Normal, Five Years' Different?

Five Years ago, Monday, September 10th, 2001, was normal. I probably spent the day at home, watching TV and playing online, and continuing my erstwhile search for a job, since I was in night school, and had a cashflow issue approaching. Rod was in classes at the University.

Five years ago, the major headlines of the day, as peddled by the New York Times were such:

Despite Plan for Talks, Mideast Violence Explodes

On the eve of talks between Yasir Arafat and a top Israeli official, two Israeli soldiers were slain by snipers andIsraeli tanks began shelling Palestinian positions in theWest Bank.

Nuclear Booty: More Smugglers Use Asia Route

The appearance of a large quantity of uranium in Georgia indicates that nuclear trafficking has shifted from Europe to Central Asia.

Reports Disagree on Fate of Anti-Taliban Rebel Chief

The day after a suicide bombing aimed at the opposition leader to the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan, conflicting reports persisted over whether he had survived.

No kidding, these were the headlines that peeked out from News stands and Paper boxes on the morning of September 11. And it's probably quite sad that today's headlines are barely any different. Even the monstrous mess in Iraq relates to those headlines, as being a central Asian nation accused of dealing in nuclear trafficking, hence giving Bush his war. Israel and Palestine are still at war, demonstrating the absolute failure of the much vaunted "Roadmap to Peace" (Note to Bush Pundits, it was a stupid name, a stupid plan, and arrogantly touted as, forgive the expression, The Promised Land, in terms of peace). And the Taliban are still very much is factor of daily life in Afghanistan, as first the US-led Coalition, and now NATO both failed to wipe them out as Bush promised.

But it's a masterful illusion to say that the eerily similarity in headlines five years on means that life is the same. This is now a paranoid and war-weary world. We're terrified of hair gels and shoes on planes, we're seesawing between safety measures and personal freedoms, and we've developed a whole new sickening vernacular that includes questionable terms like "Insurgent" and the concept of Freedom for political hire. Patriotism had to equate to unequivocable support for the Political Leader, otherwise you were a friend to the Terrorists. This is not the world I lived in prior to 9/11/01. It's all so maddening, so complicated to the point of lunacy. I say fuck it. It's okay to be confused.

Continued Tomorrow.