9/11 Flashback, a 2014 Repost

The essay below was published in 2004. My 9/11 post for 2014 has been published at BlogHer.com at this link.

The following article was originally posted at AuthorsDen.com in 2004. I wrote about 9/11 in 2011 on the 10-year anniversary as well, a whole seven  (7) years after my first reflection, and now 10 years since I wrote my first reflective piece about 9/11, here I am again contemplating another that should be up tomorrow. I decided to repost the first piece here at Whose Shoes Are These Anyway in preparation for reflecting on tomorrow's post. 

September 11, 2004

"September 11 Photo Montage" by UpstateNYer -
Own work; derivative work of the following:
File:WTC smoking on 9-11.jpeg by Michael 
Foran on FlickrFile:DN-SD-03-11451.JPEG
by the United State NavyFile:UA Flight 175 
hits WTC south tower 9-11 edit.jpeg by
TheMachineStops on FlickrFile:WTC-Fireman
 requests 10 more colleagesa.jpg by the
US GovernmentFile:Flight93Engine.jpg by
the US GovernmentFile:Video2 flight77 
pentagon.png by the United States Department
of Defense. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
via Wikimedia Commons.

I don't keep track of days well, and I was out late last night tending to business in Woodbury, NJ, almost two hours from my home in Scotch Plains, something that had to be done. Slept in this morning. If I hadn’t been checking out the work of fellow writers today on the Web, I wouldn't even know it was 9/11. My brother just missed death that day. He was pissed at his bosses and told them he wasn't coming in; otherwise, he'd have been under The Towers when the planes hit.

I'd come in from doing what I do on most days to see hell on the news; I’d been chauffeuring a kid and had crazy phone messages on my voice mail. “Nordette, turn on the news. They say the people have flown a plane into those World Towers in New York. I can’t reach Ben.” That was my mother, who’d confused TV news before. So I frowned at the phone.

Next message. “Nordette, call Mom. I can’t get through. Tell her I didn’t go to work today. Remember the damned Macy people pissed me off yesterday and I called in. Tell her I’m okay. I wasn’t at The Towers.” That was my brother. He’d told me the night before he wasn’t going in. He’d been working lots of overtime and had been asked to check up on a security issue that a staff person could handle. But something must be going on. My brother didn’t mix up the news.

The first CNN image I saw remains embedded in my brain, a plane crushing a glass and concrete titan, driving through it like the tower was a block of cheap sheetrock ... then a burgeoning inferno. I remember thinking accident, but a second plane! I remember thinking war. I recall the gray cloud billowing downward, people bursting through it, fleeing toward the cameras, naked fear on dusty faces, and the first tower crumbling. Sometime later the second would also.

Video of Boston Marathon Explosion, Another Bomb Falsely Reported at JFK Library

I don't know what to say. Police report that two people have died and others have had limbs blown off. CNN.

What Do We Gain by Remembering Events like the 9/11 Attack, Hurricane Katrina, and Other Tragedies?

As I said on Twitter yesterday, "I was in New Jersey when [the] towers came down. I've written about it before. I don't know if I want to again just b/c of [this] 10 year anniversary." I grappled with whether or not to write anything about September 11 a decade later because it took me until 2004, a whole three years after September 11, 2001, to write anything at all about what I felt on that tragic day. For me, the words I wrote then, "Emotional Land Mines (Remembering 9/11)," still stand.

In the last paragraph of that piece, I said in that essay the following:

The seconds we take to reflect humanizes us, sensitizing us again to the incomprehensible, inoculating us against the incredulous so that we will not be a people at risk like those Santayana spoke of saying, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” We are stronger because we remember.

I did not start watching any of the memorial specials and documentaries in honor of the 10th anniversary until last night, and as I watched, I meditated on why it's still important, a decade later, to commemorate something so horrific as well as other moments of tragedy that draw sorrow to the surface. I meditate on our need to recall catastrophe each year when the annual Hurricane Katrina ceremonies begin here in New Orleans.

Why humans memorialize death and tragedy is a question studied frequently in Anthropology. For instance, this month the journal Anthropology News has published an entire issue on memorials and memorialization about not only how and why we are remembering September 11 and the destruction of The Towers and the 3067 lives lost but also how people in other parts of the world memorialize tragic events in their nations' history. It's a human thing to remember how death visits our lives.

The bombing of The Towers gave us a host of psychic demons to wrestle, and as I look back now, I see that just when I, an American, began to come to terms in 2004 with what I felt and experienced on September 11, 2001--a world-changing event that preceded a personal life-changing event, my divorce, which nearly killed me--my life was shaken again less than one year later with the flooding of New Orleans, my hometown. I have family members who lost their homes, left the city, and still have not returned. I live in a house that carries the quirks of reconstruction--missing light switches, different color schemes, the absence of heirlooms and old black and white photos, and sometimes sounds that make the head turn with expectations of seeing a loved one who is no longer here.

A writer, who is not from New Orleans and not African-American but wonders whether the nation and media have gone overboard with the 10th Anniversary of 9/11, sent me an email a few days ago with a provocative question:

Do you share my slightly sick feeling that we are being manipulated into this orgy of national mourning for an event that yes, was horrible, but the body count--a no less horrible phrase--was nearly identical to that of Katrina, and that's not counting the diaspora that followed and / or those who died of stress-related maladies, including suicide, thereafter?

I will not put her on the spot by mentioning her by name, but she asks a valid question. She is further troubled by the near-absence of black faces in the media flashbacks, the expert interviews, and various documentaries. I confess that I have made similar observations watching the memorial programs, not the official program from today with the family members at Ground Zero, but the retrospectives and documentaries that were run before today's official ceremony aired; however, I don't want to analyze such matters of absence at the moment.

Observations about the media coverage notwithstanding, I will be sending an email to my fellow writer later in which I will say:

"I do not consider the two events, 9/11 or the flooding of New Orleans, comparable historic events in any way that should cause us to examine how much attention one event gets over another in terms of equity. Both memories throttle my soul because I am an American as well as a daughter of New Orleans. But I do think that 9/11 was a bigger event psychically for the nation as a whole. Our fear of terrorism following that attack sucked us into two wars that touched families coast to coast."

And then there is that word "attack." Hurricane Katrina was not an entity endowed with consciousness and so was not capable of intending to attack anyone or anything. Even if we address the manmade failure of the levee system, we cannot impart to that failure a human desire to destroy someone. I think being the victim of intentional violence, knowing that someone hates you enough to kill you and your family, carries with it a different set of emotions.

The bombing of The Towers and the Pentagon on September 11 as well as learning through the crash of United 93 in Pennsylvania that a greater destruction was intended revealed to us Americans our vulnerability in this shrinking world. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, however, showed us our vulnerability inside this relatively young nation boasting of equality for all: the clash of race and class in creeping degrees of hostility and ugliness.

And yet, both incidents also showed us the breadth and depth of our compassion and generosity toward each other as Americans, as humans.

None of these thoughts, however, explains why we feel compelled to mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11 or why each year down here in Louisiana we continue to mark the day Katrina nearly destroyed New Orleans and its surrounding parishes. But an idea of why we do what we do comes to me now perhaps more clearly than it did when I wrote "Emotional Land Mines."

Perhaps the reason for our compulsion to mark dates of great tragedy and recall them with the laying of wreaths, the unveiling of memorials, with art and payers is the need to remember how we as a people almost died, how we collectively faced near physical and emotional destruction. When we single out these dates, we reflect, we pause and recall not only loss and death but also that we are still here, that we are survivors, and with that recognition comes a sense of empowerment: We can survive tragedy. Knowing that we survived, we are better able to walk through dark tunnels into the unknown and face that light in the distance that could be a brilliant future or the damning headlights of a speeding train. Either way, we go on.

In addition to locating my old essay, while going through my files, I discovered a poem that I also wrote in 2004 with which I end this post, satisfied that I have given the 10th Anniversary of 9/11 the attention it deserves.

And We Go On
by Nordette Adams

Monday, September 13, 2004

Whittle an "S" on our chest:
Supernation!
… Charging all lights a brigade,
eclipsing amber waves
of obfuscation.
Boots and cape, red,
white, and blue,
zealous to leap 110 stories
of visceral weeping
for glory and honor
of our due
justice.

Liberty, lift up your skirt!
Rinse blood from its hem into the Hudson.
O! What is the cleanser that brings closure
to our pain?


© Copyright September 2004 Nordette Adams

Norway's Alleged Bomber and Shooter Reminds Me of Blue Eyes in Newark and Neil Simon's Line

The bombing and shootings in Norway made me remember an experience I had in 2003 when I worked at an airport kiosk and encountered a Norwegian man taking pictures of workers loading a passenger plane. I wrote about the incident at my old blog, Confessions of a Jersey Goddess, in 2007.

Here's my recollection as written then:

... I worked for a while at Newark International Airport and noticed a tall, well-dressed, blond-haired, blue-eyed man shooting video of baggage handlers putting bags on planes. I stood at my kiosk and observed him for a while and the thought crossed my mind, They keep telling us to report suspicious behavior. I bet nobody's questioning what he's doing because he doesn't look like he's of Arab descent. He's a white guy. So, I went up to him smiling and asked, "What are you doing?"

He told me he was shooting video for a television station in his country. I listened to his accent and said, "Cool. Your accent? Icelandic?" He said he was from Norway and started to look uncomfortable. I said, "Oh, don't worry about me. I work over there. I'm not with security. I'm in sales." We talked a few minutes more and then I left. I went back to my kiosk and started scanning the corridor for security.

When I told two police officers about the man they said, "It's not illegal to shoot video." I said I know but shooting video of how the baggage handlers put luggage on the plane seems like something someone should check out. Then one of the officers said, "I wonder if anyone's checked his press credentials. Show us." I turned around and looked toward my kiosk then spotted the man with his camera quickly hauling his butt down the corridor. The officers took off after him.

I don't know what happened and it was probably nothing. He could have been running for his flight. Nevertheless, a few days later Newark Airport was shut down for a while. Agents busted people involved in a weapons deal. The arrested were not of Arab descent. They were Europeans.

The old post at my old blog was about media revealing the shooter's race in the Virginia Tech massacre. I was discussing the pitfalls of racial profiling when deciding who or who may not be a terrorist or mass murderer. That discussion seems appropriate again given what's happened in Norway and especially if the New York Daily News and other sources have their facts straight and the picture the Daily News lifted from Facebook of shooting and bombing suspect Anders Behring Breivik is indeed his picture and not some professional model's face.

Breivik's face (if that's really him) reminds me of a line from Neil Simon's play God's Favorite spoken by the character Lipton:

Would you like to know what the devil looks like? Robert Redford. I swear on my mother's grave. Gorgeous. The man is gorgeous. Blond hair, a little bend in the nose ...

Breivik is being called Norway's version of Timothy McVeigh and the domestic terrorists behind America's Oklahoma City bombings:

The 32-year-old suspected of massacring at least 80 young people at a summer camp and setting off a bomb in downtown Oslo that killed at least seven is a mystery to investigators: a right-winger with anti-Muslim views but no known links to hardcore extremists.

"He just came out of nowhere," a police official told The Associated Press.

Angry people come in all shapes, colors, sizes, political shades, social class, and states of attractiveness because evil grows first in the soul.

Photos of Osama bin Laden's Body: So, You Really Want to See those? Why? When Do We Get Enough?

Updated Wednesday: President Obama says White House will not release Osama bin Laden death photos: "We don't trot out this stuff as trophies"


The White House should not make the photos of bin Laden's body available for broadcast. For Americans who want to see the body photos, the government should put the pics in a case at the Pentagon. The morbidly curious can contact the military if they want to see the photos and then drive/fly/walk to D.C. for a peek. For the rest of the world, send hard copies of the photos to their leaders who request them and anyone in those countries who wants to see the pictures should contact them.

That's my opinion as posted to my Facebook page. The U.S.A. finally killed Osama bin Laden and the only people who don't believe it are conspiracy theorists, President Obama haters, and bin Laden followers. Why rush to accommodate any of these groups?

U.S. Gets Osama Bin Laden: Obama's Still Cool

I did not think this day would come, but about two hours ago, my son rushed into the living room and said, "Mom, Osama bin Laden is dead!"

"What? Was it natural causes?"

"No," he said. "He was killed." (Later sources reported that bin Laden was shot in the head, shot through the left eye.)

I stopped watching Treme on HBO and turned to CNN where I saw that about 30 or 40 people had already gathered in front of the White House. As I write this post, it looks like that crowd has grown to more than 500 now. And people are celebrating at Ground Zero in New York City as well.

Here's video of President Barack Obama's speech in which he makes clear he had his hand on the operation to get bin Laden who was killed in Pakistan.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Read full remarks at WhiteHouse.gov.

Unfortunately the video above does not capture Obama's walk to the podium before his speech. My daughter, 30, commented, "Look at his walk," and people are tweeting about his swagger and saying Obama got Osama. Interesting the things people notice on momentous occasions.

Even one Republican congressman, Peter King I think, put it this way, and I paraphrase: If the mission had failed, we would have blamed the president. So he gets credit for this success. He and someone else said the president showed guts. It was his call to take the shot and he took it. Others are praising the Obama administration for being able to keep the operation quiet, the way it kept the lid on security and avoided leaks.

And still, Obama is cool. Consider that he knew about this when they were releasing the long form of the birth certificate and as he did his comedy routine last night at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. (See clip of Obama smiling at Seth Meyer's Osama joke at WHCD on Saturday night before Osama was dead. To look at him, you'd think nothing like the Osama operation was brewing that night.) I'm reminded that Colin Powell said he endorsed him in part because of he's level-headed.

The strike was a highly organized intelligence operation carried out by Navy Seals with cooperation from Pakinstan's civil government, reports CNN. The Seals engaged in a firefight, killed bin Laden and a few other people, including a woman who one of Osama bin Laden's people used as a human shield, and then our soldiers took possession of bin Laden's body.

Former president's George W. Bush and Bill Clinton have also issued statements. Obama called Bush before he made the news public.

My family and I lived in New Jersey not far from New York City when the planes hit the World Trade Center nearly 10 years ago on September 11. I think bin Laden's death will give a lot of families some sense of closure.

President Obama stressed that this is not the end of terrorism. I'm going to guess our military is on high alert for possible retaliation. My prayers are with them and with us over here, too, because some Osama-wannabe is no doubt out there now trying to make a name for himself by shedding more blood and there's already talk in the media of sleeper cells being activated. But today, as the president said, justice was served.

The screen shot is a screenshot of the Huffington Post's main page reporting that Osama bin Laden is dead. BlogHer.com has an open thread that's already getting lots of comments.

Hooray for Kung Fu Bear: I Needed This

After obsessing about the oil spill in the Gulf that will give us ugliness through August and beyond; writing about North and South Korea talking war; waking up to this morning's news that Israel had attacked a Gaza aid flotilla and 10 people died; contemplating Memorial Day and the number of dead in Afghanistan so far; hearing this evening of the tropical storms in in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador killing 115 people and leaving this gigantic sink hole that swallowed a house and a three-story building, I needed something light like this video of a bear in Japan at a zoo in Hiroshima folks are calling Kung Fu Bear because he can twirl a stick like a baton.

Israel Flotilla Attack Leaves 10 Dead (Video). Nations Call for Investigation

Happy Memorial Day. On this day when we remember the cost of war, fallen soldiers, I am saddened to relay this news that's all over the media this morning, "Israeli soldiers stormed a flotilla of ships carrying aid intended for Palestinians in Gaza, leaving at least 10 people dead in the resulting violence," per CNN and other sources, such as the Wall Street Journal.

Israeli commandos boarded a flotilla carrying aid and activists to the blockaded Gaza Strip early Monday, with the Israeli military saying that more than 10 activists were killed in a skirmish aboard one vessel during the operation. ...The incident triggered strong condemnation from Israel's friends and foes alike, and plunged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into his worst diplomatic crisis since taking power early last year.

From Reuters:


Having recently written for BlogHer.com about North Korea threatening war on South Korea and the history of that tension, I'm not inclined to go into any detail about the Middle East conflict. Most adult Americans who watch news regularly probably know the background of the animosity between Arab nations and Israel, Palestinian woes, the hopes for peace, and the Gaza blockade.

As is often the case in politics, what you believe to be facts is influenced by who writes the history you read. If you want to see how talking about Israel without enough information can result in outrage, read this old post by a less-informed blogger posted in 2008 and the 139 mostly angry comments that follow.

On today's news, CNN reports that Israel says Israel Defense Forces "soldiers' lives were in danger after they were attacked with "severe physical violence, including live fire, weapons, knives and clubs." As you can see in the video below, Israel is saying the ship was commanded by terrorists. Other countries are calling for an investigation into what some are calling "a massacre."



Netanyahu, according to the WSJ, was scheduled to meet with President Barack Obama in Washington Tuesday. The visit was on the presidents calendar before today's violence, and the U.S. and Israel, old allies, hoped to repair its relationship. The visit has been cancelled. Reuters provides a factbox here on Israel's diplomatic troubles.

Obama had also invited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with whom he planned to meet separately. Reuters reported before today's attack that the "meetings with Obama will be the first for the Middle Eastern leaders since the start of indirect peace talks which began last month, with Obama's special envoy George Mitchell mediating between the parties."

The White House did not give a date for Obama's meeting with Abbas and cited scheduling logistics as the reason.

Via the AP, here's video of the protests that followed the attack on the flotilla and reported deaths.



And on YouTube, this video's been posted and is also reportedly from the incident. The report begins in Arabic, but then a speaker comes on in English.

Aliou Niasse, the Muslim Immigrant Times Square Hero

You could watch the major networks reporting on the Times Square failed car bomb for hours and possibly not catch this politically pertinent piece of information: The first person to alert the police about the smoking car was a Muslim immigrant from Senegal, Aliou Niasse. ... Please read more at at Blogher.com

Story of Times Square Failed Bomb Plot Unfolds

The New York Times and other sources report that the investigation of the Times Square failed car bombing has spread beyond the U.S. Not only has Faisal Shahzad, a 30-year-old U.S. citizen from Pakistan been arrested and charged, but the Pakistani government has captured additional suspects. However, U.S. officials have not confirmed the arrests reported by Pakistani intelligence.

On Monday night, authorities took Shahzad into custody as he tried to flee America on a plane headed to Dubai. According to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Shahzad has admitted he was involved in planting an incidiary device in the Nissan Pathfinder parked in New York's Times Square May 1 .... Read more at BlogHer.com.

Summer Terrorists Attacks?

I'm not really going to write an opinion on Director of National Intelligence Agency Dennis Blair's statement that he's certain the U.S.A. will be attacked by terrorist this summer because I only recently saw my first story on the topic. However, I feel that I've heard whispers of threats in the media before his announcement.

In addition, I have some reservations about reporting such news stories. Could it be by entertaining such talk too much, which is very negative, that we draw these events to us? However, all the positive thinking in the world would not mean we don't prepare because should we be attacked and it comes out later that intelligence personnel had warnings but did nothing ... well, we remember what was said about the 911 attacks.

Anyway, the New York Times reports:

WASHINGTON — America’s top intelligence official told lawmakers on Tuesday that he was “highly certain” that Al Qaeda or one of its affiliates would attempt a large-scale attack on American soil within the next six months. (NYT)

The Wall Street Journal says:

WASHINGTON—The U.S.'s top intelligence officials said Tuesday that an attempted al Qaeda attack on the U.S. in the next three to six months was "certain."

An official also said the Nigerian who allegedly attempted to blow up an airliner on Christmas Day was again cooperating with federal investigators. Republicans have accused the administration of squandering a chance to gain valuable intelligence from the suspect by using the civilian court system to charge him, instead of declaring him an enemy combatant and subjecting him to more interrogation. (WSJ)

The Washington Post and other news sources also report the news. Reading comments on the story like those at CNN gives insight into at least what some ordinary people may think.

NY Terror Plot or is it The Long Kiss Goodnight again?

If you've seen the movie The Long Kiss Goodnight with Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson, please raise your hand. It's partly about a government agency planning to blow up Niagara Falls, NY, and blame it on a Muslim so it can get more funding from the U.S. government. A couple of other movies also have the blame-a-Muslim plot, I think. And this season's 24 on Fox used that plot device as well.

Some people thought our 911 tragedy was one such deception; I am not one of those conspiracy theorists. I believe we really were bombed by Osama bin Laden Nevertheless, I'm reading carefully the timeline for thwarted terrorist plot incident that went down in New York yesterday, especially since the alleged terrorists appear to be black.


Reuters, CNN, WABC NY, BBC and other news sources are reporting that yesterday four men were arrested for plans to bomb two Jewish synagogues in NYC and possibly go on a shooting spree at U.S. military bases. WABC and Reuters say the men, three U.S. citizens and one Haitian, may be "radicalized recent converts to Islam." The one-year plot has been labeled "home grown," reminding us that the intelligence community believes America's new danger may be so-called "sleeper" Islamic terrorist cells on U.S. soil.

The police told Reuters that the men wanted a jihad, a holy war. CNN's story does not have this element of drama, and its critics are all very willing to point that out, implying it's the legacy of political correctness.

In November the informer and James Cromitie discussed possible targets in New York as they travelled to a meeting of a Muslim group in Philadelphia, the affidavit says. The suspect said that "the best target [the World Trade Centre] was hit already". (BBC and man in picture is Cromitie)

Per news stories via the FBI, Cromitie told the informant that "his parents were of Afghan origin and he was upset about the war there, according to the affidavit."

My issue is that I've read five stories on this thwarted plot that involved an FBI informant supplying the men with "inert" bombs or fake weapons, and I'm missing a piece. What came first, the chicken or the egg--were these guys angry but minding their own business when they were approached by an FBI informant to coax out rage and violent tendencies? Or did the FBI get wind of a plot and insert an informant into the mix.

It makes a difference. Scenario one is entrapment. Scenario two is good law enforcement. But sounds like some coaxing was involved.

And I can't help but wonder, especially since I keep hearing praise for Homeland Security in this story, is Homeland Security in jeopardy of losing funding post-Bush? Is it important that its administrators remind the public of its value, which inevitably means worthiness of tax dollars?

Oh, don't get your knickers in a bunch! I believe we do need to be on the look out for terrorists, but I'm also sharing an observation that isn't that far-fetched given that we're still in a war that was pushed with propaganda. In addition, the Rumsfield top secret reports that may have been given to George Bush recently came out. It's been suggested that Bible quotes and religious zeal were used to manipulate Bush and nudge him toward war while we citizens ruminated on "the axis of evil" metaphor.

Also, about the black thing, how much will the "home grown" terrorists' skin color play into the paranoia of white pro-war conservatives who were so easily convinced during the election that Obama, the first African-American president, is Muslim? To which we must say for the 11 millionth time, Obama is not Muslim, and neither was his father a practicing Muslim.

The suspects names are James Cromitie aka Abdul Rahman; David Williams aka Daoud or DL; Onta Williams aka Hamza; and Laguerre Payen aka Amin and Almondo.

These guys they've arrested don't seem like the sharpest tools in the shed, and so, again, I think of movies like The Long Kiss Goodnight, and feel a tad skeptical. It's not like we haven't been duped before. I'm just saying.

Chicago youth violence memorial, CNN story

Please watch the CNN video below about youth dying in Chicago, and see the stone memorial Diane Latiker started in a vacant lot using 30 stones that's now up to 153 stones, one for each child. Anchor David Mattingly says Latiker's surprised by the growing number and they discuss that the city is failing its children.

More youth have died by violence in Chicago this year than the year before. The video shows one little boy who was partially paralyzed after a bullet hit him while he lay sleeping in his mother's car.

Mattingly says the faces of the dead are also posted in the Chicago Tribune. I think the paper should be commended for that. It's a call to action instead of always throwing up the perpetrators photos or a whole sheet of wanted people while victims are forgotten.


New Orleans may need a memorial of stones. I remember a few months ago going the cemetery with my father and walking into the mausoleum to look at see how the plaque turned out on my mother's crypt. Some of the crypts have photos of the dead. I was drawn to one, the picture of a young man, because his baby face. Reading his birth to death dates, I felt a chill go through me. He was only 20, and mourners had stuck notes in the cracks, messages to him such as "Uncle Bobby misses you."

The level of stress on people here as we watch our own city, New Orleans, buckle under violence that often involves people under 25 is sometimes unbearable, which is why I address it in poetry and poem-prayers. Some days the bad news is so overwhelming I feel like we're drowning in blood, and I wonder how do they get their hands on so many guns. Why is it so many young people seem consumed with the need for revenge? And I wonder about the mothers. So, the poetry is not about writing the perfect poem, but expressing sorrow and rage.

Michael Pfleger, the Catholic activist priest who you may recall being in the news during last year's election, speaks in the video. After being shaken by the death of a teen who was beaten, shot in the head and burned, the priest is flying the American flag upside down to signal the city is in trouble, an S.O.S. According to the Tribune, the teen's death is being blamed on gang violence.

Mattingly and Pfleger make the point that if Chicago had had that many young people dead from Swine Flu, tons of money would have been dumped on the city for research, but not so for violent deaths. So far this year 30 school-age children have been killed in Chicago. Like the people of New Orleans, no one in Chicago seems to have a solution.

Video is also at this link. Also read Anderson Cooper's 360 Blog on this topic. CNN now has a full story posted at this link.

Related topics at The Urban Mother's Book of Prayers.

Confidential MP3 Player: Been There, Done That, Did Not Burn After Reading

Due to a personal experience involving the terror of missing classified data, I had to look at this CNN video about a New Zealand man purchasing a second-hand MP3 player and discovering it had confidential U.S. military files on it. Unlike the comic situation with what looks like secret files in the movie Burn After Reading, trailer above, the files the New Zealander found on his MP3 were real, having the social security numbers of U.S. soldiers and deployment information:

Chris Ogle of New Zealand was in Oklahoma about a year ago when he bought a used MP3 player from a thrift store for $9. A few weeks ago, he plugged it into his computer to download a song, and he instead discovered confidential U.S. military files.

"The more I look at it, the more I see, and the less I think I should be," Ogle said with a nervous laugh in an interview with TVNZ.

The files included the home addresses, Social Security numbers and cell phone numbers of U.S. soldiers. The player also included what appeared to be mission briefings and lists of equipment deployed to hot spots in Afghanistan and Iraq. Most of the information appears to date to 2005. (CNN)

Here's the video about how the man found the confidential information on his MP3 player.

PC World says this is not the first time something like this happened.

A similar situation was uncovered in Afghanistan in 2006 when U.S. investigators bought stolen flash drives with military information outside Bagram base--a major U.S. military outpost in Afghanistan.

In November 2008, the U.S. Department of Defense banned the use of USB storage devices to prevent leaks like this from happening again. This was shortly after DoD computers were infected with a worm capable of downloading malware onto the Department's computers. The McCain 2008 campaign also experienced a similar issue when a reporter purchased a Blackberry at the campaign's fire sale that contained secure information. (PC World)

Both the PC World story and the reporter in CNN video says that these kinds of security leaks are increasing in the digital age. That may be true, but when I was married, the world was far less digital and my husband at the time, who worked for a defense contractor on the east coast, moved a box of classified papers out of the car to make room for something else. I don't remember what. Absent-minded as he was sometimes, once he had rearranged the car he hopped in and drove off.

When he arrived home ready to work, he realized what he'd done. Panic city because he was sure he'd lose his job. We drove back to the parking lot, praying all the way. Got there, no box.

This is where the story gets weird and I know some people won't believe it or will chalk it up to coincidence and ordinary good fortune. We went home and had a serious prayer fest (Sadly, I don't pray as much as I once did. Must improve.) Recalling the scripture that we should go boldly before the throne of grace, I said, "God, I want that box on our doorstep by tomorrow morning." And I fully expected to see it. It's easier to have that kind of faith when you're young.

About an hour later, the phone rang. A man asked for my husband. He and his wife had found the box, and the home phone number had been on a note in the box. That was odd since it was not a personal box. The man and his wife delivered the package shortly after that.

No need to worry that my absent-minded ex is out there still working with sensitive military information. He works in a different industry today.

A similar situation happened to one of his co-workers, however, a year later. The man went on a business trip. Got lost, and got out of the car, a rental, to make a phone call. His briefcase was unlocked and in the car, to which he'd left the door ajar. Yes, his briefcase contained confidential government information, mostly fiscal, as confidential as it can be between the government and a major defense contractor.

While he was on the phone, a thief slipped into the rental car door and sped away in the car with the papers, which were never retrieved. I can't remember if the guy was fired or not. Fortunately, an ordinary thief probably didn't know what to do with the data. He only wanted the car.

When I worked at a government nuclear facility years ago, I didn't want a high level clearance. Probably couldn't have gotten it anyway. But didn't want the pressure of knowing what we were really up to in the labs. I love plausible deniability.

This MP3 thing is not funny. What if the man who bought the MP3 player was hostile to the United States. Whew!

The Poets Speaking Beauty (a poem)

I constantly debate whether I should add some of my old work to the Net after having deleted so much of it more than a year ago. The quandary relates to my wrestling with myself about what this blog, WSATA, should be, and I suppose by extension I am still wrestling with who I am post-divorce and since my return to Louisiana.

Lately, an old poem that I removed from the web has been on my mind. After the recent terrorism in Mumbai, the trampling death of that temporary Walmart worker on Black Friday, hearing of a recent racist newsletter by students who should know better at Princeton, my disgust at how people watched Abraham Biggs kill himself, and the recent reminder of the Megan Meier tragedy, I've decided to put up again "The Poets Speaking Beauty."

Yes, we have hope. Barack Obama won the presidency, but we still have much work to do on matters such as poverty, the economy, the environment, violence, war, and tolerance. For instance, we're not as post-racial in America yet as some would like to believe as the Princeton Theological Seminary incident shows, Rush Limbaugh's ability to keep a following indicates, and the recent KKK murder of one of its own recruits tells us. Also, you may have heard that a case challenging Obama's presidency is on its way to the Supreme Court. Two people say he's not really a natural-born citizen because his father was Kenyan, and therefore, they believe his election violates the U.S. Constitution. I suspect the two would say they aren't challenging his presidency for racist reasons, but I think otherwise.

Despite stupid people, I look for silver linings whenever I can such as the Princeton Theological Seminary response to its misguided students, the resilience of the human spirit after a terrorist incident, and how many of us work with all our hearts to do the right thing. I wrote this poem in 2006 as the world watched Darfur and Americans heard news that a woman had cut a baby from another woman's womb and drowned her other children. This summer the woman was sentenced to life in prison without parole, but we still don't know why she murdered her lifelong friend and killed the children. I doubt there's a human cure for cruelty, despair, and confusion, but we must always try to overcome our evils and never underestimate the power of our thoughts and words because first we think or speak, then we do.

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true , whatever is worthy of respect, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if something is excellent or praiseworthy, think about these things. (Phillipians 4:8)

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love its use will eat its fruit. (Proverbs 18:21)

The Poets Speaking Beauty
(listen to spoken word file and read old reviews)
by Nordette Adams.
Sunday, September 24, 2006

The poets must dream beauty.

Ugly,
the truth of man,
crawls a nightmare in the day,
laden with hideous creatures, bold and truculent,
breathing Earth's undoing--
the streams polluted, rain forests raped,
godless prayers and chanting hate,
children's corpses left unburied, strewn at the cities' gates,
the zombie throng, the witless masses,
and kings swaying to the clatter of bones--
Wisdom deprivation.
The poets must dream beauty against
annihilation.

The poets must eat beauty.
Wherever finding the plump golden fruit
seize and gobble, chew and churn,
cogitate, regurgitate beauty.

The ugly swells churlish yet giddy with glee,
overshadowing charity with greed,
obese with the hearts of skinny dreamers slain.
It rolls through the woods and over
the plains of man's festering wounds,
the flies and worms its dessert.
So the poets must eat beauty,
chew, cogitate, regurgitate beauty
over blighted plains and into
the darkened wood,
into Earth's streams and her prayers and her open sores,
into the ripped seams of humanity.

The poets ...
The poets.
The poets must ink beauty
into the skins of souls,
from crown to toe tattoo Divine,
purple curlicues of beauty.

Everyday with relentless piercings,
the ugly's inked a heinous scarlet,
the blood of junkies young and younger stabbing needles into veins,
dealers dealing guns, crack cocaine,
drive-by shootings where toddlers play,
Baghdad bombings, London blasts, Ground Zero-shrouded memories
seething prophecies of a mushroom cloud from oil,
and global warming because we're spoiled with convenience,
in love with SUVs,
yet relinquish freedom to bubble wrap of fear-factoring authorities.
We waltz to the white noise of terrorist shit and domestic abominations,
signs of not the times but our madness,

like that woman who murdered that mother and carved that baby
from the womb like a Sierra Leone butcher or a Darfur slayer.
She grew horns and hooves and drowned her sister's children.

The ugly's inked graffiti onto man's tomb,
making proper the grave.

The poets must speak beauty.

Ugly rots man's mouth.
Who must speak its stench?
And only the blind fail to see
the truth of man's depravity.
So, the poets must dream, eat, and ink beauty.
Poets must speak beauty until Beauty comes to feast.

Copyright © 2006 Nordette Adams

Scary Moment for CNN's Sidner in Mumbai

I watched CNN off and on Wednesday following the Mumbai crisis, but hardly at all on Thanksgiving Day and it seems that's when the following incident happened. Some Mumbai residents, frustrated and possibly inebriated, rushed CNN anchor Sara Sidner, kept screaming at her, and knocked over the camera man. The video, which I learned of through HP, is unsettling, showing how dangerous it can be for journalist to cover stories about violence, terrorism and war in particular.



Today much of the news about Mumbai seems to tell of the American victims of the violence, such as Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, of Brooklyn, NY, and father and daughter Alan Scherr and 13-year-old Naomi Scherr, members of a Virginia meditation group.





NYT reports that the fighting in Mumbai is down to one hotel, but five were killed at the Jewish Center seized by terrorists. The Journalism site in Great Britain has interviews and video from Mumbai bloggers.

Mumbai Terror Attacks: What is Deccan Mujahideen?

CNN with every other news outlet in the nation is covering the the Mumbai terror attacks as the Taj Mahal Palace and Towers smolders. As I wrote on Snigdha's post at Blogher about the attacks, I've been watching the nightmare unfold off and since I got home today.


A few minutes ago I saw this outstanding AP picture leading to CNN's India terror index page of birds flying through smoke outside the Taj Mahal Palace and Towers. Built in 1903, the historic hotel is not the renowned mausoleum completed in 1653.

Per Snigda, "A set of eight or nine coordinated attacks on the city's landmarks -- including the Taj and Trident (formerly Oberoi) hotels, a train station and a hospital -- has claimed 80 lives and injured over 200."

When I first heard reports of the attacks shortly after noon today, I thought reporters spoke of the great Taj Mahal that is sometimes classified as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. I didn't register that they were saying Mumbai and not Agra where the famous wonder is located.

I was slightly relieved for a moment that the Taj Mahal Palace and Hotel burning in Mumbai is not that wonder, but it is a beautiful building as well, according to visitors. However, the loss of lives outweighs any building's beauty.

In the following video, CNN-IBN's Prachi Jatania reports what she saw:



As we hear of these reports with hostages taken and the innocent killed by "teams of gunmen" seizing Mumbai in a "coordinated attack," we wonder what is Deccan Mujahideen, the obscure terrorist organization that claims responsibility for today's horror. As Snigdhasen indicates in her post, we don't know much and the name means little. She links her readers to NDTV.com's brief on the group:

Dressed in a black half T-shirt and jeans with a blue rucksack hung over his left shoulder and red sacred thread tied on his right wrist, one might just mistake him to be just another regular college going student.

What baffles the security agencies is the sacred thread tied on his wrist which many say could be a plot to show that the attack was undertaken by probably an extreme Hindu group.

But, the claim by a terror organisation with a Muslim name has left the above theory in question, say experts. (NDTV)

You can watch the news live from India at the NDTV site.

A CNN reporter was cautioned that we should be careful with the name Deccan Mujahideen becase Deccan is a region of India and so saying Deccan Mujahideen is like saying "the Kansas Mujahideen."

Pundits, terrorist analysts, and journalists speculate an Al-Qaida connection, but nothing's been proven.

Snigdha will be updating her post, but I left the following thought earlier, recalling that she's been warning us of the growing terrorism problem in India for a while now at BlogHer.

I recall your first post on India's terror problem and your second from India. I thought they were both informative and eye-opening. Thank you for teaching and giving us a more intimate view.

I have been looking aghast at the TV off and on since the terror began today, and just saw Deepak Chopra on Larry King Live saying we should stop calling our strategy to stop terror "the war on terror." He said it's like saying we have a terror on terror and who the terrorist is depends on your point of view. I paraphrased.

"Teams of gunmen" and phrases like "coordinated attacks" seems to fly in the face of the chaos associated with terrorism. When I hear those phrases on the news this evening, I close my eyes to contemplate the impact. The people we call terrorists consider themselves strategists as well and undoubtedly believe that they are freedom fighters and heroes. How do we cross this chasm?

Chopra also said it's time to start questioning how these terrorists groups are funded. In particular he said we should look more closely at where Saudi oil money goes.

Some Americans have been holding their breath, expecting that Vice President-elect Joe Biden's warning that President-elect Barack Obama will be tested during his first days in office, and possibly became more concerned as we heard today that security was tightened on New York subways, anticipating potential threats. With the Mumbai attacks, we know Obama's been thrown deeper into the fire and this crisis will divert some of his attention from our domestic troubles, such as the economy.

Both the President-elect Obama and President George W. Bush have issued statements condemning the attacks. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said, according to CNN, that she will keep Obama "in the loop" on this crisis, but CNN's David Gergen reminded viewers that the current administration is the responsible for addressing the Mumbai attacks, not Obama.

Updated at 2:06 a.m. Thanksgiving Day: I found the transcript of Chopra's talk with Larry King, and here is what he said that I loosely paraphrased earlier.

King: Are you pessimistic?

Chopra: I think Mr. Obama has a real opportunity here, but a challenging opportunity, a creative opportunity.

Get rid of the phrase "war on terrorism." Ask for a creative solution in which we all participate.

King: Is it because the war on terrorism really can never be won because the terrorists (inaudible)?

Chopra: Because it's an oxymoron. It's an oxymoron, Larry, a war on war, a war on terrorism.

You know, terrorists call mechanized death from 35,000 feet above sea level with a press of a button also terror. We don't call it that, because our soldiers are wearing uniforms. They don't see what is happening, and innocent people are being killed. So, you know, terror is a term that you apply to the other. (Chopra talking to Larry King.)

You can read the full interview at this link.

Also, The Huffington Post has a lot of coverage, which is where I found the link to this Mumbai terror slide show at Flickr. And ABC News reports, as have all other news sources I've viewed today, that the terrorists expressed interest only in hostages and targets with British or American passports. Brief video.

CBS has India fast facts and the following video.


Watch CBS Videos Online

Its still shot shows the picture of an unknown young man that some journalist have described as the "young man with the maniacal look in his eye." I expect we'll see his picture often in the coming weeks.

Al-Qaida: Obama a 'House Negro'

Per several news sources, Al-Qaida's second-in-command called President-elect Barack Obama, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Secretary of State Colin Powell "house Negroes," comparing them unfavorably to Malcom X (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz), an African-American leader and Muslim who was assassinated in 1965. In 1964, Malcolm X converted from the splintered form of Islam practiced by the Nation of Islam (Black American Muslims) and converted to traditional Islam, taking the name El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.

At that time he adopted a less combative attitude toward Caucasians, but possibly was not as conciliatory as some sources report because some people believe he may have only embraced brotherhood with whites who were Muslim, not all whites. However, as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, he shook off some of the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam of racial separation and that all whites were devils.

In his own words:

Each hour here in the Holy Land enables me to have greater spiritual insights into what is happening in America between black and white. The American Negro never can be blamed for his racial animosities -- he is only reacting to four hundred years of the conscious racism of the American whites. But as racism leads America up the suicide path I do believe, from the experiences that I have had with them, that the whites of the younger generation, in the colleges and universities, will see the handwriting on the wall and many of them will turn to the spiritual path of truth -- the only way left to America to ward off the disaster that racism inevitably must lead to. . . .

I believe that God now is giving the world's so-called 'Christian' white society its last opportunity to repent and atone for the crimes of exploiting and enslaving the world's non-white peoples. It is exactly as when God gave Pharaoh a chance to repent. But Pharaoh persisted in his refusal to give justice to those who he oppressed. And, we know, God finally destroyed Pharaoh. (Malcolm X as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, source)

It's speculated Malcolm X's change of heart and move toward a "universalistic" message led in part to his assassination. Others believe his assassination resulted from a power struggle.

According to the HuffPo story, Al-Quaida's Ayman al-Zawahri condemned Obama via an 11-minute 23-second video which also included clips of old Malcolm X speeches discussing the term House Negro.

Speaking in Arabic, al-Zawahri uses the term "abeed al-beit," which literally translates as "house slaves." But al-Qaida supplied English subtitles of his speech that included the translation as "house Negroes."

The message also includes old footage of speeches by Malcolm X in which he explains the term, saying black slaves who worked in their white masters' house were more servile than those who worked in the fields. Malcolm X used the term to criticize black leaders he accused of not standing up to whites.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the latest message was just "more despicable comments from a terrorist."

The Al-Qaida message further berated Obama for dishonoring his father's blood. In a Bloomberg News story, al-Zawahri is quoted saying Obama turned his back on his father's faith to "pray the prayer of the Jews" and to claim the Christian faith for political gain.

Reading the bit about Obama's father, I thought but Barack Obama also gets his name from his father, Barack meaning "blessed," so may God's blessing be a shield against this nonsense. Obama's father, btw, while born into a Muslim family, may not have been Muslim.

"Things are dwelt on that in our family are non-issues," said Auma. "His [Barack's] father was never a Muslim although he was born into a Muslim family with a Muslim name. He [Barack] himself was never a Muslim." (The Guardian)

As unforgiving as words in the Al-Qaida video seem, the speech stopped short of specific threats to America. More from HuffPo:

He said Obama's plan to shift troops to Afghanistan is doomed to failure, because Afghans will resist.

"Be aware that the dogs of Afghanistan have found the flesh of your soldiers to be delicious, so send thousands after thousands to them," he said.

Al-Zawahri did not threaten specific attacks, but warned Obama that he was "facing a Jihadi (holy war) awakening and renaissance which is shaking the pillars of the entire Islamic world; and this is the fact which you and your government and country refuse to recognize and pretend not to see."

He said Obama's victory showed Americans acknowledged that President George W. Bush's policies were a failure and that the result was an "admission of defeat in Iraq." (HuffPo)

I wonder how these insults play with people who bought Sarah Palin's accusations that Obama "pals around with terrorists." While her accusations were based on Obama's think association with a man accused of domestic terrorism, she pushed her supporters to equate Obama with foreign terrorists. Perhaps her ilk will assume Al-Qaida's only putting on a show for us.

Closing

Here is YouTube of Malcom X explaining the psychology of the house Negro. You can listen to a full speech on this subject that he gave in 1963, more than a year before his conversion to traditional Islam, at American Rhetoric.



It's a good thing the President-elect is known for being so even-tempered and cool-headed because he'll be attacked from all sides. We Americans should have the good sense to rally around him and pray for him daily, and that includes black people who might buy into the belief that Obama is a house Negro.

I do not think Obama is a house Negro, but Nov. 5 comments from Independent Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader suggest he may give Al=Qaida's grievance credence. After the election Nader suggested that Obama leans toward being an Uncle Tom. He queried "Will he be Uncle Sam or Uncle Tom?" (Uncle Tom is the quintessential house Negro.)

Nader attempted to explain himself on Fox News, no less, information I found via The Opinion Mill, where Steve Hart calls Fox News, Fox Noise.



I guess al-Zawahri, perhaps due to his isolation, and Nader, for other reasons, didn't get the memo that America's exploring a possible post-racial existence. Some people think this means a color-blind, racism-is-dead world. But before you swallow that view, please see Dr. Cornell West's definition of "post-racial" in this post. We may be progressing, but we're still human.

I think Rush Limbaugh also missed the memo that America wants to move onward and upward. In fact, Limbaugh and al-Zawhri seem to have a something in common; they both spout divisive propaganda and prefer to stir up confusion to further their own agendas.

Apparently the Al-Qaida message also warns:

The speaker reminded Americans that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden told them to leave Muslim lands.

Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri are believed to be living in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

"So choose for yourself whatever you like," the speaker warns. "And bear the consequences of your choice, and as you judge, you will be judged." (CNN)

How's that for ominous?

However we feel about the term "house Negro" and whether it applies to our President-elect, Al-Qaida's latest message should raise a different big question in our heads, one CNN correspondent Peter Bergen asks, "Where is Osama bin Laden?"