Attention, Please!

Attention Muslim World: Please please recognize that this crazy horrible man and his crazy horrible followers do not represent the rest of Americans, just as fundamentalist extremists in your own community do not represent you.

Attention Christian World: Keep praying that Terry Jones finds the "sign from God" that tells him this is a bad idea. If he goes through with "Burn a Koran Day" and one single American soldier dies as a direct result, it's not the Muslims he's going to need to worry about.

I stand behind the First Amendment. I'm certainly not asking the Florida or US Government to prevent the protest (is it really a protest, or just a temper tantrum?). I just want the people planning on participating to consider how hurtful their actions will be to the people of the Muslim faith, and instead turn their anger into something productive. Participate in a charity, read a book to a child, or just consider that Jesus probably wouldn't have provoked a group of people who thought differently than he did. Heck, maybe they should join a relief mission and bring the love of Christ along with much-needed food and medicine over to Pakistan. You know...just add something positive to the world instead of adding more hate. We don't need any more hate.

Vaguely related:

Happy Birthday, Joshua*

*names changed to protect the innocent child

Scott and I just got back from dinner at TooJays, the closest thing central Florida has to a good Jewish deli. We were seated near 4 old people sitting at a big table. We ordered our drinks, and then the rest of their party showed up: mom, dad, a little boy, and a baby girl.

Fifteen minutes later, the cooing and cheek pinching and baby talk had slowed down enough that we could actually make out grown-up words mixed in. "Happy birthday!" "Do you like your new Star Wars bed?" "Did you think grandma for your new toys?" We got to sit through one of the women (my guess is not the mother) singing the theme song from "Elmo's World" to the baby girl. And then the conversation took a strange turn.

"Your birthday is important to a lot of people." Scott and I were trying to figure out why the Dad was trying to give the kid a Jesus complex. I wanted to turn around and tell the kid that no one outside of that table gave a damn about his birthday, and that some day soon he'd be old enough to know how obnoxious his family was and he'd be embarrassed. But I didn't. And that's a good thing. We had been mocking the conversation when all of a sudden snippets of conversation along the lines of "and a lot of people died..." and "they call it Patriot's Day" came toward us.

Oh. My. God. And so we learned:

a) 4(ish) is the age when you tell your kid about 9-11.
b) if your kid's birthday is on 9-11, you have to celebrate it a full week in advance. (really, the party is tomorrow)
c) TooJay's is the new Chuck-E-Cheese

Scott also got the fringe benefit of watching the family eating. I can't do justice to his description of Mom feeding the baby and herself at the same time, but trust me - I was suddenly glad they were only assaulting one of my senses!

Needless to say, the ambiance just wasn't great tonight. So we got a slice of cake (for my half-birthday) to go. If you'll excuse me, there's a zillion calories in the fridge calling my name.

Happy early birthday, Joshua.

I Remembered

So... I did something moderately stupid last night. I was on the couch dozing to an 11:30 pm re-run of That 70's Show and decided to move to the bedroom. I was super-tired yesterday (stress and lack of desire to be at work may have contributed) and thought perhaps I could fall asleep before Scott got home.

Once I was in bed, I turned on the TV and somehow ended up watching MSNBC's "9/11 as it Happened," which was basically a mildly edited replay of The Today Show from that morning. I don't watch stuff like this - mostly because Scott won't watch it again, but partly because it just takes you instantly to a very dark place. But for some reason, there I was, unable to change the channel or even think about falling asleep.

In 2001, my Dad was glued to ABC, and the only TV voice I remember from that day was Diane Sawyer. I actually think the coverage would've been harder for me to watch last night if it had been ABC's coverage instead of NBC's. But I'm a little bit glad that I watched it. There was some really great journalism going on that day. Matt Lauer and Katie Couric ended up looking like interns in the shadow of Tom Brokaw. HE got it. He grasped that they were reporting on a world-changing event long before the other two. But what impressed me the most was their Pentagon reporter, whose phone-ins started with "there was an explosion - it might have been a construction accident" to "bomb in the heli-port" to the conclusion of "another airplane."

I don't think I'm likely to watch anything like that again. Now, remembering the event just makes me sad. But last night, I remembered just how scary that day and the next few were. The day after, every time one of those damn tourist helicopters flew over, we all looked up and wondered what we were hearing and whether it was about to come crashing down. I hadn't thought about that in 5 or more years. And I don't want to remember the fear. It just doesn't seem necessary.

So from now on, I'll watch the current news coverage. I'll see the memorials. I'll remember the past, but I won't immerse myself in it again. It's just too much.

9/11 - from another angle

I just spent a good chunk of time reading other people's responses to Scalzi's weekend assignment on 9/11, and the blunt honesty of this lady talking about her own fears of other ethnic groups brought back the most vivid memory of a friend of mine from High School.

Right after the Oklahoma City bombing, my friend Shadi and I were watching the news and he was so upset. "Every time something happens, they assume it was us." And it's true - all of the initial reports on that event were that Arab terrorists must be to blame. He seemed to take the whole thing so personally, and I just couldn't relate. After all, what do people ever blame blondes for, except the general harmless stereotypes?

On 9/11, most of the initial reports again jumped to the conclusion that we had been attacked by people from the Middle East. And I thought of Shadi. It had been five years since I last saw him. I assumed that he was still living in New Jersey, and I hoped that he was in an environment of supportive people. I hoped that ignorant people weren't hating him personally. And I hoped that everything worked out ok for him. I still do. Shadi was the kind of guy that everyone needs to have in life -- he cared about everyone. He had the biggest heart around. And when the rest of us were forming cliques and ignoring people who had been our friends the week before, he continued to be friends with everybody. And I bet he's still like that.

Right after 9/11 I also remembered reading "Farewell to Manzanar" in high school and I remember wondering if the powers that be were going to try to "protect" another generation of another race by sending them away to camps like they did to the Japanese Americans during WWII. I was glad to see that we as a nation did learn from that mistake and allowed citizens to respect and even embrace eachother's races and religions.

I've looked Shadi up a few times, but he's not on the Alumni web board or on myspace (seriously... who ISN'T on myspace? my GUINEA PIG is on myspace!!). Whenever I think of 9/11, my thoughts eventually stray to him. And I wonder how much more his world has changed than my world.

9/11 - almost five years later

Scalzi's weekend assignment is really the "where were you when JFK was shot?" of my generation: Share your thoughts about 9/11. You can remember back on what you were doing on the day or give some thought to how we think about it today. Thoughts personal, political or philosophical are all up for consideration. Tell us all what you think about when you think about September 11, 2001.

I wasn't going to tackle this assignment, because my "where were you?" moment came when I was in the bathtub shaving my legs and my dad knocked on the door and told me. I honestly don't know what I saw live and what was being replayed. Work for the day was cancelled. And I pretty much sat at home and watched TV, cursing the fact that my modem had fried the month before and I couldn't get online to find out more.

September 12 was the day I remember most vividly. I worked at Epcot at the time, in the American Adventure pavilion. AA is one of those attractions that people go to when they're hot and tired and need to cool off for 30 minutes. It's not that popular with kids, so a lot of people skipped us over.

So we opened back up on the 12th after being closed on the 11th. And, though park attendance had completely tanked, we were busy. It was almost as if it was a healing place for people who were away from home and wanted to feel some kind of connection to America, even though we were still in America. Or maybe people felt guilty for skipping us over before. But I'm convinced that everyone in Epcot that day must have passed through our doors.

There are two singing groups that perform in the Rotunda of the building. On that day, American Vybe, whose sets were mostly jazzy renditions of songs like "Fever" and "Just a Gigolo," ended their first set of the day with the most passionate rendition of God Bless America I'd ever heard. The soloist at the end had tears streaming down her face, and I don't think there was a dry eye in the house. It's a moment that still gives me goose bumps. Probably because it was the moment where I thought maybe everything was going to be ok after all.

(by the way, I still think things are going to be ok. I guess 4.9 years ago I thought everything would be "normal" again, but now I see that maybe "normal" has been forever redefined.)

I wasn't able to find any video of American Vybe, but here's one of the Voices of Liberty, the original entertainment in the American Adventure: