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Sept 11, 2002
(9/11/2002) |
One year later, we look back and see a time of despair, sadness and hope. As a country, I never felt more as a whole. It is hard to even write this a year later. I remember the morning April came over after work and said that a plane flew into one of the World Trade Center Towers. I was in a sleepy daze and had no idea what she was saying. She turned on the television and it became all to clear what had happened. It was surreal, you were watching it thinking this is the worst thing I have ever seen, only for the next moment to be even worse. Seeing the carnage of the first plane, then the second, then the third and then the turmoil really began. Seeing the buildings fall knowing that there were thousands of people in there, people just like me, was horrifying, even right now. That day, I spent the morning at home, glued to the TV, just trying to make sense of it all.
Not really able to take in everything that was happening, I just kept watching, almost absorbing. I knew what the terrorists wanted, and right then, they had it. The proved to thee world, especially Americans, that America is not invincible; that the horrors of the world are not going to just happen in other countries. They paralyzed us for a day, and for some, longer than that.
It really makes one wonder if America should have stayed the isolationist country it was before WWII. Is it really us or is it them? Are we so bad? Do they really want us to stay within our borders and let the world spiral out of control till it becomes our problem, as it did September 11, 2001 or December 7, 1941? As a nation we do not want our troops in Israel, or any other country for that matter, dying for someone else fight. What is our responsibility? All these questions arose from this carnage created by that day.
But the world should not underestimate the United States. The world should not underestimate me, an American. I got up that day and did the only thing I could do being thousands of miles from the scene, got in my car, a little scared and confused, and went to work. I did not ignore what had happened or the significance, I just said, they might take our lives, but they are not going to get what they want, my freedom and my life. That is what I told myself as I drove to work. Right now, the economy can stop or people like me will push on though it knowing that we will get our day and till then we must prevail. Not because of a paycheck, the country was not expected to go into work that day or the day after, but because we felt it was exactly what they did not want us to do. We will adapt, relax, evolve, and continue to thrive as the days go by.
Revenge. This is really what this country wanted. They wanted to beat to a bloody pulp, torture, disembowel the man or organization that did this to ‘us’. Revenge is such a scary concept. As I drove to work, I wanted it to. For a moment, I felt it within my self that if I saw the person who did this to us and I knew for sure it was him, I would exact my revenge was wrong. The feeling was more of an impulse than a driving force as it is for other people. But then, I felt that revenge was not the right course of action. In fact I knew revenge was not. I did not want America to destroy some country because we think they might have done it. But that did not concern me as much as what we would do to each other. America had to do something.
Revenge is not what we needed, we needed what the legal system was designed to do, we needed Justice. Justice is a much more humbling course of action than revenge and the country was not really ready to be humble after what had happened. I felt this way as soon as it happened. I realized that we were in this situation because of some crappy revenge cycle created by a society who is so backwards that they reward that kind of thing finically and spiritually. Revenge does not work; we have known that since Grecian times. It baffles me to this day that there are still some people out there that still do not get. Actually it worries me more than it baffles me.
I do not know what else to do to combat this ‘those’ people and deal with the magnitude of what had happened. So I continue to live my life, doing the things I do, loving the people I love. They gave us a black eye, but as in may things in life, black eye’s heel.
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Today is a great day!
(3/30/2002) |
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Today I get my headers. I have been waiting for over 2 months because they have been on backorder. I hate backorder! Well anyways, this will be the first time in three years I have not gone to the woodlands for Easter. Man oh man, what is next...
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Midnight Hour
(3/27/2002) |
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I am the epitome of the procrastinator. For some reason I cannot begin to truly start to write till midnight. I tell myself it is about distraction (hell take this for example) but in contemplation, I think not. I think things have to stew for a while. I get home from a hard day of work and other stuff, and it takes time for me to come off that train of thought and get started into a whole new one. Apparently it takes me like 5 hours. Midnight it around the corner, cannot wait!
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Austin Weather
(3/27/2002) |
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To this day, I still do not get Austin's weather. One day it is cold, the next hot and rainy, then the next it is snowing. Maybe it is the hills, I am not sure. I get in my truck this morning with the heater blasting from the night before only to turn it off and roll down the windows because it is hot. I can compare the weather swings to those of the desert, but it can be hot at night here and cold during the day.
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My crazy schedule
(3/26/2002) |
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So this week and the beginning of next week is going to be crazy. I have a paper due Thursday, and then the weekend comes. No solace for me. This entry is seeming more and more like an outlet for complaints. Next Monday and Tuesday, I have a test, a case, a style guide, all major projects due! I will be ok, and get it done. I have decided today to split up Salientbeach into Salientbeach personal and Salientbeach business. Got to figure out how I am going to do it now!
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New York Competition
(3/24/2002) |
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I found out yesterday that the Advertising department of the University of Texas wants me to represent them in New York in an advertising competition. I am really stoked and I think we are going to have a great time and do well there. There is a little bit of pressure on us; we have taken gold in this category for the past 3 years I think. Good luck me!
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The Rookie
Well I saw The Rookie today with my father and my sister. I had no idea it was a G rated movie. That blew me away. Anyways, I went in the movie theatre after going in to take a sneak peak at Blade II (which looks cool). I did not expect much from this movie; heck I was just going along to be a good brother and son. Anyways, the movie surprised me. It made me laugh. I made me excited, and it even made me feel for the characters. I definitely came out of there wanting to do something dirty, like club a seal or look at porn, but over all I like it and recommend it even to people who were not dragged along because of kids.
The Mexican
I watched the Mexican last night again, a movie for my girl friend. It was a lot better the second time around. When I was in the theatre, it just seemed crappy. Brad pit plays that 'idiot' character well. Play hey, it came free with the purchase of two other movies at block buster.
Down to Earth
Man you talk about a disappointment. I bought this movie look for CB4-like humor, but I found Chris Rock trying to go the way to Tom Hanks, Bruce Wallace and Jim Carrie, but POORLY! He non-comedic roles seemed forced and trite. When he did try to be funny, it was like he was trying not to, like put his humor in real world situations (Sienfield-esk) and it just did not work. Not worth my time or yours.
Training Day
I saw training day last night for the first time and I have to say it was really good. It really kept you on the edge of your seat wondering what was going to happen next. I came together in the end very well. All in all I think Washington deserved the Oscar, but I am still up in the air if he deserved it more than Crowe. I will have to watch a beautiful mind sometime soon.
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