I have enjoyed reading your essays. I stumbled across your stacks while doing some family research, our mothers were first cousins! My grandmother (Margaret McFall Walker) was your grandfather’s (Michael McFall)sister.
Well hello then, Kinswoman! Thanks for writing. I know so little of my mother's father. I've thought about that from time to time, and I wish I had asked my mother more about him. Alas now that that generation is gone there is no one to ask about him. I don't pay much attention to genealogy, but at least one sister and one niece of mine do. I can put you in touch with them if you like. Just DM me your contact info.
I remember those daily meetings. As a program manager, they were quite useful, but yeah, I can see how everyone else would be bored.
On 9/11, I stayed in the office all day, too much in shock to go home. You must've missed me hunkering down in my office as you wandered the empty hallways. I don't remember seeing anyone, either.
What I mostly recall from those meetings was that I had a cheap TIMEX watch with a metal wristband and I could make it into different shapes on the table in front of me as I watched the minute hand move. I remember thinking of that meeting as an hour I spent doing nothing instead of doing something, when I had plenty of something to do. Of course by September of 2001 I was already on thin ice with Steve, so that may color my memory.
It's a funny thing to go back to someplace where you used to be alive a long time ago and find it oddly lifeless. And as it turns out, you and I share a few of those places, don't we? Cranberry Hill in Concord, 2 Federal St. in Billerica. . . ain't it funny how time slips away. But somehow the visit to the dreary Forrester/Akamai Technology Square on Christmas Eve last year was particularly depressing.
Not much to say about Kirk himself. I lived in Utah for 10 years and the first day of deer season is a holiday in much of the state. Heard someone saying it was a difficult shot for the killer and my thought was that when I was in the Army we were expected to hit center mass at 200 meters with open sights. Prone with a scope would be easy.
9/11. I was at work at a defense contractor. The owner’s son was a volunteer firefighter who spent the night at the Pentagon. A coworker’s wife’s college roommate was at Cantor Fitzgerald. I knew a couple people who worked at the Pentagon. The weirdest part, later, was the quiet. Living in the landing pattern for Dulles and it was quiet. For weeks.
I've known you, wiredog, for ~25 years, and I know you're not a cold-hearted person. But I'm not comfortable talking about shooting a person, Charlie Kirk, as if it were no different than shooting a deer. Kirk was a horrible person, but murder is murder. Technical discussions of how the murder was done are off-putting to me.
That being said, I confess that I did publicly speculate, on Bluesky, before Robinson was arrested, that the killer probably had military training. Shows you what I know about that kind of thing, which is not much. I wish I hadn't done that.
I read the text messages from the accused person to his love interest, after the shooting, that were entered into the indictment. And it's rather chilling how he talks about shooting Kirk as if it were target practice or something. I abhor Trump & MAGA and the kind of hatred theatre, cruelty theatre, at which Charlie Kirk excelled. I don't want to go down that road myself.
Thanks for the shout outs John! I really appreciate it. This essay was like having a long in-depth fascinating conversation over coffee. The juxtaposition of Kirk's murder with 9/11 is disturbing and powerful. 9/11 was a dark day. 9/10 is now too.
"Christians go around claiming persecution even when they hold all the power." (Karen Elizabeth Park) Or as a friend of mine once put it, "It's the center pretending to be the fringe."
All over the place...in a good way. Thanks.
I have enjoyed reading your essays. I stumbled across your stacks while doing some family research, our mothers were first cousins! My grandmother (Margaret McFall Walker) was your grandfather’s (Michael McFall)sister.
Well hello then, Kinswoman! Thanks for writing. I know so little of my mother's father. I've thought about that from time to time, and I wish I had asked my mother more about him. Alas now that that generation is gone there is no one to ask about him. I don't pay much attention to genealogy, but at least one sister and one niece of mine do. I can put you in touch with them if you like. Just DM me your contact info.
I rejoice in the death of no one ... as Donne said any man's death diminishes me for i am involved in mankind.
I remember those daily meetings. As a program manager, they were quite useful, but yeah, I can see how everyone else would be bored.
On 9/11, I stayed in the office all day, too much in shock to go home. You must've missed me hunkering down in my office as you wandered the empty hallways. I don't remember seeing anyone, either.
What I mostly recall from those meetings was that I had a cheap TIMEX watch with a metal wristband and I could make it into different shapes on the table in front of me as I watched the minute hand move. I remember thinking of that meeting as an hour I spent doing nothing instead of doing something, when I had plenty of something to do. Of course by September of 2001 I was already on thin ice with Steve, so that may color my memory.
It's a funny thing to go back to someplace where you used to be alive a long time ago and find it oddly lifeless. And as it turns out, you and I share a few of those places, don't we? Cranberry Hill in Concord, 2 Federal St. in Billerica. . . ain't it funny how time slips away. But somehow the visit to the dreary Forrester/Akamai Technology Square on Christmas Eve last year was particularly depressing.
Not much to say about Kirk himself. I lived in Utah for 10 years and the first day of deer season is a holiday in much of the state. Heard someone saying it was a difficult shot for the killer and my thought was that when I was in the Army we were expected to hit center mass at 200 meters with open sights. Prone with a scope would be easy.
9/11. I was at work at a defense contractor. The owner’s son was a volunteer firefighter who spent the night at the Pentagon. A coworker’s wife’s college roommate was at Cantor Fitzgerald. I knew a couple people who worked at the Pentagon. The weirdest part, later, was the quiet. Living in the landing pattern for Dulles and it was quiet. For weeks.
I've known you, wiredog, for ~25 years, and I know you're not a cold-hearted person. But I'm not comfortable talking about shooting a person, Charlie Kirk, as if it were no different than shooting a deer. Kirk was a horrible person, but murder is murder. Technical discussions of how the murder was done are off-putting to me.
That being said, I confess that I did publicly speculate, on Bluesky, before Robinson was arrested, that the killer probably had military training. Shows you what I know about that kind of thing, which is not much. I wish I hadn't done that.
I read the text messages from the accused person to his love interest, after the shooting, that were entered into the indictment. And it's rather chilling how he talks about shooting Kirk as if it were target practice or something. I abhor Trump & MAGA and the kind of hatred theatre, cruelty theatre, at which Charlie Kirk excelled. I don't want to go down that road myself.
Thanks for the shout outs John! I really appreciate it. This essay was like having a long in-depth fascinating conversation over coffee. The juxtaposition of Kirk's murder with 9/11 is disturbing and powerful. 9/11 was a dark day. 9/10 is now too.
"Christians go around claiming persecution even when they hold all the power." (Karen Elizabeth Park) Or as a friend of mine once put it, "It's the center pretending to be the fringe."