Where were you 8 years ago today?
Right around this time eight years ago, I was at MicMac Mall with Gabriel and Izaak shopping for a new bag, as that was the year I returned to school at St. Joseph’s College of Early Childhood Education. I remember this day with great clarity, as it was a day that greatly impacted on my perceptions of the political realities of the day. Every moment was recorded in my head like short film clips.
I was in the store Bentley… you know the one with luggage and wallets and backpacks and the fuzzy slippers (I never could figure out the consumer connection between travel and slippers). In any case, Izaak was in the stroller, and Gabriel was almost three. This was before Izaak was mobile, so it was easy to be out with the two of them by myself.
The radio was on. Q104. With an important news update… This was odd to me, as it was early in the morning on Q104… it is usually the chatter of dirty jokes, boobies and beer, not reportings from Washington.
“The Pentagon has Been Attacked!”
My attention dropped from the wallet I had in my hand and zeroed in on the radio, “What did that say?”
Another customer had wandered into the store… “Oh didn’t you hear? America is under attack. A missile flew into the Pentagon and the Statue of Liberty has been hit by a plane… It’s all over the news.”
No I certainly did not hear… If I did hear, I would certainly not by standing in Bentley shopping for freaking wallets… “No, I have to get home.”
I remember my heart was racing. I beelined it to the bus depot and anxiously waited for the bus. This was a time when I was having frequent panic attacks, so everything was particularly heightened. Now waiting for a bus was a time that evoked anxiety in me even at times I did not think that the world was potentially coming to an end (leftover anxiety from Y2K, but at the time, real nonetheless.
It took me about 15 minutes to get home. I hopped on the bus that would get me closest, and pretty much ran from the stop to my duplex off Wyse Road.
The other half of our duplex was rented by close friends (considered family). One of which was scheduled to babysit that afternoon. Dave had gone to work at Convergys that morning… and I had classes. At least I thought I had classes…
I burst into the house and put on CNN… to the sight of that video clip which probably wins the award for most replayed historical clip ever. A plane, flying into the World Trade Tower…
I picked up the phone and called next door… “Turn on your TV or get the hell over here.”
It was all so surreal. And then, when the towers came down, I welled up as my heart broke. This is fucking crazy. I felt like I knew that in that moment, things would never be the same again. I was terrified that Bush was at the helm… and remember lamenting Al Gore’s bum deal all over again (the wounds had just healed).
Eight years later and we are certainly living in a different context. The ghosts of 9/11 still haunt us in Afghanistan and Iraq… and in our daily lives as we find ourselves handing over little pieces of our privacy in the name of security and intelligence.
9/11 was a game changer for the trajectory of globalization, community and human progress. It was perhaps the perfect excuse for CCTV, wire-tapping, holding people without charges or legal representation and using the Stanford (Zimbardo) Prison Experiment as a model for dealing with “terrorists”.
9/11 gave us new enemies to replace the commies, and a new source of anxiety and irrational fear to justify a post-modern witch-hunt on those who would question the omnipresence and omnipotence of America… in all her red white and blue glory.
Yes 9/11 changed all that. It traumatized North America, and we will probably never be the same again.
