Saturday, September 11, 2010

9/11: PTSD Around the Country

"Freedom was attacked today by a faceless coward."
- George W. Bush

I was only a sophomore in high school when 9/11 happened. I was driving to school in the morning, and frequently, Rick Dees on KIIS FM 102.7 made some jokes for "Dees Sleeze" around 6AM ish. I remember thinking about having my mom call in after I got out of the car because a plane crashing into the World Trade Center in New York was absolutely the anti-christ of funny.

Turns out, that was no joke.
It was the only time in my life the same thing was on every single channel.
I wonder if the way we treat 9/11 now is the way that folks in the '40s treated World War II? They could remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

I think the most impressive thing to me about the entire situation, was 9 years ago tomorrow, on September 12: when I drove up and down my street, and almost everyone had a flag on the front of their house. Not the little ones you stick in the lawn for the 4th of July ... but the big ones.

That was patriotism to me. Coming together when it felt like everything was falling apart.

But it wasn't the plane flying into the towers that scared me the most. It was this:

The knowledge that whatever Hell was happening up there? Was too much for them to bear; when given a choice: they would rather plummet 90+ stories to their death.

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