Shadows
Another anniversary of September 2001 is come around. I guess the last one was overshadowed by the gulf hurricanes. This one had many preplanned and formal observations 9/11Anniversary Observed with Moments of Silence. The President was at most of these. On someone's advice he had adopted the affection of not speaking at any of these, just another President of the United States standing silently off to one side of the crowd. At least it kept things simple, (I noticed he took his wife with him). Plus he knew he had booked an hour of prime time later in the day to talk all he wanted. With no Monday night football on broadcast tv who could complain, certainly not the Redskins. I confess I was actually watching the Orioles game on a Baltimore channel. I remember coming into New York City at night on the train a few years ago. It was during the period when they had those pillars of light emanating from where the World Trade towers once stood. You could see it as soon as you came across the New Jersey flats and up by the Hudson. I saw this view on television tonight. It was quite impressive at the time, not a skyline or substitute for one - which has a fixed profile, delimited and finite. This; open ended extending as far as the light would travel. Light, shadows opposite, pouring out of wounded ground. One thing I continue to take away from all this is the sense that America is not removed from the world at large. Untouchable by it and at end unconcerned. With the worlds problems never as elastic as our attention span. I have the sense now that festering problems; unsavory and violent ideologies, epidemics, famines, not only large, but small, have to be paid attention to. That we may need to present ourselves in their parlor, calling card in hand, before they do the same to us. This must be done mindful of the principle of self determination - that everyone has the right to oversee their own affairs and that no one can do that better than those whose affairs they are. In a world in which so much has changrd some things will never change. If our affairs are well managed and rightfull, our example will speak more effectively than any politicians speech, any soldiers gun.
11:53:03 PM  ;;
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