9-11 Revisited

I watched a two-hour special on the 9-11 disaster last night. By the way, this was the only thing I could find on all of cable TV having to do with 9-11 last night. The special was on the History Channel and was a montage of video taken on that day by both professionals and amateurs. There was no commentary…no talking heads.
I was surprised to find rather strong emotions within me as the special presentation went along. Heavens, it’s been eight years, and I didn’t have anyone I personally knew who was injured or killed in the tragedy. Yet I found myself with feelings of sadness, anger, melancholy, and grief.
What I noticed most of all, however, was the directions people were walking/running during the first minutes of the calamity. Civilians were walking or running away from the buildings; police, fire, and emergency medical responders were walking or running toward the buildings. Knowing what I now know, I know that many of those I saw in the videos going toward the buildings died when the buildings collapsed.
One man who shot some of the video says that he doesn’t watch it, mostly for the reason that he knows that many of those he caught on video are no longer living, having perished in the collapse of the buildings.
One other thing that stood out was the abject disbelief, blank looks, and far-away stares from people who were watching what happened, knowing that it was an intentional act and that people were already dead and dying. It was as if they were trying to wrap their minds around what they were seeing, not believing the reality of what is. My guess is that there weren’t many atheists in those crowds of people on that day.
Yes, many were angry with God. Many were confused. Many just hadn’t a clue what to think or believe any more. I’m sure emotions ran the gamut, as did the petitions and exclamations to the Almighty.
I believe we as a nation did not handle the response correctly. We were told to go ahead and go to work, shop and keep the economy going while the politicians handled the crisis. That was the perfect time to mobilize this nation in a way that hadn’t been done since World War II and we blew it badly. Instead, we spent our way into a recession that has resulted in people out of work, people going hungry, and people in predicaments that they have never before even thought they would be in. Our government is broke and getting broker (is that a word?). We have a much deeper hole to climb out of than we had even immediately after 9-11. I am not as optimistic as I probably should be that we will overcome this time around. I’m glad I won’t be here that much longer to see what I think will, in coming decades, be the carnage of the bad decisions made years before by both Democrat and Republican politicians who no more have a clue what it means to be leader, statesman, and unifier than the man in the moon.
I am sure, however, that CNN and Fox will be right there, whether or not they really know what happened, and tell us all what they think they heard from someone.
I can’t stand it.