OC Weekly on 9/11 As It Happened

Originally published 9/13/2001.

As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!”

—Revelation, 9:12

LAST DAYS

As the world went to hell around her, a young mom half led, half dragged her daughter, who looked about 10, into the sanctuary at Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa—which is actually located in Santa Ana. The born-againers' church opened its doors for anyone who needed to pray on Sept. 11.

By about 3:45 p.m. that day, the 25 or so people scattered about the large hall obviously needed prayer.

A guy in his early 30s had an acoustic guitar strapped on as he went to the mic and prayed for God to “leave your kingdom in heaven and come to this world quickly. You would save many if you did this.”

The guitarist also prayed for the Big Guy to “help us with what we don't understand” and to “give wisdom beyond his years to George Bush—supernatural wisdom.”

That wisdom shouldn't be required for long, though, based on the guitarist's next request: “God, we pray to you to give us strength and spirit in these Last Days.”

God, who had quite a full plate that day, did not return repeated calls from the Weekly for comment on the guitarist's observation that these are the End Times. But unlike United States military and intelligence communities, the Divine One apparently knew the sneak attack was coming, according to a middle-aged man who took the mic.

“God, when this happened today, you knew 6,000 years ago at the Garden of Eden that this day would come,” the man said. “How you must look at what we've done to this world you gave us. God, I would pray that you would make beauty from ashes after what we've done today. In Jesus' name. Amen.”

“Father, we're fat, dull and happy,” prayed a baldish man in his 40s who openly displayed at least two of those traits. “We're lazy. We're remiss when it comes to prayer.”

He then made a bold prediction: “This will fill our pews.”

When prayers were offered for grieving wives who would not have husbands coming home that night, husbands who would not have wives coming home that night and children who would not have parents coming home that night, tears poured from the bowed head of that young woman who had pulled her daughter into the sanctuary.

The little girl, showing no emotion, quietly rose, walked up to a Kleenex box near the altar, pulled out a tissue, walked back to her seat and carefully placed it over the pew directly in front of her mother's bowed head. (Matt Coker)


PLUMBER'S HELPER

My wife and I were watching the TV news reports when Paul the plumber showed up at our door. Our kitchen pipes needed replacing, and he had come to give us an estimate. Paul was a really nice guy. Really nice. In fact, what struck me about Paul was that he seemed so nice, so content, so utterly unfazed about what had happened that morning.

An hour before, I had walked my son to school. Nearly all the adults I saw there—clutching their children's hands—had taut faces. But Paul was rather upbeat. He tensed up a bit when he told me how much the pipe replacement would cost, but when I said that was fine, he brightened again.

I began to wonder if he had heard what had happened in New York and Washington, D.C. He had told me he had already been working a couple of hours. Maybe he was too busy to hear the news?

So I asked him how the freeways had been. “Fine, great,” he said. “Hardly anybody's on them.”

“Well, I guess since everything's been closed.”

“Yeah,” he said, and the way he said it told me he knew what had happened.

“Crazy, huh?” I said.

“Well, I have my opinions,” he said.

I offered that today, “everybody has an opinion.”

“Well, I think America has been on a long decline,” he said. I was about to agree with him that we have been naive in our belief that we could not be attacked on our soil. Then he said, “A long moral decline.

“I study Bible prophecy,” he continued, “and these kinds of things have been predicted. I know it seems horrible, but for me, this is an exciting time. All this is part of God's plan. You can see His hand in all of this. I mean, it's a shame that tens of thousands of people have to die, but you have to look at this over the long haul. Things are happening now, and I think this is the beginning of the end.”

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And he said “beginning of the end” with all the light in his voice with which someone might tell you they were planning a family trip to Disneyland.

“Exciting time,” he said as he went back to writing the estimate. (Steve Lowery)

CHAT

From OCRegister.com message board:

We are at war . . .(by SoCal Husker, Sept. 11, 19:36) . . . and all of those politicians favoring open borders and letting any nutcase, criminal or terrorist into this country without a thorough background check are traitors. What a disgrace today. I hope Bush, if it is finally determined that Bin Ladin and his many supporters in Afghanistan and Pakistan are behind this horror, decides to use nuclear weapons to obliterate any country providing support for this atrocity. These animals need to be put to sleep for good. The only thing they respect is force. If innocent civilians are harmed, so be it. It sickened me today to actually see innocent people jumping from the World Trade Center buildings to their deaths. It is up to you, President Bush. Do the right thing for America, no matter what the rest of the world thinks. These acts CANNOT be tolerated or they will certainly happen again.

U.S. response to terrorist attacks today . . . (by blackjack, Sept. 11, 20:24) The last time America used a nuclear weapon was in response to the Japanese war actions in WWII. If the only way to reasonably assure the elimination of Bin Laden the terrorist is to use a nuclear weapon to obliterate his base of operations in Afghanistan, I say DO IT and DO IT NOW!

 

WALLY GEORGE:
'WE'RE AT WAR NOW'

“When I woke up this morning and turned on the TV, I thought I was dreaming—I thought this could never happen to America. They can't do this! I went from complete bewilderment to sadness for all of the people who lost their lives, and then I went to terrible anger. And I asked, 'Please, why can't I get on the air right now so I can say what is in my heart—that these bastards got to be tracked down and punished?'

“We cannot rest until we find out who did this. They got to know that the United States of America will never put up with this kind of atrocity. We are the United States of America—we are the leaders of the free world! For this to happen to us . . . They will not get away with this! As President Bush said—and I bless him for this—we will track you down, and you will pay the cost, and I just wish that I could get my hands on whoever was responsible so I could do away with him myself. . . . I think that it's the madman over there—what's his name?”

Osama Bin Laden?

“I have a feeling that's who it is, and if it is, then we've got to unleash as much power as we have to in order to get rid of him and his rotten regime. Because, you know, if we don't do something drastic, this is going to happen again—if they say, 'Well, America yells and screams and makes threats, but they don't do anything,' it's going to happen again and again, and here in Los Angeles and in San Francisco and Chicago, and it's going to happen in all our major cities.

“Let's face it: we're at war now. These madmen want to destroy the United States of America, and by God, we're not going to let them do it! I believe we have a president in power right now who is going to find these murderers, these killers, these butchers—I believe he's going to find them, and they're going to pay dearly. Even—and I say this cautiously—even if it comes to nuclear warfare, if that's the only answer, we may have to be like Harry Truman and push the button. . . . I hate to think of nuclear, but if that's what has to be done, then that's what we have to think about.” (Chris Ziegler)



Sheldon
Photo by Keith May

A MORAL-DECAY THING

The Reverend Lou Sheldon's Anaheim-based Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) usually busies itself with homosexuals. Just the day before the Sept. 11 attack, the TVC published a report that 95 percent of boys (we're sure they meant 95 percent of all boys who are molested) are molested by gays. Sheldon now runs the TVC from his Capitol Hill townhouse. He spent most of the morning of the attack shuttling congressmen and other government types to safety.

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“I remember Pearl Harbor,” he said. “And this is just like that. This is a war zone. The police didn't have enough vehicles to transport everybody, so we helped out. Republicans, Democrats, whoever needed help. I saw Grace Napilitano (D-Norwalk) walking down the street. I told her, 'Grace, come on in,' and she did and made a phone call.”

“This has happened because America has allowed evil to be called good,” the reverend said. “It's time for America to define its belief system.”

He excused himself for a second and then came back on the phone. He said there was “an apron of fighter jets” constantly flying over Capitol Hill.

“This is most definitely a war zone,” he said. “The fact that someone has been able to get away with this, that's a moral-decay thing. Did you see the pictures of those Palestinians celebrating the attack? This is most definitely a moral-decay thing.” (Steve Lowery)

 

MORE CHAT

From the Orange County-based OCNow.com chat room a few hours after the attacks:

Bull s**t (by dhell_hole, Sept. 11, 16:34) Islam, Muslim's, Middle Eastern Pukes are dancing in the damn street over this. Burning in what ever hell you believe in is not good enough. Stick you Salaam right square in your greasy ass. Get the F**k out of this country jew, islam, muslim puke. You have no idea what your world is about to become. It's gonna get real ugly. Run while you can. Puke.

Signs of the time . . . (by MargaretWood, Sept. 11; 16:39) About 3 weeks ago it was proficied that the something was fixing to happen that would shake the US and Canada. This is truly and act of the devil he is on the rapage. You can blame this on what you want but I know that this is what god was saying. My heart goes out to the families of the victims those espically that may not have been saved. May God have mercy on their soul.

Ahhh! Plz read this (by lildevil100, Sept. 11, 17:08) I am only 10 years old and I am stoked about this, thinking that tomorrow my state could be bombed. I dont know what to say about all of this. In a way im scared its all wierd but ohh well my teacher says in 20 years thsi will be history and ill be apart oh it. who knows but the peolpe who did this are going to pay the price.

i know who did it (by a_a_a_, Sept. 11, 17:12) a japan man did it.

Send them all home!!(by headhuntragheads, Sept. 11, 17:26) IT'S TIME TO DE-PORT ALL MIDDLEASTERN MUSLUMS BACK TO THERE OWN COUNTRY IT'S NOT SAFE HERE ANYMORE. THEY ARE ON EVERY STREET CORNER IN EVERY CORNER STORE JUST WAITING FOR THE CHANCE TO STRIKE AGAINST US. GET RID OF ALL OF THEM BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!


BILLBOARDS

Mr. Kelly Capps has been teaching for 15 years, and for 15 years, his students haven't given a shit. Persian Gulf? They didn't give a shit. Oklahoma City? Didn't give a shit. This most recent presidential election? Not one shit.

“If it didn't have to do with the party they went to the night before or going to Linda's Doll Hut, they weren't interested,” says Capps, who teaches graphic design at Fullerton Community College and Orange Coast College.

This changed on the morning of Sept. 11. Instead of the usual apathy, Capps found himself surrounded by outraged students. They're tired of America's passive ways! They want swift, decisive action! They want a show of force! They want blood, damn it! They want to bomb the shit out of someone—anyone!

“They were rattling off countries to bomb,” says Capps. “They were saying, 'Let's just pick a Middle Eastern country—any of the Palestinians.'”

But Capps, a self-described liberal Democrat, doesn't find this disturbing. On the contrary, he thinks it's heartening. “I think it's great to hear 18-year-olds responding this way because they're not complacent; they're not vague about what's going on.”

Capitalizing on his students' fervor, Capps and partners Michael Darque and Tim Bishop, owners of Santa Ana-based clothing/creative company Skeleton Krew (“specializing in active/action design and sportswear with a lean toward 'calling it like it is,'” says its press release), rushed to develop a line of T-shirts to answer the students' thirst for ass-kicking.

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“USA Fight Terrorism! Shoot Back,” reads one.

A portion of the proceeds—”at least a third”—will benefit local emergency organizations and shelters. “If you want to communicate something to the community, you put it on a T-shirt,” says Capps. “It's the billboard of the millennium.” (Alison M. Rosen)

For more info, visit www. fightingterrorism.com.

 

'NO MORE LIBERAL
PITY PARTIES!'

This nation's acceptance of homosexuality and abortion rights caused God to punish the United States in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to the host of the Orange County-based Christian radio talk show Crosstalk.

“It was a day of national embarrassment,” Rich Agozino said on KBRT-AM 740 less than 12 hours after the attacks. “The silent consent to the agenda of the homosexuals, there's a lot of evil taking place in America today. It stinks to heaven. Why wouldn't God bring a chastising hand to us?”

Agozino's guest, San Diego Pastor Gary Cass, didn't name any specific villains, but agreed.

“I believe God has withdrawn his protection from us as a nation,” said Cass. “Let's search our hearts for how we have offended him.”

But Agozino—who in 1997 advocated government public executions of homosexuals in California—said he was not afraid of offending anyone. He then also asserted that God allowed the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center buildings in retaliation for abortion rights.

“Did we really believe we could murder all those innocent children,” he said. “And God would not respond?”

Charles, a caller from San Diego, blamed the Supreme Court decision to “take God out of the schools” and the “decision to say it is okay to worship Allah instead of the real God.”

The call seemed to fuel Agozino's outrage. After bemoaning that “brothers and sisters in the faith” might have been killed in the attacks, Agozino wondered why the U.S. government would allow any Muslims into the country.

“We open our borders to Muslims,” he said with contempt. “Did you see the story in today's Orange County Register on the Islamic school that opened here? They are rejoicing in all this tragedy! It's like we are holding the enemy to our bosom.”

Another caller, Dr. Bob Morey, a self-identified “Christian faith defender” and author of the frighteningly bigoted and illogical Islamic Invasion told Agozino that “political correctness” prevented government officials from blocking the attacks.

“We're going to have to find and train some Muslims who are American patriots to infiltrate the mosques and to go over to the Middle East to assassinate people,” said Morey. “We don't need any more liberal pity parties!” (R. Scott Moxley)

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