2001-09-11 - 11:57 a.m.
Well, well, well ... odd thing is that I can't really focus on work today, so I guess I'll use the chance to update my diary before I go home for the rest of the day.
Speechless isn't a term that one usually ascribes to me, but that's how I've felt most of the day. And that's probably a good thing, because talking makes controlling my emotions a little more challenging. At this point, the only person I've been able to confirm as okay is a very dear friend of mine who works four blocks north of the WTC (or what used to be the WTC). The rest, I don't know yet.
I think maybe we've been a little too arrogant about the possibility of being attacked on U.S. soil, and obviously we've been that way for a little too long. While in our SCAdian game we wage "war", the deaths are virtual, and courage in the face of virtual death is not that tough to muster. But I think this time we as a country are in for a tough time now. These are no simple acts of terrorism; rather, these well thought out attacks are acts of war ... a war that has been long declared against us but which we have failed to acknowledge as a real threat. Arrogantly, we've sat for the last sixty years, since Pearl Harbor, comfortable that war is something that only touches other countries, something that we send people to support in certain instances of injustice. And now we have been attacked in large scale on our own turf. And as someone who spends a significant amount of time on commercial airlines, I am both frightened and angry.
Yesterday, I was returning from Arlington, and as I drove past the Pentagon I wondered why I could get so close to the building. Any of us who remember the Cold War know the jokes about not bothering because we live at ground zero in DC anyway. As a former tactical targeting officer, I know that particular building is bound to be on every potential assailant's high value target list, yet you can walk right up to it practically unhindered. Can't be good, yet that's the way we've treated much of our domestic security. An obvious indication would be the number of 'open' military bases, those which don't require you to enter through a manned gate. I can't believe I was actually thinking about that just yesterday.
Pray to whatever higher power you acknowledge ... I'm of the mind that this isn't quite over yet.
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