Sunday, September 11, 2011
Stand up and speak, sit down and listen: Where were you when.......
Stand up and speak, sit down and listen: Where were you when.......: It's hard to believe that it's been ten years since September 11, 2001. For me, as I sit here today, the past ten years have gone by quickl...
Where were you when.......
It's hard to believe that it's been ten years since September 11, 2001. For me, as I sit here today, the past ten years have gone by quickly. I wonder if it's gone by quickly or painfully slow for people who were directly involved that day.
I was 24 years old, and I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing. I was teaching Civics and Economics at James Kenan High School. I'll never forget it because of an ironic thing that happened. I had been teaching presidential succession the day before. As we went through the list of people who would become president if something happened to the sitting president, a student named Lamont asked, "What if they all died at the same time?" I asked him what he meant. He said, "You know, like in Independence Day. What if someone just blew up the building where they all are?". I kind of laughed and said, "Things like that don't really happen." I didn't think about it again for the rest of the day.
The next day, Lamont came in late. He had had a dentist appointment. The period was ending, and things were wrapping up. He sat down and said that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. Really, I said, Must be a small plane that got off course. He said, "I don't think so, another plane hit after the first one. I thought you said things like that don't happen."
When class ended, I walked across to the Media Center, where lots of people were gathered around the tv. It was a surreal thing. They kept replaying the first plane hitting, and I kept thinking that it just didn't look real. I can't really describe what I was feeling or thinking. Just odd. And I had to go back to my class to teach my next class.
They sent us all home immediately after school that day. I went home to the little tin-can mobile home I was renting in Warsaw. TV was non-stop coverage of what had happened. I watched, felt strange but not really overly emotional. It wasn't until the next day that I was watching the news that I actually cried. In the days after, people had put pictures of their missing loved ones on fliers, and they were interviewing a woman who was holding up a picture of her brother and begging anyone who may have seen him to get in touch with her. That struck me, because in the instant, I imagined myself in her position, not knowing where my brother was. And I cried and cried right there by myself in the living room of that little trailer. My cat Alex jumped on the couch and snuggled up beside my leg.
Since then, I made my first trip to New York City and remembered feeling oddly afraid when I saw the officers around LaGuardia airport with their assault rifles. I've watched the start of wars that sent young men and women thousands of miles away. There have been other terror attacks around the world in places like Spain and England, and failed attempts here at home. And the word "terrorism" is something that lingers in the back of my mind, whereas before it was something I never thought about.
Ten years later, I'm amazed at how different things are. The world is different, our country is different, and I am different. Everyone has a few of those "I knew exactly where I was" events in their lifetimes. I hope there aren't anymore like this one in my lifetime.
I was 24 years old, and I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing. I was teaching Civics and Economics at James Kenan High School. I'll never forget it because of an ironic thing that happened. I had been teaching presidential succession the day before. As we went through the list of people who would become president if something happened to the sitting president, a student named Lamont asked, "What if they all died at the same time?" I asked him what he meant. He said, "You know, like in Independence Day. What if someone just blew up the building where they all are?". I kind of laughed and said, "Things like that don't really happen." I didn't think about it again for the rest of the day.
The next day, Lamont came in late. He had had a dentist appointment. The period was ending, and things were wrapping up. He sat down and said that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. Really, I said, Must be a small plane that got off course. He said, "I don't think so, another plane hit after the first one. I thought you said things like that don't happen."
When class ended, I walked across to the Media Center, where lots of people were gathered around the tv. It was a surreal thing. They kept replaying the first plane hitting, and I kept thinking that it just didn't look real. I can't really describe what I was feeling or thinking. Just odd. And I had to go back to my class to teach my next class.
They sent us all home immediately after school that day. I went home to the little tin-can mobile home I was renting in Warsaw. TV was non-stop coverage of what had happened. I watched, felt strange but not really overly emotional. It wasn't until the next day that I was watching the news that I actually cried. In the days after, people had put pictures of their missing loved ones on fliers, and they were interviewing a woman who was holding up a picture of her brother and begging anyone who may have seen him to get in touch with her. That struck me, because in the instant, I imagined myself in her position, not knowing where my brother was. And I cried and cried right there by myself in the living room of that little trailer. My cat Alex jumped on the couch and snuggled up beside my leg.
Since then, I made my first trip to New York City and remembered feeling oddly afraid when I saw the officers around LaGuardia airport with their assault rifles. I've watched the start of wars that sent young men and women thousands of miles away. There have been other terror attacks around the world in places like Spain and England, and failed attempts here at home. And the word "terrorism" is something that lingers in the back of my mind, whereas before it was something I never thought about.
Ten years later, I'm amazed at how different things are. The world is different, our country is different, and I am different. Everyone has a few of those "I knew exactly where I was" events in their lifetimes. I hope there aren't anymore like this one in my lifetime.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
The Inaugural Address.......
My fellow Americans......
When I was in high school, I wanted to be a Supreme Court Justice and ultimately the first female president of the United States. Well, this is as close as I'm ever going to get to giving an inaugural address. Quite frankly, with the state of politics in America today, I would have to run as a woman without a party. In my youth, I was a die-hard Democrat, illogically liberal, and foolishly idealistic. Now, I am an adult who has been in the real world for quite some time, and now I have no political affiliation, I'm pretty middle-of-the-road moderate, and realistically idealistic. I am appalled at the state of the political landscape in the US today. And I am flabbergasted at the blind loyalty people will pledge to political parties who care nothing about them except for the thirty seconds it takes for them to vote. Republicans make me so angry. They lay the problems of the nation squarely at the feet of Democrats who have been in control for the past three and a half years. Do they not recall that it was a Republican president who began 2 wars (those in that same party cried foul EVERY time any mentioned any type of withdrawal or troop drawdown-until now of course) that have drained the economy? Do they not recall that it was a Republican president who issued the first $800 billion plus stimulus package? Do they not recall that under a Republican president, we raised the debt ceiling EIGHT times? Tea Party Republicans are far worse. They have hijacked the arguments and ideologies of our founding fathers, yet perverted them to cater to the upper socioeconomic classes of the nation. Instead of "Don't Tread On Me", their motto should be "Feed the Rich". Democrats are no better. They have become a party of give, give, give to everyone and anyone. Spend now and find a way to pay later. We send billions of aid all over the world to nations that HATE us. They continue to allow entitlement programs when we should be finding ways to ween people off of them. Doesn't it make you absolutely angry to stand in a pharmacy and see someone pay with medicaid, and then follow them out of the store only to see them get into an Escalade or a Mercedes?? We have become a nation of extremists on both sides and left wing extremists are no safer than right wing extremists (except that left wingers usually don't carry guns, lol). Both political parties are responsible for the sad state of affairs in our country today. Equally so.
So what's the answer? The answer is a third party revolution. And no, the Tea Party is not a third party. It's a crazy faction of the mainstream Republicans. Starting in the 1870s, conditions were eerily familiar. Big business seemed to rule Washington. The banking industries seems completely out of control. And both of the mainstream parties were ignoring the issues important to most "middle Americans". By 1892, a true third party, the Populists, had emerged and became perhaps the most significant and successful third party in the history of nation. Well, it's time to replicate that grass roots movement. We have to stand up as citizens and remind people in Washington that they work for us. We don't work for them or their special interest donors.
To quote Thomas Jefferson, "We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate." It's time we all stand up and do so.
I'm Jennifer Holland, and I approved this message. God Bless America. :)
When I was in high school, I wanted to be a Supreme Court Justice and ultimately the first female president of the United States. Well, this is as close as I'm ever going to get to giving an inaugural address. Quite frankly, with the state of politics in America today, I would have to run as a woman without a party. In my youth, I was a die-hard Democrat, illogically liberal, and foolishly idealistic. Now, I am an adult who has been in the real world for quite some time, and now I have no political affiliation, I'm pretty middle-of-the-road moderate, and realistically idealistic. I am appalled at the state of the political landscape in the US today. And I am flabbergasted at the blind loyalty people will pledge to political parties who care nothing about them except for the thirty seconds it takes for them to vote. Republicans make me so angry. They lay the problems of the nation squarely at the feet of Democrats who have been in control for the past three and a half years. Do they not recall that it was a Republican president who began 2 wars (those in that same party cried foul EVERY time any mentioned any type of withdrawal or troop drawdown-until now of course) that have drained the economy? Do they not recall that it was a Republican president who issued the first $800 billion plus stimulus package? Do they not recall that under a Republican president, we raised the debt ceiling EIGHT times? Tea Party Republicans are far worse. They have hijacked the arguments and ideologies of our founding fathers, yet perverted them to cater to the upper socioeconomic classes of the nation. Instead of "Don't Tread On Me", their motto should be "Feed the Rich". Democrats are no better. They have become a party of give, give, give to everyone and anyone. Spend now and find a way to pay later. We send billions of aid all over the world to nations that HATE us. They continue to allow entitlement programs when we should be finding ways to ween people off of them. Doesn't it make you absolutely angry to stand in a pharmacy and see someone pay with medicaid, and then follow them out of the store only to see them get into an Escalade or a Mercedes?? We have become a nation of extremists on both sides and left wing extremists are no safer than right wing extremists (except that left wingers usually don't carry guns, lol). Both political parties are responsible for the sad state of affairs in our country today. Equally so.
So what's the answer? The answer is a third party revolution. And no, the Tea Party is not a third party. It's a crazy faction of the mainstream Republicans. Starting in the 1870s, conditions were eerily familiar. Big business seemed to rule Washington. The banking industries seems completely out of control. And both of the mainstream parties were ignoring the issues important to most "middle Americans". By 1892, a true third party, the Populists, had emerged and became perhaps the most significant and successful third party in the history of nation. Well, it's time to replicate that grass roots movement. We have to stand up as citizens and remind people in Washington that they work for us. We don't work for them or their special interest donors.
To quote Thomas Jefferson, "We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate." It's time we all stand up and do so.
I'm Jennifer Holland, and I approved this message. God Bless America. :)
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