King Kaufman has an essay on Salon that really sums up how I feel about the flag. And here I just thought I was the freak and no one else felt the same. Thanks to Dori Smith at BackupBrain - she’s always got good links.

It’s my birthday. Not that I mind folks saying happy birthday, I just wish that if folks were going to make a fuss, it would be for something I’ve actually done rather than just the fact that I’m still alive. Though in light of recent events, maybe that’s not such a bad reason to celebrate after all. But I’m still not comfortable with all the fuss.

Everyone should read this
Kill the poys and the luggage! ’tis expressly
against the law of arms: ’tis as arrant a piece of
knavery, mark you now, as can be offer’t; in your
conscience, now, is it not?
-Shakespeare

I need to speak out about something. I had a feeling as soon as everything happened that there would be an increase in xenophobia and paranoia. I understand that people are frightened and angry and that the safe and secure feelings that go with the word “home” have been destroyed for many. Especially for most who reside in the northeast. But it’s not a good enough reason to hate. I heard, this weekend, coming from the mouths of those I consider my friends, words of anger, bitterness, and hate that stunned me.

Wiping out the innocent with the guilty will solve little. Shutting our borders will solve even less, and in some parts of the country, will do much more harm than good. (Without migrant farm workers, many of them undocumented, I don’t think you’d be seeing much produce in your local grocery store.) And I cannot stress this enough:

The guy at the 7-11/Quickie Mart is not your enemy. The guy pumping gas over on the corner is not your enemy. They have done NOTHING to you. Every race, color, and creed has it’s scumbags. If you condemn your innocent neighbors for the actions of madmen, you are little better than the lunatics who would murder innocent civilians (in America and elsewhere) just to make a point.

About 40 years ago we, as a country, rounded up everyone of Japanese descent and put them in CONCENTRATION CAMPS. It happened. If we are not very careful, it will happen again. I will not stand by and watch innocent men and women keep to their homes out of fear because of their race, religon, or nation of origin. This does not make me un-patriotic. These are the founding prinicples of our country: that no one should live in fear because of their religon or ethnicity.

And on the subject of founding principles - for all of you who might have seen some visitor/tourist/recent immagrant cheering at the attack. First, I want to say that anyone who would take vicious pleasure in the death and suffering of so many is a waste of skin that I don’t even want to share breathing space with. But - I want you to think for a moment. I want you to think about free speech and what it means. Because the moment we make these freedoms conditional, “they” have won. It pains me to say it, but those bastards had every bit as much right to cheer as we did to sob. Because this is America.

I will continue to support the relief and war efforts (’cause everybody’s calling it a war now) in any way I can - but I’m not going to stop questioning and thinking either. I am seeing of late increased, widespread social peer pressure to conform. I see people getting long looks if they do not have a flag or a pin on their person. I’ll tell you this right now - I can serve my country much better by *thinking* than by wearing a piece of cloth. The flag gives us hope and brings us together, but it is by the use of our minds and hearts that we will get through this.

And here’s an article that I think everyone needs to take a look at.

I’ve been hearing about NATO’s mutual defense pact, and about 20 billion dollars congress has given over to fight this, and how the president is vowing to “eradacate terrorism”. And all I can think is that this is how world wars start. Why do I feel like something big and nasty is coming?

It finally happened. I saw something that moved me to tears. I’ve been shocked, angry, bewildered, but now I’ve seen pictures of others around the world affected by all this, and now I’m just at my desk trying not to cry.

Another photoessay at Time.com.

List of tennants of the WTC - Costar Group

Price gouging in the midwest. When things calm down a little, a lot of folks are going to be asking questions. This is a federal offense, folks.

I still can’t get NPR on my radio, but their website is back up.

Driving into work this morning, I could see the smoke that still lies over Manhatthan. There’s a squad car barring the entrance to Teterboro airport. Rt 46 is closed a few miles before it hits the George Washington Bridge.

Ok, that’s the quite reflection. As for all of you wankers who were clogging up 46 eastbound yesterday afternoon on the assumption that all the radio alerts that the GWB was CLOSED just didn’t apply to you and that somehow, in spite of everything, you were special enough to get into the city when evryone else couldn’t…. WTF? The radios were going on and *on* about how no one could get onto the city, that the only entrance that was open was the Tappan Zee Bridge, and yet the roads were clogged with drivers trying to get to the GWB. Mass hysteria?

CBS is still transmitting. No one else is up. I can’t even get NPR. Everyone at Slashdot and Google are my heroes. They were getting info out yesterday when no one else could. Google was caching copies of the news sites so people could get to them. Net traffic has never seen anything like this.

Still haven’t heard much in the media about how DC is handling all of this. Makes me wonder how much of this story we’ll ever fully know.

More and more of my friends have checked in over private email and mailing lists. I wish I could give them all real hugs.

The vibes that are just out there and floating around - free floating confusion, anger, and worry. It’s enough to make your head spin. I just want to go home and hug my cats.

I don’t know when I started living in Jerry Bruckhiemer’s (sp) head. The world has become so unreal and here I am at work trying to stay productive and just not think. I’ve already been in touch with my family. My boyfriend got sent home from his job early. We’ve got all the radios in the office giving us the news and I’m going to Slashdot for info and pointers to news sites that are still working. (CNN is up now.)

Where do we go from here? Is it over, or just the beginning of something even worse?