thanks katie, insightful and well written as usual!
-james c
----- Original Message -----
From: Kelly, Katie <kkelly@spss.com>
To: <ba-autox@autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2001 12:50 PM
Subject: NEWS FROM THE FRONT
> Hello Bay Area Autocrossers:
>
> I just thought I'd share with you my experiences of the Solo II Nationals
in
> Topeka, KS last week. It's not very easy putting this into words.
>
> Tuesday morning on the north course, as I was cheering on my dad to his
> fourth place in A Prepared, I heard some news from Jean Kinser that lead
me
> to believe that she had lost her mind. She was walking around handing out
> Evolution Driving School stickers, and telling us that the Pentagon and
the
> World Trade Center were on fire, and to pass the word. I was absolutely
> convinced that she was insane, but she said it with such urgency, I knew
it
> had to be true.
>
> I went up to Chris Cox and Rick Gould, who were there to support Pilar who
> was running in the same group. I said, "This ought to put things into
> perspective," passing on the news, not quite digesting its severity.
>
> They thought for sure I was passing along some sick joke. "Look at your
> smirk," Rick said. "You are so full of it."
>
> Rick and I went to his truck and turned on the radio. As we watched the
cars
> race on the south course, we listened to Peter Jennings describe the
mayhem
> in New York. He could barely get out the words. I heard the sounds of
> explosions and helicopters and sirens, and just his voice describing the
> terrible scene. A small group, including Jim McKamey, gathered around to
> listen to the news unfold. We tried to find words, something to explain it
> all, but we couldn't.
>
> They stopped the event shortly thereafter. They allowed the second group
on
> the north course to run, and on the south course, they got through the
third
> group, and that's when they told us all to get off the site, immediately.
> Just pack up your things as quickly as possible, you can leave your
trailer
> at the new SCCA headquarters site, but just get off the site.
>
> It took a couple of hours, but slowly, all 1000 of us siphoned out of the
> gate. This is the part I wish I could find the words to describe. The
> intensity and the importance of nationals suddenly became about as
> significant as the rubble of the broken concrete, as we slowly, quietly,
and
> solemnly packed up our belongings, not really comprehending what was
> happening, or what we were going to do. Do we go home? Stay?
>
> I called my boyfriend Bob on a cell phone, as we waited to fit in the long
> line to leave the paddock. He said there was video footage of planes
> crashing into the buildings on the TV.
>
> What I'll remember most of all of this event is laying on my bed in the
> Motel 6 in Topeka, watching the horrific details unfold on television, and
> making cut out daisies for my Snell certified helmet out of contact paper.
> Somehow, the daisies made me just a little bit happier.
>
> On Wednesday night, we all went to the banquet, to award trophies for
those
> who ran on Tuesday, and to learn that the event would continue on Thursday
> and Friday, only we'd all just run on the South course, three runs each.
> Somehow, we'd just make it all work. We held hands in prayer, and Roger
> Johnson gave us a stirring and eloquent speech. He read all of our minds
and
> somehow put it all into words, and helped us make sense of it all.
>
> I think the words will be in the next issue of NAP, I'm not sure. I'm not
> saying that to get you to subscribe, but just so you know where they are.
> The gist was that although many of us have gone home, understandably, for
> those of us who are still here, to pack it in and give up would be like
> letting those bastards win.
>
> And so, in the next two days, I saw the most amazing autocross of my
entire
> life. They ran six groups on Thursday, and nine on Friday. Friday's event
> had some 435 competitors. They had two course walk throughs, and did
> on-the-fly worker change overs.
>
> On the upside: what that means is that we can get 1600 entrants in 2002.
>
> As Josh Sirota noted, SFR brought home six well earned national
championship
> trophies.
>
> There is something more important, though, and that is that we even
> autocrossed at all. It's not just that they let us autocross. It's that we
> did it, in spite of the enemy's attempts to make us live in fear.
>
> Forbes Field is a live air force base. They could have just sent us on our
> way. Although we were given only half the paddock space on Thursday and
> Friday, we made due with what we had. You could only bring your trailer
and
> RV onto the site if you were competing on that day. There were no
> complaints.
>
> I trust our President and his assertions that those guilty are associated
> with Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, but trust is all I have. I really
> don't know. I am so baffled by the human mind, and how people who look
just
> like we do, who love their children just like we do, could want to harm so
> many people in such a sick way, and if you ask them why, they'll give you
> well reasoned answers. You can try to debate with them, but their minds
are
> made up, using their own logic. It makes sense to them. It's not a
culture,
> it's not a religion, it's a philosophy.
>
> I turn to logic, because it is what makes sense. Yet, so do these
> terrorists, yet their conclusions are so different. In fact, from their
> perspective, WE are the terrorists. This attack was so well planned. It is
> almost impressive, but I cannot comprehend it. We humans separate
ourselves,
> rather smugly, from other animals in our ability to use reason and logic,
> but events like this lead me to believe that humans are not rational. We
are
> not superior. Our brains are like putty, moldable and pliable into any
shape
> or belief. What amazing creatures we are, capable of so much beauty and
also
> cruelty, the sickest things ever that can destroy the whole world. It's a
> sick joke I will never get.
>
> But if Bush's assertions are true, that the source of these attacks came
> from the Taliban, then it means my right as a woman to compete in such a
> silly, meaningless sport with such passion is even more precious.
>
> Two weeks ago, I was ready to quit autocrossing. I was sick of the
politics
> and the personality clashes, and that it was becoming more of a job to me.
> All I wanted to do was make my nationals runs, and fly home and move on
with
> my life. After my year in Prague several years ago, where I was immersed
in
> a culture that placed priorities on different things than we do here in
the
> U.S., where I had to struggle to learn a really strange language, and deal
> with stares because of my funny accent, and live in poverty, and just be
> grateful that I had a roof over my head and at least a supply of bread and
> beer, I had made a promise to myself that autocross would never become
more
> important than what is truly important, a life of liberty, justice, and
the
> American way, whatever that means. I have a roof over my head, and friends
> and family, and a kitchen with all the appliances, and thank God for that.
> That is all that is important.
>
> Yet over time, I allowed myself to be sucked into exactly what it was that
I
> had tried to avoid. I had lost the strength to rise above what I had so
> disdained. The price I pay is lost friendships with people who once, and
> still do, mean so much to me, and now we even avoid each other in
airports.
>
> So, I just wanted to hang up the helmet, to start a new activity where I
> could reinvent myself, and I could just enjoy this activity, whatever it
is,
> for simply being what it is, even if it was just going hiking in the
woods,
> because I had lost that ability with autocross. Too much importance is
> placed on success, some nebulous, meaningless term, than the true fact
that
> autocross is more symbolic of our free time, and we can weave in and out
of
> traffic better than most, and what it really is is a whole lot of fun.
>
> I don't care what place I came in at Nationals. I am grateful that I got
to
> make those three runs, the best runs of my whole life, to Jeff Ellerby for
> letting me drive his wonderful, red Westfield (Lotus 7 like thing) in DM,
a
> car that makes me smile just looking at it, that I got to play in a
parking
> lot with about a thousand other champions, and that I had, in a pretty
small
> way, a chance to give my big finger to whomever it was who decided to
steal
> airplanes and crash them into buildings and kill innocent people.
>
> Katie Kelly
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