In 2001, I was living three blocks from the Holland tunnel, on the Jersey side. We did not get the poisonous cloud which marred the sky for over a week, it was blown the other way, towards Brooklyn. The view from the end of my street was one which I avoided for at least as long. I chose not to take it in, trying to carry on with my day to day life, as if sitting in six hours of traffic to cross the river was normal. (The Holland was closed during the search and eventual clean-up, and getting in and out of the city was a good deal more difficult than usual.)
My life was changed immediately, and there were more far reaching changes which are still being felt. Each year I try not to dwell on the events, but this year I did watch a disturbing documentary on the construction and operation of the towers. It was filmed in January of 2001, and included testimony from two experts who died eight months later. One of them talked about the buildings being designed to withstand the impact of a 747 jet plane. Eerie.
My cousin was among the firefighters who went in and never came out. He was in the first ladder company inside, and his last transmission came from the fourth floor. They were on their way out, carrying a handicapped person. He sounded calm and completely unaware of what was happening on the higher floors. Then, a minute later, life was over. They did not find him for six months, but then he was given the most spectacular goodbye imaginable.
Since he was among the last found, his funeral was a big deal. They pulled out all the stops. Officers stood at either side of his coffin during the entire wake. Changing shifts, like the guard. Streets were closed for blocks, and were flooded with uniforms. Both Mayors spoke. The Olympic team that year drew bracelets with the names of fallen fire fighters. The skier who wore my cousin's name won a gold medal. It really was a hero's send-off.
Two of my friends lost their businesses. One owned a party company in Tribeca. The other owned a theatre in the West Village.
My own life changed drastically. I moved out of my apartment, and travelled the globe a bit, before making a move out to LA. The event provided a way to make personal changes in who I am, and changed my beliefs in how my country works. There was a heightened interest in politics, which I still have. More now than ever. I may not be able to change anything just by knowing what is going on, but I do not want to feel as if I have been mugged anymore. Or assaulted violently.
There was a long piece in Time magazine a year after the towers fell. It outlined the time line from the day bush took office to the day of the attacks. Along the way, there was a moment here where he could have prevented another moment there. There was a turn this way which could have prevented a turn the other. Each action he took, or did not take, led to the result we all know now. It was shocking then, and still is. How, out of incompetence, or willful intent, he was culpable in one of the worst disasters in our nation's history, and how he used it to his advantage. The fact that it is still being used for political advantage is sickening.
I have felt ever since the horrible election in 2000, that bush has unleashed a very dark and ugly side of our nation's collective subconscious. It was as if, finally, it was okay to voice the racism and hatred and small mindedness which has dwelt well below the surface. As if people could finally let down their guard, and give voice to their true feelings which they have had to keep hidden during the reign of political correctness. Suddenly, the religious fundamentalists had one of their own in power, and could start to exert their muscle, forcing their decidedly un-Christ like beliefs onto others.
At the same time, the very smart and very powerful forces behind bush inc. have been able to take over the country, creating a free for all for huge corporate giants and the mutli-billion dollar out-dated oil industry. The attacks on our country were a physical representation of the disease spreading on the inside.
Some people may object to what I am saying, but this is how I view the combined effect of bush and the attacks on September 11th, 2001. The damage to our nation when the towers fell was only temporary. (The stock market crash of 1929 had a much more far reaching impact.) However, the damage to our nation inflicted by bush inc. may never be repaired. On every level, he has hurt our country. The attacks on the towers should always be linked to bush, as a footnote, in parenthesis, in italics. The equation of one disaster to the other (either direct or indirect) should be made clear in the history books.
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