Keith Olbermann has had it with W, Republicans, Faux Spews (thanks, Cindi!), et al, trying to blame everything on Bill Clinton. Watch if you can; if not, there’s a transcript at the link, thanks to the good people at Crooks & Liars. The media has been so cowed by the Bush machine that it’s big news when a commentator speaks up and calls bullsh*t on the constant stream of spin and talking points. Keep it up, Keith. You’re a brave man and a true patriot.
This is a lovely tribute to an amazing woman. It will make you laugh out loud, and that’s as it should be.
Hat tip to Tom Hilton at If I Ran the Zoo.
That’s what I remember most clearly. The sun was shining, the sky was an intense blue. It was starting to cool off as summer gave way to fall. I had left home early that morning to go to a prayer group with a couple of friends, one who was in the midst of her seminary training. We talked about our lives and our concerns, and we remembered in particular the young Christian women who were being held captive in Afghanistan. We prayed for their safe return, and we prayed for change that would bring peace and freedom to that part of the world.
I left, running late as usual, to meet Husband and youngest daughter (then three) at McDonald’s. He headed to work, and she asked to stay and play for a while. We took an outside table, and she climbed and bounced and slid while I drank coffee and read the paper. A little after nine, I decided it was time to head home, and we gathered up our stuff and climbed into the momvan. I tuned in to NPR, expecting to hear music, but instead I heard something about a plane hitting the Pentagon.
I grabbed my cell phone and called Husband at work. “Have y’all heard anything about a plane crashing into the Pentagon?” I asked. He replied, “We heard a plane hit a building in New York. If one hit in Washington, then we’re under attack.” That just didn’t compute. Surely it was some kind of coincidence, some chain reaction of events that had led to two accidents in two different cities.
We arrived home, and I hid in the bedroom to watch the news. There were conflicting reports, but it soon became clear that two planes had hit separate towers at the World Trade Center and one had hit the Pentagon. Rumors abounded: the police had found car bombs around Washington, there were more planes headed for other targets. Then the word that another plane had crashed in rural Pennsylvania. At first, I could only thank God that the nearby homes and school had been spared.
I called my stepdaughter, who had spent part of her freshman year of college in DC, to make sure she knew what was happening. I caught her in the waiting room of her ENT’s office, where everyone was gathered around a radio, trying to get more information. As we talked, I watched one of the towers fall. “Oh my God, the building just fell down.” It wasn’t real. It was The Towering Inferno or Independence Day or any one of hundreds of disaster movies. People couldn’t really be leaping from the windows, fearing flames more than they feared the certain death of falling to the concrete below.
I sat transfixed, as did millions of others, for the rest of the day, just watching. When middle daughter came home from school, we tried to explain a little about what had happened. How do you tell an eight-year-old, a very sensitive and empathetic eight-year-old, that thousands of people had been murdered? At the time, the death toll looked to be much higher than it was eventually determined to be, with so many people unaccounted for and unable to contact their families or employers. There is no way to make sense of the cruelty, the single-minded purpose, the hatred that would lead anyone down such a path.
That evening, we went to the Red Cross, hoping to donate blood for the survivors. We weren’t alone; the wait was measured in hours rather than minutes. We took the little ones home to bed, planning to return the next day, but by then we knew the blood wasn’t needed. There were no injured survivors waiting for transport to the trauma centers around the country that had geared up to take them.
I didn’t know anyone who died on September 11. A childhood friend, now a commercial pilot, knew the pilot of Flight 93. He wasn’t surprised at the heroism shown by the crew and passengers. After all, it requires a special kind of courage to break the bonds of earth and take to the air. Some twisted that courage into a murderous purpose. Some used it to save the lives of all those who would have died if that flight had reached its target.
Today, I choose to remember the firefighters, the police officers, the rescue workers, the ordinary citizens who did an extraordinary thing. The survivors who have endured unimaginable loss and still managed to go on. Those who live quietly, in anonymity, and those who have spoken out, demanding answers to their questions. Those who comforted the dying and continue to comfort the living. The soldiers who serve this country. The citizens of the United States who refuse to allow fear of terrorism to destroy our free and open society. Today, I remember the heroes.
We’re off to Six Flags and then a visit with my parents. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend. This Memorial Day, let’s keep in mind all the servicepeople who have given their time and even their lives for this country. It’s my prayer that those who are deployed now will soon be home with their families.
Better late than never….(his birthday was Saturday)
Happy birthday, dear brother! I’m glad you were born. Thank you for the courage and eloquence you demonstrate every time you speak out in support of the LGBT community. I’m proud of you!
The Washington Monument at sunset —- The Lincoln Memorial
Vietnam War Memorial Statue —- Vietnam War Memorial Wall
Vietnam War Memorial 1959 (the year I was born) —- Vietnam Nurses’ Memorial
We saw most of the major tourist sites on our trolley tour last night, but the most powerful for me was the Vietnam War Memorial. Maybe it’s because that war is part of my memory. Maybe it’s because of the pictures, notes, cards, and flowers left there by family members and by strangers. Maybe it’s because of the young Marine I saw there with his wife and two little girls. And maybe it’s because I know we’ll be building another one in a few years to honor those who died in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A combined effort by US, British, and Canadian forces freed three hostages who had been held in Iraq for four months. The men, members of Christian Peacemaker Teams, had been held along with Tom Fox, who was found dead earlier this month.
The freed men were Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, and Briton Norman Kember, 74. The men - members of the Chicago-based Christian Peacemaker Teams - were kidnapped Nov. 26 along with an American colleague, Tom Fox, 54.
This is wonderful news, and I am thrilled for these men and their families. The rescue operation is also renewing hopes that Christian Science Monitor reporter Jill Carroll will be found and freed as well.
[Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Rick] Lynch said there was no new information on Carroll that “I can discuss at this time.” But, he said: “There are other operations that continue probably as a result of what we’re finding at this time. So you’ve got to give us the opportunity to work through that.”
Unfortunately, “mission accomplished” and the “last throes” of the insurgency don’t seem any closer.
But the joyful news was tempered by violence that raged throughout Iraq as the day wore on. Fifty-eight people were killed in execution-style slayings, bombings and gun battles. For the third straight day, Sunni insurgents hit a major police and jail facility - this time with a suicide car bombing that killed 25 in central Baghdad.
American hostage Tom Fox has been found dead in Iraq. Mr. Fox was part of Christian Peacemaker Teams.
An American who was among four Christian activists kidnapped last year in Iraq has been killed, a State Department spokesman said Friday.
The FBI verified that a body found in Iraq Friday morning was that of Tom Fox, 54, of Clear Brook, Va., spokesman Noel Clay said. He said he had no information on the other three hostages….
…Christian Peacemaker Teams had been working in Iraq since October 2002, investigating allegations that U.S. and Iraqi forces abused Iraqi detainees. Its teams host human rights conferences in conflict zones, promoting peaceful solutions.
[Paul] Slattery said Fox worked on three major projects: helping families of incarcerated Iraqis, escorting shipments of medicine to clinics and hospitals in Fallujah and helping form Islamic Peacemaker Teams.
In the three years since the U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq, insurgents have kidnapped at least 250 foreigners and killed at least 40 of them.
UPDATE: Here’s Rev. Porter’s obituary from the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church website. He served as Dr. King’s associate pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery. His civil rights work is commemorated with a statue in Kelly Ingram Park.