Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Where Am I Going With This?

8 MAR 06

Answer: I don’t know.

Davy is a friend of mine. This is a true statement. We all have friends that sometimes do things that make us question the friendship, and Davy sure has done some things. Yet, at the end of the day, I still consider him a friend. Honest.



ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (AP) -- Jurors at Zacarias Moussaoui's sentencing trial were transfixed Tuesday by a minute-by-minute account of al Qaeda's hijacking of American Airlines' Flight 11 and the plane's journey into the north tower of the World Trade Center.

"We are flying low. We are flying very very low. We are flying way too low," flight attendant Amy Sweeney told ground controllers who asked where the plane was at 8:44 a.m. on September 11, 2001. A few seconds' pause, and then, finally: "Oh my God, we are way too low!"

The phone went dead at 8:46 a.m.

Leaving the courtroom for a recess moments later, the 37-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan descent surged from his chair, pumped his right fist in the air and shouted: "Allah Akbar! God curse America! Bless Osama bin Laden!"

When I heard this story on NPR this morning, I wanted to drive to Virginia and cudgel this man. I wanted to make him hurt. The anger from 9/11 is still there.



Before Davy was my friend, he was my mentor. He is also a physician and just like me got his education paid for by Uncle Sam. Unlike me, the Army did not fit well with Davy. This is perhaps the understatement of the century. To say that the Army and Davy didn’t play nice with each other is like saying, well, I can’t really come up with an analogy that adequately covers just how bad this relationship was. But maybe this will explain.

It’s September 11th, 2001. I am still a resident learning my craft, and Davy is one of my teaching staff. Our program director cuts our conference short and tells everyone to come watch the TV by his office. We all get there just after the first plane has hit the WTC tower. We are transfixed. Speechless. More people are arriving. What’s going on? We are talking in hushed tones so we can hear the newscasters try to make sense of it all.

In comes Davy. He immediately sizes up the situation and says, “Those fuckers should hit the Pentagon!”

About 10 minutes later, they did.

We all slowly turned our heads toward Davy. He had this weird smile, and then he walked away.

We’ve never really talked about that conversation, but I bet Davy would say he meant it and still means it. How can a physician be so callus? What grievous insult must have been committed to make him so bitter? What about the innocent civilians?

How can I condemn one idiot without condemning the other?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

A friend is someone who will buy you an ice cream cone. A friend is someone who will take the time to listen. On the flip side, your friends are allowed to express their feelings without worrying about losing your friendship. Nine-eleven was about terrorists carrying out an unfathomable act, while the Davy's comment was nothing more than an extension of his anger and frustration with his life in the military. Condemn him? No. Buy him a beer or an ice cream cone.
Hunter

Unknown said...

Have you been so mad at someone/something that you'd wish something bad would happen to them? (suckout in a big poker pot perhaps?)

It seems Davy has a lot of hate towards the military but unless he was truly an evil person, I doubt he wanted the mortality of what occurred.

DrChako said...

Good point, Drizz. He's not an evil person. Like I said, he's a good friend. I've had friends who I thought needed a good ass-kicking, but I think Davy already got his.

Hunter, I know exactly what you are saying. Rather then buy him an ice cream, I bought him a lap dance the last time we were in Vegas.