11/11/01 12:25 AM
Writing late at night on the last day of total freedom I have in a while. My folks have been visiting my sister for the last 5 days or so and I’ve had the house to myself. It’s been nice and quiet, and other than a visit from Evil James today, it’s been relatively uneventful.
As I write this we’re about 26 minutes into the 2nd month after the attacks of 911. It’s kind of strange how the world has changed, yet really, we’re still going on.
People are still afraid to fly. That really gets me. When I went on vacation the other week I didn’t fly but that wasn’t due to fear of flying, if it were feasible to fly I would have, but it just wasn’t in the cards. There’s no real reason not to fly now, safety is at an all time high, but the fear just clings and the industry is hurting.
People are afraid to open the mail. The nuts started coming out a week after the bombing. They paused just enough to get over the initial shock and then go back to being idiots. Now to open mail it’s a matter of “is opening this mail going to mean getting sick?” I’m really worried because I sent out mail this morning and forgot to put a return address on it. I’m hoping to goodness gracious that someone doesn’t throw it out because of that, or I’d have one very angry credit card company wondering where my payment was.
People are flying the American flag just about as much as in the days after 911. Going on mystery shops I see it a lot. Remote country spots where guys have nailed 2×4’s to the back of their pickup trucks and stapled the flag proudly to those boards. People with more flags on their cars than I’ve seen in my life. Half of me wishes that I owned stock in a flag making company now. I’d be rich. That’s for sure.
People are worried about the war. But we don’t actually see the war. Sure it’s a news byte on CNN from time to time, but we’re not on the front lines yet. It’s not another gulf war where it was front page news or on CNN 24/7. It’s going on in the background and hopefully we’re making gains on bringing the people who did 911 to justice.
People know that the economy is still in the toilet. The $300 refund checks (except mine) went in the bank. Microsoft got off scott free in their DOJ case because the DOJ decided that hurting microsoft would be bad for the economy. Layoffs are at such high levels right now … higher than even in years before a lot of the readers of this strip were born. That’s very scary and I’m watching my own job and being thankful that they haven’t decided to can us yet.
People still have hope though. The world series went on and we saw a spectacular series with the Diamondbacks fighting “fate” to show that it was the better team, not “destiny,” that controlled the series. The Yanks will be back, but the ‘backs were the better team this year. Those incredible Chicago Bears won two games back to back in overtime to make a very special friend of mine do cartwheels and backflips. Children still laugh, people still hold each other close and enjoy quiet moments, babies are still born, people still die, and in some ways life is just like it was before the events of the last two months.
They didn’t break our spirit, they didn’t break us as a people, and that’s very important. We’ll get through this because as a people we were united by these events.
So on this day to the families and the friends and the loved ones of those who were hurt, or killed, or remain missing from that terrible day, our hearts go out. Our hopes go out too.
To those who died we wish peace and safe passage through the roads that they travel on beyond this life.
To all of you, I wish a beautiful Sunday.
On that note, be safe.
k9