Adventured.net

Thanks for sharing, Ness, both here and over on my blog. I think there are millions pieces in the collective experience of people around the world - and the safest way to remember what happened, and the more we can share those stories with each other, the more likely we are to never forget what happened.

Post1
What - The Fuck. [11 Sep 2001|09:19am]
You know..
you go to sleep and wake up and write about Indian language evolution and think “man I’m glad I don’t have to deal with that pathetic political system” and come to find out that 2 planes hit the world trade center, another crashed near it in Manhattan, one crashed near the pentagon, and the white house has been evacuated.
I feel like i’m in some far-reaching movie.
I dont know what to think. At first I was thinking “no shit this is terrorism! External or internal - some freaks having a problem with corporate America” but then I think… “Bush has been boosting that national nuke defense system which has been demode since the Cold War. He’s freaking out about the economy and the state of his presidency. He wants national unity. He needs an enemy.”
You know?
I don’t fucking care.
I don’t want this shit to happen.
I don’t want New York to be under attack.
I don’t want to be at ground zero for some fucked up military bullshit.
I just want America to be America.
I want Texas to be Texas.
I want to be annoyed at writing papers on India and go to school and not worry that when I get home the white house will be gone.
- Let’s not take this to a state-level, ok guys? The Austin Capitol is way too close to UT.
Which is way too close to me.
If anyone I care about is hurt I’m going to kick your pansy ass George W.!
gee I guess no one cares about restricted airspace anymore.
Ugh.
National Emergency?
What the hell.
-Val!
————————————-

And then was spawned:

1.

A Nation in Mourning Sept 11 2001

We are a nation in mourning
- let us don our death shrouds, now.
we are not mourning art
which I might have said was lacking
nor are we mourning passion
nor poetry
- we are not mourning science
nor debate, nor philosophy
- we are not morning anything so grand
and so intangible.
We are a nation
mourning
our brothers and sisters
our mothers and fathers
our cousins
our aunts and uncles.
our truest friends.
we are a nation mourning happiness.
we are a nation mourning stability
- grown naive with pomposity
struck through,
now,
with indolence.
I for one don’t know when healing comes
nor can I say just when the pain will die
(we are a nation mourning safety, now,
shaking weary fists toward the sky.)

2.

Untitled Sept 11 2001

Tell me grandma,
because you were alive then,
when we bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki
did they hand out candy to small children?

If I could get my
shaking hands
on those infants’
skinny limbs
I’d rip and pull and ravage them
- I’d twist and break them at the bend!
I’d shove my fingers in their mouths
and tear their smiling lips apart
- tear their skin back to the hair
I’d claw into their beating hearts
and scratch to hell their bright-eyed stares.

(and that would only be the start)

3.

Untitled Sept 11 2001

Damn these terrorists for killing our innocent people.
Our people.
Americans. New Yorkers.
Our blood and bone.
They went to work
- some angry
some saying things they never would have said
had they but known.
Saying things they’d “fix when they got home”
- that sort of heartache.
the words that can never be undone.
Fixed and imprinted
as their last words
though they might have chosen grander words
full of love and praise
had they counted down their days.
had they but known
the finity of man.

Our people
they crashed and killed our people
- what must have been their last thoughts?
How wretched were their screamings?
Skin melting off their burning bones.
- the skin and bones of our people.
our American people
our American ashes.
leaving wicked words behind
- no healing tongue to sooth the parting ache.
Had they but known
they might have comforted their loved ones,
might have opted to stay home
and give themselves over to selfish love.
To the last great poignancy - of touch.
But no tongue, now, to take back
those parting words.
Licked away by flames.
every last prayer they uttered.
And so many cries for “mommy.”
Because people cry that,
when they’re dying.

I have.
Certainly they denounced their Gods.
certainly they prayed for help again.
wished for miracles that would never come
wished they hadn’t said the things they’d said.
- or done the things they’d done.

Damn those terrorists
for killing our people
our American people
full of regret
- for not having truly lived
(oh certainly we haven’t lived life yet.
Tomorrow though I promise we will live).
Tomorrow is a grey and cloudy day.
A day for rain and shrouds
a day for tears.
A day reserved for others’ ‘erstwhile dears’
- which means more than what my words have meant.

A day to put the past above the future
- the future is too grim.
the past is where their perished Loves existed.
the past is what they’ll bury themselves within.

I can tell you the whole story about the day but I choose not to relive the fact that I lost other flight attendant and pilot friends on a flight that I had a freakishly lucky streak to call in sick for just to make a doctor’s appt that I had missed for a month. I didn’t like sitting in their office learning of the attacks as I watched live tv that morning.
I just try to block out all 9/11’s from here on out. I try to be oblivious of the fact that we have a president that was warned about the impending attacks and did nothing but cover it up. I am sad and I was lonely.
I love you all for thinking of me on that day. I had a million +1 phone calls from people that I know and knew throughout my lifetime. :)

Hello.
:) reflects the couple’s low-key approach to their royal connections.
Bye.