September 11

It's so hard not to be cynical isn't it?
There are so many movies, documentaries, retrospectives, television specials and eye witness accounts of 9/11, that it's hard not to just tune it all out and not deal with it. It's hard to remember what it really felt like on that day. It's easy to call "propaganda" and "media manipulation" and "turning tragedy into entertainment". It's easier to talk about the administration and policy and a failed mislead war.
One thing I remember about the coverage of 9/11 is that one of (all of?) the news channels was playing voice-mail messages that the victims, both on the planes and in the towers, had left for their loved ones. Heart breaking messages of love and tearful goodbyes. One in particular was from a woman to her fiance. She was in NYC on business, she lived in San Franciso. It was still very early in California so even though her finace was home, he was sleeping and didn't answer the phone. I had to turn the TV off because I was crying so hard. I still think of that couple all the time. I wonder if he found someone else. I wonder how he picked up the pieces of his life. Sometimes I wish I had never heard that message because it's burned into my memory and I can't ever forget it. Sometimes I am glad I heard it- for the same reason.

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