Even before 9/11/2001, September 11 was a date on which I struggled. It is my ex-husband's birthday and the anniversary of the finalization of our divorce. On 9/11/01, I was trying to assimilate the fact that my ex and I had been divorced for exactly one year as I got myself ready for work and my two very young children off to school. As was my habit at the time, I had "The Today Show" on in the living room as I made the last minute preparations for the day ahead and enjoyed a second cup of coffee.
I remember sitting down on the big chair in our living room just as the Today show broke out of commercial to show the first shot of a World Trade Center tower with a gaping hole in it's side and smoke pouring out of it. Katie Couric and Matt Lauer were trying to figure out what exactly had happened - I remember them saying something about a small plane possibly being the cause of the damage. "No way that was a Cessna," I remember saying to myself. A few minutes later, I watched in absolute horror as a secon9/d plane crashed into the other tower, a huge explosion shooting fire and debris everywhere. All I could think was "Oh my God, we're being attacked."
From my vantage point in far-away Minnesota, the horrors of that day were no less real to me than they may have been to some living in NYC. I know that we're often viewed as "fly-over" country, but the damage and deaths inflicted in NYC, DC and Pennsylvania seared my heart and made me weep. I watched every moment of coverage that I could - finding work that didn't require a computer so I could sit in the office conference room where a TV was available to follow the events as they unfolded. I remember being dumbfounded by the remarks made by the TV commentators that the towers wouldn't fall - wondering "how could they sustain what they just had happen and not come down?" and then watching helplessly as the first and then the second tower came crashing down. The horror still fills me today as I watch the events replay on the Memorial coverage all over the TV.
Trying to explain my tears to my 8 year old this morning proved futile - her mind doesn't grasp exactly what happened and 11 years ago seems such a long time to her. But, she's never lived in anything but a post-9/11 world. She's never walked through airport security with out having to take her shoes off. She's never not had two wars going on (and an Uncle and Cousin who have served in both arenas). She's never seen a military person and not had the desire, at least since she's been old enough to recognize military uniforms, to thank them for their service to our country. She may not understand exactly what happened that day, but someday, she will.
My oldest daughter was in 1st grade at the time of the attacks. This year she has entered her final year of High School - a momentous year with a lot of choices and adventures waiting for her. Watching the election coverage, understanding what I do about Obama's plans for the country, then re-watching the 9/11 coverage has further strengthened my resolve that my daughter's school choice be somewhere in the Midwest. She's had offers from schools as far away as NYC and Georgia, and while those schools have been considered, I don't believe she'll choose either one. Though her father lives on the East Coast, so any EC school would put her in closer proximity to him, she doesn't want to leave the Midwest and nor do I want her to be far away either. My fear is that if Obama is re-elected, scenes like we witnessed 11 years ago will happen again, only I'm not sure that it will be Al Qaeda who commits those acts on Americans. I don't believe financially we can handle even 2 more years of Obama - and with economic turmoil, social turmoil will also come. I want my child near enough to me that she can be home on a tank of gas if need-be. Watching the 9/11 coverage solidifies that feeling.
I remember that night, after we had put the kids to bed, my boyfriend and I sat and continued watching the TV coverage - hoping and praying for more survivors to be rescued, praying for the victims and their families and crying. At the time, we lived near the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport and were accustomed to planes flying over on a regular basis, landing or taking off all day and night. The silence was eerie that night as no plane sounds interrupted the quiet. Suddenly, my boyfriend cocked his head and said, "Do you hear that?" I put the TV on mute and listened to the night sounds and replied, "Is that a plane? I thought they were all grounded. What is going on?" We rushed to our patio outside and peered into the night sky as two F-16 jets flew by - on a route circling the Twin Cities.
MNHOCKEYMAMA You've entered our world now; unless otherwise noted, all posts are my thoughts/opinions/musings; callin' it like I see it.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Paterno is no hero. He is an 0-1 Loser.
In Monday's (July 23, 2012) Pioneer Press newspaper, one of their esteemed sports writers, Tom Powers, opined upon the travesty of the possible sanctions the NCAA was going to put on Penn State for the Sandusky scandal. Like many sports zealots, Powers is still defending Coach Paterno, saying "He paid the ultimate price for his culpability...when they took away his job, they killed him..." No, Tom, cancer killed him. Powers points to the fact that "...he died very quickly..." as proof that whoever "they" are killed him by exiling Paterno "in a state of national disgrace..." Apparently, Mr. Powers has never witnessed an elderly person dying from lung cancer. Unfortunately, I have. My maternal grandfather and my paternal uncle both had lung cancer and both died from it.
In my maternal grandfather's case, his battle lasted a little over a year that started with the doctors almost killing him with one chemo treatment, his subsequent refusal to ever go through another chemo treatment, then his working trimming trees with a raging fever, until finally he was bed-bound and passed away. In the case of my uncle, it was about six weeks from the day he was diagnosed until the day he passed away. He was in his early 70s, a bachelor who lived alone on our family farm and who refused to go to the doctor unless he absolutely had to. So, by the time the cancer was diagnosed, it had invaded pretty much every part of his body, and seemed to only be waiting to be discovered before it took his life. So, it comes as no surprise to me, nor do I blame the authorities who fired Joe Paterno, that he died relatively quickly once he was fired.
The dramatics sports fans give in to when discussing the tragedy of Joe Paterno's "exile" and removal of his statue is completely disrespectful of the little boys, now young men, who suffered horrible abuse under Sandusky's hands. The fact that Paterno and the other Penn State officials knew about Sandusky's addiction to little boys and yet looked the other way in the name of keeping Penn State's reputation untarnished is beyond sickening. It was absolutely wrong. For people in the business of molding and guiding young men - not just football players, but young men, how dare anyone excuse Paterno, et al, for hiding Sandusky's criminal behavior? All for what? The glory of a college football program? Seriously? So their reputations, records and glory, not to mention all the revenue Penn State received for it's program from the NCAA and fans, superseded the lives of little boys. How can anyone think that Paterno is any kind of a hero in any manner or fashion? He put his SPORT over protecting defenseless little boys. That's no hero.
No, a real hero would have stood up, pointed at Sandusky, and kicked his butt to the curb as soon as he heard about the fact that Sandusky was raping little boys in the shower-room. (IN THE SHOWER ROOM. Am I the ONLY person that finds that the height of arrogance???? Not only was this behavior just the height of sick and wrong, but Sandusky feared so little of consequences that he openly molested the boys in the Penn State showers. Hello? Priorities people! Children trump football!) And then, Paterno, had he really been a hero, would have called the authorities and allowed justice to take its course. If Paterno and the other Penn State authorities had done the right thing as soon as possible, Penn State and all its football players and fans would not have been sanctioned yesterday. It would have been a huge scandal to be sure, but how many other college and pro sports programs have been wracked by scandals over the years and come out better for having gone through the experience?
But no, Paterno, et al, did not do the right thing. Instead they ignored the problem, literally closing their ears and eyes to little boys and their cries as a coach raped them in the shower, all because the football program was more important than those boys' lives.
Quit crying about the fact that Paterno's statue no longer stands at the entrance to the Penn State stadium and that his incredible record has been invalidated by the NCAA, because as soon as he decided to not report Sandusky to the authorities, he became 0-1: forever a loser.
In my maternal grandfather's case, his battle lasted a little over a year that started with the doctors almost killing him with one chemo treatment, his subsequent refusal to ever go through another chemo treatment, then his working trimming trees with a raging fever, until finally he was bed-bound and passed away. In the case of my uncle, it was about six weeks from the day he was diagnosed until the day he passed away. He was in his early 70s, a bachelor who lived alone on our family farm and who refused to go to the doctor unless he absolutely had to. So, by the time the cancer was diagnosed, it had invaded pretty much every part of his body, and seemed to only be waiting to be discovered before it took his life. So, it comes as no surprise to me, nor do I blame the authorities who fired Joe Paterno, that he died relatively quickly once he was fired.
The dramatics sports fans give in to when discussing the tragedy of Joe Paterno's "exile" and removal of his statue is completely disrespectful of the little boys, now young men, who suffered horrible abuse under Sandusky's hands. The fact that Paterno and the other Penn State officials knew about Sandusky's addiction to little boys and yet looked the other way in the name of keeping Penn State's reputation untarnished is beyond sickening. It was absolutely wrong. For people in the business of molding and guiding young men - not just football players, but young men, how dare anyone excuse Paterno, et al, for hiding Sandusky's criminal behavior? All for what? The glory of a college football program? Seriously? So their reputations, records and glory, not to mention all the revenue Penn State received for it's program from the NCAA and fans, superseded the lives of little boys. How can anyone think that Paterno is any kind of a hero in any manner or fashion? He put his SPORT over protecting defenseless little boys. That's no hero.
No, a real hero would have stood up, pointed at Sandusky, and kicked his butt to the curb as soon as he heard about the fact that Sandusky was raping little boys in the shower-room. (IN THE SHOWER ROOM. Am I the ONLY person that finds that the height of arrogance???? Not only was this behavior just the height of sick and wrong, but Sandusky feared so little of consequences that he openly molested the boys in the Penn State showers. Hello? Priorities people! Children trump football!) And then, Paterno, had he really been a hero, would have called the authorities and allowed justice to take its course. If Paterno and the other Penn State authorities had done the right thing as soon as possible, Penn State and all its football players and fans would not have been sanctioned yesterday. It would have been a huge scandal to be sure, but how many other college and pro sports programs have been wracked by scandals over the years and come out better for having gone through the experience?
But no, Paterno, et al, did not do the right thing. Instead they ignored the problem, literally closing their ears and eyes to little boys and their cries as a coach raped them in the shower, all because the football program was more important than those boys' lives.
Quit crying about the fact that Paterno's statue no longer stands at the entrance to the Penn State stadium and that his incredible record has been invalidated by the NCAA, because as soon as he decided to not report Sandusky to the authorities, he became 0-1: forever a loser.
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