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There are obviously political aspects to this situation, but I think the wish was that it would be kept in the appropriate place which is out of this thread.
it doesn't mean we have to like it.If you don't think 9/11 will be used for political reasons you are not living on this earth.
There are obviously political aspects to this situation, but I think the wish was that it would be kept in the appropriate place which is out of this thread.
My point exactly Manny.
well said Manny. I think that was also the point FWD was trying to make.
"political blamesaying."
I'm waiting for the transcripts of the bush/ head/etc speeches today. I'm sure there will be (plenty of) Repug politics/slime-slinging in there. Typical like "some say", "some think", etc, maybe only a little more subtle.
On the Sunday programs head was saying Iraq war dissent was encouraging the terrorists, ie, war dissenters are pro-terrorist, eternally, falsely implying the war in Iraq is the same as the war on terror.
head would close every newspaper and TV channel except Fox if he could, handing the terrorists the victory of destroying an open society and allowing the Repugs to continue their ty, murderous, incompetent, venal administration in total secrecy.
The Repugs, never ones to show any honor or respect or reverence or leadership, began politicizing the WTC the next day, and haven't stopped since, including starting the Iraq war to get dubya re-elected as "war president". The sheeple fell for it.
Sorry, head, a large majority of American people already don't have the stomach for the Repug Iraq war because it is a waste of US lives, accomplishing nothing, just like the VN war. See you in November, mother er.
I saw the WTC movie the first time, I don't need to see it again.
Let today be a reminder that the Repugs have failed to go after OBL and terrorist camps in Pakistan, and have cut-and-run in Afghanistan in order to around in Iraq, allowing the Taleban and al Quaida to de-stabilize that country again. Just as Iraq will go, Afghanistan will again and undoubtedly be a radical Islamist theocracy and haven for terrorists as soon as the foreign troops leave.
This entire paroxysm of made-for-TV commemration is nothing but a Repug campaign tactic a few weeks before the mid-terms.
"LEST WE FORGET" :
dubya/ head/condi's Repug administration FAILED to protect America from foreign attack
dubya/ head have refused to make the real threats and real terrorism their priority.
My bad guys, I thought this was the Political forum.
Politics..in today's age creeps into everything it seems to me. Sad but true.
Let us not forget that elections are not far off.
Boutons and SA210 - can you just for today -KEEP YOUR STUPID MOUTHS SHUT - we know how you feel - but leave it alone just for today. IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK!!!!!!
I concur. On that day we were all together as Americans.
Surreal... I was in Boston at the time and had just driven back from a seminar at Columbia University in New York City the day before...
I actually had planned on stopping by the usual sight-seeing landmarks that fateful day (the WTC, the Empire State building, and the Statue of Liberty, the Guggenheim Museum) but returned back to school ahead of schedule in order to conduct a presentation in one of my classes. I more than likely would have been at the WTC that morning had someone not switched their presentation slot with mine. "No biggies" I said, "I'll just come back some other day."
I still get chills thinking about that decision or every time I pull out my old planner to read the original plans I had penciled in for that day.
Last edited by Phenomanul; 09-11-2006 at 01:18 PM.
This has already been ruined. There are other threads for repeating the various well-entrenched political positions surrounding the 9/11 attacks and what followed. I didn't start the thread and won't pretend to know that it's purpose was meant to be largely apolitical. But I think it's appropriate that there be at least one thread in which we can remember 9/11 and the tragedy that occurred that day without having the entire discussion become bogged down in political name-calling.
Apparently, the notion of having at least one thread in which we keep things reasonable, respectful, and reverential is a pipe dream around here.
It is but this thread should be devoid of politics. It should rather focus on that day.My bad guys, I thought this was the Political forum.
I remember driving to work that morning and they were reporting some small plane had flown into the towers as they were reporting it as a accident. I really don't think anybody knew what was happening...
I'm sad that some of you don't posses the judgement of when to play politics and when justification doesn't mean you're not an asshole.
I think thats all the attention I'm going to give you.
I think the context of the replayed coverage that CNN and MSNBC are providing today is significant to remembering the visceral feelings that the events of that day invoked. I think you'd have to be something other than human (or a sworn enemy of the United States) to not see that coverage and take from it the overwhelming sense of helplessness that we all felt that morning. The in-the-moment commentary, filled with uncertainty and horror at the unfolding events; the sense that nobody knew where, when, how, or if this would end and why this was happening. Again, we all say we knew immediately what was going on, but the truth is that most of the people whose contemporaneous thoughts were recorded that morning weren't entirely sure what was happening. It's remarkable.
I was watching this unfold when I was in training at Travelocity. Once the second plane hit, I think most of us figured out it was no accident. The thing that really hit home for me was when our trainer told us every flight had been grounded. We figured the ones into NYC and DC would be but all of them? At the time, I had been in the travel biz for almost 10 years and had been through air disasters before...but nothing like that.
I call my classmate every year to let him know that if his mother hadn't gotten ill that week that I would probably be among the victims.
This will forever be a tragic day in our history.
I remember that day as if it was yesterday. My husband and I were on our way to work, listening to WOAI as usual. A breaking news alert came on and they were talking to a man who was in a building near the towers and he was telling how a plane had hit the first tower. At the time, they thought it was a small commuter plane and people were speculating on how it could have happened.
Then I remember the horror and unbelief in the man's voice as he started screaming, "another plane just hit the other tower, oh my god, a plane just flew into the other tower!" At that point, I looked at my husband and said, "we're under attack."
I ran into work and asked if there was a TV anywhere. My boss asked why and I told him what had happened and the country was under attack. I went on the internet and saw the first pictures. Then we went and watched TV in the conference room and I'll never forget seeing those towers come down. I was in shock - especially when the reports started coming in about the Pentagon and flight 93.
They let us go home shortly after that, and I remember being glued to the TV for the rest of the day - tears streaming down my face, but unable to turn it off.
I will never forget that day - I still get emotional about it.
It's interesting how the most insignificant things become etched in your mind in light of the events of that day. I recall that I woke up earlier than usual, hoping to make a quick free agent claim in my fantasy football league because Ed McCaffrey had broken his leg in the Monday night game between the Giants and Broncos. I even recall that I had decided to pick up Darnay Scott as a replacement.
After making my claim, I turned on the television and was laying on the couch watching "WKRP in Cincinnati" on what was then TNN (don't ask). I looked at the clock and figured I should start moving towards preparing for work and turned on the radio in my bathroom to hear Tony Bruno say "and now a second plane has crashed into the other tower." I ran (literally) from the bathroom back to the television and tuned to CNN and sat transfixed.
I remember just being numb. In retrospect, I was mostly naive.
I reflected on living in New York and thinking of the Towers as impregnable icons. I remember hoping that the Towers would stay upright -- fearful that one would tip over, rather than pancake down -- and naively hoping that the firefighters would be able to put the fires out somehow. I recall the chill of thinking about those poor people above the fire and how terrified they must have been, hoping that they would just be able to survive until firefighters got there.
I was on the phone with a friend and remember shaking when the reports came across that the Pentagon had been hit and that the White House and Capitol were being evacuated. I called my mother and wondered aloud about cascading attacks in other cities; hypothesizing about other landmarks that might be targets.
I cried when the South Tower collapsed and thought, in a gross bit of misthinking, that the NYC skyline would look forever absurd with only one tower standing. It didn't take long to realize that WTC 1 was likely going to meet the same fate and that the same skyline would forever be scarred. I couldn't get out of my mind all of those people in the towers; I was convinced that 10,000-20,000 were likely to have died.
I remember other events of that day: calling friends across the country -- when I could get through -- to determine if other friends were working in the WTC and whether we knew anything about them; calling family in New Jersey to see if anyone they knew was in harm's way.
I remember driving to my office in downtown SA at around 11 and being struck by how eerily silent the roadways were and how empty the 33 story building was for a Tuesday. I got there, got what I needed, and got out.
I remember being calmed by a call with a friend who was worried about a child custody hearing he was supposed to have the next morning and having that opportunity to briefly stop thinking about the events of the day. I recall going to bed that night and fighting through a fitful and nearly sleepless night; every time I closed my eyes, I envisioned myself checking e-mail with a cup of coffee only to look up and see the nose of a plane headed right for my office window.
I hope that I never forget any of those things and that they'll always provoke the sort of raw emotions that I feel today.
It was early in the morning for me, I just got to work (Eddie Bauer in downtown San Francisco) and was listening to a sportstalk show on my walkman radio. When the guy mentioned seeing "something out of the movie "Independence Day" on his TV, I switched to different news radio stations, even TV bands (ABC came in the best for me) for audio. Suprisingly, the TV bands were more informative at the moment. We were 10 or so blocks from the TransAmerica Building (skinny pyramid building in the SF skyline), and the store manager sent everyone home 2 1/2 hours before we were scheduled to open.
I got home just in time to see the first tower collapse. I was glued to my TV the rest of that day and the following day.
I was at work at Citicorp when it happend. 75% or so of our calls would come from Manhattan as that is where the largest concentration of our branches were located. I remember calls drying up and I remember getting news text messages on my cell phone about as events happend. They were really more confusing than anything else. Eventually the people there started putting 2 and 2 together from the info from our phone calls and chatter from around the floor.
I went on break and went to a TV we had there and watched as the 2nd tower fell. It was unbelieveable. Everytime I see those images I still can't believe what was happening.
When I went back to work, I remember getting frantic calls from people wanting to know if their relatives working in certain branches in NY were OK. The phones weren't working, so there were no way to calm them down or give them any info.
A while after that I got sent home and watched for a few hours. I was just transfixed. Later in the day I remember them giving out info that they would need blood, so I drove to the blood bank off I10. Man, the scene I saw there is probably one that will give me faith in people till the day I die. The line was unbelieveable. There was just an enourmous response and they probably collected more blood on that one day than they did on the rest of the year. They had TVs setup so that as you went through the line you could watch the coverage, and local restraunts brought food for the people in line to give blood. They told everyone who arrived you would be waiting for hours, but nobody cared. It was awesome.
I had worked that night, so on the morning of Sept 11th I had just gone to bed around 6 am. My wife came home from work around 11 am woke me up and told me that the World Trade Center towers were gone. I remember saying gone? Gone how? Bombed again you mean? Then we turned on the coverage to CNN and it was unbelievable. I knew then we were at war. I still remember the unity we all felt as a nation that day. It wasn't just NYC that was attacked, it may as well have been Kansas city Kansas, Boise Idaho, or San Antonio, Texas. We were all one.
I was pulling up to my office at about 7:55 when a teaser for the top-of-the-hour news, on the radio, said that a small plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.
I shut off the car, walked into the office and said something to the clerical staff about what I'd heard on the radio. I then went to our conference room, turned on the television, already tuned to Fox, not Fox News - but the local Fox affiliate. Just as I did, the second plane crashed into the South Tower.
At first I thought it was a replay of earlier events...it didn't register with me, for a few moments, that the other tower was already smoking when I saw the plane fly into the tower. The shocked and horrified commentary of whomever was reporting on the television pulled the image into focus.
We rolled the television out into the common area and watched, for the remainder of the day, as events unfolded; the Pentagon, Flight 93, all the conjecture and supposition and stream of information -- some factual and some not -- just kind of riveted me to the television screen.
The only thing I remember with any clarity -- after the intial realization of this being a terrorist attack when the second plane struck the South Tower -- is the ball in the pit of my stomach when the first tower fell. We watched all morning wondering what was being done, what could be done, to bring the fires under control. When the tower fell, the magnitude of the event and the futility of the efforts of those trying to put out the fire made me physically ill. I wanted to be sick.
Everything else is a blur.
Here is a classic John Stewart/Daily Show. His first show after 911. Don't forget to watch his moment of Zen at the End. Well worth it.
I was in college at the time and had all the same feelings that everyone else did. However, the interesting part of my story is that myself and about thirty other students still had to take a South African History test on the same afternoon. Our professor was heartless.
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