September 11, 2001
It seems trite to write anything about this, but I can't just ignore it. I'm still not sure how to react to the terrorist attack that destroyed the World Trade Center towers and -- according to the last guess I heard -- at least 10,000 lives. I heard about it today at a coffee shop on my way to work, that a plane had crashed into the first tower. Once at work, I found that I could do little else but watch, listen, and read about what was going on.
The major (American) news sites on the Web were dog slow, but still I managed to find information, largely thanks to a few webloggers -- most notably Dave Winer on his scripting.com. Sites that typically focus on technical news, like Slashdot, picked up the slack and disseminated what information they could. CNN.com was unreachable for some time, but Google made a cached version of its news coverage available. And I have to congratulate whoever at CNN.com had the bright idea of minimizing its page design to reduce server load and make it possible to get to the site.
Kiara, when she heard that the World Trade Center had collapsed, was terrified, thinking that it was the WTC in Saint Paul. I don't work there now, but I'm still there every now and then.
Still, none of it felt real until I read about counselors waiting at bus stops to deal with children whose parents are never coming home.
