perfessor multigeek's Journal: "Normal" ain't never coming back. Get used to it.

Downtown again today. J&R, longtime mecca of geek folks is now selling gas masks and first aid kits. *Everybody* now sells plenty of flashlights and emergency radios. The Municipal Building is going to build a permanent structure on the front to allow them more room for searching people and packages entering the building. Low concrete walls are being poured all over downtown to create barriers to attack. I'm still seeing police divers (or, as my friend Craig pointed out, probably Navy divers using NYPD boats) on a regular basis investigating unspecified things a few blocks from my client's apartment.
Yep. The new world is here to stay.
Now, don't get me wrong. The anarchic wonderful melange of New York is alive and well. Two blocks from J&R's gas mask display is a new fast food place called Blini Hut. I am most grateful since, after all, Russian Express went out of business back in 2000. The "ground zero" gathering spots have become a densely packed row of booths selling twin towers postcards and American flags. The streets are cavalierly cluttered with vendors selling day planners, comics, and tech manuals. Most people are back to their typical manner. The fifty million schemes that drive this area are all gearing up again. (In fact I have to head out in a bit for a meeting with folks diving for hidden sunken treasure within sight of Harlem; gotta love it.)
But the old, "yeah, don't sweat it, I'm sure it's fine" American obliviousness is gone from New York for good.
I can't speak for the rest of America (Los Angeles airport notwithstanding) but around here high alert is here for the duration and the duration will be measured in years or even decades.
Of course all of this serves the Bush junta well as it maintains an air of paranoia and fear. Bummer for them that the place most heavily hit has so many immigrants and off-the-path travelers that for literally millions of us the reaction was not "inconceivable!" but rather, "Shit, this sucks. I haven't dealt with this since (foobar)".
Nonetheless, I've never had such a a strong sense of being part of a time and place where none of us are informed enough or able to be detached enough to be able to judge what is happening.
Well for now we'll all just muddle along and try not to get suckered or attacked or stolen from as we all go about pursuing our millions of varieties of the American Dream

Rustin