REMEMBERING 9/11

By the way, I don't need a Powerpoint slideshow to remind me of what happened either.

Grrr I dislike that powerpoint crap too.


Anyhoo.


I was Abuzzing, when I should have been in bed, and went out to turn the TV off.


There it was.


They kept showing footage of plane 1 hitting the tower, because plane 2 had not yet arrived.


They kept suggesting it might be a light plane, and an accident, locked in horror and disbelief.


Any idiot could see it was a passenger jet, and no accident.

Still, I could not believe it when plane 2 hit. I saw it as it happened. I wondered how many other aircraft would hit how many other targets?


I love NYC. We lived in West 11th Street. I could not believe it.

I sobbed and sobbed.

Then, when people began jumping, I screamed.

Now, I think, what transcendence.


Then I began to worry about the reaction.


I did not know a friend was dying on the TV in front of my eyes, but I knew so many people were dying, in front of their loved one's eyes.


Still, a part of me was thinking: "We in the west think we can contain this stuff to "them", that it will not touch "us". These are our chickens coming home to roost. At last we see reality, writ large on our comfortable TVs, in our comfortable living rooms. I gazed into the abyss the abyss gazed back."

Nothing justifies this stuff. Ever, for anyone. But we find it so much easier when others bear the brunt of our conflicts, do we not?

I wish I knew how to make this never happen again.

we were still asleep in so.cal.

the phone rang. wife jumps up and answers with "hi". several seconds of silence.

"no WAY!!!!". "oka'bye".

"what's up?". "they just flew a plane into the world trade center!"

"ohhh, F%$K !!!", "turn on the t.v.".

as the tube lights up, they are talking about the second plane that had hit. and the pentagon. all planes are grounded. except for one that they can't communicate with. it later crashes in a field.

i look at the wife, "you realize the whole world just changed, right ?" an opinion that i was later to regret and disgard. it's still the same world. the only difference is that america has now experienced what other countries have labored under for years.

within a couple of hours, bin laden's name is attached to the attacks.

my wife looks at me and says," you called it". i look confused. "about what?"

you said after they bombed the wtc last time, "if they really want to do it, they should just pack a plane with c4 and fly into it".

now that she mentions it, i vaguely remember saying something like that. small thinker, i was talking about a cessna or something.

wow...

my enthusiastic support for the mission in afghanistan convinces my more liberal friends that i've lost it.

my subsequent lack of support for the war in iraq convinces my more conservative friends that i must be an america hating liberal.

four years later, osama bin laden has still not been found, tried and sentenced.

until that is accomplished, the september 11th is an unfinished chapter with entirely too many footnotes.

I remember I was settling in a high school study hall when some kids came in and said something about a plane hitting a building in New York.

What I don't remember was when I lost it. I was transfixed and desperately seeking info, but the Internet was too congested to get through. It was a day or two or three (or more?) later when a radio announcer was reading a list of names and ages of the dead from the aircraft - when he said a name followed by the age of 5 months, I just broke down.

Re: REMEMBERING 9/11


Not with a cable connection.

Intantaneous. Thank you, Comcast!!!

I was on my way to class and heard it on the radio. We didn't stay in class that day as our professor thought it best if we were home watching this unfold rather than be in class not paying attention anyway. I drove back to my apartment and woke my now husband and told him "We've been attacked. You've gotta see this." And then we watched for the rest of the day in absolute shock and horror.

I still can't believe the stories I hear from people who were actually there.

I just remember thinking "Man, just think, four years from now, they will probably have a really neat memorial military parade honoring the fact that we avenged this mass murder and maybe even a country-western concert."

The scary part was the week or so after it happened. The anthrax scares were non-stop, and you had no idea when or if something else was going to happen. Every time you saw a plane in the sky, you couldn't help but think about it...it was hard just trying to go to work and live your life during that time.

I still think about this **** every time I get on a plane.

I was living in Cairns - Australia and woke up to turn the T.V off and saw these headlines 'America Under Attack'..at first I thought it was a movie, when it became quite clear what was going on, I phoned my parents back home in NZ...freaking out thinking this is it!.. WW3 has started.

The next day all the planes were grounded except ex Pres Clintons plane as he flew overhead back to the states, we just sat on the beach watching it get smaller and smaller and it was strange, it seemed all of Cairns had this eerie feeling to it....

reading your posts reminded me about the unbelievable number of military jets and choppers that criss-crossed over our house over the next few days.

our street is in an overlap zone between l.a. and glendale, so we have ploice choppers coming over every hour or so. but it was still really noticable.

fate being the practical joker that it is, we also had a missle test take place within the next week or so.

if you've never seen one head out over the pacific on a bright day, i can only tell you that it's pretty weird....

I was driving into work a little later than usual on a beautiful autumn morning. I turned on the car radio shortly after the first plane hit the WTC. I phoned a friend at work and told him to look at the CNN Web site. Then, I was listening to news analysis on a local radio station when the commentators registered considerable surprise as the second plane hit the other tower. I was at work when I discovered that another plane had struck the Pentagon, and that flight 93, headed towards Washington, DC, crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. I sincerely hope that the people who murdered my countrymen, and those who were accessories, rot in hell.

I was going to take a test. About 8:25 am I was entering a building on west 19th street. Suddenly the running and the commotion outside made me walk out the door of the building, and down the street. I looked up and saw a thick smoke cloud rising.

I went back into the building refused to take the test, called my family at work downtown to make sure they were alright.

Traffic and the trains had stopped, so I walked down to Union Square and 14th Street. I met many people there in a little park, and they shared their experiences. Our family lost friends from college that day. Babies about to be born that would never know their fathers. Many, many losses for many people.

But, you know what, I'm sick of the Jewish Holocaust, and sick of 9/11. The living should take care of the living, and this planet before it's too late. The dead are dead, and they are the lucky ones, that don't have to be here and deal with what we are dealing with today in the world. Every race in the world has suffered some sort of Holocaust at one time or another. MAN HAS NOT LEARNED ANYTHING! There will be more Holocausts, and more 9/11s.

I mourn the living, not the dead.

What I remember most is how the local residents, picked up shovels or did anything they could to help and rebuild. I remember how the local resident worked side by side to clean up and start rebuilding.

I do not see the same effort in New Orleans. I see local residents walking with their hand out. Not looking to lend a helping hand.

Maybe that's because their shovels are in lake Ponchartrain.

Many may be in shock.

Big difference between the two (besides the color of the skin of the majority of victims)...

In New York you had a disaster that lasted hours and took out a couple of buildings. The City remained. The infrastructure was in place. Law enforcement and communications still functioned, The people who lost loved ones had a strong community to fall back on.

In New Orleans you had a disaster that lasted days and took out a city. There was no infrastructure left. There was no law enforcement. The people who were stranded had their community and their support systems thrown into disarray.

I don't think it is fair to compare the two.

I recognize the difference between the 2 tragadies. Katrina dwarfs 9-11.

I still find it intresting how locals including the poor wanted to help in respect to 9-11. I see a different reaction in N.O.. Maybe it is due to the fact that the local govt. and the Feds, do not think their citizens are in a position or have the ability to help.

After all this time however, i would think the media would be showing the cleanup efforts going on SOMEWHERE down there. I have not seen a thing about how the clean up is going on in say Biloxi.