I'm a Nerd for a Good Cause.

Posted by Ethne~

Sorry for the lack of posting this week, Friends.  It’s TOTALLY my fault.  Partly because we’ve been busy with back-to-school stuff – the girls LOVE kindergarten but they are NOT QUITE adjusted, including but not limited to KD cutting herself a hunk of bangs.  And also because I was immersed in 9/11.  Nerd alert.

As it turns out, Sherry, from Lor’s and my fave blog, Young House Love, was in Manhattan on 9/11, and she finally shared her experience from that day.  It’s worth a read, here.  Out in Minnesota, we don’t know as many people who have a personal connection to the attacks, though there are a few of us.

I wasn’t just feeling somber about that very dark day in American history, though, I was researching the conspiracy of the hijackers and planners that led up to the day (out of interest).  I happened upon the 1200 trial exhibits released by the Department of Justice from the Zacarias Moussaoui trial back in 2005, which were FASCINATING (in a what-in-the-hell kind of way, not in a this-is-cool kind of way).

I did not read all 1200 in one night.  I’m not that big of a nerd.  Close.

But I had always wondered how they had tied Moussaoui to 9/11 itself, since he was actually in jail at the time of the attack. (Originally jailed in the town I work in actually, so there I have a connection I guess.)  Well, it was the conspiracy they linked him to (with a mountain of evidence) and he ultimately admitted to being the 20^th hijacker.  The link here, for the prosecution's exhibits, has two that were particularly interesting (click on the links and they'll come up but I couldn't link them directly from here for some reason): document GX00001 (note how he signs it) and document P200071 (note how he describes his first viewing of the Twin Towers falling), though there were 1198 that were nearly equally able to keep me up at night.  The link for the defense's exhibits is here.  These weren't eventually used at a trial since he pled guilty.

We also told the girls about 9/11 for the first time.  I let them watch the images of the planes crashing into the towers.  Then I explained that sometimes bad people do really horrible things.  I figured they’ll be seeing it and hearing about it; I’d rather they see and hear it from us first.  Do others of you out there have a hard time determining what’s age-appropriate for your kids anymore in today’s society, where everything is right there at the touch of an iPad/kindle screen?

So anyway, sorry you didn’t hear from me.  I’m doing my own (nerdy) part to remember this history, and to teach it to my kids, so we won’t be doomed to repeat it.

Never forget.

Note: school pictures are next week and I plan to do my best to make sure KD’s one piece of scraggly cut bang is visible, so it will also be recorded for all time.  No point in hiding real life.