I can't speak for anyone else, but it did not make me, personally, afraid. When things started to get 'back to normal' after 9/11 and it was being discussed what to do about the buildings, my thought was to build them with exactly the same design, with one difference, make them 1 floor taller. I used to joke that I would take an office on the top floor, but it had to face east. This way every morning I cam into work I could give Al-Queda the finger.
I don't think 'go shopping' was necessarily a bad message, but it was far from the most important message we could have been sending at that time. I had hoped that this event, as tragic as it was, would have somehow changed us as a country. But, sadly, after about 3 weeks, we all went back to complaining about stupid shit and bickering with each other. On Sat, Sep 12, 2009 at 12:26 AM, Judah McAuley <[email protected]> wrote: > > I was sitting and thinking about the last eight years today, the good > bits and the bad bits. There have been plenty of both. But the thing > that makes me saddest is that GWB had a moment 8 years ago that he > could have grasped and used to make the country better. Everyone in > the country, hell, 99% of the world, was on our side that day and > waiting to hear what we had to say. And he said, "go shopping". That's > what I remember 8 years later. Go shopping. Not end our dependency on > foreign oil, not anything to make us stronger. Instead it was about > fear, about weakness, about meaningless phrases like "they hate our > freedom", about bland consumerism. No one was asked to sacrifice, > instead they were spied on behind their backs. > > We could have had shared sacrifice, we could have strengthened our > country and our bonds with the other powers of the world. We had a > shining moment to get up off of the mat after getting hit hard and we > blew it. > > We wasted people like Pat Tillman who quit the NFL to go serve his > country because he was so deeply moved by events. There are a lot more > who don't have famous names and we failed them and their sacrifice. > > Al Queda got what they were looking for that day. They hurt us, they > made us afraid, they made us crazy, they made us make ourselves less > free. 8 years later we still haven't recovered. It bugs me that that > is true. And that is what makes me most sad 8 years later. > > Judah > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:303880 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
