Sunday, September 11, 2011

Them 9/11 Blues

The other night, the purity of the first football game of the season was soiled when Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly interrupted the game to report on a credible but unconfirmed Terror Threat. 


Appropriately enough,  New York City is on alert this weekend;
The 10th Anniversary of 9/11. 
Locked down... Somewhat...  Once again... 


Forgive me if I thought the whole point of the last 10 Years was to not feel terrorized. Now I can barely  leave my house, not because of the threat itself, but because of the influx of tourists and politicos who are in some ways, ripping the actual events of 9/11/01 from their context and repurposing them into whatever form best suits some elephant or donkey's crooked agenda. I'm not a conspiracy theorist and I'm not hating on anyone in particular, but I think the true strength shown by us New Yorkers only begun on that fateful Tuesday; it was the continuation to September 12th, then the 13th, then October and November, then the first New Year of 2002 and then onwards to '03; Through the various Wars, and collapses, '05, '06, '07, '08, 'O-bama and the new decade, the attempted attack of Faisal Shahzad and any cowardly copycats, all leading up to today, 10 years later. 


The victory is how this enigmatic, dynamic and prismatic Urban Organism got up after taking the worst sucker punch in the country's history, dusted itself off, and went back to work. I guess I'm saying that if going down to Ground Zero and hearing all the names of the innocents who perished provides you with a sort of healing, then please go forth and do so. I just think in a city where everyone lives, loves, and mourns differently, closing down half the city for a memorial, especially while the heroes and first responders sit at home unsure if their next treatment will be covered,  kind of brings back an eerily familiar feeling I don't care to relive. I'd rather celebrate September 12, the day the great city rose from the ashes to maintain the most beautiful and diffuse way of life this world has ever known. 


If you want to see real evidence that the terrorists lost, pick any other day and go watch the High Schoolers spaz out in Union Square or Old School Rollerbladers skate-dance through Central Park; go to Bryant Park during lunch hour and see all the working stiffs (myself included) using their 60 minutes to smush into a single block of greenery before rushing back to their cubicles so they can afford to do it all over again tomorrow; ride any subway at 4am and watch as half the people drunkenly stagger to get home, while the other half are just leaving theirs, heading to work to make an honest buck. 

The feelings surrounding this day are as varied and complex as the people who feel them. I have lived 3,650 days since 9/11, carrying the events I eye-witnessed with me for each and every one of them. I will never forget exactly what happened and exactly how we fought so diligently and emotionally to preserve and protect the security of our culture, I don't need a media circus to help me remember it. 

I wish everybody reading this (and even those who aren't) all the comfort and strength a fellow human-being can, but I wish you more than one day's worth, I wish you enough strength to carry on forever, it's all we can do.

God Bless America

Simon and Garfunkel - The Only Living Boy in New York