i was getting ready for my last day of community service (washing & waxing service vehicles @ george mason university) here in fairfax, va. i was in a good mood, it was a beautiful day, when all of a sudden my mother called, completely freaked out.
"are you watching tv?!?!?!" she freaked.
"yep, weather channel says its gonna be gorgeous today...." i lightly replied.
"is that all you\'re watching?
" lie i was somehow the dumbest guy around...
"yep... well, i had hbo on for a minute."
"jason, try any. other. channel."
well, needless to say, my mood switched pretty quick. she had gotten a call from another of her offices who had seen the plane that hit the pentagon (sorry conspiracy buffs) and they were all in lockdown. not allowed to leave their building for multiple reasons. of course, one of the main fears was that they\'d try crashing into any largely populated areas, like a large university situated 16 miles from downtown dc, next so the school was shut down, too. i didn\'t know how that would affect my community service, but i was pretty sure that this was an unplanned-for probationary contingent and so maybe they\'d let me make up the hours on some day when the country wasn\'t being attacked. turns out, they told me not to even worry about making up the time (i was a model service truck washer/waxer, apparently).
anyway, i sat at home and watched every news channel there was until around nine at night when i just couldn\'t process anymore. i went outside for a cigarette and, just like all day long, sirens were everywhere. what freaked me out the most, though, were the planes flying above. every plane was supposed to be grounded, but i heard planes. most of them, after the initial shock of hearing anything in the sky - which, living near dulles and national airports is normally a very common thing- i realized that most of them were military jets. there was one, however, that definitely sounded like a commercial airliner. much later, it turned out that it was part of the bin laden family leaving from dulles airport. but all i knew at the time was that i heard aplane that shouldn\'t be up there and it scared me. that was when i realized just how deeply this was going to affect the psyche of this country. because i knew i wasn\'t the only one scared shitless by the sound of something usually so mundane. and fear was going to cause reactionism and reactionism only ends badly. i started hoping for a calming influence and rational voice, but in those first few days/week there was none to be found.
my brother, on the other hand, was stuck in amsterdam (returning from a post-college trip to europe) and had no idea what was going on, other than "the united states is being attacked". needless to say, once he got himself to a cyber-cafe and got through to me, he was freaked out, too. i told him what had actually happened (the reports he was hearing were sensational at best and inflammatory at worst), told him our friends and family were almost entirely accounted for (and we weren\'t really worried about the missing ones) and that things would be ok. maybe not right away, but it wasn\'t like we were under siege or anything. no red army marching down main street. nothing like that. we had joked about it before, but the one piece of advice i implored him to take seriously now, was to somehow, some way find a canadian flag and put it on his backpack. whether it was a patch, a sticker or hand drawn, make it visible and make it big. also, start saying \'eh?!\' a lot. seriously. so, he hunkered down in amsterdam (on the 12th, our im\'s had much more to do with which kush he should try) got in touch with some distant relatives in london, just in case, and waited for the airports to open again.
