vivid memories

There are very few events in my life where I specifically remember where I was when something happened. One of those was what happened 5 years ago today. I was working in the door shop. Every morning there was a debate over whose morning show we would listen to.
Personally, I did not care. They were all pretty lame. I mean, let's go over the choices. You had KUFO...moments of discordant, blaring, hideous music interspersed with sex jokes, fart jokes, and Howard the smurfing idiot Stern doing "Jackass the Movie" on radio...before the movie was released. Stupid.

Then again, some of their competition was Z-100 and 95.5. Less terrible music...okay, some of the music was okay...both songs they played in a 3 hour period...interspersed with "interesting" conversations about stuff like...I don't know, what kind of corn is in their dog's smurf. Fascinating. And "hilarious". Of course, between scintillating conversations they had prank phone calls. No chance those could be anything but the best stuff on radio. People calling up randomly, acting like jerks and smothering their laughter at whatever they were doing to the poor sap on the other end. I am sure someday i too will see the humor in this stupidity.

Unless, of course, we "got" to listen to Mark and Brian. Now there was quality entertainment. I think the one I remember most vividly was the time some chick was mad at her live-in boyfriend. So on national public radio, she went in to where he was sleeping and, with the prodding of the rioutously (un)funny Mark and Brian proceeded to give him a golden shower. Now, before that I had no clue what that was. Now I am just disgusted. But it sure made for "quality" programming.

Until the morning of 9/11. Confused reports about planes bashing into buildings, buildings coming down, the "fog of war" that meant nobody knew what was happening. Our proudction slowed to a crawl. Everyone kept asking everyone else what was happening, what they had heard as if that would clear up what was happening.

It was a sad and frightening day. My long held resentment towards New York stilled for a while as the tragedy unfolded. And continued to unfold.

At first it reawakened a theory of patriotism that had long been absent from this country. U.S. flags were flying everywhere. Stores, houses, pickup trucks...you could not get away from them. They were everywhere. Cheesy songs like "Where were you when the world stopped turning" flooded the airwaves (and, truth be told, were so smarmy it irritated the daylights out of me).

But here is the problem. Patriotism is a word that is hard to define. Some people define it as "supporting our troops", a phrase that itself is hard to define, others define it as "supporting the President" and others define it as "opposing the President". And all of the definitions are 100% right and 100% wrong. The Dixie Chicks were 100% right to say what, how and why they said...and 200% wrong. There is something to the theory that people like Hanoi Jane giving comfort to the enemy extended and worsened the Vietnam War and their comments have some paralleles although in no way am I suggesting their actions are nearly as bad as hers were.

The underlying point is all of these (not Fonda, the others) people have a legitimate claim to be acting patriotically, even when their actions are diametrically opposed. And with the flag-waving and monument polishing decreasing now we have a new national mood.

News report after news report has Bush making a "solemn" visit somewhere..."solemn" somewhere else...what, do they all use the same thesaurus? Is today just a solemn day? Can't it be somber? Whatever. Anyway, I remember where I was 5 years ago. And the world did change that day. Some of us just haven't figured out all the ramifications yet.

Every so often an event occurs that changes the way the world works. The dropping of the nukes at the end of World War II led to s hift in national strategic thinking as possession of or lack thereof of nuclear weapons made you relevant or irrelevant, made communism a threat and nonsense like the Vietnam war a viable option. Without the bomb the US would probably have stayed somewhat isolationist and not bailed out the French. The shift in thinking was that big.

The new world created by the events of 9/11 are that big too. We may not see everything yet but the world is shifting. The means to ends have shifted, the political world is not the same. And ultimately that might be what we all remember about that day.