When someone sticks a microphone in one's face

RantWoman spent a wonderful evening among Friends speaking of the challenge of articulating invitations to what it means to be a Friend. RantWoman for some reason was quite attentive, not merely her usual brash and opinionated self. Somewhere in the course of the evening while thinking of what it means to speak of being Quaker in a time when Quakers cannot necessarily be identified by manner of dress, though, RantWoman's mind wandered toward remembrances of September 11, 2001. One reason is that someone shortly thereafter stuck a microphone in RantWoman's face and asked her to give an accounting of her views as a Quaker. Thanks to the wonders of search engines, more on that shortly.

RantWoman remembers a number of points.

--RantWoman heard of the first plane hitting a tower as her alarm clock clicked on the radio. RantWoman thought she must be dreaming, but when the news was repeated a little while later, RantWoman mumbled something like "Holy Cow" and summoned the cat to go turn on CNN.


--RantWoman had employment that one might not necessarily expect of such as RantWoman as a systems programmer contractor for a certain large local aircraft manufacturing entity. RantWoman told the person who interviewd her that as long as she understands what she is to count....; RantWoman hired on with absolute clarity that she would only work on civilian projects; when the civil aviation market slumped after September 11, it appeared that the company might get a contract to build fighter planes and that the group RantWoman worked in might get assigned to the fighter contract. At that point, RantWoman and the long commute and the sclerotic relations between longtime staff and contractor initiatives parted company; the fighter contract went to someone else and RantWoman has only her experiences on September 11.

On Sept. 11, RantWoman remembers blindly thinking she should still go to work; RantWoman remembers the bus tunnel just being jammed with people who usually ride commuter buses: many buildings downtown closed and everyone who usually rode peak-hour buses was trying to get home on the regular routes.

It was a great comfort actually to be at work. It was not a great comfort to experience every second of some co-workers' views, but RantWoman found it quite easy to unite with those who wer appalled that a product they were proud of had been turned into weapons.

RantWoman remembers checking the news updates for names of friends, friends' parents, people she knew in the Pentagon. RantWOman remembers sparkling clarity about the appropriateness of a special called Meeting for Worship. RantWoman expects she could say more; more now RantWoman is grateful for the words she was given in the interview.


http://www.seattleweekly.com/2001-11-07/news/a-matter-of-faith/1/