Remembrance

It's hard to believe that it's been twelve years, so many things had happened between that time. But we still remember. We will never forget.

Eleven Years Ago

I had just arrived to the US three days prior, that fateful morning eleven years ago. I woke up to a chilly Pacific Northwest Fall morning, washed, gotten dressed, and was getting ready to have breakfast before heading off to school with my sister. Then the phone rang, and it was my mother who was in Hong Kong. She didn't say much, just told me to switch on the television and watch the news. There was this really old set in my living room, one of those old bulky one that still used CRT. The quality of it was pitiful, staticky at times, and with pretty faded colors. But we were having breakfast, so we just turned that on. I still remember to these days the footage I saw when the television flickered on. The commercial airliner crashing into a familiar tall building. I remember thinking to myself, this can't be true, this must be CGI, because this just can't be true. It made no sense. It happened eleven years ago, but I remember everything as if they happened last week.
Eleven years had passed, Hussein and Bin Laden are both dead, and it still doesn't make any sense.

My two cents on Republican and their pro-choice, define rape, view point.

I'm a bit late to this, and I was a little uncertain as to how I can properly express my outrage at Todd Akin's comment on how women rarely get pregnant after being raped. Then the GOP vice president candidate's comment on how proud he is with his pro-life view and it doesn't matter the method of conception. I found that I'm constantly surprised by how stupid, okay that's rude, let me rephrase. I found that I'm constantly surprised by how nonsensical (is that a better word?) people can be.

During my time studying at the US, I lived in a relatively conservative household but a fairly liberal state. I think eventually, the opinions from my more conservative family members and my liberal friends cancelled each other out. They were usually quite willing to debate their view points as well. As a result, I have always been under the impression that people in the US are quite reasonable. Then Sarah Palin happened, and I had to wonder about the Republican party's strategy. although I did think it must have been just a genuine one time mistake (albeit a pretty outlandish one), since as we all know, the US didn't pick McCain and Palin in the end. But if Palin was just a one-time political mistake, meant to draw in female voters, and counteract the Hilary Rodham Clinton effect. Then what is this new strategy of putting out a very uncharismatic candidate, and then trying to compensate for it by picking an attractive VP running mate with a P90X exercise routine? I am confused.

I have to say though, entertaining as the US presidential election campaign can be (I often compare it with TV soap opera, particularly the US produced ones). I think both parties had been missing the point a bit. They were so focused on pointing out the other party's flaws and shortcomings, they didn't really talk about what they want to and will do for America. 

Back to the discussion on rape. I leave you with this. Jon Stewart is a very witty and funny man.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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