9/11: Eight Years On

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namkcuR

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It's 9/11/09. And this year, the media has been by far the quietist its been in eight years in the lead-up to this year's anniversary. For the past few days I've been waiting for someone on any of the news channels to say something about the anniversary approaching, but I've heard very little amidst the 24/7 healthcare debate. I'm sure it'll get its due coverage today. And it should. We should never forget how we all felt that day - the fear, the shock, the horror, the sadness, the anger, the...the stuff that can't even be put into words. I posted these videos last year and I'm posting them again this year because I think they do a good job of reminding us of what the country was feeling in the days immediately after the attacks. These are Jon Stewart and David Letterman's monologues from the first episodes of The Daily Show and The Late Show, respectively, after 9/11. They're really good. I recommend watching them as you remember 9/11 today.

Video: September 11, 2001 | The Daily Show | Comedy Central

YouTube - David Letterman - Reflections after 9/11 Sep 17 2001

This thread can be used a discussion/remembrance/'where you were you?' thread.

Never forget.
 
I remember every detail of that day, both before and after I found out what happened. I even remember the clothes I wore.

I can't even begin to imagine how painful today must be for the loved ones of the victims.
 
I'll never forget that day either, my grandmother passed the night before and when I woke up my country was attacked. At first I didn't think it was real at all, until I saw my Dad with tears in eyes he grabs me and goes Baby girl, our country has been attacked, I was in total shock I remember setting them watching the towers burn than watched the last one fall. Sadly an old friend of mines Dad was one of the fire fighters killed I remember hearing it at school. Very sad day for all not just for America, but for the world. It just shows that in a blink of an eye everything can change. Never forget 9/11. God bless America!

No matter how hard they try they can never brings us down. I'll have my moment of silence for all those that were lost and all the victims and their families today. I always wear my red, white, and blue and will be flying my flag in front of my house.

This has always been one of my favorite photos.
TEARS-9-11-01.jpg


Along with this.
iwo-9-11-final.jpg
 
I think the fact that it's gotten politicized to death by all sides is one of the reasons you haven't seen the media coverage you think it may deserve. Unfortunately people have already forgotten.
 
I don't care much at all for Letterman or Stewart, but the monologues they gave when their shows came back were excellent and very moving. Every year, whenever I watch the "as it happened" footage, I always start to cry. And I think I always will, and that's ok. September 11 changed my life. That's what inspired and drove me to want to protect the American people in some capacity, and why I'm currently a criminal justice major. Honestly, if that day never happened, I highly doubt I would be aspiring to work in the field that I currently am.

And you're right. It does seem like the coverage has been a little less this year...
 
I remember 9/11 as if it were yesterday.

I still cry. When, I see footage of the planes hitting the towers. The most horrible image in my mind is, the people on the upper floors, jumping or falling to their deaths. I also, remember seeing a photo taken inside of one of the towers of a young fire fighter. You could see it in his eyes. That he knew. He was not coming back out, alive. These men and women are my Heros.

People tend to glamorize celebs, rock stars, politicians, sports stars, etc. But, none of them have done what the fire fighters and police in NYC did on September 11, 2001.
 
I remember pretty much every detail from that day. My parents were supposed to be flying home from their vacation in the States, so I was in a panic, trying to get in contact with them, or find out where they were. It was a gorgeous fall day outside, and I remember being so mad that it was such a beautiful day. It didn't seem right for the sun to be shining so brightly.
 
there's no question that it's the defining "event" of my lifetime, so far, and it just gets weirder and more complex and more awful with each passing year, even as the viscera of that day has started to fade, just a bit, into history, even though i, like everyone, can give you a precise description of what i was doing that morning.

the best way i can think of to discuss it is to reprint part of this interview with Rabbi Irwin Kula from the superlative PBS Frontline documentary "Faith and Doubt At Ground Zero.:


These are final conversations that were recorded on cell phones, recorded on voice mail. They seem to me to be incredible texts, because they were at the moment of confronting life or death. They're so pure about the expression of love between husband and wife, between mother and child. ... When I read them, I just felt they were texts as sacred as the text that we end up having recorded, that we transmit from generation to generation.

I read these every single morning now, or most mornings, because they remind me that whatever my tradition is about; it's about this. It's about being able to express love. It's about being able to understand, taking care of our children. It's about being in real, genuine friendships. They just seem so real to me. ...

I know all these chants, because my father is a cantor. He transmitted all these ancient Jewish chants to me, so they almost naturally came out in chant. I realized, "My God, the chant that we use to read one of the Scriptures that tells the story of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and the burning down of that temple, those chants fit this perfectly," although that's not how I thought about it. The chant came and then I said the chant worked, which, of course, is the way a good tradition works. The chant has made them even more alive to me and then links these new texts to my traditional text, even though I don't know these people. But the fact is, we all knew these people in our own way. ...

[Singing]:

"Honey. Something terrible is happening. I don't think I'm going to make it. I love you. Take care of the children."

"Hey, Jules. It's Brian. I'm on the plane and it's hijacked and it doesn't look good. I just wanted to let you know that I love you, and I hope to see you again. If I don't, please have fun in life, and live life the best you can. Know that I love you, and no matter what, I'll see you again."

"Mommy. The building is on fire. There's smoke coming through the walls. I can't breathe. I love you, Mommy. Good-bye."

"I love you a thousand times over and over. I love and need whatever decisions you make in your lives. I need you to be happy, and I will respect any decisions you make."


When I chant these, there's this mix of real sadness, because I think how many of these people probably, like me, didn't say some of these things prior to that moment. Then the second thing I think is how -- I get goosebumps, actually -- when you chant a text from the Torah, you have to get it just right, because it's holy. Getting it just right means you have to take it seriously. So when I chant this, I think about, "Well, what it would mean to actually make sure I feel this and say this?" post-chanting it. ...

It's incredibly life-affirming, because it's knowledge from the Ground Zero. It's knowledge from real experience, and that's what religion always was about to me, [and] I think I got away from that. That was from the head; 9/11 is about being from the heart.

[...]

My genuine experience of life is that there is nothing "out there." This is all there is. And when you see the seamlessness of it all, that's what I mean by "God." Every tradition has that. Every morning, three times a day since I'm five or six years old, I've been saying, "Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One." Right? It's one of our few creedal statements, the Shema. Three times a day, since I'm six years old.

If you ask what 9/11 really did, it made me understand the truth of that. The truth of that, "Everything is one." Not that there's some guy hanging out there who has it all together, who we call "One," but that it is all one. We all know it deep down. We've all had those experiences. whether it's looking at our child in a crib or whether it's looking at our lover or looking at a mountaintop, or looking at a sunset. Right? We've all had those experiences. And we recognize, "Whoa. I'm much more connected here."

That's what those firemen had. They recognized; they didn't have time to think about it, right? Because actually, if you think about it, you begin to create separations. They didn't think about it. All they knew is we're absolutely connected. We're absolutely connected to the 86th floor.
 
I live in Sarasota FL and while my career takes me to places mostly away from here it just so happened I was in the city the day of 9/11. I remember having to pick up and an associate that morning and she said to drive past SRQ Int'l Airport and see if we can get a glimpse of Air Force One. That was the one and only time I saw the aircraft and was saying to my colleague what a beautiful day it was, see the plane and the very blue skies hanging over the airport. My office is close enough to where we heard the "Motorcade" rushing to get the President Airborne and actually saw Air Force One ascending into the south west Florida sky.

I was living alone at the time (coming off of a seperation from my wife) and remember every news report that came after the initial attack was getting worse and worse. A bunch of us headed to a neighborhood bar close to work to see and catch up on the events that were happening in real time. I was standing in a crowded bar during lunchtime squeeze and seeing the video (for the first time) of the Towers coming crashing to the ground. I felt so alone among all of these people it transcended me. As the hours then days passed I was trying to desperately get in touch with business contacts that I knew in the North East. I knew a number of people that were in the Towers that morning, all but one survived. I had to fly (as usual) the next Tuesday after the attacks and had to deal w/ the empty airplanes (wondering if I was on the next flight to be attacked). I personally saw the 9/11 widows that every day would show up at train stations in Northern Jersey and south west CT just hoping that maybe just maybe there loved ones would be there to pick up there abandoned cars.

The first time my business ventures brought me into NYC I was shocked to not see the Towers. For Hayseeds like myself I used to use the towers for my bearings if I ever got turned around somehow downtown.

So that brings me to my thoughts on the US Gov't and how they let us down, they not only let us down they let the world down. Many of my conservative freinds have implored me to give this up and get back in line with the fold but the fact of the matter is we didn't get Bin Laden and many of you will say it really doesn't matter that we didn't bring him to justice but I guess it still matters to me and will never forgive the Administration that was in power at the time and the one before it when they had a chance at him.

Our Gov't FAILED all of us.
 
I still can't believe it happened. My city was attacked. People I knew lost loved ones. My dad attended funerals of the firefighters, some of them sons of the men he used to work with.

A couple of nights ago, I was having nightmares of 9/11. I could see the planes heading towards the towers, the flames, people hanging out the windows or jumping, the collapse. That was really when old emotions came roaring back for me.

It does seem like people are forgetting. But I doubt New Yorkers would ever forget.
 
One thing I'll never forget about 9/11 was the aftermath. Misguided patriotism and racism. People incorrectly displaying and caring for their flags. It was a pretty ugly time. It seemed like every time I turned around people were selling fleeces, sweatshirts, tee shirts or hats with the 9/11 Never Forget slogan on it. I don't think anyone who was alive and aware of what was going on will ever forget 9/11. Just like people who were alive and aware of Pearl Harbor will never forget that.

But, I really don't need to see video of the 2nd plane crashing into the tower again. I've seen it too many times already and its just too tough to watch.
 
the thing that sticks out at me the most is the surreal factor of it all. as it was going on that morning, it almost seemed like it wasn't a big deal....like i wouldn't allow myself to be terrified by what was happening. i even went to class that day, and i remember the professer not even mentioning what happened and just going along with his lecture for the day. the magnitude of what had happened didn't actually hit me until the afternoon.
 
385673main_image_1466_946-710.jpg

Found that on the NASA webpage
A Day of Remembrance
Visible from space, a smoke plume rises from Manhattan after two planes crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center. This photo was taken of metropolitan New York City the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, from aboard the International Space Station. "Our prayers and thoughts go out to all the people there, and everywhere else," said Station Commander Frank Culbertson of Expedition 3, after the attacks

I remember being stunned at what happened in NY. Then came word of the Pentagon being hit. My friend's brother works at the Pentagon. I went cold. I raced to the phones in the office at work and called his mother and my friend. No one had heard anything, yet.

Found out the next day he was out of the office when it happened. Long 24 hours. It was his part of the Pentagon that got hit. He lost friends and co-workers. I was so thankful that he was safe yet felt guilty to be that happy when so many others were not able to be.
 
I remember that day so very well. I had the day off work, and was watching TV, and saw both planes hit the Twin Towers. I could not believe of what I saw. Then it was announced that a plane had crashed in the state of PA. When they said where it went down, my heart just sunk, learning that is was only 50 miles from where I live. It was just a horrible & sad day for our country, that so many innocent people died.
 
The attacks will soon be forgotten and September 11 will be remembered for what it is....

...my fucking birthday.

:wink:

- Knock Knock.
- Who's there?
- 9/11
- 9/11, who?
- You said you'd never forget!!

Happy Birthday.


I'd always had a fear of heights, 9/11 has definitely exacerbated that. I hate even being in the short high rise buildings that we have around here.
 
I still remember a lot from that day, even if I was thousands of miles away in Australia, even if I was just a clueless kid. Like I said, I was still a kid when the planes crashed into the towers, I remember waking up, getting ready for school. As I turned on the TV out came a breaking news broadcast, being young I really didn't understand the severity and the atrocity of the attacks, and didn't make much of it but I remember it was the talk of the class. I remember other students in class re-enacting the catastrophe using their hands as aeroplanes crashing into table legs accompanied by voiced crashing noises.

Yesterday, at school I watched a DVD of the attacks, everything that happened in the short space of those few hours. I was watching with a gaping mouth as the first plane smashed into one of the towers, people down below gasping at what they just witnessed in front of their eyes, the smoke steadily escaping out of the building, btw a lot of the footage was amateur. Later on, I saw probably the most disturbing thing in my entire life, people just jumping out of the buildings knowing that they faced certain death, it was one way or the other. You could see many papers and documents just floating out of the building and taking their place on the ground.

Then, sometime later the second plane hit the other tower, BAM! more directly than the previous. That hit me pretty hard emotionally, too. Later on in some amateur camera footage a man spotted someone in one of the towers waving the American flag out the window, then he turned the camera away as soon as he saw the man just falling out of the building. Heartbreaking stuff. It was very horrendous although I've never really liked or respected America as a country, in terms of blood I am not a westerner.

Does really remind you how bad this really was, and how significant ATYCLB became after these attacks.

(Gee I ramble on a lot)
 
Yeah 9/11 happened when I was in fifth grade. The teacher made it out to be a big deal, but no one else in the class could understand what was happening. She said this could change the world - she bought us all papers. Unfortunately, we were all just too young to understand. I knew it was a big deal when my dad - who claims to hate politicians and heavily criticizes the country - got an American flag bumper sticker for his car.

Still. I read news articles that said that my generation, the high school graduation class of '09, is the "9/11 generation." I dunno about that, we were awfully young when it happened.
 
I was on a plane from Dublin from London when it happened. We landed at Heathrow and heard from the ground staff. Then while we were trying to truly understand what he meant, we watched an American Airlines plane being towed into the middle of the field, which was very strange.

That week I was bummed that I missed the Slane concerts by a week but we ran around Dublin and had a great time. I prefer to remember that 10 September I was drinking in the Clarence, rather than what happened the next day.

I remember just feeling very, very, very far from home that day....
 
i'm from australia and i was only 11 at the time (i remember being angry my tv show got interrupted!) but what a horrible thing to happen.

and wow what a video that is, letterman.
 
:( :( :(
Extra hugs to all here who knew people who perished in the 9-11 Atrocity.....

Among my circles we were incredibly lucky:
one person either was late to work, or stepped into a coffee shop (instead of Towers); one who had fairly often been in the Towers visiting clients was not there that day; and the most amazing of all was a person who worked on around the ? 102nd floor (and who probably have not made it down the stairs in time) was fired about 2-3 weeks before 9-11.

Longish story b/c it was in a way- UNUSUAL in how i found out :

I don't usually watch TV in the morning unless I know about something incredibly amazing or horrific has happened before I went to sleep (such stories that big would continue on when I woke up), so I had NO DEA this was happening upon awaking at 10AM.

The UNUSUAL thing for me, however was NOT turning on my Walkman in the morning which I have on as I get ready to leave the apartment building, catch news, Local Public Radio programs, and Rock& Roll stations.

SO I left the building, heading down my street which is perpendicular to a Major Brooklyn Avenue that in looking northwestward would sightline towards Lower Manhattan as it leads towards the Manhattan Bridge. I see how beautiful the day is... the type of Non-Rainy Puffy Happy Summer Clouds showing up between the trees, low apartemnt buildings, and brownstones of the area signaling LOW HUMIDITY Summer Weather here and there in the sky.

As I get near my corner, and FINALLY turn ON MY WAlkman I CLUELESSLY hear several newscasters talking in mid-stream (which at that point DOSN'T ID where/what building(s) ..."fireman cover in ashes...." ... I know this sounds trite but it looks like a movie...." then they all go silent for what feels like least 15 - 30 seconds < which in radio parlance means too much "dead air" time> as I am almost ready then cross the next corner to go down the street leading towards that Major Brooklyn Avenue.

I'm imagining (a certain prevalent type of) some poor big red-brick building a block long around 12 stories high found in the Borough of Queens... and thinking... 'how awful!...', WHEN one On-Air person returns to say in a flattened voice... "The Towers are gone" ....

I spun to face the street across from me, and stopped short in my tracks- staring at my walkman as if it's turned into a small squawking monster !!

IN NYC "The Towers" then meant only one place, but perhaps I (like millions of others) didn't believe this because HOW COULD THAT BE !?!!!

I begin to swiftly but only semi-consciously reel in all the things I learned . Something big on fire/ incredible surreal/ Towers gone/ I am facing towards Lower Manhattan now....... WAIT A SECOND ... that Happy Summer Cloud in front of me ?? I [I ]hadn't ACTUALLY turned around [/I] from side- to-side looking about the sky above my street/ block because I was focused ahead in a hurry to get to the Subway ... were there any other clouds around???...

Some part of me must of caught on before the rest of me because I then then sort of shot up straight, spun back around, and then stared straight ahead at what I thought had been a Happy Summer Cloud sticking up above the lower, but way closer local buildings that blocked a farther view .

Almost like a zoom lens my sight focused in-- it wasn't the bright-white with blued-gray shadows that a cloud of that type and in that time of day/season would look[ like[ /B]....... no, instead I began to see the lightish but distinctive grayed-beige yellow color it really was.

And didn't it look more somehow more gritty-ish, > well, wait... didn't that meant it wasn't just a cloud "cloud", then?

And I am
 
the thing that sticks out at me the most is the surreal factor of it all. as it was going on that morning, it almost seemed like it wasn't a big deal....like i wouldn't allow myself to be terrified by what was happening. i even went to class that day, and i remember the professer not even mentioning what happened and just going along with his lecture for the day. the magnitude of what had happened didn't actually hit me until the afternoon.

I had a similar experience in that later in the afternoon I was visiting a friend in University. I was totally blown away by what had happened and was trying to gauge everyone else's reaction...it struck me that many people didn't even know what had happened (i.e. had been in class all day and were NOT informed!!!) or just didn't get the magnitude of the event yet. To me it is unforgivable for a professor to not immediatley stop classes and concentrate on the event at hand...it really gave me a certain insight into some Professors and their complete lack of appreciation for the moment. It also made me worry that people wouldn't drop everything they were doing and stand in awe but instead would go to their next class. WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!?
 
Thanks, namKcur or the Letterman & Stewart Vids. I had no Cable TV at that time so I didn't and hadn't seen the Stewart one beofore.


I type S-l-O-W so the time ran out on my post. :der:
I quoted and finished it here.

:( :( :(

Extra hugs to all here who knew people who perished in the 9-11 Atrocity.....


Among my circles we were incredibly lucky:
one person either was late to work, or stepped into a coffee shop (instead of Towers); one who had fairly often been in the Towers visiting clients was not there that day; and the most amazing of all was a person who worked on around the ? 102nd floor (and who probably have not made it down the stairs in time) was fired about 2-3 weeks before 9-11.

Longish story b/c it was in a way- UNUSUAL in how i found out :

I don't usually watch TV in the morning unless I know about something incredibly amazing or horrific has happened before I went to sleep (such stories that big would continue on when I woke up), so I had NO DEA this was happening upon awaking at 10AM.

The UNUSUAL thing for me, however was NOT turning on my Walkman in the morning which I have on as I get ready to leave the apartment building, catch news, Local Public Radio programs, and Rock& Roll stations.

SO I left the building, heading down my street which is perpendicular to a Major Brooklyn Avenue that in looking northwestward would sightline towards Lower Manhattan as it leads towards the Manhattan Bridge. I see how beautiful the day is... the type of Non-Rainy Puffy Happy Summer Clouds showing up between the trees, low apartemnt buildings, and brownstones of the area signaling LOW HUMIDITY Summer Weather here and there in the sky.

As I get near my corner, and FINALLY turn ON MY WAlkman I CLUELESSLY hear several newscasters talking in mid-stream (which at that point DOSN'T ID where/what building(s) ..."fireman cover in ashes...." ... I know this sounds trite but it looks like a movie...." then they all go silent for what feels like least 15 - 30 seconds < which in radio parlance means too much "dead air" time> as I am almost ready then cross the next corner to go down the street leading towards that Major Brooklyn Avenue.

I'm imagining (a certain prevalent type of) some poor big red-brick building a block long around 12 stories high found in the Borough of Queens... and thinking... 'how awful!...', WHEN one On-Air person returns to say in a flattened voice... "The Towers are gone" ....

I spun 90 degrees in shock to face the street across from me, and stopped short in my tracks- staring at my walkman as if it's turned into a small squawking monster !!

IN NYC "The Towers" then meant only one place, but perhaps I (like millions of others) didn't believe this because HOW COULD THAT BE !?!!!

I begin to swiftly but only semi-consciously reel in all the things I learned . Something BIG on fire/ incredible surreal/ Towers gone/ I am facing towards Lower Manhattan now....... WAIT A SECOND ... that Happy Summer Cloud in front of me?? I hadn't ACTUALLY turned around from side- to-side looking about the sky above my street/ block because I was focused ahead in a hurry to get to the Subway ... were there any other clouds around... did that mean mean something?

Some part of me must of caught on before the rest of me because I then then sort of shot up straight, spun back around, and then stared straight ahead at what I thought up to that second (consciously, anyway) had been a Happy Summer Cloud sticking up above the lower, but way closer local buildings that blocked a farther view.

Almost like a zoom lens my sight focused in-- it wasn't the bright-white with blued-gray shadows that a cloud of that type and in that time of day/season would look like[ /B]....... no, instead I began to see the lightish but distinctive grayed-beige yellow color it really was.

And didn't it look more somehow more gritty-ish, > well, wait... didn't that meant it wasn't just a cloud "cloud", then?

And I am looking towards Lower Manhattan. Then.... that must mean, that must be the cloud of destruction, I'd glimpsed already as I left home- and was now facing.


THAT'S when I clapped my hands over my mouth and went half-crying, half-screaming back home. As I did-I heard about the Pentagon and Pennsylvania. It was getting worse & worse.

I didn't even look at the TV footage till around 11 PM. I was scared of w how intense my reaction would be. So until then I was glued to my local Public Radio station.
-------------------------------------------

I had spent a year way back in 80- 81 working on the 73th floor of the South ( No #2) Tower. An amazing view: looking east towards Long Island - with binoculars I once saw Concord take off from JFK, and Northwards past the George Washington Bridge, past The Tappanzee Bridge (NYC Suburbs) all the way up towards the Ramapo Mountains.

After that (and before) I'd worked on & off in that area.
Sometimes for a change of pace -because you can be right by the Hudson River (after work in that area) I would visit off & on and relax around the Palm Court, and the North Cove & Plaza of The World Financial Center; walked the Esplanade, and the Upper & Lower Parks of Battery Park City.

I fell in love with The Towers (while working there), then because I saw how they acted like canvases for the natural light and cloud conditions around them!

So not only were they an engineering feat of the time but they became to me an important aesthetic place to be around.

I grieved for My New Yorkers & My City, all the visitors there for business and fun, for my Country, and I also grieved for The Towers as well.

------------------------------------------------------------

One of the most striking & moving things (along, of course, with the amazing people who gave their lives, or healthier previous live, and those volunteering after) was all the spontaneous Memorial ) and gatherings) of people & physical stuff representing all manner of emotions, symbols of the people towers lost... was the BIGGEST Memorial at the southern end of 14th Street - Union Square .

It became there because across the street (south side of 14th) was the no-go zone except for certain people an professionals, and this was the biggest and CLOSEST TO area for people to congregate, and mourn etc.

What didn't hit me the first minutes I was there (and revisited again & again till it was removed) then finally did:
... as a semi-activist I had for decades gone to Marches, gatherings in NYC and elsewhere etc marking problems & tragedies all over the world, and other part s of The USA>> but until then I had never had the "eyes of The Country & The World" turned towards NYC in this particular fashion before (and hope & :pray: never again ).

For me it added an even more sense of stunned-ness, as it also gave voice to our sorrows etc.
 
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