Just for the record, on 9-11-2001, eight years ago today, a bunch of religious nuts flew airplanes into buildings in the united states and crashed one plane in a field somewhere in pennsylvania.
Today, eight years later, the world is the same as it was on september 10th 2001 with the following exceptions:
1.) Air Travel is a much bigger pain in the ass than it used to be
2.) roughly 10,000 americans have died who might not have otherwise.
3.) The US has further pissed off the folks in the middle east by waging a war in Iraq for going on six years now, and has still failed to put down the dogs who supported the attackers 8 years ago in Afghanistan.
4.) roughly a million iraqis and afghans have died who might not have otherwise.
5.) lots of assholes are using the eleventh of september and the deaths of all those people to advance their political cause
6.) we all have to spend the eleventh of september talking about how we felt about it.
I remember how I felt about it. It was horrifying. It was beautiful. I couldn't look away. The attack was an act that was awesome, revolting, compelling, brutal, despicable, unfathomable, moving, and many other things.
I remember how I felt afterward, as we got done mourning the loss of innocent life as all around me came a rising tide of jingoism.
I remember how disgusting it was to see the terror my fellow citizens felt turn them into mindless flagwaving drones of an overreaching government hell bent on turning the tragedy of September 11th into a vehicle for it's own twisted political agenda.
Now, finally, I think we're back to normal.
In two years it will be the tenth anniversary.
After that I hope we don't have to talk about it again for a good long while.