I remember that day very clearly, and my state of mind as a result.

The horror of it all, the disbelief and the plain fear worked its way through me. I remember thinking and saying that this must be the beginning of World War III -- and another Holocaust. I announced/prayed aloud that I hoped my parents would not have to witness again and live through such a world-transforming event. Interestingly enough, it was my parents who came to my mind first in that measure rather than my husband and children. Probably because the Holocaust was something that had been personably tangible to them already, and was an unknown, a personally unfamiliar factor for us.

And yes, the loss of Ariel was indeed a tragedy.

"Why do they call it a tragedy?"
"They don't understand evil."

They also don't understand the English language. In TV, we throw around words like "crisis," "breaking news," and even "war," with no understanding of their true meaning. Even when things are written with the right words, the anchors emphasize the wrong ones because they did not write them or bother to examine them before simply reading them off a TelePrompTer.

I saw the first plane hit the South tower... not on TV, but live from my own window in my office. I knew it was not an accident. When the second plane hit I started ushuring my co-workers into my space so they could see it for themselves. I pointed and said, "Never forget what you just saw here today... never." They all looked at me like I was crazy. I just wish everyone speaking on-air at that time had sounded just as crazy.

Pearl:

You were quite right, The Twin Towers attack was the beginning of World War III, and yes, Ariel's death was a true tragedy.

Jake:

"They also don't understand the English language."

I wonder...

Most have gone to very expensive Ivy League universities. I think they do understand the English language, but some free people are far too decadent to be preoccupied with the business of killing--which is what it takes to defend ourselves from Islamic jihadists. It even happened in Israel. Gosh, it's just soooo complicated and gee, people might die. Easier to file it all under tragedy, like a hurricane, and go out for a double latte.

I haven't met more than 1-2 people who have gone to Ivy League schools in the 11 years I've been in TV news... not to say they are not college-educated and smart, but especially the anchorpeople are not coming from Harvard and Yale.

I hope the lessons of this terrible atrocity are learned sooner than later.

Jake:

Thnaks so much for the clarification. So, the Ivy Leaguers are all working for the NY Times--that explains that paper's uselessness in the war on terror, but not their war on the present administration.

Stacey:

The lessons from this atrocity will be and have been learned by one portion of the American population, but completely misunderstood and mischaracterized by another segment -- who clearly hate President Bush more than they hate the Jihadists.

That's about right. Too much education is not exactly the reason why things are bad in TV, but it is a problem in high brow print media.

Robert, losing your Ariel is indeed a tragedy. I pray for His comfort for you and for Karen whenever you are brought to my remembrance.

Its amazing to watch the seething hate of our President override any sense of danger, of history, of even the actual hearing of the words as those who hate us tell us what they intend to do to us.

Suz:

Thanks so much for your prayers and words of comfort. They help.

The seething hatred of our President is so massive that a film has just been produced that received a most enthusiastic reception at the leftie Toronto Film Festival: "Assasination of a President." It's a depiction of the killing of President Bush, and the consequences--naturally nutty conspiracy stuff.

No Republicans have called for this filth to be suppressed or cut.

We actually believe in freedom of speech.

But make no mistake about it, this film is wish fulfillment, and legitimizes the murder of a sitting president.

This goes beyond hatred into realms even I, a professional screenwriter, could never imagine.

Jake:

You are quite right, Network news is about entertainment, and selling commercial time, whereas most liberal newspapers are about sedition disguised as objective news.

With moral backbone more upright than those girders (even before they were twisted, splintered, and melted), you and Ariel zt"l say more on this subject in 400 words than many full-length articles.

You did good today, Robert.

Robert, I pray too for President Bush. This evil movie, if it depicted the assassination (with the actual face)of Hare-brained Carter or the Ridiculous One Clinton, would bring all the hounds out howling against the outrage. We do believe in freedom of speech therefore it seems to get a pass. I hope more is said soon about this attempt to stir up the mentally deranged because make no mistake, there is a purpose to the making of this movie.

Jeremiah:

Thanks so much for your kind words.

Yesterday, Karen and I visited Ariel's kever, his grave. We felt it appropriate for 9/11 was not just an attack on the Twin Towers, and the Pentagon, but on all America, on all Americans. By our son's grave, we spoke of that day, and what happened, and this short article is the record of those moments.

I just watched tape of the first speech President Bush gave on 9/11. His opening words? "Today we have seen a national tragedy..."

I forgot to mention that our politicians are also great mis-users of the English language and continue to either use the wrong words all of the time or fail to use the right word at the right time

Jake:

No question that the President misused languge grivously on that day, however, that is a small sin when one realizes that he learned the lessons of 9/11, hence understands that we are in a world war and he has acted accordingly. This is in stark contrast to the people on the other end of the spectrum who clearly never learned the lessons of 9/11, continue to misuse language, and whose only political program is demonizing President Bush, and insisting on all forms of appeasement.

Robert,

Ariel z"l was so right! I have the same reaction when I hear people refer to Hitler as "sick." He wasn't sick. He was evil! A sick man isn't repsonsible for his actions. Hitler knew exactly what he was doing.

Moshe Feiglin was in the US on a visit on 9/11/01. He was standing in a store after the attack and heard the president on the radio calling for people to go pray "in their churches, synagogues... and their mosques...."

"What was that he said?... 'mosques?!' They just lost!"

They didn't get it. Do they get it now? I'm not sure.

Mordechai

Mordechai:

In America, most Republicans get it, whereas most Democrats do not.

Your Ariel z"l sounds like a really great, savvy guy. That makes his death so much more tragic. And your love for him flows thru your words like an ocean.

"Atrocity"? Yes. He was so right.

And this is what still befuddles me. For those of us who have known some sort of violence, whether consciously or unconsciously, some of us, we get it. I don't think those born into privilege, who have not suffered, necessarily get it. Perhaps if you have never felt wounded you cannot identify wounds, or "atrocities"? I'm guessing that leading a golden life casts a golden glow on everything, like fool's gold. What befuddles me is that I don't know if I have a clue here- do those who have the easy life ever "get it"? I figure I am missing something here.

Btw, thank you for your welcoming words in another thread. I had a lot to say, but will shut up :). Anyway, it was a delight!

Unfortunately far too many people long for a world in which good and bad are black and white. They cannot understand how some people would slaughter innnocents for the purpose of promoting an ideology.

Many of these same people try to justify their world view by claiming that we must have done something to bring this down upon us.

Blame the victim. They just don't get it.

Jack, Many innocents were killed to remove Saddam (though of course that was not our tactic - as it is with terrorists - rather, a fact to be minimized). More innocents will die on all sides. It's a matter of minimizing those numbers and maximizing the results.

B. Jewess, Don't rose-colored glasses come in all shapes and sizes, available at Bloomie's and the $.99-store?

Mordechai, Good illustration re the mosques. We need to police them more, set rigorous standards for them to operate at all in the US.

Robert, Sounds like you and Karen went to the source, or a source. If WTC is Ground Zero, is Ariel's grave a kind of Ground Infinity? I certainly appreciate that you imparted some of that moral backbone. For I didn't have it 5 years ago and consider myself undergoing "reconstructive surgery" for it.

Jake,
Part of the postmodern project is to reduce tragedy to a matter almost of coincidence. Entire theoretical books have been written on this subject.

Barefoot Jewess:

Always good to hear from you.

Yes, Ariel was politically very savvy. He was a committed Republican quite early. He loved listening to Larry Elder, Hugh Hewitt and Dennis Prager on talk radio.

Gee, I'd hate to generalize and say that a certain class of people are incapable of "gettng it" for Presidednt Bush and many members of his administration come from priviledged backrounds.

No, my vote goes to values, religion, and ultimately to home life, who your parents are and what they taught you. I firmly believe that family and early environment trumps all.

Hope all is well with you; many of your posts still haunt me.

Jack:

You are right. I hear it from co-workers in Hollywood all the time:

Holllywood Liberal: "We have to understand their point of view..."
Me: "Their point of view is that we must convert to Islam or die."
Hollywood Liberal: "Oh, that's just rhetoric. If we just stop meddling in their lives everything will be fine."

I have had this conversation about a thousand times since 9/11--with supposedly intelligent people.

Jeremiah:

Nothing to add. You are, as always, quite eloquent. Thanks so much.

Robert,
Thank you kindly. When (not "if") I'm not "quite eloquent", please, you must tell me so!
-J (a/k/a "Moral Robocop")

(btw - I hear Brad Pitt refuses to convert to Islam until everyone has the freedom to convert to Islam. :-) )

There's another word that gets misused, sort of the flip side of the coin to tragedy: courage.

Maybe its the empheral nature of the medium, but television has cheapened that word - using it inappropriately in sports, game shows, public affairs - so that we have lost the meaning of the word.

I assume it is the same pathology to not understand courage as to not understand tragedy.

Judd:

Yes, I watch a football game and I'm told that that some steroid-driven illiterate has just made a "courageous move."

Uh-huh.

Let's just hope language changes its meaning over time -

"Promote remembrance of and, as appropriate, education about the tragedy of the
Holocaust ..."

- from the all-party parliamentary inquiry into antisemitism published a few days ago.

Jayne:

Obviously we must do more than hope; when dealing with moral dolts we must be active in print, in public and private discourse. And when the time comes on the battlefield slinging lead.

BTW, I had you in mind when I published today's "Terrorism: Alive & Well" in Seraphic Secret, for it was Rabbi Kahane who first introduced us, was it not?

One thing that struck me as odd in the days after 9/11 was Bush saying "We will not tolerate conspiracy theories [regarding 9/11]". Sure enough there have been some wacky conspiracy theories surrounding the events of that day. The most far-fetched and patently ridiculous one that I've ever heard goes like this: Nineteen hijackers who claimed to be devout Muslims but yet were so un-Muslim as to be getting drunk all the time, doing cocaine and frequenting strip clubs decided to hijack four airliners and fly them into buildings in the northeastern U.S., the area of the country that is the most thick with fighter bases. After leaving a Koran on a barstool at a strip bar after getting shitfaced drunk on the night before, then writing a suicide note/inspirational letter that sounded like it was written by someone with next to no knowledge of Islam, they went to bed and got up the next morning hung over and carried out their devious plan. Nevermind the fact that of the four "pilots" among them there was not a one that could handle a Cessna or a Piper Cub let alone fly a jumbo jet, and the one assigned the most difficult task of all, Hani Hanjour, was so laughably incompetent that he was the worst fake "pilot" of the bunch. Nevermind the fact that they received very rudimentary flight training at Pensacola Naval Air Station, making them more likely to have been C.I.A. assets than Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. So on to the airports. These "hijackers" somehow managed to board all four airliners with their tickets, yet not even ONE got his name on any of the flight manifests. So they hijack all four airliners and at this time passengers on United 93 start making a bunch of cell phone calls from 35,000 feet in the air to tell people what was going on. Nevermind the fact that cell phones wouldn't work very well above 4,000 feet, and wouldn't work at ALL above 8,000 feet. But the conspiracy theorists won't let that fact get in the way of a good fantasy. That is one of the little things you "aren't supposed to think about". Nevermind that one of the callers called his mom and said his first and last name, more like he was reading from a list than calling his own mom. Anyway, when these airliners each deviated from their flight plan and didn't respond to ground control, NORAD would any other time have followed standard operating procedure (and did NOT have to be told by F.A.A. that there were hijackings because they were watching the same events unfold on their own radar) which means fighter jets would be scrambled from the nearest base where they were available on standby within a few minutes, just like every other time when airliners stray off course. But of course on 9/11 this didn't happen, not even close. Somehow these "hijackers" must have used magical powers to cause NORAD to stand down, as ridiculous as this sounds because total inaction from the most high-tech and professional Air Force in the world would be necessary to carry out their tasks. So on the most important day in its history the Air Force was totally worthless. Then they had to make one of the airliners look like a smaller plane, because unknown to them the Naudet brothers had a videocamera to capture the only known footage of the North Tower crash, and this footage shows something that is not at all like a jumbo jet, but didn't have to bother with the South Tower jet disguising itself because that was the one we were "supposed to see". Anyway, as for the Pentagon they had to have Hani Hanjour fly his airliner like it was a fighter plane, making a high G-force corkscrew turn that no real airliner can do, in making its descent to strike the Pentagon. But these "hijackers" wanted to make sure Rumsfeld survived so they went out of their way to hit the farthest point in the building from where Rumsfeld and the top brass are located. And this worked out rather well for the military personnel in the Pentagon, since the side that was hit was the part that was under renovation at the time with few military personnel present compared to construction workers. Still more fortuitous for the Pentagon, the side that was hit had just before 9/11 been structurally reinforced to prevent a large fire there from spreading elsewhere in the building. Awful nice of them to pick that part to hit, huh? Then the airliner vaporized itself into nothing but tiny unidentifiable pieces no bigger than a fist, unlike the crash of a real airliner when you will be able to see at least some identifiable parts, like crumpled wings, broken tail section etc. Why, Hani Hanjour the terrible pilot flew that airliner so good that even though he hit the Pentagon on the ground floor the engines didn't even drag the ground!! Imagine that!! Though the airliner vaporized itself on impact it only made a tiny 16 foot hole in the building. Amazing. Meanwhile, though the planes hitting the Twin Towers caused fires small enough for the firefighters to be heard on their radios saying "We just need 2 hoses and we can knock this fire down" attesting to the small size of it, somehow they must have used magical powers from beyond the grave to make this morph into a raging inferno capable of making the steel on all forty-seven main support columns (not to mention the over 100 smaller support columns) soften and buckle, then all fail at once. Hmmm. Then still more magic was used to make the building totally defy physics as well as common sense in having the uppermost floors pass through the remainder of the building as quickly, meaning as effortlessly, as falling through air, a feat that without magic could only be done with explosives. Then exactly 30 minutes later the North Tower collapses in precisely the same freefall physics-defying manner. Incredible. Not to mention the fact that both collapsed at a uniform rate too, not slowing down, which also defies physics because as the uppermost floors crash into and through each successive floor beneath them they would shed more and more energy each time, thus slowing itself down. Common sense tells you this is not possible without either the hijackers' magical powers or explosives. To emphasize their telekinetic prowess, later in the day they made a third building, WTC # 7, collapse also at freefall rate though no plane or any major debris hit it. Amazing guys these magical hijackers. But we know it had to be "Muslim hijackers" the conspiracy theorist will tell you because (now don't laugh) one of their passports was "found" a couple days later near Ground Zero, miraculously "surviving" the fire that we were told incinerated planes, passengers and black boxes, and also "survived" the collapse of the building it was in. When common sense tells you if that were true then they should start making buildings and airliners out of heavy paper and plastic so as to be "indestructable" like that magic passport. The hijackers even used their magical powers to bring at least seven of their number back to life, to appear at american embassies outraged at being blamed for 9/11!! BBC reported on that and it is still online. Nevertheless, they also used magical powers to make the american government look like it was covering something up in the aftermath of this, what with the hasty removal of the steel debris and having it driven to ports in trucks with GPS locators on them, to be shipped overseas to China and India to be melted down. When common sense again tells you that this is paradoxical in that if the steel was so unimportant that they didn't bother saving some for analysis but so important as to require GPS locators on the trucks with one driver losing his job because he stopped to get lunch. Hmmmm. Further making themselves look guilty, the Bush administration steadfastly refused for over a year to allow a commission to investigate 9/11 to even be formed, only agreeing to it on the conditions that they get to dictate its scope, meaning it was based on the false pretense of the "official story" being true with no other alternatives allowed to be considered, handpicked all its members making sure the ones picked had vested interests in the truth remaining buried, and with Bush and Cheney only "testifying" together, only for an hour, behind closed doors, with their attorneys present and with their "testimonies" not being recorded by tape or even written down in notes. Yes, this whole story smacks of the utmost idiocy and fantastic far-fetched lying, but it is amazingly enough what some people believe. Even now, five years later, the provably false fairy tale of the "nineteen hijackers" is heard repeated again and again, and is accepted without question by so many Americans. Which is itself a testament to the innate psychological cowardice of the American sheeple, i mean people, and their abject willingness to believe something, ANYTHING, no matter how ridiculous in order to avoid facing a scary uncomfortable truth. Time to wake up America.