TAN. Two planes flew over.
mpfjr
I live in Southern California where everything is still shut down.
Suddenly I heard a VERY LOUD jet engine pass over our apartment.
It shocked me instantly awake. I could feel my wife sit up in bed.
Then immedialty following the first, a second went by. I jumped up
from bed and put on my shorts (backwards I might add) and told my wife
to turn on local TV while I went outside. Already there were
neighbors outside with terror stricken faces looking up. After
looking off towards the L.A. skyline and not seeing any big flashes of
light or balls of flame, I eventually went back inside and loaded up
Yahoo Messenger to check with some friends.
After asking around, one finally reported that it was two military
jets halling ass south (toward San Diego). Once I told my wife that,
her color looked a lot better.
It was then that I realized just how fucked up we are. I think
everyone would agree that we Americans are on edge now. We need to
get these planes back in the air so we can stop hearing the sound of a
plane engine with fear running wild.
There is an article that I wanted to post but I see that someone
already posted it. So I want to share with you another mass e-mail I
received. It pretty much speaks my mind on the issue.
It was forwarded to me from the Yahoo message boards. You may have
read it already.
Here goes:
"READ ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
by: rmr6us 09/12/01 04:31 pm
Msg: 37964 of 44871
4 recommendations
You monster. You beast. You unspeakable bastard.
What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward's attack on our
World Trade Center, our Pentagon, us? What was it you hoped we would
learn? Whatever it was, please know that you failed.
Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned your cause.
Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled our resolve.
Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together.
Let me tell you about my people. We are a vast and quarrelsome family,
a family rent by racial, cultural, political and class division, but a
family nonetheless. We're frivolous, yes, capable of expending
tremendous emotional energy on pop cultural minutiae, a singer's
revealing dress, a ball team's misfortune, a cartoon mouse.
We're wealthy, too, spoiled by the ready availability of trinkets and
material goods, and maybe because of that, we walk through life with a
certain sense of blithe entitlement. We are fundamentally decent,
though- peace-loving and compassionate. We struggle to know the right
thing and to do it. And we are, the overwhelming majority of us,
people of faith, believers in a just and loving God.
Some people- you, perhaps- think that any or all of this makes us
weak. You're mistaken. We are not weak. Indeed, we are strong in ways
that cannot be measured by arsenals.
Yes, we're in pain now. We are in mourning and we are in shock. We're
still grappling with the unreality of the awful thing you did, still
working to make ourselves understand that this isn't a special effect
from some Hollywood blockbuster, isn't the plot development from a Tom
Clancy novel.
Both in terms of the awful scope of its ambition and the probable
final death toll, your attacks are likely to go down as the worst acts
of terrorism in the history of the United States and, indeed, the
history of the world. You've bloodied us as we have never been
bloodied before.
But there's a gulf of difference between making us bloody and making
us fall. This is the lesson Japan was taught to its bitter sorrow the
last time anyone hit us this hard, the last time anyone brought us
such abrupt and monumental pain. When roused, we are righteous in our
outrage, terrible in our force. When provoked by this level of
barbarism, we will bear any suffering, pay any cost, go to any length,
in the pursuit of justice.
I tell you this without fear of contradiction. I know my people, as
you, I think, do not. What I know reassures me. It also causes me to
tremble with dread of the future.
In days to come, there will be recrimination and accusation, fingers
pointing to determine whose failure allowed this to happen and what
can be done to prevent it from happening again. There will be
heightened security, misguided talk of revoking basic freedoms. We'll
go forward from this moment sobered, chastened, sad. But determined,
too. Unimaginably determined.
You see, there is steel beneath this velvet. That aspect of our
character is seldom understood by people who don't know us well. On
this day, the family's bickering is put on hold. As Americans we will
weep, as Americans we will mourn, and as Americans, we will rise in
defense of all that we cherish.
Still, I keep wondering what it was you hoped to teach us. It occurs
to me that maybe you just wanted us to know the depths of your hatred.
If that's the case, consider the message received. And take this
message in exchange: You don't know my people. You don't know what
we're about. You don't know what you just started.
But you're about to learn. "
So, like I said, that message pretty much sums up how I feel.
Los Angeles Internation Airport has already informed us that things
are different. No longer will we Americans be able to fly with
minimal hassle interstate. We can no longer even drive our private
cars up to the gate and drop off our luggage and loved ones. We must
now park miles away and board shuttles to take us into the airport.
We can no longer stand at the window and watch friends and family
members embark on the plane then watch it taxi out to the run way and
take off. We must now leave them at the security check points. WTF?
Do you realize what this means? They have won! They have managed to
change our lives! They have managed to take away our freedom!
I am perfectly fine with the airports double and tripple checking the
baggage. I am perfectly fine with them doing random searches of our
carry-ons. I am even ok with them asking that anything that can be
used as a deadly weapon be placed in the checked luggage. But don't
take away the basic feedom of movement. Don't tell me I can't drop
off my luggage at the terminal. This is a bunch of crap! Is this
happening at your airport?
Despite what Mark said, America does stand for freedom. We are the
example to the world of what freedom is and should be. As a result,
it makes us an easy target. So instead of allowing our government to
reduce our freedom, I would much rather remove our enemy's freedom.
Freedom to live. Freedom to choose their own method of death.
Freedom to breath the same air that I'm breathing.
The problem:
Lets say it was Bin Laudin. What then? Lets say we kill him and his
immediate family and a dozen or so of his side kicks. Is this enough
to sate our need for closure in this issue? Can't you feel it?
Don't you realize that is exactly what you are seeking? Closure. We
need it bad. We need to know that there has been some type of
retribution for this. But who? What? & Where? I guess even How
becomes important.
Tact nuking them isn't going to help. Although, I did hear a nearly
convincing argument on the radio this morning. A caller had this to
say. "During WWII, Japan had suicide bombers as well. They used their
planes loaded with explosives as missles. They demonstrated that they
were willing to die to the last man fighting for what they believed
in. When we chose to drop the bomb on them, we, in a sense, gave them
the message that if they were willing to die to the last man for this
war, we're going to take that last man. And look-see, we have the
tool to do it without wasting any more of OUR lives."
So this caller said the same thing should apply in this situation.
" If these extremist muslim terrorists are willing to die to the last
man for what they believe in, then lets take that last man or at the
very least demonstrate that we are willing to take that last man."
Nuclear fallout is jus too big a risk. Where would it go? Who would
it kill? What would it contaminate?
I say we tell Israel that we'll fund their invasion of the middle
east. You know they want to do it. It is only because they depend on
the US as an ally that they haven't already gone and done soemthing.
They can't risk being alone over there. The fear of the wrath of the
US should anyone attempt to destroy Israel is what has kept the
Muslims in check so far.
Let them kill every single one of those laughing happy people I saw on
TV today. A couple of fuel air bombs over the capital of Afganistan
to remove those who would harbor Bin Laden. Revoke our laws against
taking out leaders so they can't hide behind it anymore. And of
course, hunt down and execute every person who has even shook the hand
of Bin Laden in the last 20 years.
Jim Hill
>Revoke our laws against taking out leaders so they can't hide behind
>it anymore.
Your opinion has been noted and filed as Uninformed Comment #143326.
Rest assured that those who know what they're talking about will give
it all due consideration. There is no need to resubmit your comment.
Jim
--
"This place blows." -- David Letterman