Let's not forget

[MrsDeathlynx]

I know not everyone is from the USA here, however I feel the need to post this.

Please remember all those people on those planes, all those people in those buildings that died because someone didn't like us as a whole. Innocent people who died because there are people that don't like certain freedoms that we have, that don't like us for being who we are.

Also do not forget all the heroes of that day, the ones that often go overlooked because of the deaths that occured. There were firemen, policemen, EMT's as well as councelors that came from all over to do their duties. Let's not forget the people that had the courage to flee the buildings, the people that survived, the people that lost loved ones on that tragic day.

Remembering 9-11-01 is more than remembering the dead, it's remembering all who were involved in one way or another whether directly or indirectly. My heart goes out to all that were lost, all that were found and all that did the finding which includes the animals that toiled to help find those who needed finding.

Please do not use this thread for anything other than rememberance, this is not about political debate nor is this about debate of any kind. Only kind words have a place here, so please keep this in mind, thank you.

 

[flavortang]

I was on the road, driving from Los Angeles to Washington state when it happened. Very surreal. I stayed in a hotel in Roseburg, Oregon and watched the non-stop news footage of it.

 

[neonlyte]

It was my day off. I was settling into doing my business accounts when the news broke and spent the rest of the day watching the events unfold on television. Oddly it took me back to the 'cold war' and the late fifties, my sister and I on holiday wondering if we would live to grow up.

 

[Chantilyvamp]

We were in canda bording a plane for home. We didnt take off. We came home and went back to work. I was then told who was at work and now gone in our office in one of the towers. I still do our two minute quiet time at 12noon every year even though I'm not there anymore.

 

[S-Des]

I was on my way to work when I flipped on the radio and caught the broadcast talking about the planes. Because of when I tuned in, I misunderstood and thought they were talking about a small plane hitting a building and just couldn't take in what was being said. It was my last day at that job (contract work), so I went home around noon and watched TV for the rest of the day. It took days before it seemed real.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-12/909970/Two_candles.jpg​

Rumple Foreskin

 

[cloudy]

I was at work. We'd gone in at 7 a.m. for a manager's meeting when an employee called and told us what was going on. We had no television, no radio, but had to rely on people calling us throughout the day to give us updates. Because of that, it was months before I saw the footage of the plane crashing into the building.

I was almost glad of that.

A week or so later, we learned that Daniel had been at work that day, and was missing. They didn't identify him until Christmas, and his dad died the day after we got the news. We had their memorial service together. They would have liked that, I think.

 

[impressive]

I was at home. I had a 3-year-old diva toddler & was homeschooling my 8-year-old. Middle child was in first grade.

I did a little day trading at the time. Nothing real focused. I'd just check the news before the market opened, put in a dozen or so buy orders on penny stocks that had any type of positive news ... then sell 15-20 minutes after the market opened when they spiked. Earned me about $200/day after commissions. Not bad for 2 hours' "work."

Anyway, I'd just placed my buy orders and was getting the oldest ready for his physical therapy session when I saw the news of the first impact. I changed the channel from CNBC to CNN.

The pharmacist called and, being the first adult I had any contact with, I asked him if he'd seen the news yet. (He later told me that he associates me with 9/11 because I was the one who first made him aware of it.)

As I was ending that phone call, I looked at the TV and noticed another plane in the sky. My first thought was, "Oh, that does NOT belong there!" -- then it hit.

The physical therapist came in and she, too, first learned of the news from me. (Another association cemented. It's weird that I now forever remind two people of 9/11.) We spent her hour-long visit glued to the television. I can't remember if she even did her PT thing with my son or not. I also totally forgot about placing my sell orders. To this day, those penny stocks are still in my brokerage account. Someday, they'll bounce again.

Right after the Pentagon was hit, the spouse called and said his office (Dept. of Energy) was shutting down, and he was going to the elementary school to pick up the middle child. I agreed with the decision, wanting all my kids within easy reach.

Before he got home, Flight 93 went down in Shanksville, which is not all that far from where I live. Friends from around the country started calling to make sure I was okay, even though the crash site was over 90 minutes away. I think folks just wanted to connect. I heard from people I hadn't spoken with for a decade.

 

[English Lady]

I was pregnant with Beth, having a nap in the bedroom where my husband was next to me on his computer. I woke up when he put on the radio, and couldn't believe what I was hearing.

I spent the rest of the day on a little chat site (thirtysomething) relaying the news we were hearing to the Americans on there and chatting to a man who's office wasn't far from the towers and was trapped in his office. It was frightening and my heart broke for all people involved.

 

[Nirvanadragones]

I was home, recovering from CMV, looking after a 5 month old baby, starting my own business, renovating a house, and looking after my lover who had just been diagnosed with Leukemia after being in remission for 10 years.

I remember sitting in my dining room watching CNN and being speechless. Because everything that I had been going through seemed absolutely insignificant compared to this.

Love and Light to everyone

 

[Brute_Force]

Ladder 118




How will DNA tell us



Whose hand grasped

Axe to free trapped



Clerks in elevator

Shafts—



Or which hand

Steered fatal jet—



Or whose feet bore

The weight of



Boots, belt, air tank

And helmet



Up and down flights of

Stairs and



Into the lighted

Pyre.



Will the DNA tell us



Who loved to dance,

Though he danced



Badly—or which

Plotted to



Undo dancer in mid-

Dance—



Or who, could he

Speak once more,



Would surely ask,

May I have
The next dance?


Robert Bove

 

[Guest]

I was on a phone call that started minutes before the first announcement. We were both closeted away and oblivious to what was happening until an hour afterwards when we finally got off the phone. I opened my office door and stepped into chaos.

 

[Pure]

let's not forget the victims after 9-11, some of whom are (barely) alive today,

and some not.

One more 9/11 victim to be named this year




By Amy Westfeldt, Associated Press


NEW YORK — Joseph Jones marks his wife's death on two days each year.
Every Feb. 10 — the day she died of lung disease — Jones lays flowers at her grave in Staten Island. On Sept. 11 — the day the World Trade Center collapsed and she inhaled the toxic dust cloud that enveloped lower Manhattan — Jones watches television at home, listening to 2,749 names of the financial workers, firefighters, parents and children who were killed in the attack.

For the first time on Tuesday, Jones is going to a small park southeast of ground zero, where he will stand for hours with those victims' families marking the sixth anniversary and hear the name of his wife, Felicia Dunn-Jones, who died just five months after the towers fell. He is not sure how he will feel.

"It's just a sense of sadness, really," he said. "It's just a sense of acknowledgment that ... her death was caused by events happening that day."

The addition of Dunn-Jones, a 42-year-old civil rights attorney, to New York City's Sept. 11 death toll occurred in a year that sharply focused on post-Sept. 11 illness — and the legacy of the cleanup of ground zero — more than ever before.

That legacy was painfully altered by the unearthing of several hundred human remains from streets and sewer lines around the trade center site, which officials acknowledged were missed the first year. Doctors published more studies establishing direct links to respiratory illnesses and the exposure to the mixture of pulverized concrete, asbestos, mercury and other toxins that wafted over ground zero for close to a year. One study showed a powerful connection to sarcoidosis — the lung-scarring disease that killed Dunn-Jones — and city firefighters.

"I don't think anyone's questioning any more how many thousands of people are sick," said David Worby, who represents close to 10,000 plaintiffs suing the city and contractors who oversaw ground zero's cleanup. More than 100 of his plaintiffs have died, he says.

City officials have argued that more research is needed before the true health effects of Sept. 11 can be proven. But they significantly changed their position this year, commissioning a health panel that concluded in February that treating the ailments of exposed workers could cost close to $400 million a year.

"We are not about to abandon the men and women who helped lift our city back onto its feet during our greatest time of need," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at the time.

Three months later, city Medical Examiner Charles Hirsch surprised many by adding Dunn-Jones' name to the official Sept. 11 victims' list.

Citing "accumulated scientific research" that linked sarcoidosis to ground zero exposure, Hirsch wrote in May, "the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has thus concluded that Mrs. Dunn-Jones' exposure to World Trade Center dust on 9/11/01 contributed to her death and it has been ruled a homicide."

His ruling did not bring her husband money — he had already received over $2 million from special master Kenneth Feinberg, who oversaw the federal fund that compensated Sept. 11 victims. Jones just sought recognition that her death was caused by Sept. 11 to allow him to hear her name read at anniversary ceremonies and etched onto the Sept. 11 memorial.

"Feinberg said she was a victim of the terrorist attacks. If she was a victim of the terrorist attacks, her name should be on the list," said Jones, 55, although he added he understands why more people haven't waged similar fights. "Sometimes people just don't want to get involved. It's hard enough losing somebody."

On Sept. 11, while Jones watched planes hit the towers from the Staten Island Ferry terminal, Dunn-Jones tried to escape her office a block from the north tower. She put a piece of clothing over her face but couldn't keep the choking, white dust out of her lungs, Jones said.

She developed "just this crazy, persistent cough," mostly at night, Jones said. She was diagnosed with asthma and kept working at the U.S. Department of Education, going on a four-day field trip to upstate New York the weekend before her death and keeping up trips to the gym three times a week.

She woke up tired on the morning she died, barely ate and died that afternoon in her teenage daughter's bed after asking her husband to bring her some tea. An autopsy later found she had had a heart attack brought on by sarcoidosis.

"It wasn't a familiar term to me," said Jones. His attorney learned that sarcoidosis had been linked to toxic exposure and appealed to Feinberg, and then to the city medical examiner. Three years ago, Hirsch denied the request to change her death certificate.

"He thought that Felicia's death didn't meet the criteria. Even though we had gotten the award and everything, he said it was a murder scene" and Dunn-Jones did not belong on the victims' list, Jones said.

Dunn-Jones was added to Staten Island's Sept. 11 memorial first in 2005, but "we still hadn't given up on the 9/11 thing," he said.

After receiving letters from Feinberg, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney and others, Hirsch reached a new decision on May 23.

No mention of the date of Dunn-Jones' death will be made at the Sept. 11 ceremony, or how she died. "Felicia Gail Dunn-Jones" will be read by one of many firefighters and first responders selected this year to recite the names of victims, which have grown to 2,750 in New York, and 2,974 for all who died on that day.

But others are seeking similar recognition. Since Dunn-Jones was added, the medical examiner's office has declined to change the cause of death for four others who died of illnesses they attribute to Sept. 11, and is considering two others, including Cesar Borja, a police officer who died of lung disease in January.

One of them is believed to be the case of James Zadroga, a 34-year-old police detective who spent hundreds of hours at ground zero, and who died last year of respiratory disease. A New Jersey medical examiner ruled last year that Zadroga's death was "directly related to the 9/11 incident."

"I think it just verifies he died from the World Trade Center, which (Mayor Michael) Bloomberg and federal officials have been denying since his death," said Zadroga's father, Joseph Zadroga.

Those federal officials — and even the researchers who have already published studies linking illnesses to ground zero exposure — have said it will take at least 20 years to truly assess Sept. 11's true death toll, the true list of names to be read the anniversary.

Zadroga says he, and others, can't wait for that.

"By the time the 20-year period comes most of the people will be dead," he said.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

[knitedreams]

I was in New Mexico going to college. My off campus apartment didn't have cable or dish TV so I had no clue. My mom called and woke me up to frantically tell me that she was okay and not to worry. She hung up before I could ask what she was talking about. When I got to campus, people were in a panic. I thought it best to go to the student's center to see what everyone was talking about.

I watched the TV in horror. It was bad enough that New York was hit by planes, but Washington DC too. Now I knew what mom was talking about. She was in Washington DC at the time lobbying for her union. I invested money in a dish after that day.

 

[MrsDeathlynx]

I was still working full time back then, which is how I could afford to take my birthday week off. It was the year of my breakdown, although only a couple of weeks before. I had just been put on paxil and something else, it was at 9am that I got the call from my mother. After waking up I watched the whole thing, spending the day calling my mother, who was at work, to give her updates.

I remember being scared because his uncle was supposed to fly back to Las Vegas that day, though lucky for us it turned out to be the next day instead. We couldn't get a hold of his cousin who worked within view of the towers for days, which made us all very worried.

Watching it happen on TV I will never forget, nor do I think I should.

 

[MagicaPractica]

I was at work and people stopped coming into my office. Rather unusual but I didn't think too much of it. Then someone came in and sat down and just started working there. He seemed rather upset but one doesn't ask too many question in a big corporation. I just let him be. Then I went to get a cup of tea around 11:30 and I saw the TV. I went back and called my brother. He was a little scared and packing stuff to leave the city where he lives and bring his family to my farm, just in case. I think for those of us who were at that impressionable age when it came out, Red Dawn immediately came to mind.

I went home that night and started watching and writing. I wrote a piece that was published elsewhere so I can't put it up here. I still can't really watch much of anything about it without tearing up.

 

[unpredictablebijou]

This is a piece that I sent out to my little group during those awful, angry weeks following 9/11. I still find it inspiring. Forgive the length; I believe it's worth the space.

I strongly suggest reading this aloud. Right now.


PRAY FOR PEACE
by Ellen Bass (www.ellenbass.com)

Pray to whoever you kneel down to:
Jesus nailed to his wooden or marble or plastic cross,
his suffering face bent to kiss you,
Buddha still under the Bo tree in scorching heat,
Yahweh, Allah, raise your arms to Mary
that she may lay her palm on our brows,
to Shekinhah, Queen of Heaven and Earth,
to Inanna in her stripped descent.

Hawk or Wolf, or the Great Whale, Record Keeper
of time before, time now, time ahead, pray. Bow down
to terriers and shepherds and siamese cats.
Fields of artichokes and elegant strawberries.

Pray to the bus driver who takes you to work,
pray on the bus, pray for everyone riding that bus
and for everyone riding buses all over the world.
If you haven't been on a bus in a long time,
climb the few steps, drop some silver, and pray.

Waiting in line for the movies, for the ATM,
for your latté and croissant, offer your plea.
Make your eating and drinking a supplication.
Make your slicing of carrots a holy act,
each translucent layer of the onion, a deeper prayer.

Make the brushing of your hair
a prayer, every strand its own voice,
singing in the choir on your head.
As you wash your face, the water slipping
through your fingers, a prayer: Water,
softest thing on earth, gentleness
that wears away rock.

Making love, of course, is already a prayer.
Skin and open mouths worshipping that skin,
the fragile case we are poured into,
each caress a season of peace.

If you're hungry, pray. If you're tired.
Pray to Gandhi and Dorothy Day.
Shakespeare. Sappho. Sojourner Truth.
Pray to the angels and the ghost of your grandfather.

When you walk to your car, to the mailbox,
to the video store, let each step
be a prayer that we all keep our legs,
that we do not blow off anyone else's legs.
Or crush their skulls.
And if you are riding on a bicycle
or a skateboard, in a wheel chair, each revolution
of the wheels a prayer that as the earth revolves
we will do less harm, less harm, less harm.

And as you work, typing with a new manicure,
a tiny palm tree painted on one pearlescent nail
or delivering soda or drawing good blood
into rubber-capped vials, writing on a blackboard
with yellow chalk, twirling pizzas, pray for peace.

With each breath in, take in the faith of those
who have believed when belief seemed foolish,
who persevered. With each breath out, cherish.

Pull weeds for peace, turn over in your sleep for peace,
feed the birds for peace, each shiny seed
that spills onto the earth, another second of peace.
Wash your dishes, call your mother, drink wine.

Shovel leaves or snow or trash from your sidewalk.
Make a path. Fold a photo of a dead child
around your VISA card. Gnaw your crust
of prayer, scoop your prayer water from the gutter.
Mumble along like a crazy person, stumbling
your prayer through the streets.

 

[sutherngent985]

On that terrible day, I didnt have any idea what was going on until my morning break when someone who had internet access started yelling about the first plane hitting. Everyone gathered round his monitor as we all watched the fires..I dont remember if I saw the 2nd plane hit. The said we could go home shortly after that...about 10:30 or 10:45. The Belt Parkway was just a mass of cars going east and west...I was going west to Staten Island. I heard on the radio about the Verrazano Bridge being closed and hoping it would be open by the time I got there...it was. I picked up my wife and toddler and went to get my oldest out of school. That took over an hour, then we went to lunch then home to watch CNN.

That week at work we had some gentlemen from the Egyptian Air Force in out facility for training. The day after the attacks, they asked to have a meeting with all the employees. At that meeting, they apologized to us for what had happened. They were Muslim and felt they owed it to us.

I will always have all the people who died at the WTC that day in my heart and prayers. No, I was lucky...no one I knew perished that day. But all around New York, streets have had additional names added to the street signs...names of victims of the attacks. Its a constant reminder of what happened.

 

[JustBarelyLegal]

I was at College, in Sociology. I'll always remember Kate walking in, shaking, telling our tutor she was leaving - he thought she was making up excuses, until my phone started ringing.

A good friend of mine was doing work experience in NYC that week. He was due to be in WTC that day - his family was ringing around frantically seeing if he had got in touch with anyone. I remember running to the toilets and throwing up, I just couldn't grasp what was going on.

A few hours later, a round robin text came to me - Neil was fine, (the bastard was in his digs the other side of the city nursing a hellacious hangover) but by this point I was at home, curled up in bed, glued to the TV even though the whole thing made me feel ill.

Later I was told that many students logged on to either BBC news or Sky news they broke the college internet connection...

 

[Belegon]

When I turned on the TV that day the Pentagon had just been hit and it took about ten minutes before I realized the WTC had been hit as well...

I went to work. Me and the other manager spent the day watching the TV and helping the very occasional customer. We sent all the employees home. We all spent the day in shock.

My wife's college roommate was getting married that next weekend and we had plane tickets for Friday. I remember discussing with her what we would do if the skies had not been opened before then... we planned to make the drive, despite the length of it, with a one year old and a three year old.

Instead, we were aboard one of the first flights on the day they reopened the airport. As we walked aboard that plane, some were scared. Some were angry. We were all defiant and determined. There were many handshakes and hugs between people that had never met or were perhaps casual acquaintances.

Upon takeoff, the passengers broke into spontaneous applause.

 

[slyc_willie]

It was the middle of the afternoon. I was at the pub I managed for my father-in-law (at the time, though, my wife and I were engaged). The news broke in on whatever program was on the two TVs suspended above the bar.

We didn't know what to make of it at first. An accident? That seemed the most likely explanation. Then the second plane hit. Everyone looked at me, since I was the only American in the place. All the regulars -- Jack One, Jack Two, Lizzy, Judge Densham -- they were all there. I don't remember what I was doing, but the Judge asked me if I was all right.

Was I all right? hell, no. i was in shock. Everyone was. Lizzy had friends in New York. She got on the phone with them right away, happy to know that they were all right and nowhere near the WTC.

I called my fiance, who was studying. She always played her CDs when she was studying, so she didn't know. "Hello, Love," she said cheerfully.

"I think there was a terrorist attack in New York. The World Trade Centers are burning."

"WHAT!"

Cherry got on her bike and was at the pub in fifteen minutes. She started crying when the towers fell, And I, honestly, was getting angry.

I had been out of the military for almost exactly six years at that point. For the first time, I contemplated going back in.

In retrospect, I suppose it was good that I didn't return to the service. Six months later, I got married, as I watched the world go crazy. I kept in touch with old buddies in the Army, many of whom were deployed. A couple didn't come home. Some are in Aghanistan, even now, six years later. They don't tell me what they're doing (they can't), but being the kind of soldiers they are, I anticipate hearing from their wives or girlfriends or mothers one day.

9/11, obviously, affected every American, and many others around the world. I don't care for some of the things this country has done in the last six years -- nor do I care to debate them -- but I still consider myself a patriot. I stand for the ideals of this country, ideals I have interpreted from what I understand of the Constitution and the reasons behind its drafting.

My country was attacked, therefore, as a patriot, I was attacked. I still wonder how my life would have changed had I returned to active service. I think about it often. But I'll never know.

God Bless and godspeed to Tech Sergeant Manuel D. Esparza and Second Lieutenant Cory J. Peaks. I still owe you those beers, guys

 

[SeaCat]

MrsDeathLynx,

I will only say thank you.

Those who know me know why.

Cat