September 2008

John Perry Barlow: “Within a few hours, we will see beginning the most vigorous efforts to end what remains of freedom in America. Those of who are willing to sacrifice a little – largely illusory – safety in order to maintain our faith in the original ideals of America will have to fight for those ideals just as vigorously.”

Joel Spolsky: “Michael and I tried to give blood, but the hospital had loud announcements on the PA saying ‘keep away from the hospital, please do not mill around outside.’ Volunteers told us that the blood donation centers were overloaded anyway and we should come back tonight or tomorrow.”

Dave Winer: “My dad is OK. Just talked with him on the phone. He was in Grand Central Station when the subways shut down. He walked from mid-town over the 59th Street Bridge with thousands of other New Yorkers. He didn’t know the planes were hijacked. What a relief that both my parents survived. And thanks for all the good wishes.”

Doc: “I need to pick up the kid from school soon. This morning he wanted to know why his parents were crying. We couldn’t begin to explain. ”

Cory Doctorow: “So off I go to the usual suspects: CNN, Yahoo, BBC, CBC — and they’re all so busy with people doing what I’m doing, they refuse to load. The Internet’s major news sites have been shut down by a massive flood of traffic as everyone in the world calls and emails everyone else in the world to tell them the news. God, this feels so apocalyptic. Five people have just called me to tell me about this, and more — all flights in the US have been grounded, the Pentagon’s been hit, the flights were hijacked commercial airliners… Holy crap.”

Andrew Sullivan: “The one silver lining of this is that we may perhaps be shaken out of our self-indulgent preoccupations and be reminded of what really matters: our freedom, our security, our integrity as a democratic society. This means we must be vigilant not to let our civil liberties collapse under the understandable desire for action. To surrender to that temptation is part of what these killers want.”

Josh Marshall: “TPM, of course, is normally all about arguments among us, among Americans. But all of that falls deep into the background now. And my support, and I’m sure yours too, is with our president, our armed services, and all of those struggling mightily to save those who can still be saved. ”

Jason Kottke: “All this talk of America vs. the world by our politicians is making me sick and uneasy. This is a human issue, not an American, democracy, or a freedom issue. Someone attacked us all, all of us on the Good Earth.”