Never Forget

2001 was a life-changing year for me. I graduated from high school that year, and a few months later my baby brother was born. He’s a teenager now, and is hardly a baby, but he’s still my baby brother. Anyway, about three and a half weeks later, the 9/11 terrorist attacks happened.

I was living in California when it happened. I was a recent graduate and had no idea as to what I wanted to do with my life. I was living with my grandfather, and at the time we were trying to get me to lose weight so I could join the Air Force (sadly, I did not join, and it is my biggest regret in life). Our plan that week was to go get a scale so I could weigh myself.

So, that morning I lay in bed. I usually play the radio while I sleep, as I can’t sleep in total silence. It creeps me out, and I still listen to the radio even now. Back then, I liked listening to smooth jazz, but I was having trouble getting a decent signal on the stations I usually listened to, so I settled on some Hispanic music station instead. I figured that if the vocals were in Spanish, I wouldn’t be distracted by it and stay up all night.

That morning, as I lay in bed, I listened to what was on the radio. At first, I thought that there was some sort of radio promo for the show The West Wing or some other political show, because instead of Spanish music, I was hearing what sounded like a Presidential speech.

Then I listened more closely. That wasn’t an actor – that was the real president, President Bush. He was talking about an attack! I jumped out of bed and headed straight for the living room. My grandfather was sitting on the couch, watching the news footage grimly. I sat down and watched it with him for a while. Then I went back to my room to record what was on TV for posterity.

Every — and I mean every TV station was airing someone else’s news coverage of the event. It was chilling as I had never seen anything like that before. I struggled to find a VHS tape but I found one I was willing to sacrifice, put it in and began recording. I watched for a while and then had to stop so I could shower and get ready to go to the store.

Now, back then, we lived in Suisun City, of which is not far from Travis AFB, where I was born. After getting dressed and having an argument about my weight loss with my grandfather, we left to go get that scale. We tried to get on base via Airbase Parkway, but at some point, long before we even got to the gate, we and everyone else were turned away. Since my grandfather is an Air Force veteran, he likes shopping on base, as you don’t have to pay sales tax when you shop there. Prices used to be cheaper too, but I’ve noticed that they aren’t anymore. Anyway, Travis and every other base in the US was shut down for the day, due to the attacks.

We ended up going to the Target in Fairfield. I can’t really remember anything else about that day. But I do remember where I was when I first heard of the attacks. My family remembers too. My mom was home with my baby brother. My father listened to radio coverage while he did his mail delivery route. My sisters were in school, and a lot of their classmates were terrified, even though they were in Oregon.

Before then, I had basically no knowledge of Islam. Now, of course, I and everyone else in the US knows. I voted for Bush the previous year, and I was quite impressed with how he handled everything.

For one very brief moment, we Americans were united. Then the Democrats remembered that Bush had won the election in 2000, and decided to basically blame Bush for the attacks. Oh, and in the years since, Muslims are now the biggest victims of the 9/11 attacks, not the American people.

One quick thing I have to add — I used to visit a lot of anti-Britney Spears sites back then, and the owners of those sites basically laughed at the attacks. It made me so angry, and I stopped visiting them.

Nowadays, you can’t mention Islam in connection with the 9/11 attacks or else you’re a vicious racist, an Islamophobe and an asshole. Mention the fact that the 9/11 terrorists were doing it in the name of Allah, and you’re victimizing Muslims. No fucking joke.

I’ll never forget that day, even though I was on the other side of the country. I didn’t know anyone that died that day, but it has affected me all the same. I notice things, like the ridiculous security measures at airports. Before, non-passengers could go past security and hang out at the gates with you. Now, that can’t happen. At least, as far as I can tell.

Islam is absolutely the problem. No, not all Muslims are terrorists. I am sure that some innocent Muslims died that day, along with all those Americans. But I am not going to spare anybody’s feelings by lying about what happened and why it happened. And, by the way, nothing, NOTHING justifies 9/11, so don’t even bother bringing up any shit the US might have done in the Middle East. Nothing justifies it.

But Islam is the problem. There are too many either actively involved in terrorism or providing safe harbor for terrorists that don’t kill themselves. We don’t know who’s safe. That’s pretty fucking scary.

I get pretty salty and angry whenever someone mocks the attacks. This stupid website, Regretsy, had a contest where you had to submit a Blingee graphic essentially mocking the way people chose to commemorate the attacks. I am happy to report that Regretsy shut down a while ago. Good riddance. I usually have a stupid, fucked up sense of humor, but even I have limits, and 9/11 is one of them. Besides, only a leftist would come up with such a disgusting contest. No wonder they all believe Bush and his Halliburton cronies did 9/11.

Anyway, that’s all I have to say about it. No doubt there will be leftist scum defending Muslims on this day, while simultaneously attacking Americans.