My 9/11 Activities
I had been out all night drinking and having fun with friends. Got home and couldn't really sleep. I was watching the morning news shows when regular programming was interupted. After watching everything in real time, I absorbed enough to change the channel. There was a reminder of the day's events on every channel. Some channels turned over their broadcasting to national broadcasters.
I went to sleep at 10:30am.
I went on a date later that day. On the way to the restaurant, we'd stopped at a bar. Every channel had shown the President of the United States. We'd watched him deliver his cowboy justice speech before continuing our walk.
We'd gone to dine at Mona's, a Middle Eastern restaurant. There were only two tables taken besides me and my date. Over the course of the dinner, I'd asked the waitress where she was from. She went off to the back and returned saying, "Jerusalem." I didn't ask for more information.
After the date, I'd gone out to the bars, theatres, and other distractions. Everything was about the day's events. I'd probably saw the towers get hit and fall hundreds of times per hour. "Experts" with reporters were grabbing the limelight to offer their professional opinion(s)/observation(s). I'd begun to tune them out. It was mostly speculation with a very slow flow of facts.
Not too long after 9/11, Mona's (one of two locations in my city) was a victim of a "hate crime." Vandals had spray painted racial slurs, broke windows and set the restaurant on fire. It turns out that the waitress and her family were Palestinians from Jerusalem.
In southern Louisiana, the cajuns are often called coon-asses. Since 9/11, we've begun calling the Arabs "dune coons."
