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El Fuego en La Moneda: Remembering Chile

ON SEPTEMBER ELEVEN, I cannot help but think of violence and tyranny for various reasons. Of course there is the obvious violence that tore apart Manhattan in 2001 and infected our reasoning and society with febrile veins of fear. But then, there are other tyrannies that found the date of September 11 a comfortable roost.

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Eight Years, September

I CARRY THE HARD DARK WEIGHT of that day with me still. But it does not poison me, as the air of NYC did, sending me retching down the street with lungs seizing to expel the tainted air. Nor does it rest, or will it settle into muck, or septic sediment within my soul. That blast of toxin and heat has, instead, lit me on fire and blooms within like a tree of lightning.