Let me cut to the chase: my law firm is in a building connected to Rockefeller Center, here in midtown Manhattan.
Often, when I navigate the subterranean caverns of this sprawling complex, I think to myself that this is a really perfect terrorist target.
Many people would die from a bomb, a nerve agent attack, or even just the ensuing stampede.
We have short memories, but here's a fun throwback: Dubya had no foreign policy experience in 2000 when he ran for president. And then in 2001, we had 9/11. If you read the first 25 pages of Jane Mayer's The Dark Side, it becomes very clear that the Bush administration knew very well that the system was "blinking red," but no one cared enough to do something about it.
I don't want to die in a terrorist attack, y'all. I don't want to be one of the names on a memorial for victims of a bombing because McCain/Palin have no idea or interest as to what is happening on the national security front.
This very real possibility of death makes this election extremely personal. And the complete lack of national issue experience from Sarah Palin is tremendously frightening to me, on a gut level.
I trust Barack Obama to care about people like me, who are not fearing a terrorist attack at a shopping mall in Kansas City, but work in midtown Manhattan. I trust he will take this job very seriously, because I trust that beyond the requisite personal ambition, he has no other interest in this job but to be a great president.
What a contrast this is from George W. Bush. It is now apparent to anyone paying attention that Dubya's only interest was to serve his energy masters. I'm dead-serious. Everything else is a sideshow, or indirectly motivated by this overraching goal. Consessions to the Christian right? Merely a way to win their votes to put the Energy Party in power.
Dubya never cared about protecting America, or my life, or the lives of the American soldiers in Iraq, or really anyone else, except the oil industry.
And McCain/Palin are heirs to this legacy, and this legacy only, make no mistake. "Country First"? Try again. "Oil first, always" is more like it.
Whatever their other credentials, no one becomes nominated for president by the Energy Party if they are not in Big Oil's pocket. The rest is just strategery to get elected to fulfill the Energy Party's platform.
McCain and Palin don't care about protecting me. If McCain cared, he wouldn't be hankering to attack Iran, he would know the difference between Sunni and Shia, and he wouldn't have picked zero-experience Sarah Palin as trustee for my life in case he dies. And if Sarah Palin really cared about this country, she would have said "No" to McCain's crazy offer, just like I would say "No" to an offer to become a law firm partner, since I have no experience in that field.
So, in short, if you want your dear old Madame Bitch to live through the next 4 years, vote Obama.
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Comments
Isn't it ironic that so many Americans feel that voting for McCain will be safer for YOU...when, IMHO, the opposite will be true.
I sensed actual fear, not just anger in your post.
I think you might be expressing some PTSS from living in NY since 9/11.
Make sure you talk to someone who cares for you about it. Out loud. It helps.
I almost wish they would just stop with the memorials because I think it freaks people out.
I always fear that the memorials draw more interest to do it again on the same day.
There, I said it out loud. (the best way to defeat anxiety is to say it out loud and notice that the world is still turning) But it won't happen.
It is like waiting for a hurricane, though. You know intellectually that it is going to come and go, you've been through 43 or so of them, but you still freak out if you watch the weather channel.
Take the day off as a personal day. Don't go to the place that makes you anxious. Work extra hard from home or anywhere else. Nothing wrong with being kind to yourself when things are freaking you out. Anybody that doesn't underrstand, f' 'em.
Feel better and take care of yourself.
sincerely,
Elizabeth
But, in the spirit of we are all Americans, why don't blame the terrorists for the terror instead of blaming ourselves.
I think I've gotten the point of your post. It's not about fear of terrorism; it's about hating Bush. You communicated. I understood. Transaction successful.
That's unfortunate. She's a pretty famous investigative writer for the New Yorker. Here's the book, the Fresh Air interview.
and I am not going to spend money just so I can read 25 pages of it to check your source which in the end would require me to check her source, etc. etc.
I think I've gotten the point of your post. It's not about fear of terrorism; it's about hating Bush. You communicated. I understood. Transaction successful.
How dare you, you fuckface. You live in New York? You work in Manhattan? Chimpy here failed to protect my fellow financial industry employees that keep this whole fucking boat afloat for the rest of you, and I'll be damned if I don't do everything in my power to prevent the same happening to me.
I didn't choose this career so i can die in an inferno in my office or choke to death in the subway from some biological agent. It's clear to any thinking mofo that Dubya couldn't give two shits about me and my safety, and 9/11 is a case in point.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have my very hide to protect, whereas all you have is abstract bullshit ideas that will never hit home to where you live and your family. People like you, you don't mind fucking up our whole national security apparatus, and having folks like me die, because your life will never be at stake. It's really quite immoral, what you're doing. Maybe you should listen to us, those in the line of fire.
Not to defend Chimpy are you talking about the same financial guys who have created the financial crisis we are now facing in our markets? The ones encouraged by the Republican deregulation of the banking and financial industries?
Well, my dear, I'm one of them, and I vote Dem, and I am not a Republican deregulating jerk. And many of them are not like that.
However, even if I were a Republican deregulating jerk, I don't think that means I deserve to die in a terrorist-created inferno, and I don't see why you would think that either.
Putting words in my mouth Miss Bitch? Like pigs wearing lipstick?
Get over your fear, whether Republican or Democrat its very unlikely you will get killed by terrorists in any statistical sense. Or, we could build a big police state to protect you. You could sacrifice freedom for security. That would be nice.
You don't have to give a fuck, moron, do you? No one's gonna come get you in Cheyenne. You have no idea what you're talking about, so maybe you should listen to people who do know what they're talking about, like me. Statistically speaking, I have a much higher chance of dying of terrorism than me, so maybe you should stfu.
And what other purpose was there to your response except to imply that Chimpy failed to protect from terrorism the same financial geniuses that engineered our current crisis, and somehow that crisis-mongering justified or mitigated their untimely grisly deaths? Pretty barbaric, if you ask me.
What? You're ranting. Not making any sense. BTW, I don't live in Cheyenne as if that matters. Poor scared little bitch. The world's a scary place isn't it?
What? You're ranting. Not making any sense.
You know what i meant, but since you're such a stickler, i'll amend: statistically speaking, I have a much higher chance of dying of terrorism than you do.
BTW, I don't live in Cheyenne as if that matters.
i've been to your state, incidentally, to that yuppie playground. If you don't live in Cheyenne, then your chances of dying from terrorism are EVEN SMALLER.
Poor scared little bitch. The world's a scary place isn't it?
What a nasty fuck you are.
Damned lawyers...
And no, the financial service industry is not doing a good job of keeping the boat afloat for the rest of us. Maybe our next president can reach in a jerk a knot in its tail.
I lived in DC on 9/11 and had a little fear of terrorism afterwards. I would like to think that was a rational fear.
Then I moved to Minnesota. Some people here worried about going to the Mall of America because the terrorists might strike it. I guess... maybe... but probably not during the two hours on the particular Saturday you're going. Then I heard about other "targets" nearby: the commuter rail line from the airport to downtown Minneapolis, the suburban Rosedale Mall, the stadium during a Vikings game. Nevermind if terrorists were really going to target an NFL game that they would probably find more attractive targets than a regular season Minnesota Vikings game.
While what Black Bart says about the statistical chances of being killed by terrorists is true, it's a damn easy thing for someone not in Manhattan to say and is of little comfort to those near bona fide terrorist targets.
Weakness? Do you mean admitting the fear of dying? Or weakness in argument? I don't see a weakness in argument.
As for coherence, i think it's a relatively simple argument. where's the coherence gap?
On one side of me is the NC State Port and fuel repository. We have a phosphorus plant and a deep sea cargo unloading 5 miles from my house.
On the other side of the port is the troop load out staging area for Fort brag and Cherry Point Naval Air Base.
I think the people at the mall maybe should settle down.
But for a year after 9/11, whenever the base would send those black hawks over my house on the way to the carrier loading, I freaked out.
And I don't even have that much to fear. Bart seems to be expressing some social disorder indicated by his lack of compassion for actual fear and is dismissing real concerns in his efforts to justify his stance that the war is unnecessary.
Which is a weird thing to argue, since I don't hear anyone hear FOR the war.
I think your argument that warmongers are not what we need now is a very good one. It is always a good argument. McCain is ashamed of being in a lost war. he wants to be in charge of one where we win and he can make his daddy the admiral proud, because his war hero status is because of self-flaggellation for giving a statement when he was first captured. He said he would stay and be the last to go home because he was ashamed of breaking. He didn't have to be there for all those years. I am not sure that I admire that neurotic behavior.
I admire self-preservation and self-reliance, which New Yorkers have in spades.
The ICC is set to vote on these recommendations next Thursday, September 18th. The recommendations were drawn from a comprehensive post-9/11 report by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The purpose of the report was to improve our safety code to protect buildings and save lives in case of another attack. Sounds like a no-brainer, right?
Not for the Bush administration. On September 8th, the New York Times reported that the General Services Administration — a federal agency that manages property for the government — is opposing the new safety standards. That's right: an agency of the Bush administration is using your tax dollars to fight against the very standards that could have saved lives on 9/11. Why? To help line the pockets of super-rich landlords and appease the real estate lobby.
This far exceeds unreasonable. The group of building owners is even refusing to put glow-in-the-dark markings in stairwells to help people evacuate safely. Why save lives when you can cut corners instead?
I am just tired of fear talk. The world is a dangerous place and if living in NYC scares you, then move to Cheyenne. Don't buy into the fear that is constantly used by this administration to justify everything.
I do "get" the concept of the echo chamber. But I wonder if we shouldn't look beyond that and see the value in clear expression of a great, real story. What does that mean? It means that maybe if we learn how to tell a compelling story--- the strength of that story will bust out the sides of the echo chamber and land where they can do some good.
Of course if anybody reads this little addendum to this string---there's always a chance they will argue it. So here's a thought: go tell your story. It's harder than it looks!
Nice job Madame.