Terrorism Strikes Deep In The Heartland

What the FUCK can terrorists be thinking? They have got to be the stupidest people in the world. A cowardly, hopeless act of destruction and violence like this can only be done by people at the end of their ropes. Yes, they wanted to call attention to their cause…and they succeeded. BUT, we don’t know what the hell their cause is. It’s not like they left a calling card. And now other people are speaking up saying that they did it. Someone else is trying to take credit for their actions. That’s gotta piss them off. But if they say anything they know that they’re dead. They fucked with America. That’s something you don’t do. AND they fucked with an American symbol of commerce and capitalism. That’s something you REALLY don’t do. Especially when we’ve got a gun-totin’, trigger happy oil man in office. He’s libel to blow up the whole world just to get these 10-20 pricks who did this.

Today a very horrible thing happened. (And that’s an understatement.) Four commercial airliners were hijacked and plowed into three different places. The first was, of course, the World Trade Center (a symbol of our economic strength), which is no more. Who knows how many people are dead. The second was the Pentagon (a symbol of our military power), which is only partly torn up with about 100 casualties. The third was some field out in Pennsylvania (um, don’t ask). Only the people on the plane died. This one some people think was meant for Camp David.

Nice.

This is the first time that something like this has really hit me. Usually I’m able to distance myself from it. “Oh. Oklahoma City? That’s sad. A lot of people died. Sucks.” And I don’t mean to dehumanize what happened there, but it’s just the way I was. It was like a movie.

This, though. It may look like something out of Deep Impact (especially with all of the different angles that CBS keeps showing), but it’s real. It’s the World Trade Center. It’s gone. Completely. 50,000 people working in two pillars of concrete and steel. Probably half of those people are gone with the Center. I’m at work as I’m writing this and everyone here is walking around in a bit of a daze. People are canceling meetings left and right. I had to be in a meeting for a couple of hours and was almost happy to get away from this unbelievable shit. Every time I see a news report, which is surprisingly often considering the fact that I’m at work, I get a lump in my throat, no matter how many times I see the Statue of Liberty almost get engulfed in smoke or a guy falling out of a 100th story window. This is a landmark that I had seen. I had walked around it. Even if I was in NYC for only two days, it was still a very big part of those two days. How could it not be?

How cheap is life to these assholes? I know they think it’s noble to die for their cause, but when we don’t know what the cause is, what’s the point? It was a lot of pointless deaths.

Maybe they’re scared of us because life is so precious to us. To them one or one million, it doesn’t matter because we’re all “going to a better place if we serve whoever it is we believe in.”

Fuck that. I want to live for a while. So did all of those people in the buildings and on the planes. If they really want to die for a cause, why don’t they strap a bomb to themselves and walk out into the ocean, leaving a trail of papers saying who they are and why they died? That’s MUCH more effective.

How does something like this happen? We don’t know. Nothing of this magnitude has ever happened to us. Not here at home. Not in America.

Dan Rather called it the “Pearl Harbor of terrorism.” (Not that Pearl Harbor wasn’t an act of terrorism in and of itself.) This is something that has happened on our own soil. Something that shows us that we are indeed touchable. At least with Pearl Harbor, though, we knew exactly what was going on. We knew who to go after, what their cause was and where they were. This time we know nothing. (Unless, of course, the government knows something we don’t. Highly likely. Tonight (I’m writing this in installments…I’m not at work now) there was bombing in Afghanistan. Who’s doing it?)

What would I say to these fuckheads?

Watch your asses. You hit us in the “economy” and the “power”, but they were just symbols. Now the Trade Center is our Alamo. You know what the Texans did after the Alamo? They trounced Santa Ana’s ass at San Jacinto. And it’s not only the U.S. you have to be weary of. No, you now have the whole world against you. It was, after all, the WORLD Trade Center. It was a part of world economy, not just American. And the other super powers of the world are on our side (for the most part, anyway). I don’t care if you’re the Libertarian’s People’s Front or the Front of the Libertarian People, we’ll come after you when we find out who the hell you are. (And we’ve got an idiot in the White House who will probably try to sic Star Wars on you.)

So you’ve done your job. You’ve scared us. You’ve gotten our attention. But now what? Are you going to show yourselves? Or are you going to make us guess like the cowards you are?

You’ve done a terrible, terrible thing that completely undermines what you were trying to do. Now you’re the bad guys to everybody. No one will hide you. No one will care. You’re all alone.

You’re members of the walking dead.

Fuck you. Life goes on.

Now, those are some pretty strong words from such a peaceful guy as myself. You may be saying to yourself, “Mark! Do you want to start a war over this?” Of course not! War is NEVER the answer. Even killing one person is rarely ever the answer. And it probably wouldn’t even be a good idea to kill these guys. More would just take their places and the dead guys would become martyrs. Those are the most dangerous kinds of leaders.

What I mean by that is I know my fellow Americans. Things like this are exactly what brings out the Patriot in us all. We WILL band together behind some leader (although I highly doubt that that leader will be Dubya, but maybe we’ll all be surprised) and rise up against our enemies in one way or another.

(In a side note, Dan Rather actually had to say, “No matter what you may think of him…” about Georgie. Funny that we have to say something like that. And, is it me, or was George’s “moment of silence” in Florida the shortest moment you’ve ever not heard? It wasn’t even a moment. More like a sec.)

Now all we can really do is pick up the pieces and go on. And wait for the first TV movie and cheesy tie-in pop song by Mariah Carey.

So, as I look out on the Austin skyline, still in a state of shock in the late afternoon, I think about this catastrophe in NYC and the war zone that Lower Manhattan has become. And I think about what would happen if one of the buildings here were hit. And I think about all of my friends and family who would be affected by it. And I hope that we never have to worry about something like that ever happening here.

I hope…

(Of course someone would really have to hate live music and pretentious film geeks for that to happen.)

And if you’re wondering how I can still joke at a time like this, it’s how I deal. Now you deal.