Sounds of silence and blue skies

When I woke up today the bombs in London had already happened. The death toll was already beginning to spread, and survivors were beginning to tell their stories. My first instinct was "Wow I didn't know they would be so upset about the Olympics being held in London." My spouse, ever the brighter one in the household, shook his head and said "honey I don't think this has to do with the Olympics.... see they are at the G8 summit..." as Tony Blair began to speak surrounded by great world leaders. "G8? Summit?" I said, "What is that? I think I remember something...."

It is true. Even tho' I consider myself fairly well read and try and keep up on politics I had not been paying that much attention to this summit, it had not even crossed my mind and I suppose if it had I still wouldn't have thought much about it because in all honesty I would have thought they are having a meeting about how to do a lot of nothing... as usual. I didn't even realize that our president was out of country.

But even as the terrorist point out with startling accuracy about how much we don't know about what is happening around the world it was not my ignorance that struck me hard this morning that came later. No, see I drive the back roads by a major city airport every morning. At first I didn't notice it... then it was like something itching at the back of my head.... and it grew and it grew and it grew... then I looked up at the tarmat... and realized there were no planes on it... infact there were no planes anywhere... and that sound, that itch? It was silence. They hadn't said on the news that they were grounding all flights...I still haven't seen that reported anywhere... but I know what I saw and I know what I heard... Nothing... and you know when I last heard that kind of nothing? 9/11..... and it suddenly struck me all the sadness, as I stared into the blue skies...... All I could think in my silly stupid thoughts is "I'm really beginning to hate blue skies". I wish our president was as elegant a speaker as Tony Blair was after 9/11... for all of the prime ministers failings I will never forget the comfort of his speech after 9/11. I worry now what will happen... how many more innocent people will die in the wake of this tragedy.... and of course I wonder.... will "those" people come back here? are "they" sitting next to me? are our buses safe? our classrooms?