Along with the shock, grief, and anxiety of the past few weeks, some of us have been feeling, for want of a better word, inadequate. We're not, most of us, very knowledgeable about foreign countries, or their cultures, or how they relate to each other and to the United States.
Over the past two weeks, disbelieving Americans have been asking themselves a variation on the same question: Why do people in other lands hate this country so much? It's not a difficult question, really.
Wednesday afternoon, just a week and a day after the Tuesday when everything in America changed, I was walking through downtown Chicago, trying to catch a train. I was hurrying to pick up my daughter from school, and it was starting to drizzle.
Editor's Note: The two articles that follow have been making the rounds on the Internet. While their exact origins aren't known, the second has been circulating for a long time and was supposedly a radio editorial in Canada.
There will be many thoughtful columns, articles, and books written about the events of September 11, 2001, so the following won't count for much. If you'd prefer to skip it altogether, that's understandable. As I write, it's been less than 24 hours since the first reports.
Published May 22, 2001 in the Los Angeles Times Enslave your girls and women, harbor anti-U.S. terrorists, destroy every vestige of civilization in your homeland, and the Bush administration will embrace you.

Hooked

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Q: I sure like Al Gore's new look. In all the latest photos, he's wearing a beard. What's the inside story? A: This bold move was suggested by the Democratic National Committee, which hopes voters won't recognize the former vice president, thus giving him a fresh start for 2004.

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