Annual terrorist attack cancelled: "It's just not surprising anymore" says Osama.
September 11 2002 7:26 PM
Crisis averted everyone. Much to the surprise of apparantly nearly everyone, there was not another terrorist attack on the morning of September 11th 2002 in the area of 8:30 Eastern time. We must have foiled their annual attack with our orange alert status. Frankly, I think anyone who was worried about a terrorist attack today is an idiot.
First of all, the point of terror is to create an upheaval, to foster fear and confusion. Attacking once a year on the same date is not confusing. That's scheduled. If it is confusing, it's only confusing in the sense of why would anyone do that rather than attack randomly. Second of all, going on orange alert for no reason other than it's the year anniversary of an attack is stupid as well. I saw news reports of all the anti-aircraft and other precautions that were being taken. Most likely, those precautions will be off alert tomorrow or at least by the end of the week. If I were a terrorist, that's what I'd be waiting for. Third, they already did the surprising thing and attacked us with airplanes once. Do you know why it was effective? Because we didn't suspect that anyone would do a crazy thing like that. Doesn't it make sense that the people who were smart enough to think that up, organize it, and pull it off would continue to be surprising and catch us off guard. Pulling off the same attack again on the same day is like telling me you're going to hit me so I can get ready or even dodge.
So what was the most significant part of today? Over saturation of 9/11 memorials. Yes, I realize only a year has passed and that this is the most appropriate day (other than 9/12/2001) for that sort of thing. Seriously though, there is more television coverage than there was last year. I got home today and mistakenly turned on the TV to catch the simpsons or a baseball game and I had to flip through channel after channel of "9/11 rememberance", "9/11 news coverage", and kids talking about how they saw grown-ups reacting last year. Not to mention that every station had a little 9/11 watermark on the screen or a voice over of calm and somber voices. I did finally find a baseball game, Yankees vs. Orioles. I don't know why I thought it would be possible for me to watch it, the regular announcers were replaced by a man speaking in soft tones about all the sorrow, not even announcing the plays. Then they interviewed a firefighter. I respect that people came through in a time of need, but this guy was the one that made me turn off the TV. When asked about the events of today he said:
"The emotions that I felt this morning at the ceremony are so similar to the emotions that I felt last year as the events were unfolding."
I suppose that means perhaps he was in horror. Or maybe he was pumping with adrenaline. I'm not sure.
The good thing about today? Well I didn't get the day off of work, so that's not it. The good thing about today is that advertising companies somehow decided that today would be free of ads. That's fine with me, since I hate ads, but it's sort of strange. There were ads last year, and people were dying then, now we're all just sad. I'm not really complaining though, I just thought it was strange. Besides, CNN covered with pictures of candles has that New Age feel to it.
September 11th is definitely a day that should be special. Not special in the orange alert because we think that terrorists have the same obsession with anniversaries and order that we do way, or in the spending the day clogging all media with the message of rememberance and weepiness way, though. We should have spent today remembering. Remembering that we're not so innocent and that people do want to attack us. When I was asked if I thought that America had changed in any way since last year, I could quickly say: Not in the least. SUV's are larger, we use lots of gas, talk louder on cell phones, consume more, conserve less, and we're still doing a bang up job making ourselves look fat and stupid. All the words about heightened security and increased awareness seem to have disappeared. Not even the airports are that much more secure. LAX had National Guard stationed there with automatic rifles for a little while, but they're gone now because they 'scared people'. But that's what makes us strong right? Not letting the terrorists change us? That's right! I'll eat my fast food and yell into my cell phone all I want, all you other fuckers step off. American coming through. And while you're stepping off learn some English.
After having said all that you probably think I'm pretty bad. So I'll just say this, I like the United States, we're not perfect and we have a lot to learn and change to be perfect, but I'd gladly spill my blood on this ground than let someone take it away from us.
