HOT LESBIAN ACTION!!!

Today is September 10th. You all know what that means. Tomorrow we will all pause and think about that strange and terrible day two years back, and we'll wonder, how much can one thing affect life on Earth? A lot, it would seem. A terrifying amount. Let us recount. 1999, or something, we were at the height of an economic boom. "Hooray!" they all said, "the stock market is up and the dot-com bubble will never burst!" Pretty soon after Bush stepped in, we slipped a little. And by a little, I mean, if a man were climbing a mountain, except it was really the stock market trend, and then the stock market dropped like it did then, he would plummet to his death amid the debris of a thousand internet businesses. I'm not saying Bush is directly responsible, I'm just trying to link the two events in your head. 2001: we are still in a recession. Americans all over the world force themselves to watch our "president's" speeches on television, but turn down the volume and instead listen to "Alvin and the Chipmunks" tapes.

Suddenly, crash. In a shrieking, fiery shot, an airplane punctuates the World Trade Center. 17 minutes later, the second tower is pierced. For 24 hours, life as we know it disintegrates. Desperate New Yorkers struggle to reach each other across the city, inhibited by lost cell phone connections and a general break-down of information. Crying students are comforted by classmates that hardly know them. Schools let out early and shell-shocked students wander home and watch the non-stop, 'round the clock news coverage, with nothing new to say so they just show again and again and again: a plane flies low to the ground. Too low. And everyone knows what happens next by now. They watch it over and over and over again, as if a hundred planes had destroyed a hundred buildings, and they cling to each other, because they need to know that there is still love in the world.

Two years later, and we approach the anniversary of a modern tragedy, one we've seen with our own eyes, touched with our bare hands. Some day all this will be in a text book, and we will be the ones recounting it to our children and our grandchildren. It's been two years, and I wish I could say we are a better people. But optimism has never been my strongest trait.

Two years, and what have we done? We've bombed Afghanistan further into the stone age than even they thought possible, dropping bombs and food on fields already littered with mines. We removed the Taliban and forgot about their country, and so few among them can honestly claim they have a better life.

The USA Patriot Act has eroded our civil liberties when we need them most, and no one wants to talk about it.

We ignored the UN, a council made of hundreds of countries, specifically designed to prevent disasters of policy. We destroyed the universal public support in which we took such pride by initiating a war, which by definition was illegal, not because of a danger to us or another country, but because the government was so sure that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction, a convenient term that they liked to throw in our face like a smokescreen. We invaded their country and liberated them with bombs and supply cut-offs. How many of our soldiers have we lost? A lot. A lot more than anyone would have guessed a year ago. Have we found those Weapons yet? Not likely.

I was hardly affected on a personal scale by September 11. No one I knew died and not even any of my friend's parents or close friends were harmed in the attack. I guess you could call me one of the lucky ones. I guess if you're offended by what I say, maybe it's because I can't see what you've seen, I never felt it on the same level as those who have been deeply affected by the attack. But I think from my view I can see clearly and I won't let myself be caught by War Fever or a need to retaliate. Enough retaliation's been done already.

I don't know. I'm sorry. I'm just a kid and I'm saying a lot of the things I've heard... but I believe in what I say. I guess I'm not so good at articulating how I feel, because I don't have such raw emotion to guide it. All I've got is the anger that I have for the United States for using September 11 as a springboard for more violence and destruction. I'm not a hippy, not an idealistic, utopian give-peace-a-chance guy, but I think that there's something in that. Come on, how many more people do we have to kill in the name of peace? You have to see, and you have to hear, and touch and taste and smell your surroundings. Open your eyes, open your hearts, open your minds.

Nicky