9/11

[WriterDom]

The day we all became New Yorkers. I feel for the hundred or more who had to leap to their death. All the first responders who climbed to a certain death. The sheer panic of watching two of the tallest buildings in the city collapse. I "guess" we are supposed to be beyond it now but I'll never forget.

It's pretty hard to forgive as well.

 

[ecstaticsub]

We will never be beyond that day. As I watched it happen on TV my husband called me from work at the base he was stationed at. He said "you know what this means.." I knew our lives would never be the same again. I knew then that we would be facing frequent deployments and unfortunately the deaths of close friends.

 

[wicked woman]

Bowing my head in silent remembrance.

 

[Etoile]

I'm watching a TV show about the WTC right now. They showed the construction, andnow they're talking about figuring out how to tackle the dangerous remains (fires, collapse risks) to look for remains.

I don't think I will ever forget EXACTLY what I was doing on 9/11, and exactly how I felt. Two years ago today, and one year ago today, professors have paused class to discuss 9/11. Some of my classmates don't even remember. They have vague memories, sure, but they were 9 or 10 years old. Too young to remember, really. I was only 20 myself. But I can tell you exactly where I was, what I did, and how I felt.

But you know, I understand the attackers' motivations. They thought they were doing what was right. Just because I was on the "attacked" side doesn't mean I don't understand the attackers' point of view. They felt the attacks were their only option for whatever goal they wanted to achieve - at the time I think it was fear and horror (er, terror) but I don't know that they predicted the American response that took place. I guess I do forgive them, because I understand what they were trying to do. I'm mad, but I understand.

I miss life before 9/11. I miss meeting people at the gate in airports. I miss not being at war constantly. I miss fast-moving lines to get into places. Yeah...I just miss the way life used to be.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

I cannot, will not, forget, or "get beyond," or forgive. "War" to some people has become cruel, unprovoked attacks on civilians and innocents with no military or strategic advantage sought, merely the pain and anguish and death of "the others."

I do not blame the followers of any religion, but extremist haters of *any* race, creed, religion or philosophy. What they are doing is wrong by any interpretation of Bible, Koran or Torah, or any other sacred work I've ever heard of. May they all, regardless of their affiliations or beliefs, rot in the deepest, darkest, hottest circles of hell for an infinity of infinities, and have that time to suffer eye for an eye retribution for the pain they have given others.

 

[Etoile]

Sadly, SW, too many people don't make the distinction you do, and associate all Muslims with Al Qaeda. I'll never forget the death threats my Muslim friend received after the Oklahoma City bombing. We were in high school, for pete's sake. They slipped them into her locker. And that wasn't even really perpetrated by a Muslim. Now that we know 9/11 was done by extremist Muslims, people are mad at everyone who is affiliated with the faith.

 

[graceanne]

Sadly, SW, too many people don't make the distinction you do, and associate all Muslims with Al Qaeda. I'll never forget the death threats my Muslim friend received after the Oklahoma City bombing. We were in high school, for pete's sake. They slipped them into her locker. And that wasn't even really perpetrated by a Muslim. Now that we know 9/11 was done by extremist Muslims, people are mad at everyone who is affiliated with the faith.

They don't care if they're Muslim. They just want Arab's. My sister in law, after the Iranian thing in the eighties, had to run home every day in fear of being beat up. (Her father immigrated from Iraq before she was born - they're Kurdish.)

My niece and nephews (children of the sister in law I just mentioned) got a LOT of flack about being arabic, and have been called things I won't print since 9/11.

All of the people I just mentioned are Christians and have been their whole lives.

 

[rosco rathbone]

Also give thought to the hundreds of volunteers who are now sick from working in the toxic atmosphere without protection, trying to rescue people.

 

[Homburg]

I knew then that we would be facing frequent deployments and unfortunately the deaths of close friends.

I hate to say it, but one of my first thoughts was "Thank god that my dad is out."

--

I miss life before 9/11. I miss meeting people at the gate in airports. I miss not being at war constantly. I miss fast-moving lines to get into places. Yeah...I just miss the way life used to be.

Very much so.

 

[00Syd]

Honestly, everything that needs to be said about 9/11 has been said, at least once, in the 8 years since. There are some things that still need to be repeated (the difference between Muslims and extremist Muslims is a good example), but there is nothing new to say.

I'm ready for this day to become a normal day again. Watching all of the many fire fighters and police officers walk downtown to the WTC hole for the memorial service every year is really a wearying sight. I mourn in private.

 

[Etoile]

When I was in elementary school, they mentioned Pearl Harbor every Dec 7th. I don't remember it being mentioned in high school though. So 1941 to late 80s...took about 40 years before they stopped mentioning it every year, I guess. Going to be a while for 9/11, I think.

 

[Etoile]

Ew, I just noticed my Gamer Score on my Xbox bar in my signature. That's creepy.

 

[kitten_candy]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3803832190924177463#

Syd - i hope this doesn't add to the feeling of repetition...

i saw this documentary when it first aired on Discovery a few years ago and it's stayed with me. it's from the perspective of people in and around the towers.

there is no political viewpoint, no opinions regarding the why of it.

some of it is dramatized and feels like a made for tv movie.

ultimately though, i found it fascinating to know the stories of the people who were there.

 

[Etoile]

*makes note to watch that when she has 90 mins free*

 

[00Syd]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3803832190924177463#

Syd - i hope this doesn't add to the feeling of repetition...

I just don't need to re-live it again. Once was enough.

 

[graceanne]

I just don't need to re-live it again. Once was enough.

That's my feeling on the issue. I remember it just fine.

 

[kitten_candy]

that's understandable.

for me, it was a way to know the stories of the people there as opposed to reliving the event.

 

[missginger2177]

I know that I will never forget the day, what I was doing when I heard, how I found out, all those little details will likely stick with me forever. Yet, I couldn't help but register shock this morning at the fact that it's been 8 years. Only 8? It seems like so much longer ago. I was in eighth grade when it happened, and I'm now a senior in college. And, all I found myself thinking this morning as my professor talked about seeing AF1 was "Where the hell did the time go?"

 

[ecstaticsub]

It should be remembered every day, not just 9/11. Try living on a military base. As long as we have military members in Iraq and Afghanistan it should be remembered. It makes me sick thinking how many Americans go on with their lives as if there is no war going on while I have friends leaving their families to go overseas hopefully to return in a yr or so.

 

[Homburg]

It should be remembered every day, not just 9/11. Try living on a military base. As long as we have military members in Iraq and Afghanistan it should be remembered. It makes me sick thinking how many Americans go on with their lives as if there is no war going on while I have friends leaving their families to go overseas hopefully to return in a yr or so.

*nod* I have friends over there right now.

It's not as bad around here. Big military town, so people are aware.

 

[DVS]

I'll remember for as long as I live. I was in grade school when President Kennedy was shot and I can still remember how our teacher let us listen to a transistor radio instead of our normal school work, because we were living history.

I'll also remember when Bobby was killed, too. I was camping out with a friend and I couldn't sleep, so I was listening to the radio with an ear plug. I heard the news and woke my friend up. He didn't believe me and was upset that I woke him, until the news came on the radio again and he heard for himself.

And Martin Luther King, too. The 60s were a troubling time to grow up in. It was very strange to know people could hate so much when I was so young.

I'll also remember when and where I was when John Lennon was gunned down. I felt that more personally, because John was an idol of mine...a true musical genius.

On 9/11, I was at home. I had the day off and for some reason I was watching the Today show. They broke from their normal schedule when they got reports that a plane had crashed into the first tower. Nobody knew it was intentional, nor did they know how large that plane was.

We all watched in disbelief as a second airliner crashed into the second tower. The Today show studio was silent. I'm sure nobody knew what to say. It was a stunned silence. There was no sound because they were showing the scene from their studio window, across town. That somehow compounded the horror.

How the people on those planes must have felt, even though they were probably kept from knowing what the terrorists had in mind. Not until that last minute, when it was impossible not to know.

And when the first tower collapsed, again we all watched in silent horror, watching that concrete dust and debri coat the city scape around the towers, like some sort of death cloud. When the second tower collapsed, you could hear gasps of horror in the studio. By then, people were beginning to absorb what was going on.

I didn't personally lose anybody that day, but a friend of mine had friends she lost in one of the towers and a good friend of mine from high school lost his sister in law at the Pentagon.

People talk about the aftermath of this day, and how it affects travel. Before 9/11, passengers were told to sit back and do what a terrorist says, because most of the time, all they would want was to hijack the plane to another country.

This was the first time someone planned to use large airplanes, loaded with fuel and innocent people to crash into the two buildings that represented capitalism in the free world. They had no idea the buildings would collapse. That was icing on the cake for them.

It was the design of the buildings that caused them to fall. The burning jet fuel weakened the support steel on the impact floors and the floors all collapsed on themselves. People in some countries cheered when the towers collapsed. That's something I won't ever understand.

But, the first wave of Americans fighting back was Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. Those brave passengers had heard of the other planes crashing into the towers and the Pentagon and knew they were probably destined for the Capital or maybe the White House.

They fought back and saved whatever target that plane would have been headed for. There is now a field in Pennsylvania of hollowed ground. They were the first heroes of that day, but there were many others. We should also remember this day because of them.

Warning...this might be difficult for some to watch.

 

[graceanne]

My husband and my brother are over there, right now.

 

[Homburg]

I've seen that field. Didn't stop. had a vanload of kids that I did not want to expose to such things yet. Their world is not overshadowed by that sort of horror, as the oldest was literally about one year old when it happened. I know they've probably heard of it, but it likely has as much meaning to them as Viet Nam did to me. Culturally important, but not personal.

I want to keep it that way. I don't want them growing up learning to hate. They'll learn about the events when the time comes, but I have no desire to expose them to it before they can understand it.

The oldest probably can. I don't want to have that talk though. Not yet.

 

[Kajira Callista]

Also give thought to the hundreds of volunteers who are now sick from working in the toxic atmosphere without protection, trying to rescue people.

*nods lots*

 

[VelvetDarkness]

When I visited NYC a couple of years ago, a friend of mine wanted to see the 9/11 museum at ground zero. My first thought was , 'who wants to spend a holiday depressing themselves with something like that?' What I actually took from the museum was the tremendous community spirit that was shown by New Yorkers. They did everything possible and they did it swiftly. Construction companies donated vehicles and lifting equipment to dig for survivors/bodies, oil companies ferried in fuel. People volunteered in shifts to operate that equipment and to sift through rubble by hand. People queued for hours and days to donate blood. Every emergency worker volunteered countless hours to keep everything controlled and moving forwards. There was so much done that went far beyond donating food, blanket and accommodation. There was a doctor there who spent days camped out in a NYC park, where the dead were being brought. He said that there weren't that many serious injuries; people either got out or they didn't. He spent days repeatedly pronouncing death, identifying people, salvaging valuables and keepsakes for the relatives, he even had to put in shifts to prevent the less scrupulous from trying to mug the corpses.

Anyway, that's what I took from what I saw at the NYC museum.

When 9/11 happened, I was a newly qualified nurse and there was very much a sense of 'it'll be us next,' here in the UK. In the weeks and months that followed, major incident plans were dusted off, updated and drilled. Biological attack plans were circulated, everything that could be updated or better prepared was quietly given the once over. We felt tremendous solidarity with the American people at the time because we were absolutely convinced that similar atrocities were about to occur here.

And while I might quietly bitch about increased security at airports, I'll stand in line for as long as it takes to prevent an attack on that scale from happening again.