Reflections...

And the day began as usual on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Mike & Brad were finishing breakfast while watching the 6:30 Morning News on KOAT Channel 7...

...during the 9/11/01 attack, Crystal City was evacuated; our chiropractor was on a plane heading from DC to CA when all hell broke loose...New Mexicans like to have parties, fiestas, festivals and fairs almost any weekend (or weekday) of the year except voting day; liquor cannot be sold until all the polls are closed ...New Mexico residents helping the disaster teams at the Pentagon...learning about AFBs' in New Mexico: Kirtland (ABQ), Holloman (White Sands; location of Stealth bombers) & Cannon (Clovis, NM where F-16 Fighters are based)...a US mail truck being stopped at Cannon AFB, the 'suspicious' package found inside was a case of tamales...and I never thought I would include or be talking about an actual war in my web page...there is a new word derived from this new war: Hypervigilant...'Friendly Fire' striking a Red Cross tent in Afghanistan and 'stray' missles struck residential areas in Kabul...the new meaning of the phrase 'business as usual', which is revised on a daily basis...the number of attacks increased in frequency & intensity as the weeks progressed...this war will also be known as Operation: Enduring Freedom!...

"I never thought a war would appear on my web page!"
The revision of the revised name for this conflict: 'Operation Enduring Freedom'.


"...and nothing will ever be the same!" RHPS


"...and thus it continues."

"It is your patriotic duty to shop!" Mayor Rudolph Guiliani, NYC, 2001

Take time to pause;
remember the past,
and hope for a better future.

...on 10/22/01, Congress agreed that it was not 'business as normal'...closing down the Capitol, plus the Senate & House chambers, during the second & third weeks in October, 2001 due to the anthrax scare...being told to spend money to boost the economy, followed by the list of companies who have laid off or will lay off thousands of employees...being told not to panic, then stating that thousands of people will be laid off from some big company, and the number of people infected by anthrax is increasing regularly; hence, the 'white powder scare', the rush for CIPRO, and the deaths of DC postal workers, thus breeding panic!...the fact that hospital, politicians and intelligence organizations did not know how to cope with an emergency situation that was worsening on a daily basis...the Taliban are using women & children as 'human shields'; similar tactics were used by Iraq during the Gulf Crisis...the American public was told not to view the tragic events of 9/11/01 over & over, in order to avoid depression; however, the public has to watch the events regarding the anthrax scare in order to be kept informed...

...10/24/01: the day the postal service said it could not guarantee the safety of the mail, Americans should 'be careful' & wash their hands after opening envelopes...no one is prepared to handle the anthrax crisis...postal workers sent home after being treated for the disease...more anthrax germs found in the elevator of the Hart Senate Office Bldg. (which house Sen. Daschle's [D-SD] ofice), one person affected...germs could have leaked from the envelope on its entire route to DC...10/26/01; add the CIA, Walter Reed Hospital & Supreme Court, during the last week in October, the HHS & FDA...Operation: Green Quest, the plan to freeze terrorists' assets in USA (and the world)...the World Trade Center stills smolders, the air quality is poor, people in lower Manhattan do not have power or any utilities by late October and removing all the debris will take a year...the problems we faced: airplane travel, economy, high unemployment, anticipation fear, anthrax, war in Afghanistan, stocks and other types of warfare such as germ or nuclear..and more than one envelope with anthrax may be drifting through DC; and on 11/16/01, Investigators have found an anthrax-tainted letter addressed to Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the second bearing the deadly germ sent to Capitol Hill, law enforcement officials said Friday; Sen. Leahy says there was enough anthrax in the letter sent to his office to kill more than 100,000 people...this letter was opened on 12/06/01 at Ft. Detrick, MD, but not by a robot, the contents are being studied at this time...a 94-year old Connecticut resident has tested positive for anthrax...

...11/20/01: the offices of Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., were closed early after trace amounts of the bacteria were detected in their mailrooms. Officials said the samples were so minute they did not pose a health risk...mail from DC had been shiiped to OH in order to be sterilized...security will be increased at the US borders with Canada & Mexico...10/30/01 news report of 61 year old worker in NY EET clinic stockroom hopsital coming down with anthrax yet no contact with mail or infected individuals...

...51-year old woman in NJ who contracted the disease only lived near a post office (update; anthrax was found in her mailbox)...61-year old NY woman died, also no known contact with infected items, although anthrax germs were found on her clothing...the economy is down for the second consecutive quarter, not seen since 1991...this is a true indication that the economy is in a recession...3 DC post offices tested positive for anthrax; Friendship Heights, Dulles & Southwest...anthrax spores found in 2 Midwest postal facilities, Indianapolis & Kansas City, MO...a letter delivered to the American Embassy In Lithuania contained the disease...the BIA in Albuquerque fears that mail received from the DC Brentwood Post Office could contain anthrax spores, workers are being tested...there have been threats made on the 4 CA suspension bridges, this was changed to include bridges in eight western states; the CA governor received information from 3 different government sources before releasing news to the public...nuclear scientists from Pakistan may have been captured in order for the Taliban to step up their threats with higher stakes... manufacturing sector has stated that it is in a recession...unemployment is at 5.4% of the country, the highest since 1980; more than 415,000 people are not working as a result of the 9/11/01 attacks causing a downturn in the economy, and no fund has been created to help them...11/2/01; another New York Post employee infected with skin anthrax, with the government both stymied & fearful that there will be more occurances...there is a 'no-fly' zone over downtown Chicago & Los Alamos Labs in NM and the stadiums where the World Series is being played (New York & Phoenix)...the number of planes at the PHX airport was limited to a certain number, causing major delays...wholesale prices fell 1.6% for the month of October, 2001, the biggest drop in one month in recent years...a hoax: 200 packages with white powder were sent to Planned Parenthood clinic by the Army of God; none contained anything hazardous, but on 12/05/01, the culprit, Clayton Lee Waagner, was captured in Cincinnati, OH...protests in Pakistan...

...letters received at the American Embassy in Peru & Greece contained traces of anthrax...the woman who died in NY, with no direct link to any known factors of contracting the disease, had to have been exposed to thousands of spores to be infected in the manner that she was...10 people in Germany have been tested...letter sent to Fidel Castro in Cuba tested positive, as well as one received in Pakistan, and one at an American Consulate near Moscow, sent from the State DEPT...sterilization foam to treat infected machines originated in the Los Alamos labs...over 200 planes from various airlines are being kept at the Rosewell, NM airport; more than 60 people are needed to guard them...BWI concourse closed due to a 11/3/01 bomb threat plus a Southwest Airlines plane was delayed from takeoff...during the week of 11/12/01, two planes (American & Southwest) make emergency landings at SunPort...two additional contaminated post offices at Bell Mawr, NJ (the wrong postal machine was decontaminated) and the Dept. of Veteran Affairs in DC...by early November, only the Hart office building remained closed...2 mailboxes in the Pentagon concourse contaminated...video sent to Mayor Giuliani (who cannot run for another term as mayor, and this is an election year) at New York City Hall contains traces of anthrax...smallpox threat a possibility...the Hart building may be too big to be adequately decontaminated...this was changed to mid-January, 2002 as the date the building can be reopened...well, on 12/01/01, the building was fumigated with chlorine dioxide gas...results not completely successful, tried fumigating the ventilation system again during the weekend of 12/14/01: mechanical problems caused a delay again...maybe they should just turn it into a shrine, or call it Lethal Weapon V...12/27/01: attempted again, but the humidity was not high enough to carry or spread the gas...better title for this mess would be The Building that would not decontaminate!...early November, Taliban army increased by 2000 soldiers plus additional ammo...