More...
I have a splitting headache from the tension, and have hardly gotten any work done today. But I have had more news...
My family are all OK. Hans, my New York stepbrother, got home OK - but he saw a lot of it first hand. He was on the Brooklyn Bridge, en route to his job in the financial district, when he saw the first plane hit. Although somewhat in shock, he continued on his way to his office, where of course they were sending everyone home. On his way back, walking his bike across the bridge because the traffic was so snarled with people trying to get away that there wasn't room to ride, he saw the first tower fall.
I can't even imagine what it would be like to see something like that with your own eyes, especially when it's a place near where you go to work every day... He and his family were going to be trying to leave the city tonight and go to their cottage in Vermont, but depending on how crazy it is, they may or may not be able to get out.
Hamilton, my Washington stepbrother, got sent home from work, but wasn't very close to the Pentagon anyway so he didn't get exposed to too much of it directly. But Marianna, his wife, works right next to the Pentagon! She could have been hurt, or at least had to see the whole thing, but she was off work today - thank the gods for that.
So they are all OK... But a couple of things I've heard from people on mailing lists today really upset me, if it even makes sense to say that in a context where everyone is already emotionally devastated.
One was someone in Australia who wrote that when her son came home from school today, he told her that a boy in his class who was the child of Afghan refugees got beaten up by the other kids because of the attacks. What the hell kind of logic is there in taking something like this out on a little child?!
The other was a university student who wrote that one of her professors, who was a Muslim from some middle eastern country, showed up for class a little bit late, pale and shaky and looking terrified. When he saw the students sitting there as usual and not making any move to attack him, he started to cry and said he had been afraid that they would kill him if he came to teach class today.
This is what's scariest about situations like this: the hate and fear that it brings out in people. Everyone wants a scapegoat, even if they have to attack innocent people or even children in order to have one.
Some days I just don't want to be part of the human race any more...
My family are all OK. Hans, my New York stepbrother, got home OK - but he saw a lot of it first hand. He was on the Brooklyn Bridge, en route to his job in the financial district, when he saw the first plane hit. Although somewhat in shock, he continued on his way to his office, where of course they were sending everyone home. On his way back, walking his bike across the bridge because the traffic was so snarled with people trying to get away that there wasn't room to ride, he saw the first tower fall.
I can't even imagine what it would be like to see something like that with your own eyes, especially when it's a place near where you go to work every day... He and his family were going to be trying to leave the city tonight and go to their cottage in Vermont, but depending on how crazy it is, they may or may not be able to get out.
Hamilton, my Washington stepbrother, got sent home from work, but wasn't very close to the Pentagon anyway so he didn't get exposed to too much of it directly. But Marianna, his wife, works right next to the Pentagon! She could have been hurt, or at least had to see the whole thing, but she was off work today - thank the gods for that.
So they are all OK... But a couple of things I've heard from people on mailing lists today really upset me, if it even makes sense to say that in a context where everyone is already emotionally devastated.
One was someone in Australia who wrote that when her son came home from school today, he told her that a boy in his class who was the child of Afghan refugees got beaten up by the other kids because of the attacks. What the hell kind of logic is there in taking something like this out on a little child?!
The other was a university student who wrote that one of her professors, who was a Muslim from some middle eastern country, showed up for class a little bit late, pale and shaky and looking terrified. When he saw the students sitting there as usual and not making any move to attack him, he started to cry and said he had been afraid that they would kill him if he came to teach class today.
This is what's scariest about situations like this: the hate and fear that it brings out in people. Everyone wants a scapegoat, even if they have to attack innocent people or even children in order to have one.
Some days I just don't want to be part of the human race any more...