Friends - still unavail. But a lot of people have been emailing "I know I don't know you but...". That's GREAT. In fact, the people I am trying to prevent from accessing this are people who DO know me.
Like, from my job.
But if you're a lurker or a one time reader or whatever, no need to apologize. Just email and ask! I'm only happy to oblige. And I'll be even happier when I get back to being able to post without having to go "incognito" delete the history and call in Seal Team 6 to watch my back to make sure there aren't people reading this over my shoulder.
XOXO
Monday, May 23, 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
An interesting situation
Don't get excited, it's not a fabulous story or anything, just some news about why I've been gone. Anyway, I know this isn't standard but just email me if you want to get the password to this post.
I know the password. LET ME IN!
I know the password. LET ME IN!
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
On further reflection
You know when you eat something delicious, with a terrible aftertaste? And you sit there tasting the bitter, sticky, sandpaper-tongue, dry mouthed awfulness and wonder why you thought it was a good idea. But then you remember the exquisite joy of that first bite and you're confused, unable to decide if it worth it or not.
Ok that was a bad metaphor.
I have gone a long way from my initial celebration yesterday. Not just physically, although I did go from New Orleans (where there was a "Proud to be an American" po' boy for sale) to my beloved New York (where I discussed contingency plans for companies who are facing a disaster, and recalled that at one's first day at Evil Corp they were given an emergency kit containing a gas mask, aluminum blanket, flashlight, and whistle - we worked across the street from The Hole), and now back to my current home, the capital of our nation (where fratastic kids from Gtown and Gdubs thought it was a good idea to sing "We are the Champions" because our country killed a man).
But you know. Much further than that.
At first, I was ecstatic. Mostly because Osama bin Laden was a truly evil man. Purely? Perhaps no. He was a father and I bet (some of) his kids loved him. He certainly gave hope - fucked up, twisted, terrible hope - to people who are oppressed and starved and poorer than any of us can imagine. But he embodied hate.
And that is hateful.
But then, a little later in the morning (and after having a stimulating though totally normal conversation with my lovely friend Dan) I was mortified. Don't get me wrong. I was still happy OBL was dead. He was inspiration to many, and his ability to elude the United States emboldened people who would (out of fear, hatred or terrible misunderstanding) aim to destroy my country, my friends, my family.
I just wish you know. Lightning had done it.
Because while he "resisted" and was killed doing so, and the mission was apparently one of retrieval that got ugly, the fact of the matter is that we killed an untried man yesterday. Was he guilty? I have no doubt. So does it matter? No, right? Well, no, wrong. It does. It is 100% one of the core tenets of American beliefs: innocent until proven guilty. This is how I felt when it was announced that POTUS had given the go-ahead to kill Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born Yemeni cleric who is associated with pretty much every successful (or nearly successful) terrorist these days. No. WE DO NOT DO THIS. WE ARE AMERICANS. WE ARE BETTER THAN THAT.
Except he's an American too. And he's encouraging army doctors to go on a shooting rampage on a base, and young wealthy men to attempt to blow themselves up on planes on Christmas. He inspired an idiot to try to bomb Times Square, and he inspired many idiots to successfully fly planes into the World Trade Center. Isn't he a massive threat to national security? Didn't Osama "resist" being taken into custody? On Law and Order, imminent threats and people who resist are sometimes killed by police officers. Couldn't it be like that?
I don't know. I just don't freaking know.
All I know is that I keep coming back to one of my favorite scenes from the West Wing, when President Sheen (whatever) is having a hard time elucidating why he is anti-death penalty when they are talking about the hypothetical criminal who raped and killed his daughter, and Toby expostulates, "Yes, you'd want to see him put to death! You'd want it to be cruel and unusual, which is why it's probably a good idea that fathers of murder victims don't have legal rights in these situations."
We didn't have the legal right to do this. Not really the moral right either, because we killed an unarmed man. But then WHY does the thought still taste SO DELICIOUS.
Ok that was a bad metaphor.
I have gone a long way from my initial celebration yesterday. Not just physically, although I did go from New Orleans (where there was a "Proud to be an American" po' boy for sale) to my beloved New York (where I discussed contingency plans for companies who are facing a disaster, and recalled that at one's first day at Evil Corp they were given an emergency kit containing a gas mask, aluminum blanket, flashlight, and whistle - we worked across the street from The Hole), and now back to my current home, the capital of our nation (where fratastic kids from Gtown and Gdubs thought it was a good idea to sing "We are the Champions" because our country killed a man).
But you know. Much further than that.
At first, I was ecstatic. Mostly because Osama bin Laden was a truly evil man. Purely? Perhaps no. He was a father and I bet (some of) his kids loved him. He certainly gave hope - fucked up, twisted, terrible hope - to people who are oppressed and starved and poorer than any of us can imagine. But he embodied hate.
And that is hateful.
But then, a little later in the morning (and after having a stimulating though totally normal conversation with my lovely friend Dan) I was mortified. Don't get me wrong. I was still happy OBL was dead. He was inspiration to many, and his ability to elude the United States emboldened people who would (out of fear, hatred or terrible misunderstanding) aim to destroy my country, my friends, my family.
I just wish you know. Lightning had done it.
Because while he "resisted" and was killed doing so, and the mission was apparently one of retrieval that got ugly, the fact of the matter is that we killed an untried man yesterday. Was he guilty? I have no doubt. So does it matter? No, right? Well, no, wrong. It does. It is 100% one of the core tenets of American beliefs: innocent until proven guilty. This is how I felt when it was announced that POTUS had given the go-ahead to kill Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born Yemeni cleric who is associated with pretty much every successful (or nearly successful) terrorist these days. No. WE DO NOT DO THIS. WE ARE AMERICANS. WE ARE BETTER THAN THAT.
Except he's an American too. And he's encouraging army doctors to go on a shooting rampage on a base, and young wealthy men to attempt to blow themselves up on planes on Christmas. He inspired an idiot to try to bomb Times Square, and he inspired many idiots to successfully fly planes into the World Trade Center. Isn't he a massive threat to national security? Didn't Osama "resist" being taken into custody? On Law and Order, imminent threats and people who resist are sometimes killed by police officers. Couldn't it be like that?
I don't know. I just don't freaking know.
All I know is that I keep coming back to one of my favorite scenes from the West Wing, when President Sheen (whatever) is having a hard time elucidating why he is anti-death penalty when they are talking about the hypothetical criminal who raped and killed his daughter, and Toby expostulates, "Yes, you'd want to see him put to death! You'd want it to be cruel and unusual, which is why it's probably a good idea that fathers of murder victims don't have legal rights in these situations."
We didn't have the legal right to do this. Not really the moral right either, because we killed an unarmed man. But then WHY does the thought still taste SO DELICIOUS.
Monday, May 2, 2011
YAY
I know there will be lots of opportunities in the future to realize that the death of one man is just that - one man down. And I know that this might make this truly evil person a martyr for the most fucked up cause since... ugh. Nazism? The Klan? Any movement at any time that just hates, hates, hates. I know the world isn't safer, and that it might actually be a little more dangerous. I know there are still people dying at the hands of their oppressors in Libya, Syria, Bahrain, Iran, China, North Korea, and elsewhere much closer to home. I know that the storms that have wrought devastation in Alabama, and the waves that have decimated Japan, still happened. There are still hundreds of dead in the South, hundreds more threatened in the Midwest, and NOTHING can bring back the 3000 we lost on September 11, 2001, nor the thousands of military killed in the interim fighting for us in Afghanistan and Iraq.
But?
TODAY, ALL THAT DOESN'T MATTER. Today is a day of celebration! Not that yet another person is dead (one survivor poignantly said something like, I can't be happy when anyone else dies, even Osama bin Laden). Not that the war on terror is over. Not that the pain from that day is remotely lessened.
No. It is this.
AMERICA: 1
TERRORISTS: 0
But?
TODAY, ALL THAT DOESN'T MATTER. Today is a day of celebration! Not that yet another person is dead (one survivor poignantly said something like, I can't be happy when anyone else dies, even Osama bin Laden). Not that the war on terror is over. Not that the pain from that day is remotely lessened.
No. It is this.
AMERICA: 1
TERRORISTS: 0
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)