Hi, I’m Apple…
…and I’m Ginger.
And let’s pause for a moment and remember those who died in New York, Washington DC and Pennsylvania on 9/11, which was also a Tuesday, 17 years ago today.
Three things remain lasting memories for us.
Firstly, Peter Jennings getting emotional on the air that day and saying “if you’ve got a relative, call ’em up, let them know you’re safe.”
Dear Peter Jennings. He admitted starting smoking again and he passed away from lung cancer in 2005.
We still miss him.
Secondly, Dan Rather being David Letterman’s first guest when regular programming returned the following Monday and getting emotional and David Letterman holding his hand.
The unflappable Dan Rather, who had been through Vietnam, many hurricanes and the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968, getting emotional on air. That’s serious.
And thirdly, the NFL and Baseball seasons stopping.
The New York Yankees had won 3 straight World Series.
Come the World Series in November, it went to 7 games.
There were 2 out in the bottom of the 9th inning, against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The count was 3 and 2 and the Yankees were ahead.
The Yankees had their best closer on, but somehow one got past him.
The Diamondbacks hit a home run and with someone already on base, they won the World Series.
We always remember someone from Arizona saying “I know what’s gone on in New York, but, hey, this is baseball.”
We did not agree. It seemed a hollow victory.
As for those 102 minutes themselves, we remember them like they just happened today.
The bright blue sky.
The last moment the World Trade Center was untouched.
That last moment before the world changed forever.
Do you remember when an airliner crashed on Queens in December?
We all thought it was another attack, but it was an awful accident.
Do you remember that only a month before 9/11 Timothy McVey was executed by lethal injection for the Oklahoma Bombing in 1995?
After 6 years families had “closure,” whatever that really means, if it means anything at all.
Then 9/11 happens.
Will those families ever have “closure?”
In October 2001 we went after Bin Liner in Afghanistan.
We’re still there today.
And we finally put Bin Liner in a bin liner in 2011 in Pakistan!
In March 2003 we want after Saddam Insane.
He said he’d fight to the last drop of blood.
He ran away instead.
We remember the streets of Baghdad being deserted and watching Oliver North, of all people, reporting for Fox News.
Saddam Insane was caught in December 2003.
And he was hanged by his own people in 2006.
But what about “closure?”
Will Palestinians ever accept that terrorism gets them nowhere? They’ve been at it since the Six-day War in 1967.
What have Palestinians got out of over 50 years of hatred? Whereas Jerusalem is recognised by the United States as the capital of Israel.
As a last thought let us say this. In 1968 Stanley Kubrick gave us ‘2001 – A Space Odyssey.’
What we really got in 2001 was 9/11, endless war, hate and terrorism.
If there really is intelligent life out there somewhere why the hell would they ever want to meet us?
Have a good week. Be happy.
Say goodnight to all the nice people around the world.
OK, goodnight folks. See you next Tuesday.
themaster1968 