September 11, 2009.

[pootrootbeer]

A grey and rainy day in New York City. Happy Patriot Day9/11 kind of snuck up on me this year. For better or for worse (I'm thinking better), the media coverage seems less obsessive than in years past. The story is buried behind coverage of Fashion Week and the race for city comptroller

Comments

[mmcirvin]

The detail that always sticks in my head the most was, I think, actually on September 12th. I rode home on the commuter rail that day, and there was a Middle Eastern-looking guy sitting in front of me looking terrified and, I think, continuously praying.

[mmcirvin]

In that connection. He's a bit hyperbolic but the sentiment is valid.

Lots of people still talk about the sense of shared purpose and national unity that appeared right after the attacks as something to be nostalgic about. I don't. The simple acts of human kindness were fine, the kind of thing you see after any disaster; and the global sympathy for Americans that immediately appeared was a tragically squandered opportunity; but the "national" aspect, the feeling that apparently got Glenn Beck fired up, was setting the stage for all kinds of mischief and bloodletting.

And there was a time-delayed effect as well. Looking back, I think my initial reactions were relatively sane but my politics got badly warped by exposure to months' worth of other people's trauma reactions, in a way that didn't fully heal itself until 2004 or 2005.