing national pride on the vanquishing of enemies is that it requires an endless supply of enemies to maintain.” “Enemies” is a word I used to make a point. We allow politicians and media to use this word to categorize people — individuals and whole groups — as caricatures that, once extinguished, remove some of the evil from our perilous world. I just started this post and yet I am written out on the topic. I have said it all before. Nothing and everything has changed. We killed one man, and we gave up a hundred freedoms. And it’s not over. The war isn’t over; which war are we on now? The tiny humiliations, the groping and the...

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Posted on 2 May 2011 | 3 comments

Osama bin Laden is dead.

Osama bin Laden is dead.

Osama bin Laden is dead. At last, some closure for the families and friends of the victims of 9/11. We still have a long way to go, but this is an important symbol. And now, a little levity.

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Posted on 1 May 2011 | Comments Off

eight years ago

In remembrance of 9/11, I am sharing these excerpts from my written reactions eight years ago. From 11 September 2001, “the act itself”: On the way to work I heard a cor­re­spon­dent on the radio say some­thing about how the act itself was shock­ing, but the fact that it hap­pened was not. This is the scari­est thing I’ve ever heard. From 12 September 2001, “the aftermath”: I do not want vengeance. I do not want more vio­lence, and I espe­cially do not want more civil­ians — inno­cent peo­ple, regard­less of nation­al­ity — to die. I real­ize how seri­ous this act was, and is, and I real­ize that our gov­ern­ment will exact pun­ish­ment on those it thinks are respon­si­ble. I also real­ize we may be wrong. If...

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Posted on 11 Sep 2009 | 2 comments

the aftermath

Last night, I went to bed and wrote in my journal, trying to record all of my thoughts and feelings about what had happened on Tuesday. Chad came to bed and soon after that one of the neighborhood cats was taunting Zen through the sliding-glass door, so we were woken out of half-sleep by howling and hissing sounds. After an unsuccessful attempt to close Zen out of the bedroom (she just pawed and pawed at the door, making enough racket to keep us both awake) we let her back in, and the neighborhood cat was gone. Before long, Zen was curled up next to me and fast asleep. I, on the other hand, slept mere minutes. I experienced multiple nightmares, some of them thankfully forgotten by now, some of them etched permanently into my psyche. Several times I bolted...

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Posted on 12 Sep 2001 | Comments Off

the act itself

Not that we’re in danger on this coast, but I wanted to check in anyway. Some of the students are showing up at the library with no clue what happened, reminding me of the words I once uttered as a college student that my father will never let me forget: “There was a coup in Russia?” I can finally get to CNN.com, although I’m not sure I wanted to see the headline “America Under Attack” ever. Now, off to email the NYC/DC people I know who haven’t already posted “I’m okay” messages. Bill Shunn has come up with a great idea: a place for people in NYC/DC to check-in. I’m watching it and my LiveJournal friends page carefully. On the way to work I heard a correspondent on the radio say something about...

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Posted on 11 Sep 2001 | Comments Off