Five Years Ago

Fourth of July 2001 was the best of the many family reunions I've attended these last fifteen years or so. We all got on and spent great times together. My nephews were little and didn't mind hugs. I sang all the old songs in harmony with my sisters. The economic downturn was gentle and no one had work problems that I recall.

Of course, I was ignorant and naive then and a serious if courteous smoker. Smoking was an expensive habit as I often smoked more than a pack every day. The difference in price between London and the States prompted me to stock up and I had cartons of duty frees in the kitchen.

I was naive because I'd stopped following political news and hadn't bothered to sort out a postal vote for the 2000 presidential election.

Oh sure, I'd bought The Satanic Verses years before, thinking all the media attention meant it would be a good read. I read the first pages in the shop - a plane blows up and a guy falls to earth - never realising this was blasphemy so profound that the only response was to order the death of the author. I'm American, free speech is ingrained in us. A plane blowing up and people falling through the air caught my imagination as I'd missed out on that treat myself Christmastime '88.

I kept my December 16th boarding card for Pan Am Flight 103 for years. I just know the drinks trolley wouldn't have reached me before the explosion over Lockerbie.

By the summer of 2001 I'd been studying Irish history for four years, focussing on the early years of urban guerrilla warfare in Dublin. But that was archaic and buried in the past. As far as I understood it, the shenanigans of the Northern Irish bombers and assassins had more to do with criminal activity than a passion for achieving political objectives. Any attempt by the media to highlight what that lot were up to made me angry at the besmirching of an ancient and honourable name.

IRA. It resonates doesn't it. Lots of Hollywood films in the last twenty years have helped of course, but the media has played a big part in making us all think the violence was political rather than criminal.

Heh.

In a way I was open to believing there were more things the media had misrepresented. That feeling just grows. Kids today will grow up thinking the news is as cheesy as a 1940s movie star bio. Quite right. Knowledge is power.


The anniversary of September 11 approaches. I've signed up to blog about one of those murdered on that day. His name is Yuguag Zheng, a sixty five year old man from Beijing, China. He was on American Airlines Flight 77 with his wife. I've gleaned a bit from the internet about him but would appreciate anything you guys contribute. Planningblog - a t - aol dot com.