9/12/2008

Where were you when the towers fell?

So yesterday was September 11th, and once again we are reminded of something. What was that something I’m not sure? According to the government we should be reminded that, something can happen that anything can happen. The government wants you to believe that it can protect you. Yet it cannot. Yet it did not. I know there are, plenty of conspiracy theorist out there who would say that the government was responsible for the events of that day. And perhaps they are right. Perhaps this government managed to pull off one of the greatest hoaxes on the American public. Not that I believe that the events of that day were a hoax. But if what some say is true then the events were staged and the reasons behind it are a hoax. I’m not quite sure myself. On one hand I know what I saw that day and on the other I look at the actions prior to and before the event that I can hardly believe that they could actually pull it off. Part of me believes that shit just happens. It doesn’t go down like that often, but fuck who’s to say a handful of mother fuckers with box cutters couldn’t pull this off. I mean it’s almost more empowering to know that they could. That, the actions of a few, could have an impact on so many. In many regards it’s in the government’s interest for you to think that they are so in control that they could plan and execute such a tragedy, than to believe that they got caught with their pants down and fucked up so royally. Think about that.
The whole deal with 9/11 is that it’s the JFK assignation for our generation. The thing old boomers always say is; “Where where you-when Kennedy was shot?” So, “where, were when the towers fell?” has become the new question. I will tell you where I was. Lisbon, Ohio. To be more specific, I was in a Federal Correctional Institute in Lisbon Ohio. I was stuck on the side of a mountain, with just under two months before my release date. I was sitting in a warehouse waiting for the C.O. to show up so that I could begin my duties on the landscaping crew. There was about two hundred other inmates from landscaping, HVAC, and electrical also waiting. None of the C.O.s had shown up which was unusual, they were almost always on time and this morning they were late. No one knew what was up but it was weird. It was about eight thirty before they showed, and work began at seven thirty. They came in laughing and didn’t tell us to get to work. Instead they wheeled out a TV set and told us all to settle down. Then the event unfolded as if right on cue and we all sat watching stunned. Everyone with family in New York started freaking out. This immediately made me suspicious. The way the C.O.s acted was as if they knew something we did not and then it happened. The told everyone to go back to their dorms and locked the whole compound down. I forgot to preface this by saying that FCI Elkton, (where I was) happened to double as an INS depot. So shortly after lock down I watched out the window as each and every officer was assembled in a line in the yard and a guy I never seen before walked by and gave them some sort of instructions. This turned out to be; rounding up every Middle Eastern person in every dorm, along with anyone who had any sort of terrorist charge. Now this caused some momentary concern on my part seeing as how my crime carried the tag of Psychological terrorism with it. I however was not rounded up and thrown in the hole. At first I felt offended as if they were saying I was no threat to them, even though, I had been locked in the hole, twice before. I was also afraid that the others would began looking at me as a fraud as I had been playing up the terrorist tag for my own safety. Those of no-middle eastern decent were released a few days later and came back with stories of bizarre interrogations and some with tales of no interrogations. Those of Middle Eastern decent did not return until three days before my November 5th release. That was my 9/11 experience, not much but different than most. It would lend itself to conspiracy theory and for many years I bought whole heartedly into it. I still feel that the government knew more than they are saying and could possibly be responsible on so many levels, I don’t know that they are in fact all encompassing enough to hide it so well. And if the theories are correct I do believe we owe it to the dead to rise up and not just with signs and marches, or blogs and angry letters to editors but real armed violent revolution. If the government is responsible for this terrible act then we the people should stop at nothing to make sure they never get away it again. And if anyone is willing I’m down so whatever hit me up. I do however see the aftermath for what it was and that was an excuse to take away even more of our rights and tighten the grip of the police state created in the sixties and strengthened by the bogus war on drugs. I did however see the ethnic cleansing going on in the place where I was at and read about even worse atrocities on the outside. I did however notice the difference in the world when I was released. I mean in one moment the world I left that March changed into this hellish nightmare we’ve been living under for the last seven years. I went to New York not long after my release and lived there for a year and a half. I talked with those whom where there. Including my cousin, with whom I lived with. I heard the stories from eye witnesses and went to the site of the devastation myself. I heard from all sides and thought long and hard about what may have truly transpired. The thing I came away with was that everyone was shook and no one no matter what they felt was doing anything about it. Except for becoming more fearful and suspicious and that’s when I learned to shut up about my little crime. I waited hoping that the country would snap out of its numbness and rise up but it didn’t happen. I went to several protests while living in New York, including, the massive anti-war one, in Time Square just before the invasion. And I saw cops beating the shit out of 100lb college girls from horse back, I saw people hit directly in the face with pepper spray. And I saw no one helping. I pulled a chick from under a horse and did what I could with my one vinegar soaked cloth, but I too had to run from the Billy clubs. I took one shove that was about it. But even in their gear the cops were still shorter than me for the most part. I found that prison and the police force attracts the little/big man syndrome sufferers. But that’s another story all together. In the meantime I watch each year now as they hoist out the flags and remember the dead and replay the news footage until we’re all sufficiently scared and numb again in hopes that we elect another republican to protect us. God knows they did such a good job the first time around.


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