That was also the day my dad fell out of bed and broke his hip. When they went to replace the hip, they found a tumor the size of a football. After they sent us home for the day (and I swung by and picked up my friend's son because he was the only kid left at the daycare,) I spent the rest of the day alternating between phonecalls with my sister and trying to keep a three-year old distracted from what the daycare lady had been watching.
@Geyeld I am so sorry for the loss of your father. I lost my mom to a quick battle with cancer as well. Hugs. 9-11 makes me think of my mother, as we would often go to the WTC to buy theater tickets in the South Tower at TKTS. We were at WTC exactly a week before 9-11. So this time really stirs up wonderful memories of time with my mother while also making me remember the horrors of that sad day. I still struggle knowing that those two buildings that I stood in the shadows of, could be brought down and made dust.
Thanks! It was just the strangest day. Even down to having my friend's kid. The preschool called me instead of his mother because he was the only kid there and apparently I was the more reliable "parent" to come pick him up (although, in all fairness, his mother was a nurse and couldn't just pick up and leave.)
I spend the whole day waiting for my sister to call, waiting for A'lyce to show up, wanting to check the TV, but not wanting to freak the three-year old out. And still, I had a lot better day than thousands of people.
I'll never forget that day. My daughter was just 4 months old and I was terrified of the world she would grow up in. If she grew up at all. The world seemed smaller. We were all there together. My brother is a Firefighter in London ( involved in the rescues on 7/7) so I know all too well how terrifying that day was for the families. I learned what the word surreal meant on 9/11/01
Aside from all the shit you see on TV, 3 things stood out to me that day and the week after:
1) Eery silence. There were no planes in the sky and no cars on the road, except for the occasional Police/Fire/First Aid vehicle heading to north Jersey to cover for first responders who went into Manhattan.
2) The pack of attack helicopters that flew over my house, carrying GWB to ground zero. So low, so loud, so fast, and flying so close together. I waved. Few months later all across the Middle East people were shitting in their pants when they walked out of their house to similar sites.
3) The Saturday after there was pretty much a funeral procession that stretched 20-30miles from the NJ Turnpike, through the toll booths at Exit 13, over the Goethals, across Staten Island, over the Verrazano, and up the BQE around Brooklyn. One lane on the SI Expressway was shut down for dump trucks and government vehicles. Everyone was staring out at the smoke and the lights.
I will never forget that day or the next few months.I feel so bad for all those people who died. And what did they die for? It makes me sad. This time of year is hard.
Bulls eye, Nutty Flavor. Are we as free as we used to be before 9/11? Patriot Act, TSA, Homeland Security, NDAA....
Time to stop Islamic immigration into this country with the fresh threat of ISIS and the beheading of 2 American journalists. We need to be vigilant about who is already here. No time for PC nonsense unless you are ready for another 9/11. Rest in Peace brothers and sisters.
Wow I'm the only one that has a problem with what Connie and auntliddy are saying? Is this for real? Be racist against Muslim people? That's ok? What the fuck?
@FearN: I'm with you! And I'm sitting in my living room right now looking out the window at the memorial lights at Ground Zero. I was here 13 years ago and will never forget that day or the unimaginable grief of the weeks and months that followed. It was unbearable. In my opinion, comments like the ones above show a level of ignorance and intolerance that is disgraceful.
Fear-i dont see it as racist at all. I see it as protecting the people who are here from militant muslims. Isnt that just common sense? All the actors of 9-11 muslims were here in us on scholarships and such. So doesnt it make sense to limit their numbers for a while? Usa is not obligated to accept every single person who wants to come in you know. Not hateful, just common sense.
The weather was beautiful that day here Quebec.It seemed like a perfect day.Then my sister called me at work and told me. None of my co workers believed me until they saw it online.I called my son who was at home and he was freaking out...he told me people were jumping from the buildings.Life changed that day. For Canadians too.RIP to the victims and healing thoughts to their family and friends.
I saw the second plane hit the WTC on live TV. I will never, ever forget that.
My son wasn't yet 2, and I was 6 months pregnant with my oldest daughter. What kind of a world was I bringing kids into? What kind of world would they grow up in?
All I felt was tears and heartache that day, and every Sept 11 since.
Enty, thank you for starting 9/11 CDAN with this post. Our world changed that day and since then, I have often found refuge in this community... Such life, kindness and decency (trolls notwithstanding)... thanks and best to you!
The smell….the air, the ash floating down for what seemed like months… And Christie Whitman saying the air was safe to breathe …..sure it was. Tell that to the first responders. The F--King Bush Administration and the lies
@Mish God. The smell. I don't think that will ever leave me. Or the sight of the 2nd plane hitting on live TV and everyone realizing it was done intentionally.
The papers. All over the outer boroughs, you would find half burned pieces of random office work.
That day, I walked from midtown into Little Italy and over the Manhattan Bridge. I will never forget Mulberry Street being all set up for the Feast of San Genaro and the complete silence walking past all the festive booths with sobbing old men sitting in them.
I see a lot of older contributors who haven't posted in a while. Nice to hear you again.
I won't forget that day either. I saw the live pictures of the second plane going through. I worked in corporate travel and some of our customers were on those planes (NY-SF) and I was fearful also for my former flying partners on UAL. Also for my friends in NY.
When I saw that plane hit I told my then boyfriend OPster, "That bldg is coming down". Just the most horrific mood at work. The world of innocence that other countries don't feel because they've experienced war on their own soil evaporated. I thought this must be how those people see their world.
So much senseless loss starting with those jerks and then what we have done.
It really bothers me that our lives are still affected by those hillbillies. All those improvements made for airport security, border inspections, etc. and now we get threats from them every day. Seems like we had it pretty good until that day.
@Misch: Don't blame Christie, blame Bush/Cheney. They are the ones who made her do it and tanked her political career. They did the same thing to Colin Powell with lying to the UN. Sad because a Powell/Whitman ticket would probably be 1/2 way through their second term right now.
Count, yeah, but she did it. How hard wld it be for her to have said it isnt safe, lets get u guys some equipment. And then to screw responders over for years and years and deny- that is unforgivable. As is what christie t whitless did. Unforgivable.
@Geyeld I am so sorry for the loss of your father. I lost my mom to a quick battle with cancer as well. Hugs. 9-11 makes me think of my mother, as we would often go to the WTC to buy theater tickets in the South Tower at TKTS. We were at WTC exactly a week before 9-11. So this time really stirs up wonderful memories of time with my mother while also making me remember the horrors of that sad day. I still struggle knowing that those two buildings that I stood in the shadows of, could be brought down and made dust.
@AJ. When my sister first called me to tell what had happened, it didn't even make sense in the context of everything else that was going on. It was just surreal. By the time he died he was in so much pain and so sick that it was a relief, more than anything, that he didn't have to suffer anymore (from the cancer and from living with my sister 24/7.)
@Gayeld I know exactly what you speak of. Towards the end with the way my mother suffered, I too wanted her to have that sweet blessed release from it too.
It was going to be such a happy day. Husband and I were going to be driving our oldest to begin college at UCSD. Got up early and turned on the news. Saw the second plane. Driving down highway 5 that day, proud of the flags and signs citizens were posting on overpasses. Daughter is now a social studies teacher at a middle school. Her lesson today is about 9/11, to students who weren't born yet.
Today's also the 13th anniversary of one of my mother's better quotes:
"My daughter's alive because she's lazy. Never thought I'd get to say that sentence... TWICE."
You see, I turned down a job in WTC #1 back in '92 (the year before the bombing occurred) and I left a job that would have put me about three blocks from the WTC plaza in '00 (a year before 9/11.) Both times, it was because I wanted a shorter commute - in '92, I went to work for a company that was 6 blocks from Grand Central instead of all the way downtown (plus I wasn't all that interested in investment banking at the time) and in '00, I went to work for former client that was literally a 5 minute drive from my house.
Still though, in my mother's mind, "a shorter commute" equaled "lazy", especially when both declined positions offered better pay and more prestige. *smh*
My mother passed of a heart attack in her sleep 6 weeks later. So, rather than dwell on the negativity of 9/11/2001, I will instead choose to revel in the memory of my mother's twisted, warped sense of humor and logic.
I lived then on Long Island. Everyone either was or knew someone tainted by 9-11. And the quiet was sooo still, so eerie. I could not believe it wasnt an accident, it was so shocking to me. And the endless posters of have u seen this person, the finding of FRAGMENTS od office equipment which pretty much told you no BODY wld be coming out alive, the people joining hands, willing to jump than be burned alive, the erronious messages to victims to stay put, we're coming for you, go back in the bldg, all is safe, the endless rows of hastily nailed together stretchers for survivors never found, the sight of fully armed soldiers on streets of NYC, the fighter planes, the whole drama with plane that crashed in pa, the pentagon crash- all of this swirls thru my memory on this day. All healing to all involved. Thank you.
Count-all she had to do was call press conference, give the facts and shiw some proof she was being coerced to say this. If she caputulated so she wld hv wirk in private sector, thats even more disgraceful and souless. Im thinking they told her, countrys been thru enough, nyc has to get back on its feet, people cant take anymore bad news, you cant hit them with thus. All of which are valid points but there is nothing, barring physical threatening of my family, that wld make me lie like that. And certainly not for money! There have to other people who agree or expect integrity from anyone in public service or its all hopeless.
I concur with this comment : "Don't blame Christie, blame Bush/Cheney. They are the ones who made her do it and tanked her political career. They did the same thing to Colin Powell with lying to the UN. Sad because a Powell/Whitman ticket would probably be 1/2 way through their second term right now."
Colin Powell would have been a wonderful president but that racist,heartless piece of shit known as dick cheney never liked General Powell. He was always jealous of him, going back to the days of the Reagan administration. cheney knew he was not half the man Powell is. He tanked Powell on purpose. I hate cheney and everything he stands for.
Gayeld, 9-11 was surely the day of hell for you never to be forgotten along with of course all those that lost loveds that very day.
Those in NY and near the Towers that day and in Washington DC at the Pentagon and survived no doubt probably have deepest memories at all sensory levels.
It is one of those days that is seared into the memory bank for all time. I see get very emotional when I see those images of people jumping they always sneak up on you.
I visited the WTC in 1986 on my first ever trip to New York City. I remember took the elevators a long time to get up to just the observation deck which was closed too windy and you could feel the building moving. And I said to a friend, I would never work in this building what do you do when there's a fire?
And talking about six degrees of separation - People Magazine had an article about the pregnant women who lost husbands on 9-11. My sister saw the cover and realized she and her then ex husband had hung around all week on a Caribbean vacation with one of those widows and her now dead husband. Our only connection to any 9-11 victims that day.
That day I thought a new world war was happening.
On the positive side, I was so impressed by the toughness and resilience of the people of NYC and impressed how so many people came together. There were firefighters and public utilities trucks and other people with supplies or special skills, one man with one of those rescue sniffer dogs, from my home town in Ontario that drove up to NYC to help with the aftermath of the collapse. The hospitality of the people in Newfoundland for all those grounded passengers.
ISIS this spawn of Al Queda reminds us that Bin Laden may be dead but Al Queda is not.
I had relocated from London on 9/7/01. Just myself & 3 babies aged 4, 18 months & 3 months. Hubby was still in London. On 9/19/01 I found out that a close friend & the only person I knew in San Francisco had drowned while surfing off Ocean beach. My sister flew in from NY , she had been staying in Manhattan. So we were all awake very early & couldn't really understand what was happening, then we watched the second plane hit. I have never felt so helplessly alone & was so very scared . I was too frightened to go into the city & look at the house we had just bought. The silence of no planes was deafening. Then when they started flying again, everyone always looked up. We cried so much that day & for a long time after. Seeing the posters & hopeful family & friends, so sad. One year anniversary there was a memorial in Washington square SF. 1 national flag for each person killed. It was overwhelming . If the people were standing there instead of flags the square would have been packed. So so sad.
I was in grade 5 & they told our class what was happening, but I didn't understand I haven't ever been to New York (yet) & being a Canadian kid & grade 5 I didn't understand any of it. I remember seeing everything on TV & just feeling totally confused.
I still remember it; I was getting my then-baby( she's now 13; I can't believe it was that long ago) ready for a doc's check up and passed by the TV when the news came on about the first plane and I thought, "Oh, shit, that's terrible!" and I was still watching when I saw the 2nd plane hit, live on TV and then I KNEW at that moment, "There's no WAY that was an accident! This is on PURPOSE!" All those people that died. So tragic.
Only found this site in late spring, & it's rare that I can read posts the same day they're posted, some days I just miss entirely. When I read your comments (& auntliddy's, & violet's, & some others), not only do your comments usually resonate with me, I am always struck by what wonderful people y'all are. I just don't usually catch up with alot of threads for days, and I have always wanted to say that, but never did! Until now :). You have a shiny soul!
Disclaimer: haven't read all of the comments unsure if this is mentioned
I recently started watching MAD MEN and the opening credits has a guy in a suit falling down a tall building. it shocked me. my heart dropped. it reminds me of "the falling man" (i think he is called) who (wearing a suit) jumped/fell out of one of the WTC windows. i think a YOUTube documentary was done on him and the other jumpers.
Joy Staley - a lot of people think that opening of the falling man is a hint at how the series will end, Don Draper committing suicide by jumping out of his building.( or maybe someone pushing him.)
Sorry, Count. Whitman and her/their lies caused people to die. If she'd had the courage to tell the truth she might still have a political career. Glad she's gone.
I still can't believe they fucking lied about the air quality. I had a friend who kept trying to convince me the air was dangerous, and I didn't want to believe her. How Could they lie about something like that? Why Would they lie about something like that? Fuckers. Can't wait for Dick Cheney and Dubya to bite the dust.
I'll never forget crowding around the tv with other interns in complete shock and feeling so helpless and crying. And the silence that cut through our group.. My kids will never understand as most who weren't born, but we won't ever forget..
Thanks for the thought, Jordon. It's not a threat -- no where in there is an explicit or implied threat, and one shouldn't be inferred -- it's simply a recognition that Cheney is on his 2nd heart, that Dubya is a senior citizen, that their natural life expectancies are lower than mine, and that I will not be upset one iota when the inevitable happens (barring an unforeseen event -- you know, like a terrorist attack -- that ends my life prematurely. Then the joke's on me, I guess.) Erasing it would indicate I think my comment is inappropriate. It stands.
I remember I was teaching my 5th grade class in Queens, on a clear day we could see the towers from my 5th floor classroom, but I had kept the shades up in the morning because the sun glare would irritate us all. The administration sent someone to all the classrooms to privately tell the teachers that a plane had hit the towers to make sure we didn't have anyone we needed to check on. We were told not to tell the children so I kept the shades up. Then, little by little, students were called to go to the office because they were being picked up by their parents. I still had no idea how bad it was. After lunch, they had all the remaining students stay either in the lunchroom or the gym on the main floor of the building. There was no school the next day, but the following day, the pictures that the children were drawing were heartbreaking. Pictures of the towers on fire with planes sticking out and stick figures jumping out. I had to call parents and request that they turn off the tv or else turn on Nickolodeon or Disney channel for the kids's mental well being. As for me, I remember a somber drive home. No traffic to my apartment on Long Island. I lived right on the beach and I could see the naval ships surrounding the shore. The military planes flew so low, I would jump thinking they were going to crash into my apartment. The images of the planes, the smoke that we saw for days where the towers once stood, the families looking for the missing is still as fresh in my mind as it was 13 years ago.
"a lot of people think that opening of the falling man is a hint at how the series will end, Don Draper committing suicide by jumping out of his building.( or maybe someone pushing him.)"---texas rose
I..am..SO..fascinated by the thought of those endings. I almost HATE you for telling me that.
Joy Staley - I guess if you're on first season I can see how that might be a shocker but wait til you get a few seasons in. It's probably not going to happen that way anyway.
I saved the first Entertainment Weekly that came out after 9/11. They did write ups on how they thought each entertainment medium would or wouldn't address the events going forward. Remember people had talked about removing the image of the towers in skyline images still in production? I thought it would be interesting to keep and look at decades later. I've yet to look at it but maybe I will tonight.
oh, Me. I am so sorry you had the responsibility of those children on you in addition to the people in your life. I only had to care for my friends.
Those missing posters still haunt me. The ones in black and white especially. If I saw one in color I knew the person would be someone with at least some affluence and education. The black and white posters were waiters or house staff from Windows on the World or back office staff from the companies in the towers. Rich or poor, all were loved and their deaths grieved.
"How Could they lie about something like that? Why Would they lie about something like that? Fuckers. "
Same reason they sent soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan without the proper body armor. Every dollar was for Halliburton.
I worked a couple miles south of the Pentagon in Alexandria, in the landing pattern of National Airport. It's funny, while all the planes were grounded what I remember is when I left my office there were F-16s circling over D.C., in the security zone where you never saw planes. They were waiting for the 4th plane, which of course never arrived. I could see the smoke from the Pentagon - it was white. At first they said a bomb went off on the heliport before they new it was a plane. The smoke looked white because of the tiny shards - true smithereens - of American Airline's silver fuselage.
I remember Sarah Bunting's (Sars of MBTV and TWoP) post of her 9-11 experience on Tomato Nation, and her 9-12 remembrance as well, to which so many can relate.
I agree with Connie but I say stop ALL immigration. Why do we need more people? Ever been to a Third World country? People crammed EVERYWHERE, filth, sewage, no room to breathe, no open spaces or fresh air, why do we want that here in the US? We're running out of water in the West so we think we need more people to tax that already overstressed situation? We want MORE strip malls, houses and smog, pollution and the like? I know I sure don't. We should not be the world's pressure release and take the citizens they want to offload (like Mariel Boatlift, the trash of Central America, etc), they should be forced to deal with their overpopulation issues. Why turn the entire planet into a Third World shit hole? How do people who care about the environment, animal habitats, etc., justify this?
Long time lurker. But when it comes to 9/11, i cant be silent. Please remember that as horrific of a day 9/11 was 13 years ago, they didnt win. They tried to tear us apart and instead gave us a bond. I lost a friend at cantor fitzgerald, i had a temp job at aon insurance on 100th floor that ended 2 weeks earlier. It could have been me. Hate never wins. So for those ISIS fuckers who are plotting to destroy the western world-maybe check what happened to Osama & Saddam..
Aunt Liddy, normally I enjoy your comments, but I am really disappointed in your narrow and racist view of the world. Conny and the other jerk - you're just flat out racist fucks and I dont' care about either of you.
Militant Muslims are causing all the problems in the world? Really? Timothy McVeigh - remember him?
Your attitude and others like you is precisely the reason why there are problems with a very small group out of 1.6 billion Muslims - over 23% of the world.
Over and over and over military intelligence and investigation reveals that the people who are flocking to these militant groups grew up experiencing racism and ostracization. Big fucking shock that a very tiny number of them react badly and dangerously to the mistreatment they suffered. The threat is not from immigrants - the threat is from a tiny percentage of children born in western countries who are treated like shit because of their faith and their skin colour.
Outsiders and those treated like outsiders join cults, militant groups like nazis, white power groups, Muslim terror groups...
I had limited exposure to Muslims until a couple of years ago when I joined a company in a Muslim area of my city and 1/2 the people I work with are Muslim. There are also several Baptists and lots of practicing Catholics at the company. Everyone gets along fine because there is respect accorded to every single one of my coworkers.
You know what? People are people are people.
It's easy to focus on big, splashy events. Look at the damage and death toll from all the other daily terrorists that hold us hostage in our homes. The sexual prediators, the drug addicts, the thieves, organized crime, the fucking corruption of the banks and other financial institutions that have brought the Western world to their knees with far more frequency than a dozen guys crashing planes and beheading a few journalists.
The IRA held the UK hostage for decades with their campaign of terror.
9/11 is a tragic event and it very much had an impact on me. It made me kinder and more patient. It gave me perspective to go along with the grief.
Aunt Liddy, I expect more from you than reactionary bullshit.
Ms, sorry u r disappointed, but never once did i express hate or racist ideas or feelings towards muslins. I know and come into contact with muslims and all sorts of people everyday. I like everyone who doesnt try to blow me up. And i dont buy the arguement that its somehow the fault of the western world that some muslims have become so militant and hateful toward americans. All i meant was to invesstigate background of muslims who want to come to US, thats all. You dont find anything, let 'em in, its a big country, we got plenty of room. But if you can filter out a few people with fatal intentions toward us, isnt that a good thing? Anyway, this discussion takes away from remembering the people who were killed in 9-11, and the first responders that continue to die. We'll table this for another time. All peace and love to all.
I have been visiting this sight FOREVER and have never commented until now. Thank-you Enty for acknowledging this day and to all the heart felt commenters. No matter what we are all Americans, and we were all tragically wounded that day. We can never forget.
Hi all, I'm a longtime reader/fan of the site, but I rarely post. But I always post on Enty's 9/11 post.
I used to work there, 2WTC (South Tower), 95th Fl. I was supposed to be there by 8:30am that morning, but overslept & got there just after the 2nd plane hit (my subway pulled into the WTC station around 9:10am).
I wound up getting back on the train bc the MTA transit workers were evacuating people back onto the trains, got off at the next stop (because I didn't want to be stuck underground & after hearing from other people on the subway what happened, I needed to see it for myself to believe it).
I saw the towers on fire from a few blocks away, of course phones weren't working so was trying to get in touch with people just like everyone else. Crying non-stop & very much shell shocked. I walked up to Soho & heard a bang like a truck going over a pothole, looked up to see my tower collapsing down, watched my co-workers dying. I walked to midtown & eventually when the subways were back running again, took it home to Queens.
So many lives lost that day. And those of us who survived it were left behind to rebuild & heal. Everything changed after that. I also realized over the years that I had a lot of survivors guilt because there were so many parents, husbands, wives who perished but why did I, a then-single girl, get spared.
I have to say that I really did embrace what I realized was a second chance at life. I traveled, became much more social & met lots of new people, & eventually met my now-husband (who actually turned out to be an old middle school classmate of mine!! Ha!) & we got married this past Spring after dating for a few years. But every year on 9/11, I take the day to pay my respects to those we lost & to Thank God for sparing me that day.
I will never forget that day for as long as I live. It's weird but I remember 9/10 and 9/11 so very clearly. But 9/12 is a blur lol. I guess because I was still trying to process everything that had happened.
I hate to say it, but it worries me to so many of you say that 9/11 changed you. We should have shrugged off the attacks and gone about business as usual the next day. Anything else was letting Al Queda get a win.
We knew those attacks were coming. Hell, they'd tried to blow up the damn Towers once before. I had been expecting a much worse terrorist attack for years. Objectively, the 9/11 attacks were a flea bite to which we overreacted, domestically.
3K and change dead? That many died at Antietam in one day of battle, and we've had worse.
We've done way too much grieving over 9/11. Let it go.
I worked for Verizon in Brooklyn, we had a switching station on the top floor of tower 2. The techs that worked there called our office in panic, "What should we do"? We were the last to hear their voices.
B. Profane I think that the majority of people were not following the exploits of Al Queda I know I wasn't. I normally would but I was in a head space that I wanted my free time to be full of more amusing and entertaining things, I had other heavy stuff to deal with, than world events and politics that always seemed to go round in circles and frustrate and depress one anyway.
I remember the 1993 bombing and thought of it as an isolated incident and glad it had not really succeeded.
However 9-11 showed the great vulnerability of even the USA and being Canadian that was just too close for comfort. We all perhaps foolishly could not imagine a handful of men could do that kind of damage on American soil. Who knows if they had plans beyond that and the grounding of planes stopped other plans.
And got people to understand just what Islamism, militant Islam or I call it extremist Islam is all about and it's potential threat to everyone including other Muslims who are not considered to be Muslim enough.
We also figured out the emergency response system had major major flaws and who knows if any of that has been truly fixed.
I could write a book with all the reading and research I did after 9-11.
Better to be prepared than ignorant. But I don't live my life paranoid and most of us don't.
I just couldn't comment yesterday. I didn't know what to say, and I really still don't, today as well as thirteen years later. I was just a Midwesterner -- still am, unfortunately -- but I've always been a NYC admirer and of course this happened in my country, period. I felt so helpless and guilty for being safe and not having a personal connection to anyone in NYC, DC, or PA, and given that I am already bipolar, I went into a pretty serious depression. As the weeks went by, though, I tried to "look for the helpers," as Mister Rogers told us, and I really try to focus my memories on how everyone pulled together in the days and months after. I remember SNL coming back the next month, hosted by Reese Witherspoon with first responders and Rudy Giuliani in the intro, and then Lorne asking if it was now appropriate to laugh again, saying "Can we be funny?" and the mayor said, "Why start now?!" And something as silly as SNL made me see that we owed it to those who lost their lives to keep going and...well, to enjoy life and our lives in the United States, if that makes any sense. And I saw that it was okay for little ol' me, AKM, to laugh and live my life, and it reaffirmed that I wanted a career in a helping profession so that I could BE a "helper" when other tragedies and hard times might happen, as they surely did and always will.
I also like to think of Billy Joel, one of my all-time favorite sons of New York, performing at the Concert for New York playing "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)." That's one of his best works, I think, and it's both a bit creepy in light of what happened and yet triumphant, because now, as he said, "unlike in that song, we ain't goin' NOWHERE!"
Finally, this may sound arrogant, but please take it in the spirit in which it is intended: don't fuck with New Yorkers, and don't fuck with the United States.
We are NOT vulnerable, that is the point. I work in the corporate disaster-recovery business some of the time. I KNOW the real terrorist threats and the expected casualty totals and financial impacts. 9/11 was nothing.
Anyone notice this is like the 4th or 5th different industry Profane dips his toe into? I think he sweeps up an office building with a variety of tenants.
Oh how I remember.
ReplyDeleteCan't believe it's 13 years.
ReplyDeleteI could never forget this day. It was one of the worst days I've ever experienced. Also...it was months of heartache, not just one day.
ReplyDeleteSuch a sad event, and one which has been used as the justification for so many other sad events.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteI will never forget that day.
ReplyDeleteMe neither. My thoughts are with those who were lost and those who suffered loss.
DeleteI remember watching the video on CNN.com with my coworkers and just being stunned.
ReplyDeleteThat was also the day my dad fell out of bed and broke his hip. When they went to replace the hip, they found a tumor the size of a football. After they sent us home for the day (and I swung by and picked up my friend's son because he was the only kid left at the daycare,) I spent the rest of the day alternating between phonecalls with my sister and trying to keep a three-year old distracted from what the daycare lady had been watching.
DeleteDad died exactly six months later on March 11.
@Geyeld
DeleteI am so sorry for the loss of your father. I lost my mom to a quick battle with cancer as well. Hugs.
9-11 makes me think of my mother, as we would often go to the WTC to buy theater tickets in the South Tower at TKTS.
We were at WTC exactly a week before 9-11. So this time really stirs up wonderful memories of time with my mother while also making me remember the horrors of that sad day.
I still struggle knowing that those two buildings that I stood in the shadows of, could be brought down and made dust.
Aj and gay, my sympathies to both of you on your loss.
Delete@AuntLiddy
DeleteThank you.
Thanks! It was just the strangest day. Even down to having my friend's kid. The preschool called me instead of his mother because he was the only kid there and apparently I was the more reliable "parent" to come pick him up (although, in all fairness, his mother was a nurse and couldn't just pick up and leave.)
DeleteI spend the whole day waiting for my sister to call, waiting for A'lyce to show up, wanting to check the TV, but not wanting to freak the three-year old out. And still, I had a lot better day than thousands of people.
I'm forever changed by the events of 9/11.
ReplyDeleteAll these years later and I still don't understand.
It's a sad day here in New York
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to understand pure evil….
I CANNOT believe It has been 13 years.
ReplyDeletethe first WTC bombing is the anniversary of my Moving to NYC
the second (fatal) WTC bombing is the anniversary of me moving to Philadelphia
True Stories...
Not the EXACT dates, however, but close enough to the dates that the events were still all over the news.
I get misty this time of year.
:^(
I'll never forget that day. My daughter was just 4 months old and I was terrified of the world she would grow up in. If she grew up at all.
ReplyDeleteThe world seemed smaller. We were all there together.
My brother is a Firefighter in London ( involved in the rescues on 7/7) so I know all too well how terrifying that day was for the families.
I learned what the word surreal meant on 9/11/01
Aside from all the shit you see on TV, 3 things stood out to me that day and the week after:
ReplyDelete1) Eery silence. There were no planes in the sky and no cars on the road, except for the occasional Police/Fire/First Aid vehicle heading to north Jersey to cover for first responders who went into Manhattan.
2) The pack of attack helicopters that flew over my house, carrying GWB to ground zero. So low, so loud, so fast, and flying so close together. I waved. Few months later all across the Middle East people were shitting in their pants when they walked out of their house to similar sites.
3) The Saturday after there was pretty much a funeral procession that stretched 20-30miles from the NJ Turnpike, through the toll booths at Exit 13, over the Goethals, across Staten Island, over the Verrazano, and up the BQE around Brooklyn. One lane on the SI Expressway was shut down for dump trucks and government vehicles. Everyone was staring out at the smoke and the lights.
I will never forget that day or the next few months.I feel so bad for all those people who died. And what did they die for? It makes me sad. This time of year is hard.
ReplyDeleteBulls eye, Nutty Flavor. Are we as free as we used to be before 9/11? Patriot Act, TSA, Homeland Security, NDAA....
That and the Murrah Bldg bombing just horrible.
ReplyDeleteTime to stop Islamic immigration into this country with the fresh threat of ISIS and the beheading of 2 American journalists. We need to be vigilant about who is already here. No time for PC nonsense unless you are ready for another 9/11. Rest in Peace brothers and sisters.
ReplyDeleteConnie- hate to say it but ur right.
DeleteWow, prejudice rearing it's ugly head. Sad.
DeleteWow I'm the only one that has a problem with what Connie and auntliddy are saying? Is this for real? Be racist against Muslim people? That's ok? What the fuck?
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Delete@FearN: I'm with you! And I'm sitting in my living room right now looking out the window at the memorial lights at Ground Zero. I was here 13 years ago and will never forget that day or the unimaginable grief of the weeks and months that followed. It was unbearable. In my opinion, comments like the ones above show a level of ignorance and intolerance that is disgraceful.
DeleteFear-i dont see it as racist at all. I see it as protecting the people who are here from militant muslims. Isnt that just common sense? All the actors of 9-11 muslims were here in us on scholarships and such. So doesnt it make sense to limit their numbers for a while? Usa is not obligated to accept every single person who wants to come in you know. Not hateful, just common sense.
DeleteIt's discrimination against a group of people, based in the actions of a minority within that group of ppl. Plain and simple. Not common sense at all.
DeleteStill pains my heart and gives me chills. The eerie silence the next few days was haunting.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe it's been 13 years.
ReplyDeleteRIP to those who lost their life that dreaded day.
The weather was beautiful that day here Quebec.It seemed like a perfect day.Then my sister called me at work and told me. None of my co workers believed me until they saw it online.I called my son who was at home and he was freaking out...he told me people were jumping from the buildings.Life changed that day. For Canadians too.RIP to the victims and healing thoughts to their family and friends.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful here in nyc too. Not one cloud. Sunny and mid 80s.
DeleteI'll never forget how blue the sky was that day in contrast to the smoke coming from NYC's skyline.
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ReplyDeleteI could never forget that day. Being a life long New Yorker, I had never seen so much sadness, fear & despair before.
ReplyDeleteRIP to the thousands of lives lost on that day in all 3 locations & the following years.
I saw the second plane hit the WTC on live TV. I will never, ever forget that.
ReplyDeleteMy son wasn't yet 2, and I was 6 months pregnant with my oldest daughter. What kind of a world was I bringing kids into? What kind of world would they grow up in?
All I felt was tears and heartache that day, and every Sept 11 since.
Enty, thank you for starting 9/11 CDAN with this post. Our world changed that day and since then, I have often found refuge in this community... Such life, kindness and decency (trolls notwithstanding)... thanks and best to you!
ReplyDeleteThe smell….the air, the ash floating down for what seemed like months…
ReplyDeleteAnd Christie Whitman saying the air was safe to breathe …..sure it was. Tell that to the first responders.
The F--King Bush Administration and the lies
@Mish
DeleteGod. The smell.
I don't think that will ever leave me. Or the sight of the 2nd plane hitting on live TV and everyone realizing it was done intentionally.
The papers. All over the outer boroughs, you would find half burned pieces of random office work.
DeleteThat day, I walked from midtown into Little Italy and over the Manhattan Bridge. I will never forget Mulberry Street being all set up for the Feast of San Genaro and the complete silence walking past all the festive booths with sobbing old men sitting in them.
That smell! The thought burns my nostrils. I tried to explain it to people by you can't.
DeleteIt is smell that you can never ever forget.
DeleteI see a lot of older contributors who haven't posted in a while. Nice to hear you again.
ReplyDeleteI won't forget that day either. I saw the live pictures of the second plane going through. I worked in corporate travel and some of our customers were on those planes (NY-SF) and I was fearful also for my former flying partners on UAL. Also for my friends in NY.
When I saw that plane hit I told my then boyfriend OPster, "That bldg is coming down". Just the most horrific mood at work. The world of innocence that other countries don't feel because they've experienced war on their own soil evaporated. I thought this must be how those people see their world.
So much senseless loss starting with those jerks and then what we have done.
Sherry, you are a wonderful person, & your posts are always my favorites (& a few others.).
DeleteIt really bothers me that our lives are still affected by those hillbillies. All those improvements made for airport security, border inspections, etc. and now we get threats from them every day. Seems like we had it pretty good until that day.
ReplyDelete@Misch: Don't blame Christie, blame Bush/Cheney. They are the ones who made her do it and tanked her political career. They did the same thing to Colin Powell with lying to the UN. Sad because a Powell/Whitman ticket would probably be 1/2 way through their second term right now.
ReplyDeleteCount, yeah, but she did it. How hard wld it be for her to have said it isnt safe, lets get u guys some equipment. And then to screw responders over for years and years and deny- that is unforgivable. As is what christie t whitless did. Unforgivable.
Delete@Count
ReplyDeleteThat silence was just so surreal.
That and being able to see the smoke coming off the NYC skyline across the water.
@Geyeld
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry for the loss of your father. I lost my mom to a quick battle with cancer as well. Hugs.
9-11 makes me think of my mother, as we would often go to the WTC to buy theater tickets in the South Tower at TKTS.
We were at WTC exactly a week before 9-11. So this time really stirs up wonderful memories of time with my mother while also making me remember the horrors of that sad day.
I still struggle knowing that those two buildings that I stood in the shadows of, could be brought down and made dust.
@AJ. When my sister first called me to tell what had happened, it didn't even make sense in the context of everything else that was going on. It was just surreal. By the time he died he was in so much pain and so sick that it was a relief, more than anything, that he didn't have to suffer anymore (from the cancer and from living with my sister 24/7.)
Delete@Gayeld
DeleteI know exactly what you speak of. Towards the end with the way my mother suffered, I too wanted her to have that sweet blessed release from it too.
Feels like this was not that long ago. RIP
ReplyDeleteIt was going to be such a happy day. Husband and I were going to be driving our oldest to begin college at UCSD. Got up early and turned on the news. Saw the second plane. Driving down highway 5 that day, proud of the flags and signs citizens were posting on overpasses. Daughter is now a social studies teacher at a middle school. Her lesson today is about 9/11, to students who weren't born yet.
ReplyDeleteCan't agree with Connie, because fuck spying on our own citizens.
ReplyDelete"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Benjamin Franklin, 1755
+1
DeleteToday's also the 13th anniversary of one of my mother's better quotes:
ReplyDelete"My daughter's alive because she's lazy. Never thought I'd get to say that sentence... TWICE."
You see, I turned down a job in WTC #1 back in '92 (the year before the bombing occurred) and I left a job that would have put me about three blocks from the WTC plaza in '00 (a year before 9/11.) Both times, it was because I wanted a shorter commute - in '92, I went to work for a company that was 6 blocks from Grand Central instead of all the way downtown (plus I wasn't all that interested in investment banking at the time) and in '00, I went to work for former client that was literally a 5 minute drive from my house.
Still though, in my mother's mind, "a shorter commute" equaled "lazy", especially when both declined positions offered better pay and more prestige. *smh*
My mother passed of a heart attack in her sleep 6 weeks later. So, rather than dwell on the negativity of 9/11/2001, I will instead choose to revel in the memory of my mother's twisted, warped sense of humor and logic.
I lived then on Long Island. Everyone either was or knew someone tainted by 9-11. And the quiet was sooo still, so eerie. I could not believe it wasnt an accident, it was so shocking to me. And the endless posters of have u seen this person, the finding of FRAGMENTS od office equipment which pretty much told you no BODY wld be coming out alive, the people joining hands, willing to jump than be burned alive, the erronious messages to victims to stay put, we're coming for you, go back in the bldg, all is safe, the endless rows of hastily nailed together stretchers for survivors never found, the sight of fully armed soldiers on streets of NYC, the fighter planes, the whole drama with plane that crashed in pa, the pentagon crash- all of this swirls thru my memory on this day. All healing to all involved. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteOh God. The people jumping. Those are the worst images. I can even imagine the terror of that choice.
DeleteAunt Liddy, your comment has brought me to tears. Thank you. <3
DeleteOnly seems like yesterday.....
ReplyDelete@Liddy: If she did that, she wouldn't have a private sector career either.
ReplyDeleteCount-all she had to do was call press conference, give the facts and shiw some proof she was being coerced to say this. If she caputulated so she wld hv wirk in private sector, thats even more disgraceful and souless. Im thinking they told her, countrys been thru enough, nyc has to get back on its feet, people cant take anymore bad news, you cant hit them with thus. All of which are valid points but there is nothing, barring physical threatening of my family, that wld make me lie like that. And certainly not for money! There have to other people who agree or expect integrity from anyone in public service or its all hopeless.
DeleteReading stuff about 9/11 is not a good idea when you share an office with a few other people. Supressing my tears over here.
ReplyDeleteI concur with this comment :
ReplyDelete"Don't blame Christie, blame Bush/Cheney. They are the ones who made her do it and tanked her political career. They did the same thing to Colin Powell with lying to the UN. Sad because a Powell/Whitman ticket would probably be 1/2 way through their second term right now."
Colin Powell would have been a wonderful president but that racist,heartless piece of shit known as dick cheney never liked General Powell. He was always jealous of him, going back to the days of the Reagan administration. cheney knew he was not half the man Powell is. He tanked Powell on purpose. I hate cheney and everything he stands for.
Gitir- he cld hv refused and resigned. As for him being pres, he seemed like a decent guy, but i dont know where he stood or stands on any issues.
DeleteGitit, i totally agree with hate of cheney, who is still running his big useless mouth to this day. Back in the batcave, dark lord, back!
Deletehow could we with you reminding us all the time.
ReplyDeleteYou're negative
DeleteGayeld, 9-11 was surely the day of hell for you never to be forgotten along with of course all those that lost loveds that very day.
ReplyDeleteThose in NY and near the Towers that day and in Washington DC at the Pentagon and survived no doubt probably have deepest memories at all sensory levels.
It is one of those days that is seared into the memory bank for all time. I see get very emotional when I see those images of people jumping they always sneak up on you.
I visited the WTC in 1986 on my first ever trip to New York City. I remember took the elevators a long time to get up to just the observation deck which was closed too windy and you could feel the building moving. And I said to a friend, I would never work in this building what do you do when there's a fire?
And talking about six degrees of separation - People Magazine had an article about the pregnant women who lost husbands on 9-11. My sister saw the cover and realized she and her then ex husband had hung around all week on a Caribbean vacation with one of those widows and her now dead husband. Our only connection to any 9-11 victims that day.
That day I thought a new world war was happening.
On the positive side, I was so impressed by the toughness and resilience of the people of NYC and impressed how so many people came together. There were firefighters and public utilities trucks and other people with supplies or special skills, one man with one of those rescue sniffer dogs, from my home town in Ontario that drove up to NYC to help with the aftermath of the collapse. The hospitality of the people in Newfoundland for all those grounded passengers.
ISIS this spawn of Al Queda reminds us that Bin Laden may be dead but Al Queda is not.
I had relocated from London on 9/7/01. Just myself & 3 babies aged 4, 18 months & 3 months. Hubby was still in London.
ReplyDeleteOn 9/19/01 I found out that a close friend & the only person I knew in San Francisco had drowned while surfing off Ocean beach.
My sister flew in from NY , she had been staying in Manhattan.
So we were all awake very early & couldn't really understand what was happening, then we watched the second plane hit. I have never felt so helplessly alone & was so very scared .
I was too frightened to go into the city & look at the house we had just bought.
The silence of no planes was deafening. Then when they started flying again, everyone always looked up.
We cried so much that day & for a long time after. Seeing the posters & hopeful family & friends, so sad.
One year anniversary there was a memorial in Washington square SF. 1 national flag for each person killed. It was overwhelming . If the people were standing there instead of flags the square would have been packed. So so sad.
9/19 oops meant 9/10.
ReplyDeleteI was in grade 5 & they told our class what was happening, but I didn't understand I haven't ever been to New York (yet) & being a Canadian kid & grade 5 I didn't understand any of it. I remember seeing everything on TV & just feeling totally confused.
ReplyDeleteI still remember it; I was getting my then-baby( she's now 13; I can't believe it was that long ago) ready for a doc's check up and passed by the TV when the news came on about the first plane and I thought, "Oh, shit, that's terrible!" and I was still watching when I saw the 2nd plane hit, live on TV and then I KNEW at that moment, "There's no WAY that was an accident! This is on PURPOSE!" All those people that died. So tragic.
ReplyDelete={
ReplyDeleteThank you Trilby. Not sure what prompted that but I appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree. Colin Powel would have been a wonderful president. He was so hurt by the betrayal of that asshat Cheney. He's literally the devil.
Only found this site in late spring, & it's rare that I can read posts the same day they're posted, some days I just miss entirely. When I read your comments (& auntliddy's, & violet's, & some others), not only do your comments usually resonate with me, I am always struck by what wonderful people y'all are. I just don't usually catch up with alot of threads for days, and I have always wanted to say that, but never did! Until now :). You have a shiny soul!
DeleteI actually know a Trilby but based on your profile you aren't her. I appreciate you find my soul shiny. Thank you sweet one.
DeleteDisclaimer: haven't read all of the comments unsure if this is mentioned
ReplyDeleteI recently started watching MAD MEN and the opening credits has a guy in a suit falling down a tall building. it shocked me. my heart dropped. it reminds me of "the falling man" (i think he is called) who (wearing a suit) jumped/fell out of one of the WTC windows. i think a YOUTube documentary was done on him and the other jumpers.
EERIE...
Joy Staley - a lot of people think that opening of the falling man is a hint at how the series will end, Don Draper committing suicide by jumping out of his building.( or maybe someone pushing him.)
DeleteSorry, Count. Whitman and her/their lies caused people to die. If she'd had the courage to tell the truth she might still have a political career. Glad she's gone.
ReplyDeleteI still can't believe they fucking lied about the air quality. I had a friend who kept trying to convince me the air was dangerous, and I didn't want to believe her. How Could they lie about something like that? Why Would they lie about something like that? Fuckers. Can't wait for Dick Cheney and Dubya to bite the dust.
Youreallyanot, amen sista,( or bro) u r preaching to the choir here.
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ReplyDeleteureallyannoyme, that was a threat. It should be treated as such. I suggest erasing.
ReplyDeleteI'll never forget crowding around the tv with other interns in complete shock and feeling so helpless and crying. And the silence that cut through our group..
ReplyDeleteMy kids will never understand as most who weren't born, but we won't ever forget..
Thanks for the thought, Jordon. It's not a threat -- no where in there is an explicit or implied threat, and one shouldn't be inferred -- it's simply a recognition that Cheney is on his 2nd heart, that Dubya is a senior citizen, that their natural life expectancies are lower than mine, and that I will not be upset one iota when the inevitable happens (barring an unforeseen event -- you know, like a terrorist attack -- that ends my life prematurely. Then the joke's on me, I guess.) Erasing it would indicate I think my comment is inappropriate. It stands.
ReplyDeleteI remember I was teaching my 5th grade class in Queens, on a clear day we could see the towers from my 5th floor classroom, but I had kept the shades up in the morning because the sun glare would irritate us all. The administration sent someone to all the classrooms to privately tell the teachers that a plane had hit the towers to make sure we didn't have anyone we needed to check on. We were told not to tell the children so I kept the shades up. Then, little by little, students were called to go to the office because they were being picked up by their parents. I still had no idea how bad it was. After lunch, they had all the remaining students stay either in the lunchroom or the gym on the main floor of the building. There was no school the next day, but the following day, the pictures that the children were drawing were heartbreaking. Pictures of the towers on fire with planes sticking out and stick figures jumping out. I had to call parents and request that they turn off the tv or else turn on Nickolodeon or Disney channel for the kids's mental well being.
ReplyDeleteAs for me, I remember a somber drive home. No traffic to my apartment on Long Island. I lived right on the beach and I could see the naval ships surrounding the shore. The military planes flew so low, I would jump thinking they were going to crash into my apartment. The images of the planes, the smoke that we saw for days where the towers once stood, the families looking for the missing is still as fresh in my mind as it was 13 years ago.
"a lot of people think that opening of the falling man is a hint at how the series will end, Don Draper committing suicide by jumping out of his building.( or maybe someone pushing him.)"---texas rose
ReplyDeleteI..am..SO..fascinated by the thought of those endings. I almost HATE you for telling me that.
but Im glad you did. tehehe ;^)
Joy Staley - I guess if you're on first season I can see how that might be a shocker but wait til you get a few seasons in. It's probably not going to happen that way anyway.
DeleteI saved the first Entertainment Weekly that came out after 9/11. They did write ups on how they thought each entertainment medium would or wouldn't address the events going forward. Remember people had talked about removing the image of the towers in skyline images still in production? I thought it would be interesting to keep and look at decades later. I've yet to look at it but maybe I will tonight.
ReplyDeleteoh, Me. I am so sorry you had the responsibility of those children on you in addition to the people in your life. I only had to care for my friends.
ReplyDeleteThose missing posters still haunt me. The ones in black and white especially. If I saw one in color I knew the person would be someone with at least some affluence and education. The black and white posters were waiters or house staff from Windows on the World or back office staff from the companies in the towers. Rich or poor, all were loved and their deaths grieved.
"How Could they lie about something like that? Why Would they lie about something like that? Fuckers. "
ReplyDeleteSame reason they sent soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan without the proper body armor. Every dollar was for Halliburton.
I worked a couple miles south of the Pentagon in Alexandria, in the landing pattern of National Airport. It's funny, while all the planes were grounded what I remember is when I left my office there were F-16s circling over D.C., in the security zone where you never saw planes. They were waiting for the 4th plane, which of course never arrived. I could see the smoke from the Pentagon - it was white. At first they said a bomb went off on the heliport before they new it was a plane. The smoke looked white because of the tiny shards - true smithereens - of American Airline's silver fuselage.
I remember Sarah Bunting's (Sars of MBTV and TWoP) post of her 9-11 experience on Tomato Nation, and her 9-12 remembrance as well, to which so many can relate.
http://tomatonation.com/stories-true-and-otherwise/for-thou-art-with-us/
http://tomatonation.com/stories-true-and-otherwise/an-american-tune/
My father called me from MD and I sat on the couch, STUNNED, as it happened. I have no words.
ReplyDelete@Gayeld
ReplyDelete@AJ
@StewMcG
My sincere condolences to you all.
I'm an outsider and cannot relate any experience of 9/11 that would compare with any of yours, but I thank you all for commenting so frankly.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Connie but I say stop ALL immigration. Why do we need more people? Ever been to a Third World country? People crammed EVERYWHERE, filth, sewage, no room to breathe, no open spaces or fresh air, why do we want that here in the US? We're running out of water in the West so we think we need more people to tax that already overstressed situation? We want MORE strip malls, houses and smog, pollution and the like? I know I sure don't. We should not be the world's pressure release and take the citizens they want to offload (like Mariel Boatlift, the trash of Central America, etc), they should be forced to deal with their overpopulation issues. Why turn the entire planet into a Third World shit hole? How do people who care about the environment, animal habitats, etc., justify this?
ReplyDeleteA little off topic but there it is.
Long time lurker. But when it comes to 9/11, i cant be silent. Please remember that as horrific of a day 9/11 was 13 years ago, they didnt win. They tried to tear us apart and instead gave us a bond. I lost a friend at cantor fitzgerald, i had a temp job at aon insurance on 100th floor that ended 2 weeks earlier. It could have been me. Hate never wins. So for those ISIS fuckers who are plotting to destroy the western world-maybe check what happened to Osama & Saddam..
ReplyDeleteAunt Liddy, normally I enjoy your comments, but I am really disappointed in your narrow and racist view of the world. Conny and the other jerk - you're just flat out racist fucks and I dont' care about either of you.
ReplyDeleteMilitant Muslims are causing all the problems in the world? Really? Timothy McVeigh - remember him?
Your attitude and others like you is precisely the reason why there are problems with a very small group out of 1.6 billion Muslims - over 23% of the world.
Over and over and over military intelligence and investigation reveals that the people who are flocking to these militant groups grew up experiencing racism and ostracization. Big fucking shock that a very tiny number of them react badly and dangerously to the mistreatment they suffered. The threat is not from immigrants - the threat is from a tiny percentage of children born in western countries who are treated like shit because of their faith and their skin colour.
Outsiders and those treated like outsiders join cults, militant groups like nazis, white power groups, Muslim terror groups...
I had limited exposure to Muslims until a couple of years ago when I joined a company in a Muslim area of my city and 1/2 the people I work with are Muslim. There are also several Baptists and lots of practicing Catholics at the company. Everyone gets along fine because there is respect accorded to every single one of my coworkers.
You know what? People are people are people.
It's easy to focus on big, splashy events. Look at the damage and death toll from all the other daily terrorists that hold us hostage in our homes. The sexual prediators, the drug addicts, the thieves, organized crime, the fucking corruption of the banks and other financial institutions that have brought the Western world to their knees with far more frequency than a dozen guys crashing planes and beheading a few journalists.
The IRA held the UK hostage for decades with their campaign of terror.
9/11 is a tragic event and it very much had an impact on me. It made me kinder and more patient. It gave me perspective to go along with the grief.
Aunt Liddy, I expect more from you than reactionary bullshit.
Ms, sorry u r disappointed, but never once did i express hate or racist ideas or feelings towards muslins. I know and come into contact with muslims and all sorts of people everyday. I like everyone who doesnt try to blow me up. And i dont buy the arguement that its somehow the fault of the western world that some muslims have become so militant and hateful toward americans. All i meant was to invesstigate background of muslims who want to come to US, thats all. You dont find anything, let 'em in, its a big country, we got plenty of room. But if you can filter out a few people with fatal intentions toward us, isnt that a good thing?
DeleteAnyway, this discussion takes away from remembering the people who were killed in 9-11, and the first responders that continue to die. We'll table this for another time. All peace and love to all.
Who is the "other racist jerk"?
ReplyDeleteI have been visiting this sight FOREVER and have never commented until now. Thank-you Enty for acknowledging this day and to all the heart felt commenters. No matter what we are all Americans, and we were all tragically wounded that day. We can never forget.
ReplyDeleteHi all, I'm a longtime reader/fan of the site, but I rarely post. But I always post on Enty's 9/11 post.
ReplyDeleteI used to work there, 2WTC (South Tower), 95th Fl. I was supposed to be there by 8:30am that morning, but overslept & got there just after the 2nd plane hit (my subway pulled into the WTC station around 9:10am).
I wound up getting back on the train bc the MTA transit workers were evacuating people back onto the trains, got off at the next stop (because I didn't want to be stuck underground & after hearing from other people on the subway what happened, I needed to see it for myself to believe it).
I saw the towers on fire from a few blocks away, of course phones weren't working so was trying to get in touch with people just like everyone else. Crying non-stop & very much shell shocked. I walked up to Soho & heard a bang like a truck going over a pothole, looked up to see my tower collapsing down, watched my co-workers dying. I walked to midtown & eventually when the subways were back running again, took it home to Queens.
So many lives lost that day. And those of us who survived it were left behind to rebuild & heal. Everything changed after that. I also realized over the years that I had a lot of survivors guilt because there were so many parents, husbands, wives who perished but why did I, a then-single girl, get spared.
I have to say that I really did embrace what I realized was a second chance at life. I traveled, became much more social & met lots of new people, & eventually met my now-husband (who actually turned out to be an old middle school classmate of mine!! Ha!) & we got married this past Spring after dating for a few years. But every year on 9/11, I take the day to pay my respects to those we lost & to Thank God for sparing me that day.
I will never forget that day for as long as I live. It's weird but I remember 9/10 and 9/11 so very clearly. But 9/12 is a blur lol. I guess because I was still trying to process everything that had happened.
I had just visited NYC and was back a few days in NZ....watching it unravel on TV was like watching a movie, so surreal.
ReplyDeleteWorst part was seeing one of my dear friends exiting one of the Towers....but at least we knew she was alive.
Still so sad even on the other side of the world.
The day that changed everything.
I had just visited NYC and was back a few days in NZ....watching it unravel on TV was like watching a movie, so surreal.
ReplyDeleteWorst part was seeing one of my dear friends exiting one of the Towers....but at least we knew she was alive.
Still so sad even on the other side of the world.
The day that changed everything.
I hate to say it, but it worries me to so many of you say that 9/11 changed you. We should have shrugged off the attacks and gone about business as usual the next day. Anything else was letting Al Queda get a win.
ReplyDeleteWe knew those attacks were coming. Hell, they'd tried to blow up the damn Towers once before. I had been expecting a much worse terrorist attack for years. Objectively, the 9/11 attacks were a flea bite to which we overreacted, domestically.
3K and change dead? That many died at Antietam in one day of battle, and we've had worse.
We've done way too much grieving over 9/11. Let it go.
I was up breast-feeding my new twins in Brisbane, Australia. I started calling everyone I knew on the land-line. It made the world feel smaller.
ReplyDeleteI worked for Verizon in Brooklyn, we had a switching station on the top floor of tower 2. The techs that worked there called our office in panic, "What should we do"? We were the last to hear their voices.
ReplyDeleteB. Profane: you are an ass.
ReplyDeleteB. Profane I think that the majority of people were not following the exploits of Al Queda I know I wasn't. I normally would but I was in a head space that I wanted my free time to be full of more amusing and entertaining things, I had other heavy stuff to deal with, than world events and politics that always seemed to go round in circles and frustrate and depress one anyway.
ReplyDeleteI remember the 1993 bombing and thought of it as an isolated incident and glad it had not really succeeded.
However 9-11 showed the great vulnerability of even the USA and being Canadian that was just too close for comfort. We all perhaps foolishly could not imagine a handful of men could do that kind of damage on American soil. Who knows if they had plans beyond that and the grounding of planes stopped other plans.
And got people to understand just what Islamism, militant Islam or I call it extremist Islam is all about and it's potential threat to everyone including other Muslims who are not considered to be Muslim enough.
We also figured out the emergency response system had major major flaws and who knows if any of that has been truly fixed.
I could write a book with all the reading and research I did after 9-11.
Better to be prepared than ignorant. But I don't live my life paranoid and most of us don't.
I just couldn't comment yesterday. I didn't know what to say, and I really still don't, today as well as thirteen years later. I was just a Midwesterner -- still am, unfortunately -- but I've always been a NYC admirer and of course this happened in my country, period. I felt so helpless and guilty for being safe and not having a personal connection to anyone in NYC, DC, or PA, and given that I am already bipolar, I went into a pretty serious depression. As the weeks went by, though, I tried to "look for the helpers," as Mister Rogers told us, and I really try to focus my memories on how everyone pulled together in the days and months after. I remember SNL coming back the next month, hosted by Reese Witherspoon with first responders and Rudy Giuliani in the intro, and then Lorne asking if it was now appropriate to laugh again, saying "Can we be funny?" and the mayor said, "Why start now?!" And something as silly as SNL made me see that we owed it to those who lost their lives to keep going and...well, to enjoy life and our lives in the United States, if that makes any sense. And I saw that it was okay for little ol' me, AKM, to laugh and live my life, and it reaffirmed that I wanted a career in a helping profession so that I could BE a "helper" when other tragedies and hard times might happen, as they surely did and always will.
ReplyDeleteI also like to think of Billy Joel, one of my all-time favorite sons of New York, performing at the Concert for New York playing "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)." That's one of his best works, I think, and it's both a bit creepy in light of what happened and yet triumphant, because now, as he said, "unlike in that song, we ain't goin' NOWHERE!"
Finally, this may sound arrogant, but please take it in the spirit in which it is intended: don't fuck with New Yorkers, and don't fuck with the United States.
Blessings to us all.
We are NOT vulnerable, that is the point. I work in the corporate disaster-recovery business some of the time. I KNOW the real terrorist threats and the expected casualty totals and financial impacts. 9/11 was nothing.
ReplyDeleteAnyone notice this is like the 4th or 5th different industry Profane dips his toe into? I think he sweeps up an office building with a variety of tenants.
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