Prolific thank you’s to Sean Labrador y Manzano, editor of the forthcoming Conversations at a Wartime Cafe, an anthology which began as (from) his column of the same name at McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. I am especially grateful to him for not only including me in his project, but for persisting with me as I lagged on his deadlines. And really, I have a bunch of editors to thank for persisting with me on my recent, terrible practice of lagging on deadlines. So, thank you, salamat, diyos ti agngina, Sean.
Regarding wartime, yes, it’s been nearly ten years since 09/11/2001, so what does this mean for us, and how we’ve lived, and how (whether) our consciousness has shifted in this past decade. I’d promised him a piece incorporating my thoughts on Major General Antonio M. Taguba (Ret.) as a major player in how my consciousness has clarified in being muddled. Yes, clarity in my state of muddle. Sean’s also asked for a quick write-up on where we were on 09/11/2001. So here’s most of what I’ve sent him to accompany one of my poems based upon the Abu Ghraib images.