In percentage terms, the nation’s poverty rate rose to 11.7 percent in 2001 from 11.3 the year before. Before rising last year, the poverty rate fell for four straight years.

“Like the last year-to-year increase in poverty in 1991-1992 and the last decrease in real household income in 1990-1991, these changes coincided with a recession,” said Daniel Weinberg, chief of the Census Bureau’s Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division.

The “poverty” threshold, in official terms, was $18,104 for a family of four; $14,128 for a family of three; $11,569 for a family of two, and $9,039 for individuals.

Ah the poverty threshold. What a piece of fiction!

Read the rest in the NYTimes: Recession Cut Incomes and Swelled Poverty Rolls, U.S. Says. via Garret.

Oliver Willis is a guy who I consistantly agree with. He walks a fine line here. One which I wish I could write about anywhere near as eloquently as he does. People on the left and people on the right will disagree with him. I can relate.

Ken Layne’s is a must read.

Doc Searls hits all the right notes. He even mentions the fantastic job Howard Stern and his crew did today and last year on this date. I listened all morning.

Meryl shares her recollection of the day and points us to Perfect Morning.

Garret gives us a great riff on “In Flanders Fields” and something to hold in your heart – “Honor Them wiht Peace, Not War”.

Craig amplifies Garret’s thoughts with some quotes and lyrics.

Alwin concludes differently with a Seven Samauri reference. A movie I gotta see someday. Big influence on George Lucas. The conclusion? “Honor Them with War, Not Peace.”

Mike Sanders asks some tough questions. Doesn’t peace begin with saving lives? That one question, which he has as a sub-question – is the answer to the rest I think.

Robyn doesn’t post today, but what she did post is beautiful.

Mark gives us his bottom line, while sharing a whole lot more about his life in relationship to that day.

Thomas Friedman’s Noah and 9/11 is a must read as well. The title is a trick. Go read it.

Jeff Jarvis is at memorial services in NY today and posts his thoughts.

Compare our reaction to 9.11 with that of Pearl Harbor. Reflect on how it is different. Good and bad.

Robert Wright’s series in Slate gets you thinking about the big picture.

Dave Barry’s heavily linked piece is another must read.

All Grief is Local, or so says Patrick Nielsen Hayden. I tried to say this a few days back. Again eloquence.

remember.yahoo.com is a powerful memorial of virtual tiles.

Belief.net’s multifaith site shares thoughts and prayers.

MetaFilter’s thread from last year gives you a minute by minute account by users.

Yahoo!’s portal is still probably the best place to stay informed of the news.

Terrorism: Questions & Answers, from the Council on Foreign Relations, is a plain spoken site for a plain spoken guy. A great site for background information. Wonderful site design too. Easy to read and understand. This is the kind of site I’ve been looking for – a 9.11 FAQ.

The September 11 Archive from the Library of Congress is a great tool to reflect. In particular webheads, read up on 9.11 and the Web Sphere.

GMSV’s 9/11 blog is a huge listalinks.

Remember the Daily News’ weblog effort about hatred.

It started off as a typical day. I had my morning coffee, did a browse of the web, turned on the TV while my wife got in the shower. We leave for work together most days, and this was just another day.

I turned to CNN, a few minutes after the first plane hit. There was no video at the time to confirm it was a 747. Reporters said they believed it was a small private aircraft. They were conjecturing it was human error. There was no indication of what was to happen next.

I stopped in the bathroom to tell Shell what was going on. She was gonna hurry out of the shower. I sat down and two seconds later, with the camera locked on the north tower, a huge fireball erupts from the second. The reporters mistakenly think the explosion is from the north tower. A new shot and perspective and now you can hear the cracks in reporters voices. Fear. Anger. The reality starting to set in. At first no one indicated what caused the second explosion. Some on air conjecturing takes place, and a slowed down replay makes it clear. There was a second plane.

I run to tell Shell, and she get’s out of the shower.

We don’t say much. Just holding on to one another. Looking at the live shots of people deciding to jump. Of the buildings falling. Of the hit on the Pentagon. The reports of other planes out there. Of fight 93. Wondering how many innocent lives were lost. Hearing stories of heroism. Making calls to friends and family. Saying prayers.

Here is a prayer I keep pinned next to my desk. Even if you don’t believe in God, it’s words make sense as a personal code of conduct. One I wish I could live up to better.

Lord, make me an instrument of Your Peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow Love;
Where there is injury, Pardon;
Where there is doubt, Faith;
Where there is despair, Hope;
Where there is darkness, Light;
And Where there is sadness, Joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not So much seek to be consoled, as to Console;
To be understood as to Understand;
To be loved as to Love;
For it is in Giving that we recieve;
It is in Pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

I saw real evil that day. Just a few showed how evil human beings can be. I thought evil like that only existed in history books. In the past. But here it was in my day and age.

I am one of the first people in my circle, to try to find root causes for why people do bad things in this world. My background reminds me that people are influenced by many things that drive them to make decisions that are sometimes wrong.

This – was – indefensible. It was unmistakable. It was evil. “Judge not” is a rule of mine. How could I not? I was conflicted. Confronted by something I did not believe in – evil – and simultaneously judging it. Fear, nausea, anger.

I think as the day wore on a more important realization came thru. A bigger one. A more powerful one. It took some time to sink in. That very same day I saw real heroes. Many of them. Uncountable numbers of them. People doing things that mattered. Fighting for life. Fighting for people other then themselves. People trying to do the right thing. The good thing. Heroes exist. They were already here.

Don’t come by here the rest of today. Infact, if you’re reading this today, I’m disappointed in you – there are better things to be doing with your life. Tell someone you love them. Go hug someone. Say thanks and pay respects. Remember. Go do them.

President Clinton, today in Salon: The path to peace. A Must Read. If you’re a Democrat – he lays down a vision to stand up and fight for. Is it me or do I hear an echo of the Seven Habits? Makes me wonder – where is the new democratic party leadership?

The September 11 Digital Archive – amoungst many 9.11 archive projects – this one stands out.

Honor Them With Peace, Not War. Thanks to Garret for passing it on. Check it out folks, and then pass it on. Make it a weblog meme.

I want to sign it. It’s in my heart. But it’s not in my head. I hate being so conflicted. I’m gonna ressurrect my “Thinking About Kosovo” RSS file. You’ll see how much I didn’t trust American intervention using the military. I thought Clinton was wrong. I was wrong.

I recently moved. This means I need to update my voter registration.

Question for the political wonks out there: Why can’t I do this online?

Ground Zero in Manhattan has become a site of pilgrimage. Thousands of people visit the site, looking for consolation as they question the events of September 11. There is a profound quiet to their meditations. Starting here, FRONTLINE sets out on a quest to find out how peoples’ beliefs-and unbelief-has been challenged, and how they are coping with difficult questions of good and evil, the face of God, and the potential for darkness within religion itself. From survivors who were pulled from the wreckage of the Twin Towers to the widow of a New York City firefighter; from priests and rabbis to security guards and opera divas; from lapsed Catholics and Jews to Buddhists, Muslims, and atheists…. FRONTLINE explores and illuminates the myriad of spiritual questions that have come out of the terror, pain, and destruction at Ground Zero. (120 min)
09.11.2002 at 8:00pm (whyy tv12)
09.12.2002 at 3:00am (whyy tv12)

Here is frontline’s program site.

Doc’s convinced me. I will be watching on 9.11 at 8PM.

More articles to get those brain cells moving.

One year later, much more has changed, and mostly for the better. An America that Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terrorists wanted to frighten, proving that the world’s greatest power was actually weak, vulnerable and cowardly, has shown a remarkable resolve. Its patient but determined use of military power in Afghanistan, and threat of it in Iraq, has created more fears of its strength than contempt for its weakness. Afghanistan was liberated from the Taliban, al-Qaeda’s bases and forces there were destroyed or scattered, and that war-torn country managed to choose its own provisional government. An astonishingly broad alliance backed America in that war, and the two old superpower foes?Russia and China?were respectively supportive and acquiescent.

…What has not happened may be as encouraging as what has. America has not turned in on itself, seeking to hide from a hostile world.

…The events of September 11th showed what unscrupulous, murderous people can achieve. But they also showed how dangerous is the status quo in the Arab world.

Read the rest in the surprising Economist piece Remember.

Lastly, the attacks of September 11th brought to the surface a quality that has been forgotten recently about America. Unlike any other democracy, with the possible exception of Britain, America has a strong war lobby. Americans tend to believe wars settle things. They are willing to support vast military spending and to see the most fearsome weapons deployed.

This is the opposite of what was universally believed. After the humiliating retreat from Somalia, and the initial refusal to put troops into the Balkans, America came to be regarded in some quarters as a paper tiger?fierce-looking but unwilling to fight. Mr bin Laden taunted Americans as cowards. In fact, as Mr Russell Mead points out, where the deepest issues of national security are involved, the American public has been willing to take, and inflict, enormous casualties. It had few qualms about bombing Japan; it sustained heavy casualties in Korea; and public opinion supported even the Vietnam war almost to the end (though elite opinion certainly did not). Now, almost 60% of Americans say their country should attack Iraq even if that means heavy casualties.

This one, I don’t like so much. But maybe because it speaks the truth. Read the rest in the Economist piece Night Fell on A Different World.

It has been almost a year since a band of murderous fanatics took their best shot at New York, committing the most sensationally successful terrorist act in history – and other than the obviously heightened security in Midtown, I’m happy to report that there was no sign of any lasting effect whatsoever. Nothing will ever repair the pain and permanent loss those attacks caused thousands of American families, but any hopes Osama bin Laden and his followers had of throwing America off stride have failed.

Certain warbloggers are gonna love this Mark Bowden’s piece in the Inquirer, even if you don’t agree, it’s a good read.

The NYTimes special A Nation Challenged looks to be the best anniversary coverage to check out.

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s is a must read as well. You got to give The Inquirer credit – it does something that the Times does not – actually link to non-affiliated sites.

I really like the Inquirer’s lead story, by Dick Polman, “Our Old Selves”:

…Now we know better.

Now we know that, even amid our continued mourning for those who died on Sept. 11, we can’t stem the most fundamental traits of our natural character, including our rambunctiousness, our love of argument, our impulse to question authority, our inherent pursuit of happiness…

By The Numbers: Statistics and facts

I see a divide in this country over September 11. It cuts north-and-south right at the California line. Californians don’t get September 11 — because it’s not about them. And isn’t everything supposed to be about them?

You can read the rest over at Jeff Jarvis’s site. Ya know what? I’ve noticed the same divide. But I don’t diagnose it’s source from the same roots as Jeff does. I mean – those sterotypes have to be wrong – right?

I think Jeff misses an important fact in his rant. We on the east coast experienced 9.11 in the present tense. We saw it live! I had my TV turned to CNN when the first plane struck. Many, many of us, saw the second plane hit live. I remember it vividly, “There’s been an explosion in the other tower! What happened? (they slowly replay tape to analyze…) My God another plane hit!” Many, many of us were listenting to the reports of planes in the air wondering what’s next. Then the Pentagon was hit.

On the west coast many experienced it as a TV show. Already punditized. Already produced. Already packaged for mass consumption. Planes already grounded. Fighters already scrambled. Country already safe. In this case – the difference between live and not live means everything. Most major media outlets, within 30 minutes of the first plane strike, were talking about terrorism. In those first few minutes we on the east coast experienced – the talk was of the end of the world. At least it was amoungst my family and friends. Did it seem as immediate and as close to everyone across the country?

I do not believe most people were up and about at the time to experience it live as we did here on the east. I’ve had quite a few conversations with folks confirming this. Phone calls shared, within my own company, from west coast homes to the east coast offices and were filled with concerns for how ‘we’ were doing. Didn’t you experience it too I wondered? We all experienced it. Yes we did. But there were differences. Distance, time, and the media, played major roles.

We were at work. They were in their homes. Sleeping or just waking up. Taking breaks for their showers, for their trips to work. Many of us ran from work to be home with our loved ones. They were already with them hopefully, or making the same hurried calls as we were to our loved ones.

Those differences were amplified during the next few days and months as funeral processions were taking place in the northeast. Everyone over here knows someone who lost a loved one. Everyone.

That is a huge perceptional difference. In my communications with west coasters… well I take that into account. I’m pretty sure with co-workers from the west – they take it into account with us on the east. Suffice to say, I think it probably would have been the same if the tables were turned. We all experienced it. Yes we did. But there is no denying distance, time, and the media. No denying them.

The main headline today at the latimes, “Everything Changed in NY” , and the nytimes, “A Nation Challenged”, sheds light. Distance, Time, and Media.