From the JMBzine Vault – Looking Back at September 2001

Important Editor’s Note

2022: This month of blog posts was one that I took some care in re-reading and in updating, due to the historic events that happened on 9-11 (September 11, 2001).

I did my best to leave my original thoughts and impressions unedited from 20+ years ago, but I have added editorial notes (marked in gray, as this block is). These notes include some reflections on what I wrote, but also some updates and information on broken links — sadly, almost all of the stories from MSNBC, I have yet to be able to find on either their website, NBCNews’s website or on archive.org.

For anyone wanting to get a bit more of the context of that day and the days that followed, I would recommend spending some time with the television footage archive from Archive.org

Lastly, I should mention a bit about what I was doing in the month of September 2001. I graduated from college in May of 2000 (from a small theological college affiliated with the Churches of Christ) in Austin, Texas. I went home that summer and had experiences that pushed me towards considering law school (to begin in the fall of 2002), but first I planned to spend a year in San Marcos, Texas (a college town, between Austin and San Antonio). I took a graduate class in Mass Media and I explored the possibility of doing campus ministry work, while working as pedicab driver (in Austin) to pay the rent, but also starting the process of applying to law schools and taking the LSAT.

I was in a very transitional time of my life. My politics were changing quickly and I had by this point developed a crystalization of belief regarding the immorality of war, but I was also still struggling to make sense of many other issues. I also was struggling to get along with my family (due to my changes in religious and political belief).

So that was the context I experienced these days through.