9/11 conspiracy theorists make me very cross, and other bits ...

[blamebrampton]

Am still improving on the flu front, damn post-viral cough still sticking around, but I am definitely winning the battle! However, so snowed under with catching up on work that I've been hopeless on LJ and will continue to be spotty for a bit. I have about 42 tabs open of things I must read, about a third of them from wemyss and 17catherines ... Sunday looks hopeful as a reading day!

It being the week before September 11 and the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the US, there have been a lot of stories in the news. Most of these are, as they can only be, heartbreaking, and the sort of thing that makes you want to reach out to the nearest stranger and just do something in the name of human sympathy.

And yet in the comments threads below (for I have turned into one of those people who Takes Their Papers Online), there are a staggering number of people declaring that the whole thing was a government plot and the attacks were all staged.

Which I find infuriating. I can only imagine what it must be like for the average sensible American. But I have a proposed solution.

Buzz Aldrin.

For those who have no idea what I am talking about (cut to the last 15 seconds if you want the short version):

If it were made law that Buzz Aldrin could punch every conspiracy nut who flies in the face of overwhelming evidence, the world would be a better place. I know that violence is not the solution, but he's 81, so he's very unlikely to really hurt anyone, and he's an old-fashioned gentleman, so women and children will just be given a Disappointed Look. Plus it will keep an American Treasure fit in his ninth decade! He may have to give himself a little jab over his thoughts on climate change, but he's an engineer, and engineers and geologists are the most likely to be wacky there. And at least he's of the genuine 'Eh, I'm not convinced' rather than the nutty 'It's a Scientists' Plot' set.

The next time I read 'Actually, the CIA ...' over the next few days, I am going to imagine Buzz wading in, and feel a bit better about things.

In good work news, final sales figures from my last issue brought Rare But Solid Praise from the Powers That Be, which is good news as it means I may have a next issue. Given that print is allegedly dead, this is never a certain thing. But I have the Best Ever Knitting Extract in the process of being sorted for Winter 2012, so I will cry if it doesn't go ahead. And I have both Australia and New Zealand in the office Rugby World Cup sweep, and drew South Africa for my friend. One of my work besties has England, so fingers crossed! (And sorry in advance to both Australia and New Zealand for jinxing them.)

Comments

[oldenuf2nb.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad that you're feeling better! I've missed your posts; they always make me smile.

I haven't heard the conspiracy theorists, but then, if there were any here what Buzz did would be very minor, indeed. We have our own wack-jobs; *coughglennbeckcough*.

I've lived long enough that there are three events which are branded into my memory; John Kennedy's assassination. *I was six, but I remember vividly my mother crying*. The Challenger explosion; my first thought was, OMG, that teacher is on board. And Nine Eleven. It left a scar on our national consciousness that won't begin to fade until everyone who was alive on that day is dead, and maybe not even then, although people do tend to forget things they didn't experience first hand. It was one of the few times I had no idea what to say to my children by way of reassurance; I was so devastated that there were no words. And I remain to this day so raw about it that I don't think I'll even turn on my television this weekend. It changed something about us as a people. I think some would say that we could stand to lose some of our swagger, and I can't disagree with that, but it was something else, something deeper. The belief that it's safe to get on an airplane, the belief that it's safe to go to work, the belief that it's safe to, for even a short time, be separated from your children. All of that is gone, and I know I'll probably be looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life. I am often at odds with what my government does (believe me, they do not ask our permission for their madness or we never would have gone into Iraq; trust me) but that day the repercussions of decades long decisions was visited on people who had never done anything more heinous than go to work, and I'm not sure those of us who watched the Twin Towers fall will ever be the same. Ever.

[oldenuf2nb.livejournal.com]

I would merely like to add; Go, Buzz, you wiry old bastard. Hit him again.

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I rarely approve of violence as the solution, but in this case ...

[shu-shu-sleeps.livejournal.com]

What you've said here is so very, very true - no-one who had exposure to the Twin Towers falling (where in the US or elsewhere) will ever be the same, its become a pivotal moment in history but hard though it may be, its vital that we can balance controlling the fear you have described. A fear which is very real, and highly understandable. We have to move past it, manage it, learn from it and challenge it (the fear that is) otherwise the terrorists win. My thoughts are with you all this weekend, its going to be tough.

[lisbet.livejournal.com]

Agreed on the scars and still feeling raw. And no TV this weekend for me, either. If it gets turned on, it will be to watch a DVD only. Actually I think there might be a new Netflix in my mailbox (hoping)!

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I have banned myself from acknowledging the existence of Glenn Beck. It's for the best all round.

I was born after Kennedy died, for me, it's the moon landing (whether that's a real memory or not, who knows?), Lennon's assassination, Nelson Mandela's release, Rabin's assassination, and 9/11.

We were watching The West Wing, of all things, and the first plane was announced during a newsbreak, but then we went back to Jed Bartlett railing at God for the senseless death of Mrs Landringham. That a fictional US president should be calling out God on his willingness to tolerate gross unfairness and bastardry as real life events turned so horribly bleak is a coincidence that has not ceased to resonate with me. It ended just in time for the news to come back and announce the second plane had hit. We did not go to bed that night.

At the time, I was working on an airline magazine, the airline quickly tanked in the following weeks, and I was made redundant. I came over to visit friends in the US, especially an ex who had often worked at the Pentagon. It was not the US I had known in the past, in fact, as I transited from my international flight to my domestic to San Diego, I was moderately frightened to see young marines with very large guns everywhere. It was like being in Syria in the late 1970s, and every bit as wrong.

It was easily the strangest visit of my life: I have never hugged so many Americans nor been so terrified of others. The level of human charity in most was inspiring, while the level of crazy in the few was an alarming foretaste of where politics would go in the next 10 years. Part of me wanted to stay and hug people and just say, 'It will be OK, you will be OK', while the rest of me had never been so glad to get on a plane as when I left.

I have to say that I have never been afraid of terrorists in America. I'm usually afraid of Americans, because you guys shoot each other all the time and there are a lot of bonkers drivers over there. I grew up with terrorism, in the UK and Northern Ireland, in Egypt, in Mozambique and in India. I'm always conscious that I am far more likely to be killed by a motorist.

But I remain angry. Angry that people who failed the basic tenets of their faith could kill so many innocents, angry that they could destroy the lives of so many Muslims who would bear the brunt of the violence they unleashed that day, and angry that a small group of lunatics could change the world so negatively. I think I took to travelling more regularly again after then just as my own personal and ongoing fingers-up.