I for one am neither shocked…nor troubled. Once, long ago, before the terrifying specter of capital T-errorism splintered the most powerful nation in the world into (even more) craven, reactionary groups of chicken hawks and violent pacifists: an idealistic group of free thinkers led by a mad tight rope walker strung a line across the Twin Towers so the span could be ‘walked’. Perhaps you saw the documentary…it was a crazy, foolish, potentially dangerous act…but it happened. And nobody died.
My favorite part of the whole doc was the press conference with the first officer on scene: standing next to a superior officer; looking kinda pudgy and of an indeterminate racial background…instead of braying the party line of ‘wrong/bad/no good’ his honest reaction to the questions asked were ‘never seen anything like it…he was dancin’!’ ‘And no…never resisted arrest etc etc’ Man on a Wire…I think that’s the name of the film.
So here we have a damn thrill seeking kid…clever and sneaky enough to evade and dare and successfully reach his goal. Too bad for the sleeping guard on #108…but what the hell is one guard that high up supposed to do anyway besides catch trespassing teens? Shoot down an errant jumbo jet with his trusty sidearm?
As a firefighter…9/11 still looms large as a paragon of Sacrifice. Every day when entering my place of work I pass a poster of all the faces of those who share my job description who died that day. Mostly it’s just part of the landscape…but just the the other week I stopped and meditated on it for a bit: my first thought being ‘those dudes were some badass looking tough pieces of meat…’ I say that with the greatest of respect. But no human being could possibly survive what took place in those two buildings that day.
My second thought was more complex: ‘Why did those people (all of them…not just the firemen) have to die? What could have been done (and how far back) to keep that tragic act from occurring?’ Then my meditation on loss and sacrifice turns grim at the thought of geopolitics and self serving ‘real-politik’…because however one might stop a few dedicated self-sacrificing madmen bent on destruction and death; no one could possibly stop the furious self righteous wounded reaction that liberated Iraq and Afghanistan while keeping Americans safer at home and abroad.
If it were up to me; I’d find a mentor for the bold youth and encourage a career in heavy equipment operations and/or building construction/engineering.
But if he is sent to prison to be abused and ruined…I wouldn’t be surprised.
Why? Because…My Country, Right Or Wrong. That’s why.
Sad to see less humorless police…means the police are more mirthful or humorous, which doesn’t seem sad. Curse you Typo Friday (ca. correctly v. corrected, too!) Human Ambition and observation decks on the WTC are supposed to be good things, but who remembers that last century stuff? Anyone who wants to be concerned can just go watch Miracle Of Endymion, freak out that there are closeted screenwriting agents in our midst, and fix that I kept reading Space Needle and thinking he’d climbed the outside of the thing; maybe follow up with ‘Girl Runs Half-Marathon, Vertically. Kills It.’
The government and all the silly-assed security people who get good tax payer money to keep this place safe really owe the boy a bunch of money! Without spending a cent to research how safe the site is (Isn’t) he has shown them to be sadly lacking. Now they’ll probably piss away great gobs of money to claim their new security procedures work… until the next kid gets a burr up his butt to do something. Would they ever think of a offering the challenge to kids though? Probably not…what does a kid know.
I love this kid. My heart goes out to this wild child’s parents though. Good God he must drive them nuts.
Hey, newly elected “liberal progressive” mayor: worry about things that matter, m’kay?
He’s already proven himself to worry about other things like wealth disparity and education. Also, what does being a "liberal progressive "(redundant) have to do with this? Are you one of those conservatives that thinks progressives are weak on security while conservatives are “macho” despite one of the worst attacks on American soil happened on GW Bush’s watch?
Liberal and progressive are actually quite different concepts from a political theory point of view, though admittedly they get mashed together in specifically US political discussion.
Liberal and progressive are actually quite different
Sigh… There’s this thing called accepted, common, understood usage of terms. In most common usage, liberal and progressive are interchangeable unless one is focused on pedantry over substance or using the terms to describe specific things like “neo-liberal economics”, etc.
Many American politicians and pundits began using the “progressive” label because right wing conservatives were successful in making the “liberal” label connotate weakness to some Americans especially after post-911 rhetoric reached its peak just before our “macho” invasion of Iraq based upon lies.
though admittedly they get mashed together in specifically US political discussion.
Last I checked NYC is located in the US.
Now I have to ask. What have we gained from this pedantic conversation? Nothing.
