Another 9.11

Only after I jumped onto my flight to DC did I realize that meant I had to spend most of my next day there, which happened to be the sixth anniversary of 9.11 . Not entirely a soothing feeling.

The taxi driver who took me from the Reagan airport to my hotel didn't seem to care much though. He was more interested in why white American women like black men and talked the whole trip about just that . Finally I asked rightly before paying, "do you sense anything different when another 9.11 is approaching?"

"No." He answered without any hesitation, which made me feel slightly better.

(Now when I think about it. As a Pakistan lived in the USA for six years. That might have been a taboo question to ask.)

However, the next morning on my way to the Australian embassy, at least 1o fire trucks hailed by. Combined with the scenes of half-way-down American national flags everywhere that definitely raised my alertness level (picture shown the flag in the symbolic building of Smithsonian Institute, which I visited after getting my visa, in an effort to turn lemon into lemonade).

Luckily nothing really happened. According to a taxi driver who picked me up at my home state airport later that afternoon though, "the business has been slow; people must be reluctant to travel on 9.11."

"How long it is going to take for people to forget what happened?" I asked.
"Probably at least a generation."

That night on TV there was a lot of coverage on memorial events of 9.11. The one that touched me most, was a couple, who lost their son in 9.11, set up a foundation to bring Afghanistan Children to the US to study. Poverty and lack of education, in their opinion, was the root reason for 9.11.

I cannot think of a better way to protect "homeland security", seriously.