Emily Gray Tedrowe wrote: > > yet i continue to be queasy about any kind of parody > involving thousands of new yorkers (or anyone, really) > killed--by terrorists or others.
I suggest that any parody writer put themselves in the middle of those 200,000 or so folks who are dying and see how funny it is then. Your feelings made sense to me, Emily, especially the ones expressed in your earlier message. My heart lurched, too, at reading the "news report" because we're expecting other attacks of some sort and with so many people in such a small area, 200,000 people dying or being injured at one time is a possibility. Military folks have made mistakes, horrifying ones, but I'm glad to have US fighter pilots watching over the NY skies, with the hope that their presence will scare off whoever wants to do harm and they will never have to shoot any aircraft down. For me those fighter pilots very simplistically became the "good guys" on September 11 when one of my co-workers, who was listening to a radio through headphones, told the rest of us about the second plane hitting the WTC. Very soon after that there was a deep roaring aircraft sound, unlike any I've ever heard, scaring us all, and the person with the headphones said "those are fighter jets... our guys". Aaahhhhhhhh. Yes, it felt great. Suddenly the building I was in a few blocks from the WTC didn't seem as vulnerable. That relief was short-lived because soon after that the first tower was falling, our building was shaking and I could feel many thousands of people screaming, suffering and dying, and at that point there was nothing those fighter pilots or anyone could do to stop it. People can tell all the horror stories about the US military they want to tell, I know how reassuring its presence felt on September 11, and I'm glad to know they're still keeping watch. Debra Shea in NYC
