How will you commemorate 9/11?

Someone asked. Figured I'd answer.

Likely I'll get up out of the bed and jump in the shower... much like I do every day.

Probably I'll head into the kitchen and scavenge something to eat. There's a small slice of that apricot pecan poundcake left that would go good with four or five slices of thick-cut bacon and maybe a fried egg.

Normal practice would be to fire up the the laptop and cruise the news while polishing off breakfast and a few cups of that strong, black Columbian roast... about the same as yesterday and the day before.

I'll fix a lunch... probably since my friend Jeannine brought me over a nice, big ripe tomato I'll make a bacon, tomato and cheese on toasted wheatberry bread. I've always loved a home grown tomato.

When 5:45 rolls around I'll hop in the truck and head north to do another hitch at the daily grind. I'll take the county roads slowly toward the highway, because I know that as soon as I merge onto the 4-lane it'll be every man for his-own.self-bumper-cars. It's like that every day.

Being as I'm an early riser I'll have my choice of parking places and I'll pick that one just a little further away than those closest to the building door, but that has that nice, big shade tree that will keep the cab from being so hot when I come back out at 15:30. In Texas a good parking space is judged by the shade, not the distance. It's been that way as long as I can remember.

I'll juggle my coffee cup and my sack lunch as I fumble for the key to get in. I've always been there before the building is unlocked. Always.

Once inside I'll look longingly at the elevator, but I'll go on around and take the stairs instead. I'm getting fat so the climb will burn an extra calorie or two. Nothing new there except that I should'a never let myself get into this shape.

Another locked door and hopefully not too much spilled coffee before I'm in the hive. I'll flip on the lights and head to my cube. Yep. These days I'm a cubizen. Been one for too long already and I miss the field.

I'll put in my eight shuffling papers and answering the phone... drink more coffee, eat my sandwich when the time comes, smooze with my coworkers and snigger at David's pitifully painful groaners. David has always been the one to come up with the puns.

About 15:25 I'll start winding it down and securing anything that can't be left out for curious eyes. HIPAA can be the bane of my existence... when it isn't FEMA instead... but government has always been a pain in someone or another's derrière.

I'll head down to the parking lot, climb in the cab of a truck that has been sitting shaded by that big, old pecan tree all day long, and I'll get a small grin on my face looking around at the cars of all those drivers that just had to get the space closest to the door. My truck will be cool, and leaving as early as I do I'll miss most of the bumper cars on the highway as I cruise to the house. Takes about 30 or 35 minutes. Almost never fails.

There are chores needing done around Casa Phudpucker. I'll take care of some of them and blow the rest off for another day. Around dinnertime I'll forage through the pantry to see what looks good and fix a bite of supper. Pretty routine stuff.

Next I'll get on the laptop and joust with some bible thumper or some right wingnut about what is real in this world and important. The thumper will tell me I've got to fear god and the wingnut will tell me I've got to fear just about everything even slightly different than "us." I'm passionate about the rights of others, and from my perspective the best way to lose rights is to support some religion or some fear-mongering politician. I've always been like that... and so have they.

At some point today I'll find time to be sad that although humankind can use science to cure polio, to put a man on the moon and a robot on Mars with high definition cameras, yet there are still far too many who will turn to mysticism... which is what led those men 11 years ago to fly airplanes into buildings... and all the while peddlers of fear and discontent will capitalize on the stuff for profit or political gain.

The reason this is a day of note is because of extreme religion and extreme politics. It was extremism generated and fanned by fear, hate and discontent... pounded out of a Qu'rans... that brought about the deaths of all those folks in New York, DC and Shanksville.

Here at home a bunch of bible pounders and right wingnut politicians have spent the past eleven years rousing the rabble... playing on ignorance and fear... demonizing the other guys and their religion... dehumanizing our fellow humans. They use the memory of 9/11 to shore up their base and keep the flames of hatred fanned. There are idiots around. Always have been. Humans die unnecessarily because of them. Always have.

I'm an advocate for human life and liberty and today I'll pontificate about real freedon. Freedom from the chains of religion and of politics. We're slaves to our ignorance. So long as there is some grand notion of life after this one in some paradise in the sky, we will always be slaves. We have the knowledge to change that, but for some reason we can never get the job done.

I'm atheist and politically moderate, but still probably more liberal than many. Those folks will continue to bow to some master or another... and people will keep killing each other for political expediency and because of bronze age myths. Always been that way.

Nothing much changes in my day to day life. Seldom ever has. Today will be of little difference. What happend on 9/11 is nothing new to this world... different only in scale from many other atrocities committed upon other peoples by people toting bibles and qu'rans alike. It disgusts me that humans can find such evil within themselves to perform such acts... but it does not surprise me. We've done things like this to each other since the dawn of history.

It won't change much of my routine. If I changed anything because of what some hate-filled crazy people had done or what they might do next... then they would win. I'll remember what evil does... but I'll not let evil win.

###