For a bit of a diversion, we engaged in a heated and irrational conversation today about Battle of the Planets. Sadly, the slow-downs of the internet today prevented any major fact-finding. We did connect with one very good website about Gatchaman in all it’s permutations.

All I wanted in life was a cup of coffee, but as it turned out I didn’t seem to need one. I’m very good at tuning out distractions and focusing, but when I’m just wandering around, I tend to absorb all surrounding conversations on one level or another. The one happening right next to me was a doozy, and I found myself unable to tune it out.

Young Congressional Intern is telling her pal all about how great her Congressman has been throughout the crisis. She gets to the rousing pep talk he gave them. The one about how they should be thankful that the White House and Hill were spared, that the plane only hit the Pentagon, so no one important was killed.

The plane only hit the Pentagon, so no one important was killed. I cannot tell you how offensive I find this holier-than-thou attitude.

I turned around and politely asked the young lady if she would repeat what she’d just said. She explained for me that the plane missed the Hill, so no one important was killed.

I then politely asked the young lady who her Congressman is.

Okay. That’s an innaccurate statement. I shrieked like a banshee at the young lady. I tried to ask politely, but instead I posed my question with a ferocity I, myself, did not believe I possessed.

She left in a hurry. That’s the understatement of the year.

I never did find out who this arrogant SOB was, which is a shame because I was already formulating a phonecall in my head. I really, sincerely hope that she misunderstood him. That this was her own twisted interpretation and not the interpretation of someone who is supposed to be helping to lead this country.

What the fuck? Are the people in New York and Pennsylvania, the people on all those planes, the people at the Pentagon, are they not as important as the people downtown? Yes, I understand that it would be much worse politically for us to lose Elected Officials. I get that. But prioritizing people after the fact is unconscionable to me.

I’m a great defender of free speech. I’m not suggesting we police language or speech or thoughts. However, I’m outraged that someone would think something like that, and share it with a group of people in this town. I’d like to think she misunderstood her Great Leader, but that doesn’t change the fact that she was standing there running her mouth like an idiot.

If you want to be a moron in the sanctity of your own home, have at it. Be my guest. But muzzle it in public, okay?

I suppose I could try to find a bright side to this episode. People are returning to their normal, unpleasant, selfish selves. Business as usual can really start to happen now. No, that’s not good enough. It’s probably accurate, though.

on a related note
The following words are hereby banished from this blog:
normal
normalcy
normality

Everytime I decide it’s time to shut up about this and start restoring order to my life, I get shoved back into last Tuesday. I can jabber all day about the weird hunting shows I watched on TNN as a diversion, but the psychic debris of Tuesday clings.

Around the neighborhood, as the enormity of having a neighbor on flight 77 sets in, I find all other thoughts are crowded out by an endless loop in my head saying, “You saw that, you know.” Yeah, I know; but thanks for reminding me.

Now I just turn the TV on in short bursts to make sure we haven’t hauled off and bombed someone just to feel better, to satisfy that bloodlust for revenge that bubbles just beneath the surface. I can’t keep up with the slogans and mottos and logos. I was still following when we were “America Under Attack,” still hanging in for “America: The Day After;” but I looked away sometime during “America Recovers” and the next thing I knew we were alternately “Fighting Back,” “On Alert,” or “Rising.”

This morning on the way to work I dropped off a box of supplies for the rescue workers at the Pentagon.

The empty dumptrucks go in to the site, the full dumptrucks go out of the site. Around and around and around.

And when the psychic debris meets the physical debris, I run out of words.

Relief needed for Pentagon rescue workers
This message was in my in-box this morning:

The Salvation Army has announced they need food donations for the volunteers at the Pentagon.

They are accepting the donations at The Sheraton Suites in Alexandria, 801 S. Asaph Street in old town Alexandria.

They are asking for:
muffins
fruit
water
lunch bags
loaves of bread
luncheon meat

A new web site, NationalRelief.org, has been launched to assist the families and friends of victims of the September 11th attacks against America. Specifically, users may search by name for people that have been lost due to the tragedies, view their pictures, post pictures online, report they are safe and send e-mail to loved ones and chat in the National Relief Forum. Additionally, the site provides information and contacts for donating cash, donating blood, donating goods, volunteering, offering resources such as equipment, vehicles and supplies and for doctors, registered nurses, nurse’s aides, EMT’s and paramedics who wish to help.

For those trying to commute to and from New York City, a list of contacts and web sites are available for information regarding mass transit services as well as bridge and tunnel closures. Hotlines and other phone numbers are provided for reporting terrorist and criminal activity, missing persons, mental health and trauma counseling, employees and families of World Trade Center businesses, and employees and families of American Airlines and United Airlines passengers. Up-to-date coverage of news, audio and video are featured on the site to keep users abreast of the rescue operations, eyewitness accounts and America’s reaction and the world’s reaction to the disasters.

The Washington Peace Center has a mechanism for reporting anti-arab or anti-muslim discrimination.