fate and close calls
Sep. 13th, 2002 03:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
whispercricketWow, lots of updates today...hope I'm not overfilling anyone's friends page.
As I was trying not to buy into the media hype surrounding the September 11th, I didn't post this on the day it happened. I wasn't going to put up anything about that day. Ultimately, this was prompted by the end of this entry by my coworker![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
chuckm, where he similarly mentions a memorial ceremony held by my company. I decided I wanted to recount it in my journal as well.
I completely believe in remembering and learning from history and current events so that we can try to keep horrible things from happening again. I don't believe that surface patriotism and enciting everyone into a war frenzy (partially to improve ratings going into the elections, ala Wag the Dog) is the right thing to happen. I also don't like the way that for a while, there was the feeling that anyone who disagreed with the President or the prevailing policies was considered "unpatriotic" - this seems to be better now, but it's hard to tell. America is not a free and democratic nation if people are not allowed to express their dissent.
The CFO of my company was on United 175, which flew into one of the towers. The CEO of my company was supposed to be on the flight as well, but he missed the flight literally by two minutes - he was at the gate and the plane was still there, but they refused to open the door once it had closed. In the words of the gate attendant, "Once the door has closed, it's closed". Because of that, the CEO of my company is still alive instead of dead. In some sense, the door to death was closed for him - it wasn't his time to go. It's as if all the obstacles he ran into that morning - the 6 car pileup that seemed to form a blockade across the road, the Big Dig workers who carried something across the road in front of the car, even the new driver for his car - all conspired to keep him alive.
If I were in his situation, I don't know if I'd feel relief or awe or even guilt for not being on that plane - probably all of the above.
On a semi-related topic: Patriot Day? I didn't grow up in Massachusetts, but I know it has a special holiday called Patriots Day. Did someone forget to tell the Shrub administration or whoever made up the new "holiday" name about this?
As I was trying not to buy into the media hype surrounding the September 11th, I didn't post this on the day it happened. I wasn't going to put up anything about that day. Ultimately, this was prompted by the end of this entry by my coworker
chuckm, where he similarly mentions a memorial ceremony held by my company. I decided I wanted to recount it in my journal as well.I completely believe in remembering and learning from history and current events so that we can try to keep horrible things from happening again. I don't believe that surface patriotism and enciting everyone into a war frenzy (partially to improve ratings going into the elections, ala Wag the Dog) is the right thing to happen. I also don't like the way that for a while, there was the feeling that anyone who disagreed with the President or the prevailing policies was considered "unpatriotic" - this seems to be better now, but it's hard to tell. America is not a free and democratic nation if people are not allowed to express their dissent.
The CFO of my company was on United 175, which flew into one of the towers. The CEO of my company was supposed to be on the flight as well, but he missed the flight literally by two minutes - he was at the gate and the plane was still there, but they refused to open the door once it had closed. In the words of the gate attendant, "Once the door has closed, it's closed". Because of that, the CEO of my company is still alive instead of dead. In some sense, the door to death was closed for him - it wasn't his time to go. It's as if all the obstacles he ran into that morning - the 6 car pileup that seemed to form a blockade across the road, the Big Dig workers who carried something across the road in front of the car, even the new driver for his car - all conspired to keep him alive.
If I were in his situation, I don't know if I'd feel relief or awe or even guilt for not being on that plane - probably all of the above.
On a semi-related topic: Patriot Day? I didn't grow up in Massachusetts, but I know it has a special holiday called Patriots Day. Did someone forget to tell the Shrub administration or whoever made up the new "holiday" name about this?
