got an IM from arlie in the afternoon telling me to get onto a news site and see what was happening. the twin towers had just been hit by a plane. i didn’t believe her. tried yahoo to no avail. then i knew that it was true. called my parents in california to tell them to turn on the tv. they had just woken up.

we spent all day watching this unfold. it was surreal. it was devastating. it was so hard to be away from family and friends in this hour of tragedy. i can not even begin to discern the utter chaos and heartbreak that is still continuing in nyc at this moment and in the months/years to come.

i was thinking the other day about how our generation hasn’t gone through any major traumas - disasters or wars. we are generally spoiled in this sense. we have never known what it is like to lose our loved ones in senseless acts of violence and war. i was actually thinking how damned lucky we have been to be raised in a war free zone where this stuff is not a day-to-day occurrence. and now, for something of this magnitude to hit our homeland, it just shatters all of those thankful images. it really is the end of our innocence…

so now what happens? the economy hits a slump that we could never have fathomed in the ‘dot-com’ crash, oil prices surge, people take to arming themselves in the streets out of lack of faith in old george w, and we go to war.

is our military prepared to go to war? do we send out troops on the front line? do we bomb first, ask questions later? who the hell joins the armed forces these days? this isn’t the time of my dad or your dad when the thing to do when you finish high-school is join one of the branches of the armed forces. i know of only 1 or two people that have gone down that route - and trust me - i know a lot of people. so that makes me wonder. who the hell has been joining the military? you see ads on tv occasionally - be all that you can be - trying to drum up enrolment. who the hell is there to defend our country in situations like this? is it some bill gates nerd who sits behind a desk and figures out which button to push to launch the bombs of retribution or the 6′2 kansas corn-husking boy with a battalion?

another thing that kept running through my head yesterday was the movie - the siege. the similarities to the apocalyptic scenes of terrorism in new york were frightening. as someone said to me - art imitating life. people spend billions of dollars on these action films. why? for a thrill? yeah? surprise folks, the thrill is here, so grab your popcorn and save your $7 on the matinee. a little less glamorous when there is no denzel washington to save the dame and the day, isn’t it?

interesting point to make: everyone overseas is terribly affected by this event as well. people are horrified. the usually non-american supporting french are even completely stupefied by the actions taken yesterday. everyone is blood thirsty.

well. enough said for this morning. my deepest sympathies go out to everyone in the states. we’ve always heard about ‘the day that will live in infamy’ but i don’t think that we had ever in our lives thought that we would experience it first hand.