Ten years.

In a few hours it'll be 10 years since my friend Kathy called me and woke me up telling me to turn on the TV, any channel.

So I watched the coverage while they were talking about the terrible accident, and then saw, live as the second plane hit.
That's the moment when I (and most of the rest of the world) realized that it wasn't an accident but a deliberate attack.

And at some point after that part of my mind couldn't help thinking of the Reichstag fire in Berlin back in the 30s.

No, I don't think that it was a deliberate move by the US government. Even if they took advantage of it.

Let's just remember the people who died and mourn not just for them, but for everything that's been lost in the name of "safety" and all the terrible things done in their name.

Sometimes it takes fiction to show us the world

In a story I was reading the other day, one of the characters gets involved with a girl about his age (13). The kid was in the hospital long term because of something the doctors couldn't figure out, but was slowly messing him up.

Anyway, at one point while discuussing various things she says "If I grow up, I think I'd like to be a doctor."

Such a simple line. But it drove home an unfortunate reality that we oftemn like to ignore.

"If I grow up". Four simple words. Yet they open a yawning pit for anybody with a trace of empathy.

*shudder*