Posted by Joe, a resident of the Menlo Park: Allied Arts/Stanford Park neighborhood, on Aug 31, 2011 at 12:06 pm

My recollection is that this catastrophe, as terrible as it was, represented to me at the time as the chickens coming home to roost after a century of U.S. imperialism. There was no better example than the reaction by the Bush/Cheney administration in refusing to acknowledge any origins of this animus coming from our foreign policies.

I remember also sensing that administration was wrong in calling it an act of war. It struck me a crime perpetrated by a gang, a heinous and heartless and unprecedented (on our shores) act of mass destruction, but a crime nevertheless. It should have been dealt with by special forces, as it eventually was.

Posted by Margaret Fruth, a resident of the Menlo Park: Suburban Park/Lorelei Manor/Flood Park Triangle neighborhood, on Sep 6, 2011 at 12:58 pm

Gap Teeth

The harbor gapes in unnatural haze, its two front teeth knocked out--

it cannot chew the ash that shades a mourning moonscape.

Triggered by lack of light, eclipsed streetlights so faint

we cannot see spirits who haunt the zero ground--

where terrorists jettisoned their souls.

We put our hardheads into hardhats--

searching for shadows lost and found--

smudged eyes damp not only from acrid soot.

Missing firefighters and cops still search--

their winking headlights in the rubble--

they will seek the peace forever.

We seek the light--

to understand the sight that's jumbled through the smoke--

Love leavened justice will hug hate till it ooze away.

The blood shall mulch the soil--

out of mass murder, peaceful accord--

the peace will heal us, every living thing.

The peace You bring will grow again.