dichotomy We're all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. (Oscar Wilde)

Ich war die ganze Nacht wach gewesen, hatte mit T. telefoniert oder gechattet? Neverwinter Nights gespielt? Ich weiß nicht mehr. Wir verabschiedeten uns online, kurz darauf klingelte mein Telefon – T. war dran und meinte, ich solle den Fernseher anmachen. Ich weiß noch, dass mein erster Gedanke „Krieg“ war und ich Angst hatte, der Rest verschwimmt. Ich war im IRC, die gängigen Webseiten waren alle down. Meinen Freunden in den Staaten schrieb ich Emails, weil einige von ihnen Verwandte in New York hatten.

Trotz allem natürlich die obligatorische Gesellschaftskritik …

Up and down this road I go
Skippin‘ and dodgin‘
From a 44

10:03 on a Tuesday morning
In the fall of an American dream
A man is doing what he knows is right
On flight 93
He loved his mom and he loved his dad
He loved his home and he loved his man
But on that bloody Tuesday morning
He died an American

Now you cannot change this
You can’t erase this
You can’t pretend this is not the truth

Even though he could not marry
Or teach your children in our schools
Because who he wants to love
Is breaking your Gods‘ rules
He stood up on a Tuesday morning
In the terror he was brave
And he made his choice
And without a doubt
A hundred lives he must have saved

And the things you might take for granted
Your inalienable rights
Some might chose to deny him
Even though he gave his life
Can you live with yourself in the land of the free
And make him less of a hero than the other three
Well it might begin to change ya
In a field in Pennsylvania

Stand up America
Hear the bell now as it tolls
Wake up America
It’s Tuesday morning
Come on let’s roll

– Melissa Etheridge, Tuesday Morning (zu finden auf dem großartigen Album Lucky„)

Zum Hintergrund:

„I remember getting People magazine with the stories of Flight 93, how these heroes did it. They get to Mark Bingham and there’s his lover, and I thought, ‚Oh my god!‘ I hadn’t heard that until I saw the People magazine. Time goes by, and the government starts putting out the benefits for the families of those who lost their lives; a certain percentage of people who lost their lives, of course, were homosexual-at least 10% of any population is gonna be homosexual-and the government says no. All of a sudden, that felt uncomfortable.

Wäre ich in den Türmen gewesen, wäre mein Leben weniger wert gewesen als das der meisten anderen. Kein schöner Gedanke.