NY Post Op/ed

I usually stay away from religion and politics but I thought maybe you all would like to read this.

I think this says it all...

 

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/one_arabs_apology

 

ONE ARAB'S APOLOGY By EMILIO KARIM DABUL September 12, 2006 -- WELL, here it is, five years late, but here just the same: an apology from an Arab-American for 9/11. No, I didn't help organize the killers or contribute in any way to their terrible cause. However, I was one of millions of Arab-Americans who did the unspeakable on 9/11: nothing. The only time I raised my voice in protest against these men who killed thousands of innocents in the name of Allah was behind closed doors, among the safety of friends and family. I did at one point write a very vitriolic essay condemning their actions, but fear of becoming another Salman Rushdie kept me from ever trying to publish it. Well, I'm sick of saying the truth only in private - that Arabs around the world, including Arab-Americans like myself, need to start holding our own culture accountable for the insane, violent actions that our extremists have perpetrated on the world at large. Yes, our extremists and our culture. Every single 9/11 hijacker was Arab and a Muslim. The apologists (including President Bush) tried to reassure us that 9/11 had nothing to do with Islam, but was a twisting of a great and noble religion. With all due respect, read the Koran, Mr. President. There's enough there for someone of extreme tendencies to find their way to a global jihad. There's also enough there for someone of a different mindset to find a path to enlightenment and peace. Still, Rushdie had it right back in 2001: This does have to do with Islam. A Christian who bombs an abortion clinic in the name of God is still a Christian, at least in his interpretation, and saying otherwise doesn't negate the fact that he has spent a goodly amount of time figuring out his version of the one true and right thing to do. The men who killed 3,000 of our citizens on 9/11 in all likelihood died saying prayers to Allah, and that by itself is one of the most horrific things to me about that day. And, while my grandparents never waged a jihad, their attitudes toward Jews weren't that much different than Mohammed Atta's. No, they didn't support the Holocaust, but they did believe that Jews were trouble in many different ways, and those sorts of beliefs were passed on to me before I'd ever actually met a Jew. I'm sorry for that, for ever believing that anything that my grandparents or other relatives had to say about Jews or Israel , for that matter, had any real resemblance to truth. It took me years to realize that I'd been conned into believing the generalizations and stereotypes that millions around the Arab world buy into: that Jews, America and Israel are our main problem. One look at the average Arab regime should alert us to the fact that the problem, dear Achmed, lies not overseas or next door in Tel Aviv, but in the brutal, corrupt despots that we have bred from country to country in the Mideast, across the span of history. That history and its corresponding economic devastation is the main reason I reside on New York City 's West Bank - New Jersey - not the one near Jerusalem . On my worst day, I'm happy about that fact. I'd rather be here than there, and experience the freedom and boundless opportunities that were mostly unknown to so many generations of my family in the Mideast . For as long as I live, the image of those towers falling, as I watched in horror and disbelief from the corner of 40th and Fifth, will be for me my Pearl Harbor, for in that instant I recognized that not only was our city under attack - so was our freedom. It still is. And will continue to be for years to come. And the threat is not from within, but from Islamic fascists who desperately want to destroy the freedom and opportunities that millions the world over still seek. Five years after that awful day, it's time for all Arab-Americans, and Arabs around the world, to protest against Islamic fascism, to raise our voices - and, where necessary, our arms - against these tyrants until their plague of terror has been driven from the face of the earth forever. Emilio Karim Dabul is a freelance writer and PR consultant living in New Jersey.

Another Day, Maybe Another Delay?

Thank you  to everyone who left comments on my 9/11 entry.  I appreciate your kind thoughts and praise for the entry.  It was a tough day for many, including my household.

We have other drama here at home as well!  The schools in my town are having construction and renovations done.  As you know, if they tell you it will take 10 weeks, you just double the figure and hope for the best!  lol

Well, the summer work that had to be completed was not completed and they had to delay the opening date.  The first delay was from 9/6 until 9/11. 

Sunday night, at 7pm, I spoke to a friend who told me that she heard official calls were on the way.  By 8pm, I had received both calls, one for Fuzzy and one for Pumpkin.

Fuzzy cheered and Pumpkin cried.  Hammer also cheered, knowing that with his siblings home, no school for him either.  As for myself and hubby... we just sighed.

School opening delayed again until 9/13, tomorrow.

However, the rumor mill being what it is... I have already heard that another delay is going to happen. 

<<SIGH>>

I am not going to get upset or angry because I am very fortunate.  I am a stay-at-home-mom and do not have to scramble for last minute babysitting as many parents have had to do. 

So, I will wait and listen for the phone and see what happens.

The only inconvenience I had was changing my infusion from tomorrow until next week.  I need to go into the school and get Fuzzy's asthma medicine needs settled with the RN.  Usually, this is done earlier, but the construction has literally thrown a wrench in everything usual. 

I don't know how I will fare being delayed a week with my meds... should be interesting.  Keep me in your thoughts and prayers!

On a happy note, my Aunt and Uncle from Indiana visited yesterday.  They had dinner with us and spent a few hours after chatting and catching up.  It was really nice, and took the 'edge' off the day for hubby and myself.  The kids really adore their Great Aunt and Uncle so they enjoyed it, too.

be well,
Dawn

9/11: The End of the Innocence

The end of the innocence. 

That is what September 11, 2001 is for me.

Prior to 9/11, just about every other major country has had major acts of terrorism on their soil, whether it was hijacking, suicide back pack bombers, or bombs against infrastructure, like an embassy or hotel.  It is a way of life in some places, and in others, not so common, but a definite part of their reality.

We, as North Americans, believed we were isolated from major acts of terrorism.  Even after the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center we were willing to believe that it was a fluke, never to be attempted again.  After all, it failed, right?

Yes, it did fail, but the failure wasn't so much theirs as it was ours.

It should have been a huge wake up call.  We should have known it was just a matter of time before they succeeded, and in a big way.

Our airport security has never been where it should be, if only back in 1993 we decided to take it seriously, like Israel.  If only in 1993 we started to more carefully track student visas and be sure that the students were actually attending college.  If only in 1993 we had extensive backgrounds and security checks done on non-citizens trying to apply for pilots licenses.

If only...  Yes, it is easier to 'if only' now, because hindsight is twenty-twenty.  Instead, now, even 5 years later, we are still scrambling to catch up to where our national security should be.

September 11, 2001 was a gorgeous Tuesday, following several days just as gorgeous.  I woke hubby up like I do every morning and he said he was going to sleep in as he had a sinus headache.  I got the kids off to school.  I returned to hubby getting out of the shower and I tried to convince him to stay home and blow off the day, but hubby said no and left about 8:25 to head into NYC in his company jeep.

I got Hammer up and settled into breakfast and his school work.  I remember I went to the computer and was reading a homeschooling message board, checking out some new ideas for the new school year.

The phone rang, and it was about 8:50 am.  It was my cousin K and she told me, 'Turn on the tv, NOW.  A plane hit one the Trade Centers.  Where is your hubby?'  I told her he was probably just going through the tunnel because of his late start and then I told her I would call her back. 

I called Hubby, and before I asked him where he was and if he knew that a plane hit the Trade Centers.  He told me he was out of the tunnel and almost to his office, traffic was unusually light, and then he said,  'I was on the helix, (a raised loop into the Lincoln Tunnel) and I saw the plane hit the Trade Center!'  He thought it looked small, but wasn't sure.

I immediately asked him about our friend John, and he said he wasn't sure which tower his office was in, but he would be at the office soon, so, Jay would know.  Jay and my hubby had been working together for almost 5 years at this point, and John was Jay's best friend since kindergarten, and John married Jay's sister. 

I remember hanging up with my hubby, my eyes never leaving the tv screen and the Today show and sitting down on the ottoman, kind of shocked, but relieved that hubby was okay and in Midtown.  My mom called and I just told her fast that hubby was fine and in the office not to worry.

Then, it happened.  Right before my eyes, the second plane slammed into the other tower!  We didn't see the plane hit, but you saw the explosion, it was unbelievable!  I was confused... I just kept staring, open mouthed and numb at the tv.

It was as if time stood still.  I couldn't move, I don't remember who  said it but one of the newscasters said it was terrorism.  They were putting NYC on lockdown, and there may be more planes, and more targets in NYC.

I grabbed the phone and called my hubby.  I used my cell phone radio function because calling the cell wouldn't work.  He knew about the second plane and that it was terrorism, they had radios on at his office.  He told me no one could get a hold of John, and Jay was really upset.

I told him to get out now and fast and head up through the Bronx and to Westchester, and to come over the Tappan Zee Bridge.  That was staying open at this time.  He told me they (he and Jay) were already heading for the elevator.  He was going to drop Jay off at his sister's house and then get home to me.

I had to take a minute to get myself together as I had Hammer home with me.  With that, the door from my garage opened and my mom walked in.  I was so happy to see her and we just hugged for a minute and I told her about Hubby and Jay and John and that he was trying to get out via the Tappan Zee.

We both sat down in front of the television in my living room and just stared in a complete state of shock and numbness.  Then, the plane hit the Pentagon.  That is when panic truly started to set in.  I called hubby and told him and again, he knew.  We said our 'I love you's' and hung up.

I remember thinking that it couldn't get any worse... or at least that was my hope.  It was horrific to watch.  People jumping out of the buildings, the Pentagon rent open and the injured spilling out.  It was Dante's Inferno in NYC and DC!  And, how many more planes?  I remember at this point there was talk of about 6 or 8 still in the air.

Next, the news started to talk about pieces of the tower falling, and the concern over a collapse, but from what was being said, the fear seemed to be about just the floors above the plane crash.  Awful enough, that is for sure.

No one, least of all my mom and I, were ready for what we saw next. 

The South Tower started started to collapse, and it just crumbled and crumbled down.  It was horrific and surreal and completely mind numbing.  The people, the moms, dads, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, cousins, friends of thousands, gone.  The rescue workers, the people just escaping the nightmare within the buildings, gone.

We watched as more firemen run into the still standing North Tower to help evacuate quicker before its inevitable collapse.  It was almost a half hour later, but it seemed like just a few minutes.  The devastation was just as shocking and horrifying the second time.

I remember feeling so helpless.

I ran out of the house and went to get the kids out of school.  My hubby had suggested it, but now, I needed them here, home with me.  I remember getting to my Fuzzy's school and seeing other moms with tear streaked faces.  It was so strangely quiet, too.  I remember seeing a teacher crying in the hall. I found out that her brother made it out of the Trades and home, thank God.  Two boys wouldn't be that lucky, their dad was an accountant for the Port Authority.  Next I picked up Pumpkin at pre-k and even the toddlers were more subdued than normal.  It was if even they could sense something had gone terribly wrong in the world.

I remember getting the kids home and settled into the family room with television and lunch.  I remember remarking to my mom that 'in the family room it's Nickolodeon, and in the living room it's a nightmare.'

Except that we couldn't just wake up.

By the time my hubby dropped Jay off at his sister's, we knew things were not looking good, but we were very hopeful.  John worked for Silverstein Properties, the owner of the complex, and he was involved with helping to evacuate.  That was all that was known for sure at that time. 

Hubby pulled into our driveway at 2:45 pm.  As you can imagine, anyone in a car was trying to get out the way my hubby did, and the roads were choked with people trying to get to family members all over the NY-NJ area.

He got out of the car and I ran to him and we just held each other.  I had held it together up until that point, but that is when the tears just started.  I don't think they stopped for the next five or six days.

Unfortunately, running outside we found out something else too.  Not only could we see the smoke from the towers looking to the east, but we could smell the smell, too.  It was horrible.  I still smell it in my nightmares.

I was lucky.  My hubby came home.  Hubby had an appointment on Thursday morning with John at the Trade Centers to discuss some possible door work.  If Thursday was the day of the attack, I would not have been so lucky.

John was 6 foot 7 inches tall and pretty wide, too.  He died that day, trying to help evacuate and rescue people.  Thanks to his great height, and the fact that he was well known to many that survived, his family has been able to piece together much of his actions prior to the collapse.

I know that this has gotten way too long, and I am sorry.  Just a bit more, I promise.

I knew coping with 9/11 was going to be very difficult, and that this tragedy would always be a part of our lives, but I have to say, I didn't realize in the beginning just how hard it was going to be.

Watching my hubby go back to work the first day was awful.  I had to learn to cope, and it wasn't easy.  I wasn't ready to be 'rah rah let's show 'em how we keep on going!'  I just wanted my hubby home with me, and screw ever setting foot in NYC ever again!!!  

It is still hard.  I know that life goes on, and that is a blessed and wonderful thing, but, it is still hard.  It is hard because NYC is still, and will always be, a HUGE target.  Due to my hubby's job, he is in and around every possible target in the city, on any given day.  The UN, the museums, Grand Central, Penn Station, Wall Street, the Empire State Building, you name it, and he might be there. 

My coping is an ongoing process.  I do go into the city for my rheumatologist, because they are the best, and we have gone in for some family stuff, too.  Life does, indeed, go on.

It is still heart wrenching just to look at the skyline.  It is all wrong now.  It is missing the Towers, the exclamation points, at the end of the glorious sentence that is the Manhattan skyline.

Now, without punctuation, it is the end of the innocence.

be well,
Dawn

10 Things in My Pocketbook

Okay... that is a lie... I have had my coffee.  Actually I am on my second large Dunkin' Donuts Iced Coffee of the day.

Tonight, I have 3 boys sleeping over as a last hurrah of the summer.  So, that totals 6, yup, S-I-X kids tonight!!! 

And, thus, the caffeine.

As for this list, before I went on vacation someone did this in their journal and I wanted to do it but ran out of time.  Now, I have the time, but forgot who to give credit to!!  Ugh.

So, here goes anyhow...

Keep in mind that my bag is very small,due to the Rheumatoid Arthritis in my hands, yet somehow it, packs a punch!  lol

10 Things in My Pocketbook/Purse/Bag

1)     Fuzzy's albuterol inhaler (don't leave home without it)

2)     6 to 10 crayola crayons (because even grownups don't mind a game of hangman while waiting for food, lol)

3)     Purell (a must have when you are on drugs that suppress your immune system)

4)     A big metal capsule pill case (emergency vicodin for me, because, well, you never know with RA and Lupus)

5)     Listerine spray pocket thingy (perfect for my dry mouth)

6)     A small round case containing soft earplugs (for Hammer when he is having a hard time with loud sounds, crowds, common with Asperger's Syndrome)

7)     A copy of mine and hubby's EKG (we both have quirky things that are normal for us in our beats enclosed with a list of all my medications)

8)     My drivers license and all of our insurance cards (dumb Oxford gives you one for each family member, ugh)

9)     My cell phone (of course!)

10)    Fuzzy's retainer case (the newest addition to the bag)

Notice that money did not make the list!  LOL

Okay, all you gals out there need to do this! 

As for you guys, how about 10 things you have in your cars?

be well,
Dawn 

 

Two Words Only

You can only type 2 words....no more....no less.

From Brenda  at  Brenda's Way 
                   

1.yourself: happy smiley

2. your husband: self amused

3. your hair: very long

4. your mother: helpful friend

5. your father: Grumpy helpful

6. your favorite item: laptop computer

7. your dream last night: old boyfriend

8. your favorite drink:  iced coffee

9. your car: perfect suv

10. the room you are in: old kitchen

11. your ex boyfriend: which one?

12. your fear: hurt kids

13. where you want to be in 10 years:  published writer

14. what you're not: super mom

15. your best friends: Kathy Karol

16. one of your wish list items: basement completed

17. the last thing you did: read emails

18. what are you wearing: t-shirt capris

19. your favorite weather: sunny cool

20. your favorate zoo animals? lions tigers

21. your thought for the day? Carpe Diem!!!!

22. your favorite book: too many

23. last thing you ate: bologna plain

24. your life: about others

25. your mood: happy usual

26. your body: needs exercise

27. what are you thinking about right now: tomorrow's sleepover

28. your crush: Brad George ( Pitt, Clooney)

29. what are you doing at the moment: refereeing kids

30. your summer schedule: soon ending

Come on... give it a try!

be well,
Dawn

 

My Beautiful Libby

There she is, Libby. 

Isn't she just the most beautiful yellow labby you have ever seen?

She has the soft brown nose and eye area, not black.  A true blonde.  :-)

I have spoken before about John Grogan's book, Marley & Me, and, again, I will tell you all to read it.  Especially, if you have a dog.

In the book, he discusses how breeders have 2 classifications for the labs. 

The 'normal' lab that will be an excellent hunting and working lab, and the 'subnormal' that will make for a fabulous family pet, but not much more.

That was Marley in his book, and that is our Libby. 

These 'subnormal' labs are overly affectionate, overly attached to their owners, are too emotional, too sensitive, easily distracted and are too submissive. 

In other words, they will love you too much and never, ever, hurt you or anyone else! 

The perfect family dog.  The perfect description of Libby.

Libby loves kids, cats, other dogs, squirrels, skunks, babies, anything and everything.  She tries to lick everyone she meets.

Libby has allowed toddlers to pull her ears, tail, and stick fingers in her mouth andplaces they shouldn't, all completely passively.  Okay, maybe not completely passive, she will occasionally go for a good lick on the toddlers face.

Libby is the most loving, mushy dog I have ever seen or known.

Thus, every time we go on vacation is a disaster.

By the end of the week, our dog sitter reported, she was hardly eating and refused to leave her crate when she came to visit, feed and let her out.

This results in Libby then peeing and pooping on the floor when the sitter was not there, and then she would punish herself for doing it and refuse to leave thecrate.

Libby was also losing big clumps of hair, the poor thing was so distraught.

So, we came home to a smelly house and slowly balding, sad, thinner dog.  Thank goodness for my mom, she scrubbed the dining room and kitchen floors until they were clean and ever trace of 'accident' was gone.  Thanks Mom.

Poor Libby.  It took her about 3 days to even begin to get back to normal!!! 

Of course, as her mommy, I felt totally and horribly guilty!!!

So, that is Libby's vacation story.  Thankfully, it will be a long time before we go away again, all seven of us.  Ugh.

be well,
Dawn

ps... Libby has also never met a food she doesn't like and will try to eat and chew just about everything, another trait of the 'subnormal' labs.  We call her a 'food hound'!!!  ;-D

So Busy...

Sorry, I haven't posted an entry recently or been reading!  I am here, and I am okay, just busy with the kids and household things that needed doing!

I promise to be back with a real entry very soon!

be well,
Dawn