Sixth Anniversary

I woke up this morning, glad it wasn’t a bright, sunny, cloudless day. I was glad it was raining and grey. It’s Tuesday, September 11, 2007, and six years ago, it was a bright, sunny, cloudless day. Today isn’t a day people are throwing their cares away for a nice autumn morning, maybe warm for the season. Today people are wary, waiting for something to happen. Today, people are almost daring something to happen.

When I came to work, I brought my American Flag, and mounted it inside my flower pot that is located so anyone walking by can see it. I’ve babied this plant, it’s doing well and I thought it would be a nice place to mount my small flag with a two foot stick/pole. My stars and stripes sit just above the top leaves in my plant that is still growing.

To my pleasant surprise, I’m not the only one here at work who had the idea to quietly display my patriotism. All through my office, other people have brought out their flags, quietly displayed for anyone walking by to take notice. Here in New York, no one has forgotten what this day means. Perhaps if you’re living in L.A., you aren’t thinking about That Day so much. Perhaps you have other things on your plate, today. Other areas of the country, people are tuning into Petraeus’ report, and listening to hopeful presidential candidates. But New Yorkers are just getting by, remembering, but trying not to dwell. We are going through the motions, as we do every year. This is the anniversary of the day someone tried to take down our Lady, our Big Apple. People are still crying.

Water cooler conversations were full of people still shocked. One co-worker stated he couldn’t believe it was 9/11 already. He said that he tries, but he can’t ever forget it. He told me how he was working closer to the City for a different company at the time, and that day they were out on Long Island Sound. On a clear day, such as That Day was, you have a great skyline view. He said that they could see the plumes of smoke coming from the City. It was like nothing he’d ever seen before. “I remember being angry. I wasn’t sad or concerned, really, but I was so damn angry. He did that to ME. As a businessman, he didn’t hit my country, he did it to me. I felt like, ‘If you want to fight, let’s duke it out like men in the street,’ but he sucker punched ME.” That sentiment is shared by so many of us here in the City that never sleeps.

There are so many angry people, and that is healthy, I feel. Especially that a person recognizes their anger and where it comes from. In the days and weeks that followed That Day, people everywhere were stunned with anger. In the grocery stores, people wouldn’t speak to each other, but look at each other- perfect strangers sharing the same sentiment. Anger.

Reading the news the past couple days, I can’t help but get angry when I hear something about bin Laden. My two cents is this- (I only wish I were popular enough for those to hear) Osama bin Laden is a coward and hypocrite. He hasn’t the guts to come out swinging, he stays hidden in his cave-assuming he’s still alive. He makes these videos, calling for more people to be “martyred”. How easy and convenient. If he felt so strongly that Allah wants people to kill themselves for Allah’s sake, then WHY isn’t bin Laden doing the same? It’s very easy to sit and tell people it’s what God wants you to do…but you aren’t required. 9/11, and other violent incidents since have been mere sucker punches. It’s easy to put a bomb in a road and wait for someone to drive over it. It’s easy to hijack a plane full of unsuspecting passengers. Easy to be sneaky. What’s harder is to plan an attack against someone and carry it out with them knowing about it. As Americans, we’re not afraid to come at you head on.

I would love to meet that guy, among loving seeing his head paraded on a pole, down 5th Ave. I would love to meet him and punch him in his face. I know, it’s easy to say that. But I’d love to meet that guy with him knowing how I felt. Being a girl, my pair of gonads are MUCH bigger than his. Were he reading this right now, I’d tell him that I would love nothing more than to beat him and stuff him with pork to ensure his trip to hell. bin Laden can’t get people that have too much intelligence to be able to follow what he says, rather than what he does. What a leader! I bet Allah is proud.

I’ve been listening to Petraeus’ testimony today, and our politicians make me sick. These people who basically told the man he was full of crap and they wouldn’t believe anything he said-before he ever opened his mouth. These same folks have NO CLUE on how to run the show, have no better idea, make no suggestions that are remotely beneficial. Not one of the politicians could do the job that Petraeus has and continues to do. Petraeus comes to tell us that despite what we thought Iraq might look like, thanks to the surge, things are in fact improving. These damn Democrats have the audacity to site the events of six months ago. Six months ago is not today, and if Petraeus is saying things have gotten better, then that means…improvement. *GASP*

Depending on what audience is being addressed, even Hillary Clinton says the surge is working. Joe Biden and Schmuck Schumer are citing the Washington Post and New York Times as their references for stats on the war. The Times, says Schmuck, has “proved(?)” that the Generals’ numbers are off, for example, a person isn’t considered killed if he was shot in the back of the head, vs. the stomach…that’s the Senator’s proof. The Times. The ComPost says that definitions of sectarian violence more or less depend on how Petraeus has decided to define them, to benefit his stats he’s come home to report. And these people are serious! I won’t get started on John Kerry, but bin Laden endorsed him in the 2004 elections… We have a Four Start General, come home to testify under oath to his country on a job that we sent him to do- these people call him a liar-before he even spoke, mind you? At LEAST…at least…they have more guts than bin Laden. That guy would have had to sneak in the back door and have his people put up a video on the internet…at least our democrats- as dumb as they are- have the guts to face this general when blasting him.

For those that don’t realize, for those that want to keep this issue in the political arena, please keep in mind on this day of all days…the people that we are fighting against want to kill us. They would love nothing more than to fly another plane into our buildings. We are lucky we haven’t had suicide bombers in our shopping malls. We are lucky, essentially that bin Laden is a coward and needs to recruit people dumber than he to do his dirty work. For those that have forgotten…for those that feel you can’t invoke 9/11 as a reason you feel the way you do about the current events, just know that they won’t stop. Their God bribes them with virgins to be good…think about it.

On this day of all days, get Angry. Get Mad. Get Pissed. And desire to get Even. This happened to all of us, not just New Yorkers. This happened to Americans, and those that desire to be Americans. And they’ll do it again. Whether or not you have ever been to New York, 9/11 happened to you, too. Your very way of life and thinking were attacked. Every year on this day, people everywhere are flying their flag. Everyone can remember the sense of patriotism that was felt in the days and weeks to follow. Americans should fly their flags more often.

Whatever you think about the war, which ever political party you chose to affiliate with, whether or not you like the president…these people don’t care. They don’t believe in gay or straight marriage. They don’t believe in “Women’s Issues”. They don’t believe in little girls going to school. They don’t care about iPod phones, or the internet. And they don’t care about our big buildings full of people with families to go home to.

I hope the Democrats think about that before they go to sleep tonight. Because these radical Muslims don’t care about them either.