Photons Absorbed

This weekend's top story from the Post magazine reviews how 9/11 changed U.S. society in every way imaginable. The only thing I have to add to that is that 20 years later, the pandemic changed everything too.

Perhaps the most touching memory of 9/11 in the piece is from the Post's humor editor. "All humor ended," he wrote. "From the moment of the first attack, it took 5 days 2 hours 8 minutes and I second before the first known instance of someone sending humor over email..."

Of course, behind great humor lies great pain, so our humor will never die.

***

Over to the foggy city by hired car last night and down into the Mission and lower 24th Street to a little romantic tapas place with a patio, so no need for the QR code image I carry around to prove I am vaccinated.

The food was great, the company was great, everything as great. Later on, back in another hired car, I was ushered back out of the city alone, its bright lights twinkling east, west, north and south.

Thankfully, my driver stayed silent the whole way.

Alone, late at night, I thought about how when we sit in a restaurant and have a nice time, we can see each other but we can't see ourselves. There may be a security camera watching -- a conceit the film "My Blueberry Nights" with the lovely Norah Jones makes perfect use of. 

But we rarely see ourselves reliving those moments.

One of the oddest things in life is that we cannot see ourselves. With a mirror, the light reflecting from our face hits the smooth surface and bounces back at the same angle, creating the illusion of an image. So that's as good as it gets.

We can see others, however; and they can see us. Love is when we reflect back what we see in one another's eyes, even when it may not be objectively beautiful.

And true love is when what you see in each other is beautiful, no matter what mirrors or security cameras say. Photons truly absorbed, that's what I call it.

So the correct word is melancholy -- that was my mood. And it stayed with me throughout a dreamless night, and when I got up shortly before dawn to see if anybody was wanting to be in touch, to discover:

"I'm looking forward to seeing you." It's the simplest message, and it wasn't a dream.

***

THE HEADLINES:

* 9/11 20 years later: How TV, art, education, bigotry, country music, fiction, policing and love have changed (WP)

* Biden’s Sweeping Vaccine Mandates Infuriate Republican Governors (NYT)

* GOP governors threaten to sue over vaccine mandates; Biden says, ‘Have at it’ (WP)

* Federal Research Bolsters the Case for Vaccine Mandates (NYT)

* How many people will quit their jobs over Biden’s vaccine mandate? (WP)

* U.S. could authorize Pfizer COVID-19 shot for kids age 5-11 in October (Reuters)

* Biden Is Right: Vaccine Refusal ‘Has Cost All of Us’ -- Requiring Covid vaccines is necessary to safeguard the country. (Editorial Board/NYT)

* Biden thought he could persuade vaccine skeptics. He couldn’t. So he embraced mandates. (WP)

* Crowded stadiums, pandemic create combustible mix this fall (AP)

* Biden’s Vaccine Push Aligns Him With a Fed-Up, Vaccinated Majority (NYT)

* Fla. school mask fights heat up as appeals court backs DeSantis and Biden administration opens civil rights investigation (WP)

* Biden’s vaccine rules to set off barrage of legal challenges (AP)

* ‘Dreamers’ Await Senate Parliamentarian’s Ruling on Reconciliation Package --The fate of young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children has become wedded to Democrats’ $3.5 trillion social-welfare package, with a key decision on its Senate path expected within days. (WSJ)

* Pro-Taliban women rally in Kabul as female civil servants barred from work (WP)

* Opinion: America’s been in a two-decade ‘suck’ since 9/11. And we have no one to blame but ourselves (SF Chronicle)

* On 20th anniversary, Biden finds closing the book on 9/11 fraught with perils and uncertainty (WP)

* VIDEO: Zebras Spotted Roaming Behind Maryland Home -- Five zebras were filmed walking behind a house in Prince George’s County. The animals have been on the loose since escaping from a nearby farm. (NYT)

* Man Who Thought He'd Lost All Hope Loses Last Additional Bit Of Hope He Didn't Even Know He Still Had (The Onion)

***

"When I See U" (excerpt)

Fantasia

I lay my head on my pillow
Staring out the window
Wish on a star for a sign
You're the reason why

You're always on my mind
When you come around I get shy
When I see you (see you)
When I see you

To Escape From Sorrow

In addition to his six soul-wrenching "Letters From Helmand," our correspondent inside Afghanistan occasionally explains his rationale. In our conversations, he captures the universal spirit that pushes artists of all kinds, including writers, to reach out. And to serve as a voice for the despair his people are feeling right now. 

Here is an example:

"I think writing is kind of venting what we bear inside us that weighs on our shoulders, and helps to remove the loneliness and agony which surrounds us. Honestly, people's attention is not as important to me as writing for myself, to escape from sorrow and loneliness."

Establishing a channel for his voice also helps me clarify my own purpose as a writer. And suddenly, after many months of doubt, I've begun to appreciate why it is important to keep doing this on Facebook.

Here, our correspondent can continue to give us a view from the ground for what is happening not only physically to his people, but psychologically as well. He captures the agony of the Afghan people in a way no foreigner can hope to do.

So I'm going to continue to encourage him to write to us – a small but caring group of Westerners who are listening. Maybe over time our group will grow in size and influence.

And I know what you can do as well, which is to add comments below. If his writing touches you, tell him that. He will read your comments and may respond from time to time through me.

More importantly, we can build right here for him what every writer needs: a feedback loop with readers. Perhaps then his journey will not be quite as filled with sorrow and loneliness. And perhaps ours will not as well.

Thank you.

***

External links to our six Letters From Helmand: <https://hotweir.blogspot.com>

• Letter From Helmand.6: "A Land Without Laws"
• The Lash of the Taliban (Letter From Helmand.5)
• Hope Is the Last Thing to Die (Letter From Helmand.4)
• Letter From Helmand.3 - نامه ای از هیرمند
• Letter From Helmand.2 - نامه ای از هیرمند
• A Letter From Helmand

***

THE HEADLINES:

* Unvaccinated people 11 times more likely to die of covid-19, CDC report finds (WP)

* Biden unveils sweeping new vaccine mandates (WP)

* ‘Our Patience Is Wearing Thin’ -- Initially reluctant to enact mandates, the president is now moving aggressively to require vaccination as the Delta variant races across the country. (NYT)

* Republican governors threaten to sue over Biden’s sweeping vaccine mandates (WP)

* VIDEO: Biden Mandates Vaccinations for Two-Thirds of U.S. Workers -- President Biden announced sweeping actions to vaccinate tens of millions of American workers against the coronavirus, including private-sector employees, health care workers and federal contractors. (AP)

* Los Angeles Mandates Vaccines for Students 12 and Older (NYT)

* Least Vaccinated States Lead Spike in Children’s Cases, Leaving Some Hospitals Stretched  -- Though serious illness in young people remains uncommon, more children are now being hospitalized for Covid-19 than ever before — especially in states where fewer residents have been vaccinated. (NYT)

* Biden’s New Vaccine Push Is a Fight for the U.S. Economy -- The effort reflects the continuing and evolving threat the coronavirus pandemic poses to the economic recovery. (NYT)

* The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating four possible Covid-19 deaths, including one in California, from January 2020, part of a scattershot collection of clues about the virus’s early spread. (CDC)

* COVID-19 vaccines hold strong against Delta, protection waning in older adults (Reuters)

* Facebook’s Taliban Ban Will Prove Costly for Afghans --Why the tech giant is on the wrong side of history yet again. (Foreign Policy)

* Taliban Allow Women to Attend Universities, but Fear Keeps Most at Home (WSJ)

* Giuliani associate Igor Fruman pleads guilty to solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national (CNN)

* Attorney General Merrick Garland's Justice Department sued the state of Texas over its new abortion ban, calling the law a "scheme to nullify the Constitution of the United States"and asking for an injunction to halt enforcement. [HuffPost]

* Texas' new abortion ban has already unleashed a surge of women crossing state lines to clinics in areas where laws are less harsh. A clinic in Oklahoma City predicted more than half its patients will come from Texas. [Vice News]

* The "Roe baby," whose mom was the plaintiff in the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, publicly identified herself for the first time. Her mother never had an abortion, but gave her baby up for adoption. Now, that baby is 51 and has deeply reflected on the issue that has overshadowed her life. [HuffPost]

* Byron Calhoun says abortion is never necessary to save a mother’s life. He’s the only high-risk OB/GYN in central West Virginia. (WP)

* Poor countries say lack of vaccines may exclude them from climate talks (Reuters)

* California recorded its hottest-ever June through August this year, as the nation overall did the same. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association)

* Harvard, the world's richest university will divest its $42 billion endowment from fossil fuels, bowing to a decade of student and faculty protests over climate change. [HuffPost]

* California’s drought is driving up greenhouse gas emissions, as water use, collection, treatment and management is linked to about 20 percent of California’s statewide electricity use, according to a new study published by the Oakland-based Pacific Institute. (The Hill)

* How 9/11 Hastened Downtown New York’s Transformation (WSJ)

* Smart Glasses Made Google Look Dumb. Now Facebook Is Giving Them a Try. -- The company has teamed up with Ray-Ban to create glasses that can take photos, record video, answer phone calls and play podcasts. (NYT)

* Kellye SoRelle, a volunteer member of a Trump lawyers group and general counsel of the far-right Oath Keepers, said FBI agents seized her iPhone with a search warrant citing a "seditious conspiracy" investigation. SoRelle is closely associated with Oath Keeper founder Stewart Rhodes, who figures in the broader Capitol riot case. [HuffPost]

* The Los Angeles Police Department has directed its officers to collect the social media information of every civilian they interview, including individuals who are not arrested or accused of a crime. (The Guardian)

* How San Francisco skyscrapers have changed since 9/11 (SF Chronicle)

* New Study Finds Average American Stands No Chance Against What’s Coming (The Onion)

***

(Thanks to the best editor I know for help on this post.)

What If...?

"'What' and 'if' are two words as non-threatening as words can be, but put them together side by side and they have the power to haunt you for the rest of your life. What if? What if? What if?” -- (Letters to Juliet)

__________________

I'm not sure that there is anything more intoxicating to a journalist than speculation. By training and obligation, we work within the world of what can be proven -- the facts -- about any given situation, so "wishful thinking" or any such speculative endeavor is strictly out of bounds.

But of course we do speculate, endlessly, and that is ultimately how we end up getting some of our biggest stories. When that happens it starts with a hunch, then a theory, that slowly takes on the shape of reality as the evidence comes in.

There is no better feeling for a reporter than to have such a hunch come true, except for later when you can tell yourself that it actually made a difference in the world.

Naturally, this sort of experience is not confined to journalists; nothing of value is. Entrepreneurs pitch "what if" scenarios all the time, as in "what if we could disrupt this industry, it would be a multi-billion-dollar market!"

After that, go down the list. When scientists speculate, it's called a hypothesis, which like journalists they cannot publish until they've developed enough evidence to convince their peers that it is a plausible explanation for observable phenomena. 

Political analysts dream up various scenarios whereby candidates can win close elections based on multiple factors, most of which boil down to voter turnout.

I'm sure you could add dozens of other professionals to this list -- sportscasters, doctors, weather forecasters, grandparents, space explorers. And, of course, what novelists do exclusively is to speculate. 

When it comes to me, I rarely indulge in speculation when considering the past, as in "what if I had taken that job offer, bought that house, listened to my heart with that relationship?" The reason is that it is all pointless now, and in many cases would only lead to regret at opportunities missed.

The future, however, is another matter, and about that I speculate constantly. That's the one part of life that remains open to speculation, unlike the past or even the present.

Positive speculation, which you also might call day-dreaming, frees my mind of the all-too-real constraints of my present situation to allow something else to happen.

In my dreams.

***

THE HEADLINES:

* VIDEO: W.H.O. Calls for a Moratorium on Boosters Through End of the Year  -- The World Health Organization asked wealthy nations to hold off on distributing coronavirus booster shots to healthy people until at least the end of the year in an effort to reserve vaccine supplies for low-income nations struggling to access first-doses for their populations. (AP, Reuters)

* Biden to require all federal workers to be vaccinated -source (Reuters)

* Mu COVID Variant: Here's Everything You Need To Know (HuffPost)

* Beyond Delta, scientists are watching new coronavirus variants (Reuters)

* To Avoid Extreme Disasters, Most Fossil Fuels Should Stay Underground, Scientists Say (NPR)

* From 4% to 45%: Energy Department Lays Out Ambitious Blueprint for Solar Power (NYT)

* San Francisco is in the midst of a $7 million project designed to anchor the city’s rapidly eroding southern shoreline with a giant sand berm. (California Today)

* California Recall Vote Could Weaken the State’s Aggressive Climate Policies -- Many Republicans vying to replace Newsom as governor want to roll back the state’s ambitious plans to cut planet-warming emissions, a change with nationwide implications. (NYT)

* The world’s biggest plant to capture CO2 from the air just opened in Iceland (WP)

* Afghan journalists beaten in Taliban detention, editor says (Reuters)

* Reminiscent of their previous harsh rule in the 1990s, the Taliban have already begun to wipe out some of Afghanistan’s gains of 20 years. They've denied women a seat at the Cabinet, beaten journalists into silence and enforced their severe interpretation of Islam, on occasion violently. (AP)

* Aid Workers Staying in Taliban-Ruled Afghanistan Tread a Tricky Path -- Afghanistan desperately needs aid. Nonprofits desperately want to provide it. But the aid groups are being tested as never before by the uncertainty that has followed the Taliban takeover. (NYT)

* Elizabeth Holmes’s defense says mistakes, not malice, led to collapse of Theranos on first day of her trial (WP)

* Barrier fencing that surrounded the U.S. Capitol for months after the Jan. 6 pro-Trump riot likely will be reinstalled ahead of a Sept. 18 rally that threatens to feature more violence. [AP]

* How Educational Differences Are Widening America’s Political Rift -- College graduates are now a firmly Democratic bloc, and they are shaping the party’s future. Those without degrees, by contrast, have flocked to Republicans. (NYT)

* Former President Barack Obama joined other prominent Democrats urging Californians to vote "no" in next week's recall election, supporting Gov. Gavin Newsom. Obama's entry is a huge get for the embattled Democratic governor. Meanwhile, as Newsom gains in polls, Trump and his lackeys are already lying that the election is rigged. [HuffPost]

* Many tech leaders are financially supporting Newsom, wary of what a replacement would bring. (NYT)

* Xi Jinping’s crackdown on everything is remaking Chinese society (WP)

* Man Already Has Whole Sentence Lined Up For Later In Conversation (The Onion)

***

"What If"

Matthew West

Songwriters: Matthew Joseph West / Ran Jackson / Aj Pruis

I've heard 'em say before to live just like you're dying, yeah
Wish I could say that's how I am but I'd be lying, yeah
And lying in my bed at night one too many times just thinking
What if, what if

My biggest fear is waking up to find what matters
Is miles away from what I spent my life chasing after
Is my story gonna have the same two words in every chapter?
What if, what if

But last I checked this heart inside my chest
Is still beating
Well I guess it's not too late

What if today's the only day I got?
I don't wanna waste it if it's my last shot
No regrets, in the end
I wanna know I got no what ifs
I'm running till the road runs out
I'm lighting it up right here right now
No regrets, in the end
I wanna know I got no what ifs, yeah...