I was driving to my Philosophy class at Santiago Canyon College and listening to the Kevin & Bean show on KROQ. I was only half paying attention when I heard Ralph saying something about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center. I knew Kevin and Bean were on vacation, so I thought it was just a bit that Ralph was carrying on. After a few minutes, I started wondering if I’d been mistaken. I switched to a different station and heard the same story. I can’t explain how I felt. I was just numb. It didn’t seem real. When I got to school, the rumors were flying madly. The towers had fallen, the Empire State building had fallen, more planes were coming to Los Angeles, the White House had been hit, so on and so forth. What scared me more was that I couldn’t get in touch with Jason. He was supposed to be on his way to school, and therefore answering his cell phone. And people kept talking about how LA was the next place to get hit, so I was obviously thinking the worst. My professor talked with us about what was happening, and then let us go so we could watch the news. I went straight to work, since we had cable there. We all sat staring at the television in shock for the next few hours. Jason finally called me and told me his school was being locked down, and that he’d be home soon. My boss let us go home as well. I remember going home and holding on to him while we watched the news. It was so hard to believe what was happening. We’d just celebrated our first anniversary (of dating) the night before, and now we were watching people trying to save their own lives by jumping out the windows of a building that was about to come crashing down upon them.  Part of me was horrified by what was going on back east, and yet part of me was incredibly thankful that it wasn’t happening to me. I know that’s selfish and horrible, but it’s quite how I felt, and I can’t change that.

Friday, a very sad thing happened. Two news heliocopters crashed while following a high speed pursuit in Phoenix. I won’t go into why I hate high speed chases being broadcast on television. That’s a rant for another day. What really bothers me is that the suspect, (you know, the guy on the GROUND in the CAR) might face charges relating to the death of the two pilots and two cameramen who were in the crash. I am very agitated by this. If it were two police heliocopters, who were following the pursuit because it’s a requirement of their jobs and helps to keep our sticky little planet safe, then by all means, charge the fleeing bastard. However, these were not police heliocopters. These were news people in the pursuit of a story that will likely garner them some ratings. That’s their job, I understand that. But they were not required to be there. They could have easily reported the story without following the chase. They could have skipped the story altogether, thus denying said suspect the semi-celebrity he received from the pursuit. (Which is really my main argument against televised high-speed pursuits.) But that’s the route they chose to take, which is quite unfortunate. How exactly does that become the suspect’s problem? He did not crash his car into the heliocopter. He did not ask to be followed (yes, yes I know this is part of the reason that high speed chases occur, but FTLOG STOP GIVING THEM WHAT THEY WANT!). He should be liable for every single illegal lane change, every fail to yield at a stop sign or stop light, every mile per hour he went over the speed limit, any and all damage or harm he inflicted to people he encountered on this trip. But seriously, we can’t charge him with a crime that he did not cause.

Aside from all that, how does one operate a heliocopter and not see another giant heliocopter coming at them? TWO pilots crashed into each other. TWO pilots were negligent in their flying. It would be bad enough if one wasn’t paying attention, but TWO! Perhaps their employers should be held liable for their deaths, for not keeping them on the ground instead of pursuing a stupid story.