Remember 9/11

by **WDPsellout** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 11:56 pm

Yeah, it was my freshman year and I was eating my 3rd period lunch. My friend came over and said 'some shit just hit the World Trade Centers'. I walked over to the TVs playing CNN and the first tower had already fallen, sadly I watched the second one fall on live tv. Next class was history, all we could do was watch CNN. Pictures of victims running from a sea of gray smoke on the streets, Manhatten being a giant clusterfuck, students crying on cell phones. Then we got an early dismissal and went home.

I found out that our a son of our family friend of 15 year's was getting out of the subway in Manhatten and watched the second tower fall live and in person. He told us stories of his hellish hike out of that part of the city over the bridge and how choas engulfed the whole scene.

If you ask me about any other day in my freshman year, I couldn't remember a thing. It's sad for something like this to happen and for me to be able to remember almost exact specifics.

by **PraiseA||ah** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 7:42 am

Originally posted by Wairudo Enjin
I also just saw this for the first time today and read the complete thread.

Please let's not rehash this again, but I do want to make a comment.

Impressive means:

Making a strong or vivid impression; striking or remarkable

That is an extremely accurate adjective to use; that day made a very strong and vivid impression on me and I will never forget it.

Indelible is the word you are looking for methinks.

by **CodeRed68** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 7:57 am

I was at work. I work for a large mortgage company, GMAC. We were just settling in, talking having coffee when I first heard. There have been other small, private planes hitting buildings now and then so I figured it was something like that, we didn't know the size of the plane yet. Then, when the 2nd one hit, i remember thinking, believe it or not, "wow, what are the chances of that?". Of course, shortly thereafter, realizing it was more then just coincedence.
We were just not knowing what to do, no work got done. A guy i work with lives near the office and ran home to bring back a small t.v. We watched everything unfold.
All financial business started shutting down for the day and wall street shut down. We ended up closing and they sent us home for the day, i think it was around lunch time. I was just glued to CNN the rest of the week.

by **PraiseA||ah** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 8:30 am

9/11 was of course a great tragedy in many respects. It was tragic for the people who died on the planes as well as on the ground, in the Twin Towers or in the Pentagon. The people who committed the act and those who taught them and supported them deserve our retribution. The terrorists. Who are the terrorists? They made no effort to disguise themselves and are in fact not Iraqis. They are not representative of Muslims either. That is as ignorant as saying David Kuresh represents every Christian or Timothy McVeigh represents every American who has a gripe with the government. While you could say they are Christian and have a gripe with the government, the converse is obviously not true.
The problem with America is the amount of bullshit which is being thrown about. The people ultimately responsible for the 9/11 attack are still to this day, free to plot more attacks. It is for some of us thinking people who have longer memories and minds not controlled by governmental propaganda, hard to view such and not call it that.
Some people can watch a cartoon and see entertainment. Others can watch that same cartoon and see something for children only. And still others will see that same cartoon and wonder how it was made. Some people like myself saw the attack on 9/11 as the latter. (I am not calling the attack on 9/11 funny or cartoonish in any way.)
After the initial shock wore off, I wondered why someone would want to attack the United States. I wondered what we had done to cause people to hate us so. I always thought that we were immune to such attacks because people from every nation live here. People from pretty much every single faith call the United States home.
9/11 brought out the best in people even if it was scarily reminiscent of blind Nazi patriotism for a while there, it was well intentioned and it united all of America. It didn't matter if you were green, polka dotted or striped with 30 different colors, we were all victims and patriotic. Then it changed and some people resorted to the easiest path. Hatred towards a single group of people when the issue was far more complex than that. For many of us, the problem was what was done by the leadership to direct all of that emotion and righteous indignation. We attacked and destroyed part of the problem and then we were lied to and told that Iraq was also a sponser of that attack. Well, it WAS A LIE. Unfortunately and sadly one half of us Americans for one reason or another choose to support that lie. Be it because they believe it or because they have the notion that we should finish what we started or for whatever other reason, they need to realize the reasons given for going to war were false.
What better time to reflect upon our current situation than on the anniversery of the impetus for it? It is a natural and logical progression to question the Iraq war and it's innocent victims because 9/11's politics led to it.
To discuss the current terrorists in Iraq and say that's why we're there would be to ignore the fact that we put them there. They are there to fight for their own lands against what they see as invaders.
It is troubling to see the youth of America, those of you who were still in school I'm talking about you, swallowing so much of the propaganda. What happened to rebelling against the man? What happened to always questioning authority? Why is your generation not doing more of this?
F R E E D O M !

One last thing. Why can some of you not stop the personal attacks on people with different points of view? Attack the viewpoint, not the person. Show us your brainpower because some of us are bigger than you are and/or have bigger guns than you do. Flaming gets you nowhere and is counterproductive.

by **BladeRunner** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 8:51 am

PraiseA||ah, no offense intended but this thread is not
about making political statements. If I was you maybe
control cut your post into another thread.

by **cavalierlwt** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 8:53 am

The way I see it, 9/11 provided the fear, and fear is itself the most powerful motivator in the world, more powerful than sex or greed. I don't want to get into trouble, I've been through the wringer recently for posting on political threads, so I'll leave this as neutral as possible. Using fear as an engine is a powerful but dangerous way to run a country. 9/11 hurt, it was a tragedy, and the biggest tragedy of all may be that on top of nearly 3000 people being killed, a large percentage of Americans live in fear. Yeah, there are terrorists, and we will have to fight them, but don't live in fear, and don't let anyone push your buttons with fear. The people on flight 93 didn't succumb to fear. We should follow their example. Bunkering up and being paranoid gives the 9/11 bombers what they wanted.

by **PraiseA||ah** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 8:55 am

Originally posted by cavalierlwt
The way I see it, 9/11 provided the fear, and fear is itself the most powerful motivator in the world, more powerful than sex or greed. I don't want to get into trouble, I've been through the wringer recently for posting on political threads, so I'll leave this as neutral as possible. Using fear as an engine is a powerful but dangerous way to run a country. 9/11 hurt, it was a tragedy, and the biggest tragedy of all may be that on top of nearly 3000 people being killed, a large percentage of Americans live in fear. Yeah, there are terrorists, and we will have to fight them, but don't live in fear, and don't let anyone push your buttons with fear.

BRAVO!!

Well said! I absolutely 100% agree!

by **PraiseA||ah** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 9:40 am

Originally posted by BladeRunner
PraiseA||ah, no offense intended but this thread is not
about making political statements. If I was you maybe
control cut your post into another thread.

I am not offended just curious because my post was in response to other posts earlier in this same thread. I don't think I'm any more or less politcal than them. Granted, my word count is higher... I was on topic and I thought following the thread as well. Yes? No? I only just saw the thread when I posted and I thought I had to respond to some of them. I just put them all into one long post rather than quoting and responding to each individually.

by **BladeRunner** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 9:56 am

Originally posted by PraiseA||ah
I am not offended just curious because my post was in response to other posts earlier in this same thread. I don't think I'm any more or less politcal than them. Granted, my word count is higher... I was on topic and I thought following the thread as well. Yes? No? I only just saw the thread when I posted and I thought I had to respond to some of them. I just put them all into one long post rather than quoting and responding to each individually.

I was going to send you a PM but it appears you have
Private Messages blocked. I didn't want to hijack the thread
any farther than it allready was.
Others have hijacked the thread with their own views also
maybe those were the ones you were responding to.
I don't mind reading your statement, it was a well written
view of how you look at the current state of affairs.
However imo, every thing has a time and place, posting
your statement in this thread just seems out of place to me.

by **cavalierlwt** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 10:04 am

Well, I'll try to add something to thread that is in the spirit of it's creation.

I was headed into Manhattan that morning, and of course got stuck on the highway after the first jet hit the WTC. I was working for Worldcom at the time, so I diverted to Jersey City Worldcom site, and then back to West Orange, NJ. We wound up going into the city that night to try to restore communication as much as possible. Getting in was a long, 3 hour process, complete with escorts and multiple checkpoints. Anyway, at one point during a group smoke break (nothing like seeing people wearing dust masks pulled to the side to smoke cigarettes) I went outside to look around, it was surreal. I was a 60 Hudson streets, about 8 blocks away from the WTC. What sticks out in my mind was these kids, high school/college age kids were walking around with these big Rubbermaid plastic tote boxes full of snacks (chips,oreo cookie packs, etc) and soda. They were just handing them out to anybody who was working in any way on the disaster. It was at that weird moment when I had such a sense of community. I'm from NH, so much of what I saw in NYC always seemed alien, foreign to me. At that moment, the whole city felt like family. It's hard to put into words, all I can say was that it was a very powerful moment. I know from outside the US, our patriotism and solidarity just after 9/11 probably looked ominous, but it wasn't, it was just this single instant where we all felt our commonality. Yeah, this guy's Asian, this lady's from Russia, this kid is Cuban..but for a moment being American trumped all minor differences. It was truly great.

by **PraiseA||ah** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 10:44 am

Originally posted by BladeRunner
I was going to send you a PM but it appears you have
Private Messages blocked. I didn't want to hijack the thread
any farther than it allready was.
Others have hijacked the thread with their own views also
maybe those were the ones you were responding to.
I don't mind reading your statement, it was a well written
view of how you look at the current state of affairs.
However imo, every thing has a time and place, posting
your statement in this thread just seems out of place to me.

I unblocked private messages and I edited my epic tale of woe.. How much more should be cut out to pass the bar?

by **King** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 12:55 pm

June 13th 1998 i visited the WTC and went up to the 107th floor. Not sure which tower i was in but i remember looking down to the street and feeling insignificant.

It hit home after the attacks and a lot of "what ifs" had come to thought like: what if they had attacked the day i visited

I had vistited NYC again in 2002 in August. Visited the site, it brought back a lot of memories to me, my girl at the time, my life as i knew it and where i had come from there.

Its amazing how one day can affect a person's life even when he lives hundreds of miles away.

Remember 9/11

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