Who was I before 9-11?
Today marks the two year anniversay of the terrorist attacks on the US which brought down the world trade center. Several mailing lists I'm on have taken the opportunity to ask their readers Where were you when the attacks occurred? but what may be an even more important question to ask is Who were you BEFORE the attacks?. There is a page dedicated to reporting the various answers to this question, and here is my entry.

So who was I before 9-11?

Professionally, I was pretty much the same person. At the time I was working as the unix system adminstrator for the deans office in the College of Design, Construction, and Planning at The University of Florida. I was in charge of managing the unix and linux systems which provided web service, email, DHCP, DNS, printing, and other similar services. I often wrote code in perl and shell (bash) to get some of the tasks done, and I found the work rewarding.

Now, I'm the computer operations manager at the Department of Astronomy within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Florida. I'm responsible for the 180 or so linux, solaris, OS-X, and windows machines, as well as all of our services (DNS, DHCP, printing, etc). Professionally, things really haven't changed much since that dreadful day.

But, I think I've changed in different ways. Let me start by digging through the refuse of my email archive for a note I sent out on the dreadful day:

Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 13:12:09 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ken Sallot 
To: president@whitehouse.gov
Subject: dear Mr. President

I just wanted to say that the prayers of myself and my family go with the
victims of this tragedy, and yourself for the tough road ahead.

Sincerely,

Ken Sallot

The emotions that I was filled with that day were strong.

How could someone do this to our country? How did our intelligence agencies miss these attacks? Why would they go after us? Who will pay for these crimes? Let's get revenge!

Initially I supported the presidents reaction, and the beginning of his war on terror. I felt that someone had to pay for the crimes that were committed against mi patria, and like many of my fellow Americans, the blood lust raged within me.

However, as time marched on and I saw the things our country was doing in the name of national security and the war on terror I began to grow concerned. Stories of unlawful detentions of foreign nationals started to circulate in many of the underground news outlets. Although I initially supported some of these actions, as the shock of the September 11th attacks wore off, I began to see the sinister way in which our leaders were using the attacks as a mandate to engage in any action they wanted.

People were being interrogated, threatened, and having guns pointed at their head for no reason other than "homeland security." Our rights have been eroded; laws such as the Patriot Act which give broad powers to the department of justice were rushed into place. But our leaders weren't happy with those powers and have sought more..

The "Terrorism" Information Awareness (TIA) program is now being pushed through the channels of government; it will allow the government to monitor almost every aspect of your daily life (where you had lunch, what books you bought from borders, the type of music you listen to, etc) and develop profiles with which they could seek out the "undesirables".

Librarians are now required to submit the names of people who read subversive works to the FBI. One of the best ways for us to learn from history is by reading the works of the past, and there is no reason for someone who reads Marx and Guevera to be turned in for trying to expand their mind. Even many City Councils have stood up and taken notice, and recognized the erosion of our rights under the Patriot Act.

Meanwhile, back in D.C., our leaders march on. They've marched us into a war in Iraq, when there has been no positive link proving a connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden, but a positive link to the country and Halliburton has been proven.

The war in Iraq was engaged under the premise that Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that he was a threat to our country. The U.N. Weapons Inspectors could not find any proof of WMD, and to this date no weapons of mass destruction were displayed in Iraq.

The war in Iraq bothers me deeply because it was started in an effort to root out terrorism, but unfortunately we have become the terrorists in this action. A five year old Iraqi child does not understand what is going on in his country; he just knows that before the Americans came, his father and brother were alive and living with them, and they had running water and electricity. But, once the Americans came, all of that changed. He can't play with his friends, he can't get enough fresh water for his family, his father and brother may be dead and his life has been shattered.

That child may well grow up to become the worst terrorist we could ever imagine in our wildest dreams. He may grow up in a fundamental society so filled with rage and hatred towards America, a hatred borne from the fear that we have instilled in him, that the hatred may very well consume his every thought for the rest of his life. And, when he is old enough, he may decide to do something about his hatred and seek revenge against our country.

Although I have joined the ACLU, made enough phone calls to D.C. that the White House is in my cell phone speed dial (202-456-1111 if you care), and written my senators and congressmen, I feel powerless to stop the madness. At this point, the only chance for hope I have is that the 2004 presidential election is not once again stolen.

Meanwhile, as Ashcroft, Bush and Cheney, marched forward with their actions, a poem by Martin Niemoller keeps repeating in my mind...

They came for the Communists, and I didn't object - For I wasn't a Communist;
They came for the Socialists, and I didn't object - For I wasn't a Socialist;
They came for the labor leaders, and I didn't object - For I wasn't a labor leader;
They came for the Jews, and I didn't object - For I wasn't a Jew;
Then they came for me - And there was no one left to object.

Posted at: 17:24 on 11/09/2003   [ /essays ] #