9/11: What We Lost and What We Gained
Published September 11, 2006
I think I was the last person in America to realize we were under attack. I had just moved back to Miami a few months earlier and had just moved into my first owned house a few days earlier. My life was chaos.
This was back before the Janet Jackson Super Bowl show, so Howard Stern was still on the air here in Miami. I woke up to his show every day. It was not that I was a fan, but rather that I found him so annoying it would motivate me to get out of bed and shut him off. It worked great and I rarely overslept for work.
On this particular morning I woke up to the most offensive joke I had ever heard Howard Stern do. It was obscene beyond anything I could tolerate and I can take quite a bit. I could not stop listening to it, however, because it was just too unreal to be believed and I was going to enjoy regaling my co-workers with something that actually offended me. Howard Stern was insisting a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.
I finished getting dressed and had my morning cup of Diet Coke and left for work, eager to hear more of this horrible stunt he was pulling. I did not even give it a moment’s thought to it being real because if it was real, Howard Stern would not have been on the air; it would have been the news or something like that.
Howard telling me means joke, so I quickly tuned my car radio to the Howard Stern show to hear him announce the pun, but he didn’t. Instead, he said another plane had crashed into the World Trade Center, only the other tower this time. “Ha ha, Howard you sick bastard, but that is too unreal to even be believed as a joke.” I thought. “The FCC is going to have your ass for this.”
Then it became real and it was again Howard Stern that brought it to me. “There is another one hijacked.” “Shoot it the fuck down!” There is no way Howard “Largest Fines in FCC History” Stern was going to say the mother of all curse words on the air. This was fucking real! “Oh Shit” Howard Stern soon said, “They just hit the Capitol building.” He quickly corrected it as an assumed target of another plane and that it was not hit.
I got to work to find the office empty. I work for a sleep disorders center and we have rooms that are set up like hotel rooms. They have real beds, furniture, and televisions with cable. The entire office was piled in room 6 on the bed, watching CNN. There was now no doubt left in me that this was real.
- 9/11: What We Lost and What We Gained
- Published: September 11, 2006
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Culture
- Filed Under: Culture: History, Culture: Personal History, Politics: U.S., Politics: War and Terrorism
- Writer: Brad Schader
- Brad Schader's BC Writer page
- Brad Schader's personal site
- Spread the Word
- Like this article?
- Email this
Save to del.icio.us
Comments on this articleComments
Number one: No I am not.
Number two: yes he did, Matter of public record.
Possible it was one of the other people on the air, but those words were crystal clear.
Apart from the lives taken, what else did America lose on 9/11?
It lost its naivety and its collective pyschological sense of isolationism on 9/11, and thus its weakness ... but thankfully, not its kindness, good intent or benevolence.
And what did it gain, in the eyes of those observing from outside?
Memory is sometimes too short, as was the case on 9/11, and America rediscovered a genuine appreciation of the true nature of evil and the scum who perpetrate it.
More importantly, it also discovered its real friends around the world.
Lo and behold, they turned out to be the same ones it's always had, proving, once and for all, and as the British have been telling anyone who'd listen over the past 400 years, that blood really is thicker than French onion soup ...
Post 9/11, and in the wake of more murderous attacks in Bali, Jakarta, Madrid, London, and other parts of the world, rather than waste our energy with a negative focus on partisan politicisation of the global war on terror or bullsh.t conspiracy theories and finger pointing, let's make sure our respective governments remain focused on the bipartisan task at hand: the protection of the people and lifestyles of the western democracies and their wonderful institutions against the black hands of the religious fascists (not ordinary Muslims) who want to tear them down and return the planet to a state of 8th-century feudalism.
If you really listened to Howard's show that morning and believed it was some kind of joke you are clearly not too bright. Additionally, I listened to the replay of the show played 9/11/06 and Howard never said "shoot it the fuck down". Pointless blog...
"Nobody listens to Stern in order to turn it off or to get out of bed. "
With Howard off the air in Miami, I wake up to rap for the same effect. Are you going to tell me I am a rap fan too?
"If you really listened to Howard's show that morning and believed it was some kind of joke you are clearly not too bright."
How quick were you that day? I am honest about how clueless I was for that day. Bet you did nto even read the entire thing.
"Pointless blog..."
So pointless you had to address it and keep it alive? When I see a pointless blog, I ignore it and let it disappear into the archives of the internet. Thank you for keeping this thread alive.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/52704)
Brad,
Let's be honest. Number one, you're a fan of the show. Nobody listens to Stern in order to turn it off or to get out of bed. If you're not offended easily, you listen as a fan. Number two, Howard never cursed that day.