Talking Towns

Upon reading our first assignment of the year, I was delighted to discover they were both in some way optimistic.

I personally found John Updike's piece to be more relatable than Ms. Sontag's because of his literal proximity to the destruction and his hopeful end; he saw it not as an end but as a time to remember and be grateful for his remaining treasures: a glorious New York, a dignified sense of freedom, and his wife and kin. Yet he was not oblivious to the lives lost, the work to be done, the pain dealt. "The nightmare is still on," he consented (paragraph 2, page 2), but he imagined the views of the martyrs better than I had.

Susan Sontag was a bit harsher in her condemnations of America; however, she still protruded a sense of dignity--empathy for complete strangers, even--and that of America's greater purpose. While her pointed comments about President Bush nettled my loyalties, her powerful, emotional speech on America's flaws stirred in me a sense of renewed patriotism, that I should help the cause to make America more than just strong. She also caused me to think about the other side, those who made martyrs of themselves to further a cause.

For a moment I could imagine them, disallowed to say a last goodbye to their families, tears welling in their eyes as they saw all the innocents in the plane they would take with them, a tight thudding in their throats as their last moments of life faded into the blur of broken windows. They were people.

I wish I knew why they did what they did. I wish I could have done something. Maybe I'll get the chance next time.

And in the meantime I can fold money into the Twin Towers.