Reply #59: Seems to me the further you are from the horror the more it effected you

[bklyncowgirl]

I once got into a political arguement with my Republican brother-in-law. At one point he said "Don't you understand 3,000 Americans were killed by terrorists. The terrorists want to kill us"

My husband, who'd been pretty quiet, said "Oh I understand it. I was standing a block away from the Trade Center, I saw the explosion when the second plane hit. Oh and by the way, a half hour ealier and I would have been in that building."

Brother-in-law, who somehow seemed to think that we'd been to busy reading Noam Chomsky or something to notice the incineration of 3000 Americans seemed surprised. I don't know how he'd missed this point. My husband's dined out on his World Trade Center eyewitness story for years.

At that point I ripped into him. Where's Osama Bin Laden? Why is he still breathing? Why did Bush turn away from the war in Afganistan which was a just war that we could have won and went into Iraq. Why is Afganistan a mess? Shouldn't we have done what we could to help that country recover? Why are the Taliban making a comeback? How does losing not one but two wars make us any safer?

Brother-in-law retreated into the back bedroom and didn't come out until dinner when all political discussion was outlawed.