Tuesday night, a man finished checking out his books and for some reason launched into an exposition about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. And what did he say was the driving force for the attacks? Why, it was all about. . .asbestos abatement!
According to this man's theory, and I can't believe he made it up all by himself, the one single owner of the trade center towers was faced with huge costs involved with getting rid of asbestos. He claimed it would cost $1 billion to remove the carcinogen from the building and another billion for all the scaffolding he'd have to place around the outsides of the structures to get the work done.
And so, he cynically arranged for passenger jets to fly into the two buildings. . . three actually, including tower seven. . . committing thousands of murders to avoid coming up with the jack needed to do the right thing. He "sold it to the insurance company" as the expression goes.
Well, I've heard a crackpot theory or two in my time, but this one really takes the cake. As a humble public servant it isn't my place to argue with library patrons, but several pertinent comments about his little tirade did immediately come to mind. Like, for example, what is going on in that tiny mind of yours?
Faithful readers (You're out there somewhere aren't you?) know I'm by no means an apologist for big businesses or the people who run them. Still, hiring suicidal pilots to fly passenger planes into occupied buildings in order to save money would be such an insanely monstrous act that it just defies serious consideration.
It bothers me that this theory must be bouncing around the Internet somewhere. Clearly at least one person is attracted to it. How many others there might be is unknown, but it bespeaks a willingness to believe the very worst about our fellow Americans.
Well, I'm done with this. I only brought it up in the first place as an illustration of how far off the deep end some folks are inclined to go. Have a pleasant Sunday.
No comments:
Post a Comment