I couldn’t sleep last night very well. 9/11 was playing in my head. It’s interesting, on the five previous anniversaries I didn’t give 9/11 much thought but with a baby on the way that day’s events are playing in my head in Technicolor.
It’s too bad that my blogs from that day are gone forever due to my own ineptitude. Translation: I didn’t back them up.
But, they do live on as memories. Not the good kind, either. The kind that are reserved for horrible events. Why does the human brain store those so well? I can play back the 1989 earthquake. The Shuttle crash. Elvis dying. Yosemite flooding. And 9/11 back over and over in HD in my brain.
Of the good events in my life my wedding and the birth of Patrick are the only ones stored in this kind of clarity in my head.
Speaking of Patrick, I remember letting him watch that morning’s events on CNN. I remember then thinking maybe I was being a bad parent. I’ve had that thought since then cause Patrick has been afraid of flying ever since then and has taken fewer risks than he might otherwise have done.
I remember thinking I wanted him to understand why his world was messed up. Why he needed to stand in sometimes hour-long security lines at airports. Why we were at war with Iraq. Why the economy of his world will be worse than it would have been otherwise.
9/11/01 was a different time. I’ve had four jobs since then (Userland, NEC, Microsoft, and now PodTech). I’ve moved four times. I was married to someone different. I have had four cars, one accident (which also is stored in my brain in HD). My mom was still alive. So was my grandma.
That was a world without Flickr. Without HD. Without YouTube. Without Ustream. Without Facebook. Without Google Reader. Without WordPress. Without Twitter. Without Del.icio.us. Without iPhone.
I read Mark Cuban today and realize I, too, pinch myself every day and realize I have an ultra wonderful life. Especially after a day I had yesterday when I interviewed my good friend Shel Israel, two CEOs (including one who runs one of the world’s great processor companies), and someone named Zuckerberg. Almost all of it shared with my friend and producer Rocky Barbanica.
So much of our world has changed in six short years. Weird, I’m “J, J, J, J”ing through Google Reader’s feeds and just found Christopher Penn who already wrote most of what I’m writing here.
Sometime soon (real soon now) Maryam and I will bring a new life into the world.
It’s focusing my attention on what Penn asked: how do you improve the world?
Anyway, I’m off with Maryam to see her doctor. We’ll Twitter as soon as something changes.
Just wanted to say thank you to all the people who’ve made this life better, particularly the firefighters, the police officers, and those other people who serve to make the world a better place.
Scobleizer 
We remember the bad stuff as a survival instinct. It’s hardwired into our bodies. We may not know the names of all those other berries, but those bright red ones by the creek made Bob’s head explode – don’t eat those. We remember the bad stuff to help us not have it happen again…
… assuming we’re paying attention.
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We remember the bad stuff as a survival instinct. It’s hardwired into our bodies. We may not know the names of all those other berries, but those bright red ones by the creek made Bob’s head explode – don’t eat those. We remember the bad stuff to help us not have it happen again…
… assuming we’re paying attention.
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9/11 cinched my son’s desire to join the military after his high school graduation and led him to pick Marine Infanty. He still suffers from all the different results of that decision and always will. But he’d do it all again.
You hear “9/11 changed everything.” Some people mock that statement, but for our family, it’s certainly true.
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9/11 cinched my son’s desire to join the military after his high school graduation and led him to pick Marine Infanty. He still suffers from all the different results of that decision and always will. But he’d do it all again.
You hear “9/11 changed everything.” Some people mock that statement, but for our family, it’s certainly true.
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On 9/11/01, we didn’t quite realize that the Internet bubble had burst. Our world, for so very many reasons, was never going to be the same.
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On 9/11/01, we didn’t quite realize that the Internet bubble had burst. Our world, for so very many reasons, was never going to be the same.
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“afraid of flying”
Only a few hundred died in the planes – thousands died in the towers, if you’re going to be scared of anything it should be of being in tall buildings.
“taken fewer risks”
Everything we do has repercussions – it’s not a bad lesson to learn, the ability to learn from other people’s mistakes is surprisingly rare.
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“afraid of flying”
Only a few hundred died in the planes – thousands died in the towers, if you’re going to be scared of anything it should be of being in tall buildings.
“taken fewer risks”
Everything we do has repercussions – it’s not a bad lesson to learn, the ability to learn from other people’s mistakes is surprisingly rare.
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Hey Robert,
I remember that day well also. I remember going back to my daughter’s pre-school class to retrieve her after I saw the first plane hit. I knew immediately what was happening and if the attack was going to be broad I wanted Nina back where we could protect her.
I remember waking up in the middle of the night, early in the morning on 9/12 actually and seeing guys climbing all over the rubble wearing PAPD jackets. In my grogginess I remember thinking that there must have been another bombing in Israel (figuring it was Palestinian Authority Police Department) then I realized what was going on.
I remember my wife finding out that one of her co-worker’s lost her husband in the second tower, and a whole lot of things that were just so far out of the realm of the expected.
It was a day I hope we don’t relive.
Chris
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Hey Robert,
I remember that day well also. I remember going back to my daughter’s pre-school class to retrieve her after I saw the first plane hit. I knew immediately what was happening and if the attack was going to be broad I wanted Nina back where we could protect her.
I remember waking up in the middle of the night, early in the morning on 9/12 actually and seeing guys climbing all over the rubble wearing PAPD jackets. In my grogginess I remember thinking that there must have been another bombing in Israel (figuring it was Palestinian Authority Police Department) then I realized what was going on.
I remember my wife finding out that one of her co-worker’s lost her husband in the second tower, and a whole lot of things that were just so far out of the realm of the expected.
It was a day I hope we don’t relive.
Chris
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> Why we were at war with Iraq.
I’m sorry, what?
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> Why we were at war with Iraq.
I’m sorry, what?
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> Why we were at war with Iraq.
“I’m sorry, what?”
I agree completely. As a NYer who was there, don’t make casual connections btwn the two events.
9/11 gave Bush the cover to force us into Iraq. The two aren’t connected.
6 yrs or 60 years, don’t forget that.
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> Why we were at war with Iraq.
“I’m sorry, what?”
I agree completely. As a NYer who was there, don’t make casual connections btwn the two events.
9/11 gave Bush the cover to force us into Iraq. The two aren’t connected.
6 yrs or 60 years, don’t forget that.
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Robert, you should change that comment regarding being at war with Iraq being based on 9/11. It’s bad enough that so many Americans actually believe that Iraq had something to do with those events and there’s no reason that lie should be spread any further.
You are at war with Iraq because of oil and your president and a few of those other dudes who have since all quit.
The whole world sympathized with the US on 9/11 and continues to do so, but the war in Iraq should NEVER be confused with this horrible event.
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Robert, you should change that comment regarding being at war with Iraq being based on 9/11. It’s bad enough that so many Americans actually believe that Iraq had something to do with those events and there’s no reason that lie should be spread any further.
You are at war with Iraq because of oil and your president and a few of those other dudes who have since all quit.
The whole world sympathized with the US on 9/11 and continues to do so, but the war in Iraq should NEVER be confused with this horrible event.
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“I remember thinking I wanted him to understand why his world was messed up. Why he needed to stand in sometimes hour-long security lines at airports. Why we were at war with Iraq. Why the economy of his world will be worse than it would have been otherwise.”
I’d be very curious to hear exactly what your “why” is!
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“I remember thinking I wanted him to understand why his world was messed up. Why he needed to stand in sometimes hour-long security lines at airports. Why we were at war with Iraq. Why the economy of his world will be worse than it would have been otherwise.”
I’d be very curious to hear exactly what your “why” is!
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I remember exactly where I was when I first heard as well as all things that happened that day. Much has changed for me as well in that time period. I am awaiting the birth of my first child (October 20th or so) and am now married. I took a job flying on september 19th 2001. Most thought I was crazy and I often thought about it wondering just what I was doing. But it has been important to me to keep flying. Just to not be afraid.
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I remember exactly where I was when I first heard as well as all things that happened that day. Much has changed for me as well in that time period. I am awaiting the birth of my first child (October 20th or so) and am now married. I took a job flying on september 19th 2001. Most thought I was crazy and I often thought about it wondering just what I was doing. But it has been important to me to keep flying. Just to not be afraid.
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the two technically are NOT connected, but 9/11 certainly gave Bush the political power to get us into this war. Without 9/11 he would never have been able to convince people that the war was necessary and, even if he had, he would never have been able to get reelected. Even today he holds the “terrorists” over our head as a reason to stay involved there.
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the two technically are NOT connected, but 9/11 certainly gave Bush the political power to get us into this war. Without 9/11 he would never have been able to convince people that the war was necessary and, even if he had, he would never have been able to get reelected. Even today he holds the “terrorists” over our head as a reason to stay involved there.
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Ah! Yes, if interpreted as “excuse” rather than “reason”, I could not agree more.
So in a sense, the question to all your “Why”s would be “having a psychotic PNAC-inspired and/or born-again government”… or maybe that’s just me?
It’s all just so sad. Let’s just hope next year doesn’t bring another “terrorist attack” just in time to ensure another four years of abuse of the Constitution.
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Ah! Yes, if interpreted as “excuse” rather than “reason”, I could not agree more.
So in a sense, the question to all your “Why”s would be “having a psychotic PNAC-inspired and/or born-again government”… or maybe that’s just me?
It’s all just so sad. Let’s just hope next year doesn’t bring another “terrorist attack” just in time to ensure another four years of abuse of the Constitution.
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I remember that day having just moved here from NYC -dropping to my knees in our conference room as I watched the towers fall – driving home and thanking all powers that be that all of our friends and family in NYC and DC were safe. I remember the call that Scott was missing – he had been chosen as the breakfast keynote speaker at a conference at Windows on The World – I remember frantically trying to find him on the lists of the missing and I remember his face on the flyer as his brother stood looking for him as I watched on CNBC. I remember the love and laughter shared between us, the dreams we had and oh the fun. There was nobody with more friends than he -he was loved by all. Life came between us and we went our ways but there is not one day that goes by that I do not think of him. We are lucky to have people fighting for our freedom and you can fight about the war tomorrow but make sure to kiss those you love and tell them that they mean something to you today – it is about Scott and all of the others lost that day.
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I remember that day having just moved here from NYC -dropping to my knees in our conference room as I watched the towers fall – driving home and thanking all powers that be that all of our friends and family in NYC and DC were safe. I remember the call that Scott was missing – he had been chosen as the breakfast keynote speaker at a conference at Windows on The World – I remember frantically trying to find him on the lists of the missing and I remember his face on the flyer as his brother stood looking for him as I watched on CNBC. I remember the love and laughter shared between us, the dreams we had and oh the fun. There was nobody with more friends than he -he was loved by all. Life came between us and we went our ways but there is not one day that goes by that I do not think of him. We are lucky to have people fighting for our freedom and you can fight about the war tomorrow but make sure to kiss those you love and tell them that they mean something to you today – it is about Scott and all of the others lost that day.
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I agree, leave your war politics on the backburner for today, if you can. Today is for remembering all the innocents lost, and a time that we will never, ever, be able to go back to again. We need to learn from this, or sadly, like other things, we will be doomed to repeat it. Let us all hope that never comes to pass.
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I agree, leave your war politics on the backburner for today, if you can. Today is for remembering all the innocents lost, and a time that we will never, ever, be able to go back to again. We need to learn from this, or sadly, like other things, we will be doomed to repeat it. Let us all hope that never comes to pass.
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“I remember thinking I wanted him to understand why his world was messed up.”
Three thousand died in the Twin Towers.
18,000 die every year from lack of health care.
Over a thousand died from Katrina in New Orleans, alone. Hundreds, if not thousands, have died since then based on other natural events, including over exposure to heat and cold.
Your sons’ lives will be less impacted by terrorism, and more impacted from tthe degrading state of health care and global warming leading to the decreasing quality of life, increased disease, world famine…basically their lives will be impacted by how you live yours now, Robert.
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“I remember thinking I wanted him to understand why his world was messed up.”
Three thousand died in the Twin Towers.
18,000 die every year from lack of health care.
Over a thousand died from Katrina in New Orleans, alone. Hundreds, if not thousands, have died since then based on other natural events, including over exposure to heat and cold.
Your sons’ lives will be less impacted by terrorism, and more impacted from tthe degrading state of health care and global warming leading to the decreasing quality of life, increased disease, world famine…basically their lives will be impacted by how you live yours now, Robert.
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Yeah the Iraq comment sort of damaged what was otherwise an intelligent post-I hope you have an explanation for making such a dangerously ignorant statement. That mindset is why Bush is still our President and why so many people still blame Saddam Hussein for 9/11. That is completely absurd, and Bush’s propaganda clearly rubbed off on you if you casually associate Iraq with 9/11 in that manner.
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Yeah the Iraq comment sort of damaged what was otherwise an intelligent post-I hope you have an explanation for making such a dangerously ignorant statement. That mindset is why Bush is still our President and why so many people still blame Saddam Hussein for 9/11. That is completely absurd, and Bush’s propaganda clearly rubbed off on you if you casually associate Iraq with 9/11 in that manner.
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Robert,
You wrote a beautiful post. I often wonder why people dig into your content like lawyers looking for a loophole. I wish the people who comment here would cut you some slack.
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Robert,
You wrote a beautiful post. I often wonder why people dig into your content like lawyers looking for a loophole. I wish the people who comment here would cut you some slack.
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The heck with connecting Iraq and 9/11. What I don’t understand is mentioning Elvis dying and 9/11 in the same sentence. Elvis dying? In HD? I can understand Lennon getting shot..but…Elvis dying? ;-).
The world was without HD in 2001? What was I watching on my HDTV on DirectTV HDNet then?
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The heck with connecting Iraq and 9/11. What I don’t understand is mentioning Elvis dying and 9/11 in the same sentence. Elvis dying? In HD? I can understand Lennon getting shot..but…Elvis dying? ;-).
The world was without HD in 2001? What was I watching on my HDTV on DirectTV HDNet then?
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Yeah, and Germany didn’t have anything to do with December 7th and should never have been included in *that* war, right?
Al Zarqawi was in Iraq before we invaded. Most of the people we’ve lost, including many of my son’s friends, were killed because of the relationships he forged and training he oversaw in Iraq well before 9/11.
Al Queda has everything to do with Iraq. Their leaders internally call Iraq their main front. My son was there. He killed them face to face. They weren’t Iraqis. They were mostly from Saudi Arabia and Syria. My son still has shrapnel in him from Iranian grenades.
If you think Iraq has nothing to do with 9/11, you’re dead wrong.
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Yeah, and Germany didn’t have anything to do with December 7th and should never have been included in *that* war, right?
Al Zarqawi was in Iraq before we invaded. Most of the people we’ve lost, including many of my son’s friends, were killed because of the relationships he forged and training he oversaw in Iraq well before 9/11.
Al Queda has everything to do with Iraq. Their leaders internally call Iraq their main front. My son was there. He killed them face to face. They weren’t Iraqis. They were mostly from Saudi Arabia and Syria. My son still has shrapnel in him from Iranian grenades.
If you think Iraq has nothing to do with 9/11, you’re dead wrong.
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“That was a world without Flickr. Without HD. Without YouTube. Without Ustream. Without Facebook. Without Google Reader. Without WordPress. Without Twitter. Without Del.icio.us. Without iPhone.”
This was a beautiful post. Why do we dig in to the posts? We could have mentioned 9/11 without mentioning the meaningless technological events. Facebook, WordPress, iPhone? Honestly, I’d do without all of the above. Those are not things that I reflect on when thinking about 9/11.
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“That was a world without Flickr. Without HD. Without YouTube. Without Ustream. Without Facebook. Without Google Reader. Without WordPress. Without Twitter. Without Del.icio.us. Without iPhone.”
This was a beautiful post. Why do we dig in to the posts? We could have mentioned 9/11 without mentioning the meaningless technological events. Facebook, WordPress, iPhone? Honestly, I’d do without all of the above. Those are not things that I reflect on when thinking about 9/11.
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Dawn. Al Zarqawi was not in Iraq prior to 9/11, and when he did go there prior to the invasion, he set up in the North, out of Saddam’s reach.
Having a son in the Marines, serving in Iraq does not change that. What has happened since 9/11 was not a cause of 9/11. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, and it’s unfortunate that some people have swallowed that lie in the face of the evidence. Dead wrong? Because of that lie, hundreds of thousands are now dead, full stop.
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Dawn. Al Zarqawi was not in Iraq prior to 9/11, and when he did go there prior to the invasion, he set up in the North, out of Saddam’s reach.
Having a son in the Marines, serving in Iraq does not change that. What has happened since 9/11 was not a cause of 9/11. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, and it’s unfortunate that some people have swallowed that lie in the face of the evidence. Dead wrong? Because of that lie, hundreds of thousands are now dead, full stop.
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I never said that Iraq caused 9/11. But the fact is that Iraq and 9/11 are now deeply intertwined, just as the bombing of Pearl Harbor was deeply intertwined with WWII and always will be, even though Hitler did not bomb Pearl Harbor.
Why is this so hard to understand?
As for Zarqawi, he can be trace to Iraq as early as 1999.
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I never said that Iraq caused 9/11. But the fact is that Iraq and 9/11 are now deeply intertwined, just as the bombing of Pearl Harbor was deeply intertwined with WWII and always will be, even though Hitler did not bomb Pearl Harbor.
Why is this so hard to understand?
As for Zarqawi, he can be trace to Iraq as early as 1999.
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Really good thoughts your blogg.
I do not understand why we remember the bad things about people, places and events, but we do.
I remember the faces and names of the clunks, cheaters and generally unhappy customers from my businesses, but the majority of my customers were great. Why don’t their faces and names hang in there?
Human nature I suppose.
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@16 “18,000 die every year from lack of health care.”
And 98,000 die per year due to preventable medical errors. So statistically, comparing these two data points, one has a better chance of surviving without health care.
Didn’t we have hurricanes and other natural disasters BEFORE global warming? Are you suggesting solving “global warming” will rid us of natural disasters? 5
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Really good thoughts your blogg.
I do not understand why we remember the bad things about people, places and events, but we do.
I remember the faces and names of the clunks, cheaters and generally unhappy customers from my businesses, but the majority of my customers were great. Why don’t their faces and names hang in there?
Human nature I suppose.
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@16 “18,000 die every year from lack of health care.”
And 98,000 die per year due to preventable medical errors. So statistically, comparing these two data points, one has a better chance of surviving without health care.
Didn’t we have hurricanes and other natural disasters BEFORE global warming? Are you suggesting solving “global warming” will rid us of natural disasters? 5
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Shel, people responding to Robert in sincerity but in disagreement are paying him the highest compliment of their attention. You need to learn this.
Dawn, good lord. You must live in Missouri.
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Shel, people responding to Robert in sincerity but in disagreement are paying him the highest compliment of their attention. You need to learn this.
Dawn, good lord. You must live in Missouri.
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“You must live in Missouri.”
Your condescending response pays compliments to no one, least of all to yourself. Oh, wait, you were just joking, right? Right.
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“You must live in Missouri.”
Your condescending response pays compliments to no one, least of all to yourself. Oh, wait, you were just joking, right? Right.
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Just remember Robert no matter what the pundits say and what the political talk coming out of people’s mouth their are still a hell of a lot of fanatical Muslims that would prefer that every American be erased from the face of the earth.
I served in both Afghanistan and Iraq and can say with some certainty that many in this country only believe what they hear on TV and are very much out of touch with reality.
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Just remember Robert no matter what the pundits say and what the political talk coming out of people’s mouth their are still a hell of a lot of fanatical Muslims that would prefer that every American be erased from the face of the earth.
I served in both Afghanistan and Iraq and can say with some certainty that many in this country only believe what they hear on TV and are very much out of touch with reality.
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Todd: I know a lot of fanatical Americans who would prefer that every San Franciscan be erased from the face of the earth too.
My wife is Muslim, by the way. There are plenty of them that love America and Americans.
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Todd: I know a lot of fanatical Americans who would prefer that every San Franciscan be erased from the face of the earth too.
My wife is Muslim, by the way. There are plenty of them that love America and Americans.
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“That was a world without Flickr. Without HD. Without YouTube. Without Ustream. Without Facebook. Without Google Reader. Without WordPress. Without Twitter. Without Del.icio.us. Without iPhone.”
Wow.. I didn’t even think about that. I was in college at the time and was hosting a radio show on an internet radio station. Of course, I wish I had a copy of my website from back then. Would be interesting to see how crappy it looked!
Of course, I remember where I was on 9/11.. I had a 9:30 am class I had to get to. The alarm was set for 7am, so I had time to shower (before the roommate, we had a problem with the drain in the shower, so it would back up and I didn’t want to shower in his “lake”). When the alarm went off, I was greeted to Bob and Brian on (the now defunct) Lazer 103 in Milwaukee stating something was happening in NYC and that they didn’t know what they were going to do. Immediately, I jumped up and flipped on the TV. Seeing what was happening I woke my roommate up (he was not happy about that until I said “look” and pointed at the TV). Anyway, I spent most of the day watching things happen in my friends room next door. We were all broadcasting kids, so watching all of these stations go wall-to-wall with nothing but news was unprecedented.
-A
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“That was a world without Flickr. Without HD. Without YouTube. Without Ustream. Without Facebook. Without Google Reader. Without WordPress. Without Twitter. Without Del.icio.us. Without iPhone.”
Wow.. I didn’t even think about that. I was in college at the time and was hosting a radio show on an internet radio station. Of course, I wish I had a copy of my website from back then. Would be interesting to see how crappy it looked!
Of course, I remember where I was on 9/11.. I had a 9:30 am class I had to get to. The alarm was set for 7am, so I had time to shower (before the roommate, we had a problem with the drain in the shower, so it would back up and I didn’t want to shower in his “lake”). When the alarm went off, I was greeted to Bob and Brian on (the now defunct) Lazer 103 in Milwaukee stating something was happening in NYC and that they didn’t know what they were going to do. Immediately, I jumped up and flipped on the TV. Seeing what was happening I woke my roommate up (he was not happy about that until I said “look” and pointed at the TV). Anyway, I spent most of the day watching things happen in my friends room next door. We were all broadcasting kids, so watching all of these stations go wall-to-wall with nothing but news was unprecedented.
-A
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I’m heartened to see some people pointing out your painfully wrong logic mid way in your post.
If you can’t sleep very well last night with ~3,00 people dying in 9/11, what about the > 600,000 citizens killed (at least) in Iraq, due to the Iraq war initiated by the U.S. preemptively.
More than 200 times more people, dead, directly due to an action by your president.
Please be more intelligent and don’t drink the pernicious administration’s kool aid, and try and link Iraq with 9/11.
They were not linked.
9/11 purported to be due to Al Qaeda (the new boogey men). 80% of them came from Saudi Arabia (and the US recently gave them a juicy arms contract, right?). Al Qaeda holed up in say, Pakistan. So Bush goes after Hussein. In Iraq. Say what?
If you can’t see this is for oil, and having an empire-like control in other people’s countries, then you need to play catch up.
If you care about Patrick, you’ll want him to have correct information on what happened on 9/11. It was turned into political material to cause war crimes,
I think you need more than just CNN for him. Just giving him one view would be being a bad parent.
“I remember thinking I wanted him to understand why his world was messed up. Why he needed to stand in sometimes hour-long security lines at airports. Why we were at war with Iraq. Why the economy of his world will be worse than it would have been otherwise.”
I would like to hear the link between9/11 and “why we were at war in Iraq”.
“It’s focusing my attention on what Penn asked: how do you improve the world?”
Let’s start with getting accurate information, a clear view on your country’s foreign policy, eh?
People take issue about this because it is important, and we care that people are well informed. Ask Colin Powell about what happens to reputations when you’re misinformed. (the icecream van/WMD truck powerpoint for example).
If you’re going to bring politics into posts, then get it accurate, as you’ll get plenty of legitimate replies if it’s not
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I’m heartened to see some people pointing out your painfully wrong logic mid way in your post.
If you can’t sleep very well last night with ~3,00 people dying in 9/11, what about the > 600,000 citizens killed (at least) in Iraq, due to the Iraq war initiated by the U.S. preemptively.
More than 200 times more people, dead, directly due to an action by your president.
Please be more intelligent and don’t drink the pernicious administration’s kool aid, and try and link Iraq with 9/11.
They were not linked.
9/11 purported to be due to Al Qaeda (the new boogey men). 80% of them came from Saudi Arabia (and the US recently gave them a juicy arms contract, right?). Al Qaeda holed up in say, Pakistan. So Bush goes after Hussein. In Iraq. Say what?
If you can’t see this is for oil, and having an empire-like control in other people’s countries, then you need to play catch up.
If you care about Patrick, you’ll want him to have correct information on what happened on 9/11. It was turned into political material to cause war crimes,
I think you need more than just CNN for him. Just giving him one view would be being a bad parent.
“I remember thinking I wanted him to understand why his world was messed up. Why he needed to stand in sometimes hour-long security lines at airports. Why we were at war with Iraq. Why the economy of his world will be worse than it would have been otherwise.”
I would like to hear the link between9/11 and “why we were at war in Iraq”.
“It’s focusing my attention on what Penn asked: how do you improve the world?”
Let’s start with getting accurate information, a clear view on your country’s foreign policy, eh?
People take issue about this because it is important, and we care that people are well informed. Ask Colin Powell about what happens to reputations when you’re misinformed. (the icecream van/WMD truck powerpoint for example).
If you’re going to bring politics into posts, then get it accurate, as you’ll get plenty of legitimate replies if it’s not
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