9/11

Happy 9/11, everyone!

Of all the many vivid memories I have of that day nine years ago, one in particular stands out to me today.

After the attacks, I joined a massive crowd walking across the 59th St. bridge back into Queens from Manhattan, all of us alternating between watching the road beneath our feet and looking at the epic plume of black smoke rising from the southern tip of the island. As I got to the end of the bridge and turned left into Astoria (where I lived at the time), a man I was walking beside turned to me and asked me what I thought would happen next.

Now, I had given two flips about politics in any form up until that morning. I had had the vague awareness that Bush was a total tool, but couldn't find the energy to get worked up about it. And I had had even less interest, if it were possible, in matters of international policy.

But the first thing that popped out of my mouth, almost before I'd had the chance to think it, was: "our government will go after revenge instead of justice and the whole thing will get worse."

And then Bush's (and Cheney's) real presidency started.

In a way, with the Koran burnings and the Park51 nonsense and Obama's lies about our role in Iraq, the truly onerous parts of Bush's administration are ongoing. And the very first political thought my young mind had ever formulated has proved distressingly spot-on.

BBQ, anyone?