How A Pro Covers The Tea Party

9/11: Vignettes, by David Hunter

"... I’m standing here telling you what happened, but I won’t cry in front of you because I’m a New Yorker, and that means pride..."










It is an existential truism that we are all looking for meaning in things: life, death, lost loves, the existence of God, and even two planes crashing into a building.

I’m not sure what I can derive from that last one.

When it’s all said and done, like World War Two and the JFK assassination, millions of words will have been written and billions of thoughts expounded questioning why this happened, and what it all means.


9 years on, those questions still linger.

The fact is, the terrorists knew that those Towers represented wealth and prosperity, that they were a symbol of New York and all it stood for: reaching for the sky, being the biggest, the tallest, the best. And if they could hurt you in any way, they’d do it by destroying what you love most, the thing that is most enduring and endearing, the legacy, If only to strike fear into you. Because nothing strikes fear into a person like seeing something so permanent and irreplaceable, something they love, be destroyed so senselessly.

This is the mandate of the terrorist.

* * * * * * * *

Watching the first building fall, I was aghast. At the time I had no idea the members of the NYFD had marched in there to save lives.

I am ashamed to admit, I was the first to chastise these guys for going in there. Surely they knew that structure could topple on them, that they might not come out alive. They had wives. They had children. What were they thinking? It dawned on me that these were the kind of guys who put their lives on the line every day, without hesitation. They probably went in there bent on saving every single person in that building, because who else was gonna do it? And I wonder, would I have had the courage to do that?

Every one of those guys … I cannot express how I feel about them.

* * * * * * * *

The image is indelible: the iconic New York Attitude.



It’s no wonder a lot of us cried. Seeing burly NY cops and Firefighters weeping, exhausted, faces smudged with dust and grime. These guys didn’t sleep; they had a job to do. Accounts from the time document that some of these guys had to be told to go home. They had been on the job for days. Emotional and physically wrecked, they soldiered on.


Those tough New Yorkers. Even there in the streets with billowing concrete dust obscuring their vision, faces ghost-like, they stand before the television cameras and talk to the media. They appear strong, stoic, as is their wont. I can see that, for the benefit of the television audience glued to their sets, that these people are putting on a brave face that says, ‘I’m standing here telling you what happened, but I won’t cry in front of you because I’m a New Yorker, and that means pride.’

* * * * * * * *
Monday, September 11th, 2001

We’re parked at the side of Britannia road E. in Toronto, just in front of a runway at Pearson International Airport which ends beyond the large fence. It’s 9:30 PM, and the car is filled with the smell of Tim Horton’s coffee. We’re chatting quietly, but there isn’t much to say. We came out here on a whim because we couldn’t believe all air traffic in North America had been shut down. The gravity of it hits us, but we don’t cry. Guys won’t cry in front of other guys.

* * * * * * * *

America, New York, the World Trade Towers; as a Canadian they are almost an abstract thing. I eventually went to Manhattan years later, in 2006, visited Ground Zero even; Just a hole in the ground by then; no match for seeing those magnificent edifices in real time, rising into the sky. Only faded news clips, and old films are left. Man on Wire, the documentry about Philippe Petit, the man who wire-walked across the towers, I watch it and it makes me teary, I’ll admit. He felt a love for those buildings that was almost metaphysical. In 2001, these things were still an abstraction to me. I sat in that car at the airport watching the silent night skies, sipping my coffee, and wondering what it was all about. Almost ten years later, I still am at a loss for the meaning of it all.

* * * * * * * *

On a personal level, I never understood the terrorist mandate. I never understood how you could take a plane full of innocent people and then proceed to fly it into a building filled with more innocent people. My soul could not, and cannot, comprehend it. Cold blooded, cold blooded … and what’s more, I keep putting myself in that building; I’m there, I can’t help it. I want to know what those people felt when they knew their lives were going to end, when they opened up their cell phones and started calling out to people they loved. I wonder about those last messages. How do you say goodbye like that? How do you toss yourself from the window of a 110 story building? How do you march into a building as a firefighter knowing you may not walk out again, see the blue sky again, hold your kids or kiss your wife again?


* * * * * * * *
9 years later, the only meaning I can gather from any of this is, live life while it’s good, be happy, be alive, stop and smell the flowers once in a while, and remember the people of 9/11, lest we forget.






~ David Hunter writes for the National Affairs Desk and the Gaslight Literary

Howdy...I've Escaped Bondage and Fled....full report to come! But first....GARBAGE ISLAND!!

What the Hell Have We Done To Ourselves!?

Matt Byron said...

FROM THE National Affairs Desk NewsWire...
MATT BYRON, N.A.D. Shock and Awe Reporter


Long time no see to all the loving and loyal National Affairs Desk crew! I've been doing a little research on, at least for me personally, a very "random" topic. And if the point of this beacon-of-truth of a web site is to diffuse random knowledge and spark up debates...this is some thing everyone should be aware of...and I'm so immersed in watching documentaries on the subject I don't even have the attention span to produce a reasonable article devoid of spastic emotional and drug-induced outbursts...

If you want a good reason to stop littering or some extra fuel for the environmentalist fire, go to YOUTUBE and look for any documentary about a god-awful, horrible thing called "GARBAGE ISLAND"--it's an ever-growing free-floating mass of solid human garbage out in the pacific ocean about 2 times the size of TEXAS! The footage is un-fucking-believable. If you care about the environment at all (or even if you don't have much personal interest in the subject like myself) this could possibly make you lose your stomach.

Check 'em out and lets get a discussion going. Anyone with a god-damn pulse will have an opinion after they watch some footage of Garbage Island...I'm ready to pass the discussion baton all the way from the Windy City, Chicago. Over and out!

It's the Constitution, Stupid!

Let me start with a few words written by Thomas Jefferson in 1779:

No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.

Then there is this dandy sentence from the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

How about the 1^st Amendment? For those that are interested, and for those that thought that they could ignore it, it reads like this:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

What is my point? Why am I bringing this up? Well, because of the asinine backlash to the building of a mosque a couple of blocks away from Ground Zero. I thought first, instead of focusing on the fear, and thinly veiled racism behind the backlash, that I'd go straight to the legality of the issue. There is no legal, or Constitutional grounds for opposing the building of a mosque anywhere in the United States. Muslims, like Christians, Jews, and even Scientologists have the right to gather, and worship wherever they deem fit.

President Obama was correct in saying this; “As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country,” and following it up with this; “That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances.” (link)

It is the President's duty to uphold the tenets of the Constitution, optics be damned. Obama had no choice but to affirm the right of Faisal Abdul Rauf to build a mosque on private land, with private money, anywhere in the United States. It would go against the 1^st Amendment if he did not.

Let's get to the ugly aspects of this story. First, to those that are claiming that the building of a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero is some how an affront to the memories of the victims of 9/11, please, it is not as if Faisal Abdul Rauf is building the Taj Mahal from the rubble of the Twin Towers. He is simply renovating, a nondescript, downtown building, where he hopes to build a place of worship and a community center. It is not going to stand out, there will be no neon lights mocking the memory of those (Muslims included) lost  in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. This is just another building, amongst the many in the blocks in and around Ground Zero. The imam is not building an Al Qaeda themepark. This is nothing more than a private real estate development deal, and what is more American than that?

So where does that leave us? The rage is still there. Folks are still up and arms at the idea that a mosque could be built in the shadows of Ground Zero. Why? Thinly veiled racism. The repeated lies, mostly from the right, that there is an Islamofascist plot to take over the Western World. The lingering stench of the politics of fear, the ugly aftereffect of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Let's make one thing clear; Islam did not attack New York City on September 11 2001, Bin Laden and his motley crew of terrorists did. This was not an attack of Christianity by Islam. This was an attack by Al Qaeda on the United States, and its financial capital. Yes, Bin Laden and Al Qaeda are fundamentalist Muslims, and yes they used religious rhetoric as justification for the attack, but Bin Laden and Al Qaeda do not represent the whole of Muslim world. That is like saying that the Westboro Baptist Church (you know, those God hates fags nuts) represents the whole of Christianity. A week argument, one that proves nothing, other than the arguer's ignorance.

But what about the optics of this whole thing? Why can't the imam build his mosque somewhere else? I dunno, maybe he got a sweetheart deal on the building. Maybe he didn't think, that in the land of the free, in a country where religious freedom is protected and celebrated, that the building of a mosque, anywhere, would be a such a big deal. There is no wrong doing here. Muslims have every right to worship wherever they like, be it 2 blocks from Ground Zero or anywhere else in the United States. It's the Constitution, stupid!

To Blahg

In the spirit of a Seinfeld episode, I give you a blog post about nothing. Unfortunately, I haven't the cast of characters which would guarantee its entertainment.  Kramer is not going to burst through your computer screen, George (my favorite character, for those interested in my psyche) is not going to say or do something completely insensitive. There will be no Newman versus Jerry moments. I am a writer with a head cold and a blog, not a stand up comedian with a TV deal. But where was I? Oh yes, a blog, er blahg post about nothing, right. Another exercise in writing, just to write. Content for content's sake.

It feels like my head is being squeezed by a vice. Phlegm and snot are the product of this constant squeezing. My sneezes near apocalyptic, my coughs rattle windows. Hack, hack, ah choo! So there, maybe there is some meaning to this post, maybe this post is meant to give me an outlet to say fuck you to the universe...??? The gods, they say, must be crazy, and thus I haven't slept right in days. Where's my Kleenex? A curse on this overactive immune system of mine. Even if it helps me beat this bug quickly, does it really need to turn me into a slimy, overheated mass, of snorting, sneezing, and coughing. More drugs, numb, numb, numb, BLAH!

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