Nine Eleven Decade

[Gn2Dlnd]

Today, at my farmer's mkt.:

1) One of the hummus guys, Mehdi is his name, asked me if I was celebrating 9/11. Shocked, I asked him what he meant by "celebrating." He said, "Do you believe in 9/11?," to which I replied, "Uh, yeah, 9/11 happened..." He said, "Well, do you think some guys, or the Taliban or something crashed the airplanes, or do you think it was an inside job?," all the while grinning at me in a way that told me his opinion would likely differ from mine. This is a guy who I've been friendly with over the years, and I was a little thrown. I dropped my helpful I-must-be-misunderstanding-you attitude, and said, "Yes, I believe those planes were crashed by exactly who we were told crashed them, and no I don't believe that our government decided to crash a few planes full of people for no good reason. I also don't think that the people of Afghanistan had anything to do with it, but George Bush and his gang made some decisions I don't agree with." As my voice was slightly raised by this point, he then beat a hasty retreat. I'm left to wonder how common is the belief in some secret governmental conspiracy regarding 9/11.

2) A customer I recognize was kind of "stuck" in front of my table for a while. After I ran out of friendly chit-chat, I asked him if the people he was waiting for had ditched him, ha-ha. He told me that he had just walked out of church in the middle of the sermon because the pastor was telling a modernized version of the story of Joseph and his brothers, at one point comparing someone in the story's behavior with the Taliban. My customer's story started escalating to the point that he started bring up some of the horrible imagery of 9/11, at which point I had to stop him, saying, "Look, I understand you're upset, but I'm incredibly sensitive about this stuff. I really can't have this conversation with you." He apologized, I felt a little bad for not being able to let him vent, but he seemed to understand. I suggested that he talk to his Pastor after he cools down, let him know how his sermon made him feel. He was obviously distressed, but he thanked me, and told me I was a "good man."

I did not turn on the news, not even KNX for traffic or NPR for the hourly update. I worked my mkt., went up to Universal and ate BBQ'd chicken for dinner, and went to my meeting. Unless there's an earthquake, I don't expect to turn on any news sources until tomorrow. That's how I spent my 9/11/11.