October 14, 2001
Once upon a time

History plays itself out—wars are fought then instantly forgotten. Nobody talks about Vietnam anymore. HBO has put focus on World War II, because Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg are exercising their Saving Private Ryan popularity rights. The Gulf War flu is spoken of every now and then… absolutely no one speaks of the Korean War, which took from my mother her two brothers. Russia, England, France, and the Middle East—they are not new to terrorism… how then do you get used to it if the best we can offer is every reason to forget it ever happened?