10-10-2007, 03:29 PM
Thanks to all the people around the world supporting the United States and its people in the age of terrorism.
For those who may not fully understand, as my sociology text explained it, during the Cold War, the United States did not consider the wishes and rights of peoples such as the Iranians under the Shah of Iran, who was a brutal and oppressive ruler. The United States was able to establish friendly relations with some successor governments (the Aquino government in the Phillipines after Ferdinand Marcos), but not others, such as Iran. Islamic fundamentalists were also angered and also terrified by the exports of American culture including our movies, magazines, alcohol, tobacco, and so on.
The Soviets were leaving Afghanistan when I was taking sociology. Enter Usama bin Laden and other Muslims who went to fight the Soviet invaders with U.S. aid and weapons.
Our President said the terrorists hate us for our freedom. However, three years before 9/11, Usama gave three gripes in an interview,
1. we were still in Saudi Arabia to contain Saddam Hussein
2. the U.N. sanctions on Iraq were killing millions of people
3. support for Israel
We Americans watched as the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia were bombed in 1996, the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed in 1998, and the U.S.S. Cole was hit and nearly sunk by a suicide boat in 2000.
Then there was 9/11.
Mom thought she was watching a movie.
I had never seen co-workers watching TV before, but then again, no one had ever seen aircraft deliberately strike a skyscraper before. One co-worker saw American Airlines Flight 77 before it crashed, another saw smoke from the Pentagon. Later, my manager hustled a bunch of us into a concrete stairwell after we heard a loud boom, he, a former Navy engineer, told us it was probably fighters scrambling (in a life and death situation, forget about the sonic boom). He asked us not to use our cell phones, to keep lines open, but I briefly told Mom I was safe. That night, the subway was single-tracking over the yellow line over the Potomac River near the Pentagon, and I eventually got home.
------------------------------------------------------------
It has been an incredible change of life as we know it.
We have been instructed to have two weeks worth of food and water on hand, batteries for flashlights and radios, though we had a small taste of that during the Y2K scare December 31, 1999 when we thought technology would melt down because it could not tell the difference between January 1 1900 and January 1 2000.
(The water supplies WERE helpful after Hurricane Isabel passed over and we were told the water was not safe to drink for some hours. I brushed my teeth with it.)
We need to have plastic sheets, pre-cut to size over doors and windows, and duct tape in case the authorities tell us to "shelter in place" in the event of a chemical or radiological attack.
Way back in 1997, Oliver North on some Prophecies of the Millenium show on FOX suggested having some quick-grab-and-run bag (what did he know back then anyway?). Mine has my prescription medicine and will also hold important papers and a respiratory machine I use at night to help breathe.
If an evacuation is needed, the car has an overnight bag and basic supplies for the cat.
A National Council on Disability (I think) report to the President (which I worked on at work) said that some of the people who died in the World Trade Center were people with disabilities who could not escape. As I have Asperger, I read the report. I created a set of emergency medical instructions I revise regularly, and carry a pocketknife, mini flashlight, and aluminum whistle (helpful to summon assistance if you are trapped in what used to be a building)
-------------------------------------------
Anybody else preparing for weather events, pandemic flu, terror, or God knows what?
For those who may not fully understand, as my sociology text explained it, during the Cold War, the United States did not consider the wishes and rights of peoples such as the Iranians under the Shah of Iran, who was a brutal and oppressive ruler. The United States was able to establish friendly relations with some successor governments (the Aquino government in the Phillipines after Ferdinand Marcos), but not others, such as Iran. Islamic fundamentalists were also angered and also terrified by the exports of American culture including our movies, magazines, alcohol, tobacco, and so on.
The Soviets were leaving Afghanistan when I was taking sociology. Enter Usama bin Laden and other Muslims who went to fight the Soviet invaders with U.S. aid and weapons.
Our President said the terrorists hate us for our freedom. However, three years before 9/11, Usama gave three gripes in an interview,
1. we were still in Saudi Arabia to contain Saddam Hussein
2. the U.N. sanctions on Iraq were killing millions of people
3. support for Israel
We Americans watched as the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia were bombed in 1996, the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed in 1998, and the U.S.S. Cole was hit and nearly sunk by a suicide boat in 2000.
Then there was 9/11.
Mom thought she was watching a movie.
I had never seen co-workers watching TV before, but then again, no one had ever seen aircraft deliberately strike a skyscraper before. One co-worker saw American Airlines Flight 77 before it crashed, another saw smoke from the Pentagon. Later, my manager hustled a bunch of us into a concrete stairwell after we heard a loud boom, he, a former Navy engineer, told us it was probably fighters scrambling (in a life and death situation, forget about the sonic boom). He asked us not to use our cell phones, to keep lines open, but I briefly told Mom I was safe. That night, the subway was single-tracking over the yellow line over the Potomac River near the Pentagon, and I eventually got home.
------------------------------------------------------------
It has been an incredible change of life as we know it.
We have been instructed to have two weeks worth of food and water on hand, batteries for flashlights and radios, though we had a small taste of that during the Y2K scare December 31, 1999 when we thought technology would melt down because it could not tell the difference between January 1 1900 and January 1 2000.
(The water supplies WERE helpful after Hurricane Isabel passed over and we were told the water was not safe to drink for some hours. I brushed my teeth with it.)
We need to have plastic sheets, pre-cut to size over doors and windows, and duct tape in case the authorities tell us to "shelter in place" in the event of a chemical or radiological attack.
Way back in 1997, Oliver North on some Prophecies of the Millenium show on FOX suggested having some quick-grab-and-run bag (what did he know back then anyway?). Mine has my prescription medicine and will also hold important papers and a respiratory machine I use at night to help breathe.
If an evacuation is needed, the car has an overnight bag and basic supplies for the cat.
A National Council on Disability (I think) report to the President (which I worked on at work) said that some of the people who died in the World Trade Center were people with disabilities who could not escape. As I have Asperger, I read the report. I created a set of emergency medical instructions I revise regularly, and carry a pocketknife, mini flashlight, and aluminum whistle (helpful to summon assistance if you are trapped in what used to be a building)
-------------------------------------------
Anybody else preparing for weather events, pandemic flu, terror, or God knows what?