Like BK, The Lovely Wife and I were in bed snoozing, when we got a very loud call on our answering machine. It was Harlan Ellison screaming over the phone, that "Armageddon" was happening and to get our asses out of bed. We did and sat glued to the TV all day and late into the night...in fact, we slept in the television room that night.
Amidst the dumbfounded shock and horror, I admit two ugly and cynical thoughts crept into my mind. The first was a fleeting moment of conspiracy paranoia that the Republican Administration was behind this somehow, trying to prop up a flailing and failing presidency with some sort of tragedy. I quickly dismissed this idea as being too ghastly for even the worst of their bunch.
But as the day wore on, I cynically realized that the Republicans were going to make political hay of the tragedy and that Bush was finally going to have an issue to get him re-elected and ride to a second term on. The Republicans need enemies to win and they had now found one.
In the days that ensued, you heard everyone praising Bush when in fact he did no more than any other sitting President would have done under the circumstances. And, of course, any other sitting President would have stayed on point and in Afghanistan rather than diverting attention to Iraq, but Bush had promised heads on pike and when he couldn't get Osama Bin Laden, he had to find another bogeyman (Of course, he had wanted to go after Saddam before 9/11 and, after it, Rummy pushed hard to go after him then).
There were two tragedies that day...the incredible, devastating, senseless loss of life and a second term for an incompetent administration was ensured.
We also flew to London in the aftermath of 9/11. Virgin Atlantic was having deals on fares and Julieanne and I decided we would not let fear get the best of us, so we impulsively booked a flight for over Thanksgiving.
It was actually the best time to fly in those ensuing months because security was never tighter. We got bumped up to first class on the way over. Though you felt pretty secure, you still silently racially profiled as various passengers got on the plane, wondering: "Is this guy the one?"
Actually, we had a incident on the return where the flight attendents had to restrain someone who was acting bizarrely and abusively...turns out he was just a drunken Briton, but all the passengers were asked to write out eyewitness accounts and the guy was hauled off the plane at the end of the flight by law enforcement officials.
We had another relatively tense return from London a few years later, when we were flying back to the states the same morning the US began their war with Iraq. Nothing happened on the flight, but one was a little more nervous than usual.
