EDITOR'S CHOICE -- SEPT. 11th LINKS:

TelevisionArchive.org - international news coverage from the week of September 11th available for streaming
FindLaw - extensive coverage
After the Fall - New York Times, 9-23
The Nation - articles about Sept. 11
CounterPunch - Sept. 11 links from around the world

Our Day of Infamy
SPECIAL to American Politics Journal
by Dave "Doctor" Gonzo

Tuesday, September 11, 2001, 3:50PM EDT -- NEW YORK (APJP) -- I was downing my third cup of coffee this morning at my kitchen table. The small television in the corner was tuned to CNN and I reading an online manual for a new "easy-to-use e-commerce solution" that was just as inscrutable and confusing as every other online store product I've taken a look at in the last couple weeks.

Suddenly, the voice of CNN anchor Carol Lin cut into the middle of a commercial with uncharacteristic urgency in her voice: "Yeah -- this JUST in, you are looking at obviously a very disturbing live shot there."

I looked up.

The image on the screen was horrific. I remember muttering, "Holy shit." There had been a massive explosion toward the top of the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

"...and we have UNCONFIRMED reports this morning that a plane has crashed into one of the towers."

I got on the phone to my wife.  She works outside the city.  I told her what I'd just seen -- and that I feared that this was just the beginning of an ominous "news day."  I called one of my consulting clients to tell them what had happened -- and rescheduled our meeting for Thursday.  I advised him to turn on his TV.  He has a TV but no cable in his office -- and told me all the local New York City stations had been knocked off the air except for the local CBS affiliate.

Being a media junkie (and a hi-fi/video fan), my wife and I have three TVs.  I fished around my closet for extension cords that I knew were buried somewhere inside and, after a couple of minutes, managed to extricate them.  The TVs in our kitchen and bedroom are on small carts along with their cable boxes and VCRs.  I quickly re-plugged both sets and wheeled them into our living/media room, where the Monster Wega was set to CNN.  Within minutes, one of the small TVs was on the local ABC affiliate (they were dead to rabbit ears but alive and well on cable, along with the NBC, FOX and WB affiliates), and the other was tuned to BBC America -- which had already switched to the feed from BBC News 24 or BBC World.

Just as I sat down on the sofa to watch how the story would play out, the phone rang.  It was Mac, who just wanted to make sure I was conscious.  Just as I was about to make my predictably sarcastic reply, Mac shouted, "Holy $#!% -- did you see that?"

"Omigod -- the other tower just blew!"

"It was another plane!"

"Huh?"

Somehow, it had escaped my view -- but about a minute later, CNN replayed the footage.  It's rare that both Mac and I can be struck speechless.

I've been on the phone almost non-stop ever since Mac's call, taking almost as many calls as I was making.  Friends here in town, a few reporters, and most of my neighbors (something you don't often encounter in Manhattan) -- but I could not get through to Washington -- or make any other long-distance calls. 

That alone made my late morning nerve-wracking -- I wanted to get through to my parents and family.  I knew that Mom and Dad would be worried sick and I just wanted to reassure them that I was okay.  But no matter how many times I speed-dialed -- on both my land lines and my cell phone -- I would get a "fast busy" that was a pretty obvious clue of a phone system overwhelmed by demand.  It took me until just after one in the afternoon to get through to them -- and of course, they had been trying to get a hold of me, with no luck.

Naturally, I've been channel-surfing.  The main TV has been on CNN or BBC most of the day, but there have been some pretty astonishing sights: the local Fox affiliate's surprisingly excellent coverage, including amazing raw and amateur footage and live reporting by Dick Oliver, far and away New York City's greatest hard-news television reporter; CNN's feed turning up on no less than seven stations (eat that, Roger Ailes!); and VH1 carrying the national CBS feed (with the words "VH1 has suspended normal programming..." on the "crawl" along the bottom of the screen -- God bless Viacom).

I needed to take a break, so I went out a few minutes ago for a breather.  I decided to go up to the roof of our building.  It doesn't have the world's greatest view of the midtown skyline, let alone Manhattan's downtown tip.  But you could still see the smoke -- a long, almost dried-blood brown plume, rising above the buildings down on 60-something Street.  It extends miles to the west.

It then hit me -- despite the somewhat trite and simplistic comparison to Pearl Harbor that I've been hearing and reading all over the place, there is no way I will ever forget that moment when my eyes were glued to the laptop on my kitchen table as I reached for my coffee and heard a shocked Carol Lin's voice saying, "Yeah -- this JUST in..."

It's a pretty safe bet that every boomer, X-er and Y-er is going to remember where they were and what they were doing not long after a quarter to nine in the morning Eastern time on September 11, 2001.  And no matter how the events to come play out, it will well be remembered as our three generations' day of infamy.