9/11

it’s natural that americans experience anything they aren’t directly involved in as TV

night after night after 9/11, i came home to watch the TV stations unable to do anything else but run, rerun, and run yet again ghostly, unedited, and uncommented raw footage of the disaster, like a nightmare you couldn’t wake up from

people screaming and running down the street ahead of a monstrous dust cloud. the woman who was grabbed by store clerks and pulled into the store just before the dust cloud hit, hysterical and shouting the whole time, finally repeating “you saved my life you saved my life”. the people watching from a nearby apartment, suddenly waxing hysterical when the second plane hit and what looked like a horrible accident suddenly became an uncanny, inconceivable international act of aggression ohmygod ohmygod somebody is ATTACKING us!!! Shocked dust covered survivors tramping down a side street wondering what to do next…