September 11th.... thoughts, memories and wishes

[Nachtrafe]

Originally posted by Melusine: Why would it be because Link is not American? Let's not make any of those assumptions, because as Wellard said let's leave the debates out of here. I for one, as a non-American, do have a thought to spare for the victims of those attacks, same as I did last year. It was a completely stupid and senseless loss of lives, of people of all kinds of nationalities dying for no reason, and I'm sorry for all their deaths.

*SIGH* How did I know that someone was going to take that statement and make it something it's not. [img]graemlins/nono.gif[/img]

What I meant by that statement is 'Link doesn't live in America, 9/11 isn't something that is part of his national conscious, isn't something that he lives with every day. For him, and for anyone else not in America(or someone from another country that's personally involved due to a loved one dying that day), it's not as *immediate*. It's at a distance, in another country.'

I did not mean, in any way, to disrespect or denigrate Link, or his opinion. I was just reacting to his statement that the memory faded quickly, and was trying to point out that for those of us that live with it daily, it hasn't faded a bit. My statement doesn't have a thing to do with Nationality, it has to do with Geography.

[Nachtrafe]

Originally posted by Sir Taliesin: I don't reckon, I'll ever forget it. Perhaps one of the blackest days in American History. I think about it almost everyday. I work on the 24th floor in a high rise tower in Knoxville (well maybe not high rise by New York Standards, but it's the tallest building in Knoxville, 27 stories). We hard it on the radio first, then we went and got the TV and spent the whole day watching the towers burn and then collapse. We were actually watching when the second plane hit. To me, it's what my Grandparents experienced with Pearl Harbor... in fact I have a anit that remembers Pearl Harbor and she says the WTC was worse for her, because she was able to see it. The thing I remember most after the actual attack, was how quite it was afterwards, because there were no planes in the sky. We live under a flight approach path for McGhee Tyson Airport. edit for spelling.

My Grandma said the same thing. For her, the attack on Pearl was pretty horrible, but, since she didn't hear about it til later in the afternoon, by radio, it wasn't as immediate. For her(and most, if not all of us) 9/11 was so much more...intimate, I guess is the only word I can think of. Right there on our TV's, in our living rooms, in technicolor, we had to bear witness to one of the most tragic events of the modern era.

Horrid and horrible dont even begin to cover it.

But, I also have to agree with IR...the strength, unity, and togetherness of the whole nation, the whole civilized world, in those first few awful days was truly amazing and awe-inspiring!

[Nachtrafe]

Originally posted by Thoran: OK... angry rant now REALLY over, I guess I didn't realize how mad I still am about 9/11... even two years later.

Me too buddy, me too.

[harleyquinn]

I'm just grateful my grandfather had already passed when 9/11 came. He did nothing the last few years of his life but sit around and watch TV. It would have brought back many painful memories of WWII (which he fought in) I'm sure. My grandmother has avoided much of the 9/11 news because having lost her only son (my step-uncle) in Vietnam, it was too painful for her.

[Stormymystic]

I thought I could handle this today, but I guess not, I am crying while reading everyones memories of that day and remembering everything thatr happened, I remember...the gas station where I worked had set up a meeting for that day, so we could try ad get things worked out, I called my boss, she said it was ok, to come on in for the meeting. I got there, and the wole road was blocked due to people trying to get in and buy gas, rumors were flying that gas was going up to $7.00 a gallon, so we had to cancle the meeting, and although I was told to go home, I stayed and helped her, I was still in shock, and needed to do something productive, I remember standing there, watching the scene over and over again and watching as they fell. it was excactly one month before my daughters first birthday, and a month and one week before my third child was born, I felt when she was born, tha I did not deserve the happiness, to many people had more right to getting such a gift than I did, after 9\11

[Gangrell]

It's hard to believe it's already been two years since it happened. That will always be a bad memory that will seem to stick out in my mind, to think it happened because someone else thought we're weren't fit to be here and innocents had to suffer because of it.

[harleyquinn]

I just read this, and it made me tear again, so I'm sharing (from msnbc):

Selected readings between the silence and names included a poem written by the mother of a fallen firefighter. Joan Molinaro began her poem to her son, Carl Molinaro, with these words:
“In the quiet of my heart
I hold your hand
Little boy of mine.”

[ 09-11-2003, 12:31 PM: Message edited by: harleyquinn ]

[Timber Loftis]

I wish I could express the sorrow, disbelief, and anger I felt that day -- and still. I remember watching it on the conference room TV at my Syracuse firm. I kept running back & forth, as I was busy. I was stopping by to take a peek when the first footage of the second plane hitting was aired. That was unreal. That moment of epiphany: DAMN, it really IS terrorism. You think something can't get any worse, then you realize what had been on your mind as the unthinkable is actual -- someone intentionally did this thing.

Then the news comes in about the Pentagon. Then a tower falls. All of a sudden, you're calling loved ones. Not just to share the most incredible news of your life, but to hear their voice and know they're okay. And, it just... keeps... getting... worse. A plane is down in PA -- no one knows why. Air Force I has gone incommunicado and is looping around the country to protect our head of state. Government is running for an underground bunker. You realize no matter how busy you are, you aren't getting anything done today -- your head's not in it. It's 1 p.m. and the office is empty. Go home. Watch news. It lingers into the night -- they aren't FINDING survivors. The bodies and the bulding have become the same dust-stuff. A finger here, an arm there. A 40-story building falls as an afterthought. Pictures appear on online news of jumpers -- then those pictures disappear. But they're glued in your mind and you can never forget what kind of horror causes one to jump rather than burn to death.

Watch more news. For a week - glued. Why, who, how, how much, how bad, what to do, where to go, how to help? Ashley Banfield becomes your link to the world.

Then I realize I'm getting married on the 22nd. All those relatives who called to check on us because they have no real idea where Syracuse and NYC sit in geographical relation to each other are now refusing to fly. Ugh.... personal crisis. As if I needed that.

Anyway, it was a weird time for me. For us all. I can still feel shadows of the uncertainty that entered my world during that time. Though I've been in car wrecks and nearly fallen to my death, death was no more palpable during those occurrences than it was following 9/11. I try to hang onto those shadows, to remember how that felt, and understand why we are where we are today.

My happy thought for the day: what if Al-Queda had of had the foresight to ALSO send 2 dozen or so suicide bombers into the commuter/rail/bus systems that day, to catch the city as it emptied out? Or all major cities as they emptied out? Happy thought for tomorrow: our commuter system is still a huge issue, and even MORE vulnerable that Israel's -- and we know how often THAT is a target.

[Stratos]

I remember I went out in the kitchen to make some coffee when my mom mentioned that there had been a plane crash in NY. I didn't take much notice of it right away but turned on the TV a few minutes later and found what it was really about when I saw a plane crashing into WTC. I don't recall the exact time but it was before the news channel got the clip of the second plane crashing.

I also remember the moment of silence we had at work the day after when they dimmed the light and stopped all work to honour the victims.

It's nothing I think about daily, but yes I do remember it.

[Ace of Spades]

Not sure how to make a link here...cut and paste if you want to...

http://www.cantcryhardenough.com/