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The obligatory 5 year anniversary thread...
JackN
<font color=#99FF99>Lightwave Alien</font>
in Zocalo v2.0
Where were you five years ago this day?
_________________________________
I was going to sleep in that day before I had to go to class. Wife woke me up and said I would probably want to (and NOT want to) see this.
For the second time in my life, someone woke me up to see a tradgedy on the morning news.
I thought watching the Challenger explosion that morning in May of 1986 would be the event that affected the rest of my life.
I had absorbed some of the JFK event from my parents, but was too young to really appreciate the loss till later when I studied American History.
9/11 changed everything. Watching flight 175 hit Tower 2 was surreal, but it wouldn't compare to the pain I felt in my heart when Tower 2 collapsed, and then Tower 1 soon afterward. Later when Tower 7 came down I began to worry that most of Manhattan Island's building were going to knock each other down like dominos.
What was I doing during all that? Vomitting, staring in shock at the TV.
I knew no-one personally there, but that day I lost friends and loved ones of the human race.
And I also marveled in my mind how someone could be so evil and be satisfied with the carnage they had executed on innocent lives.
War will never be the same either. Today, 5 years later, I still can't find words for how I feel. The feelings are so profound it makes you cry as though it were yesterday.
I have lived too long...
:(
_________________________________
I was going to sleep in that day before I had to go to class. Wife woke me up and said I would probably want to (and NOT want to) see this.
For the second time in my life, someone woke me up to see a tradgedy on the morning news.
I thought watching the Challenger explosion that morning in May of 1986 would be the event that affected the rest of my life.
I had absorbed some of the JFK event from my parents, but was too young to really appreciate the loss till later when I studied American History.
9/11 changed everything. Watching flight 175 hit Tower 2 was surreal, but it wouldn't compare to the pain I felt in my heart when Tower 2 collapsed, and then Tower 1 soon afterward. Later when Tower 7 came down I began to worry that most of Manhattan Island's building were going to knock each other down like dominos.
What was I doing during all that? Vomitting, staring in shock at the TV.
I knew no-one personally there, but that day I lost friends and loved ones of the human race.
And I also marveled in my mind how someone could be so evil and be satisfied with the carnage they had executed on innocent lives.
War will never be the same either. Today, 5 years later, I still can't find words for how I feel. The feelings are so profound it makes you cry as though it were yesterday.
I have lived too long...
:(
Comments
I think my parents were leaving to our summer cabin and my sister was using the 'net on our living room comp. Someone had the news on... I listened for a while for the exclamations from my mother and father, started wondering what was going on and went to have a looksee.
Well, let's just say that that was what I did for the rest of the day.
I made a song about it the next day that wasnt very well recieved. Oh well.
Yes, I greive for the innicents who died. On both sides.
Doing my military service.
And I was one of those who were tasked to autumn fund-raising campaign for veterans and went into one house just when news (7pm) came from TV and they showed videos of planes hitting to towers.
After that I continued to next house.
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by JackN [/i]
[B]And I also marveled in my mind how someone could be so evil and be satisfied with the carnage they had executed on innocent lives.[/B][/QUOTE]That shouldn't have been surprise to anyone who has read history.
man it really doesnt seem like 5 years
I saw the second plane hitting the tower as well and then the whole thing collapsing.
:(
Worf
woke up, checked email, someone said i should turn on the TV as a plane had hit the WTC, we all thought it was some sort of small plane, turned on the news, saw the damage and thought, wow, that was no small plane, and the WTC is not in any of the flightpaths of the NYC airports, wonder how long its going to take to fix the damage.... watched in horrror as the 2nd plane hit. the rest is just a blur, i remember bits of it, the local news crews were filming everything you could see and hear bodies hitting the ground as people jumped. when the first tower came down, i went outside, and we could hear it, and see the dust cloud, and after a while smell it. There was a cop across the street, and we asked if there was anything we could do to help, his reply was "We dont think there is anyone left TO help"
we still had telephone and DSL until the 2nd tower came down, so we were able to let everyone know we were ok, but after the 2nd tower came down, we lost all communication, cellphone networks were jammed, no phone, no internet. and of course, who knew what was coming next, more planes? bombs? we had no idea.
My wife did temp work there, and both she and my mother had worked at a Restaurant in the World Financial Center, which is ajacent to the WTC site, and was reached by getting off the train at the WTC, walking through the mall on the first level of the WTC, heading through one of the towers, and across the foot bridge over West St. so we were there at the WTC almost every day, i knew those builidings very well, my daughter used to Trick or Treat on Haloween in the WTC/WFC. we went to parties there, and all of a sudden, it was just a smoking pile of rubble.
5 years later, i still have nightmares about it from time to time. not a day goes by when i dont think about it in some way. I no longer live in NYC. too many reminders, too many days when the terror alert was raised of seeing the Nat Guard in the subways with machine guns, too many days of seeing people look up in dread every time a low flying aircraft came overhead.
9/11 is very personal to me. and its something i dont think i'll ever fully recover from. :|
I am a New Yorker
I do not live in the five boroughs or on the Island or Upstate
I may live hundreds or thousands of miles away
Or I may live just over the GW Bridge
But I am a New Yorker
I am a New Yorker
Whatever took me out of New York:
Business, family or hating the cold
did not take New York out of me.
My accent may have faded and my pace may have slowed
But I am a New Yorker
I am a New Yorker
I was raised on Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and Rockefeller Plaza,
The Yankees or the Mets (Giants or Dodgers)
Jones Beach or Rye Beach or one of the beaches on the sound (Orchard Beach)
I know that "THE END" means Montauk.
Because I am a New Yorker
I am a New Yorker
When I go on vacation, I never look up
Skyscrapers are something I take for granted
The Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty are part of me
Taxis and noise and subways and "get outa heah" don't rattle me
Because I am a New Yorker
I am a New Yorker
I was raised on cultural diversity before it was politically correct
I eat Greek food and Italian food, Jewish and Middle Eastern food and Chinese food
Because they are all American food to me.
I don't get mad when people speak other languages in my presence
Because my relatives got to this country via Ellis Island and chose to stay
They were New Yorkers
I am a New Yorker
People who have never been to New York have misunderstood me
My friends and family work in the industries, professions and businesses that benefit all Americans.
My firefighters died trying to save New Yorkers and non-New Yorkers
They died trying to save Americans and non-Americans
Because they were New Yorkers.
I am a New Yorker
I feel the pain of my fellow New Yorkers
I mourn the loss of my beautiful city
I feel and dread that New York will never be the same
But then I remember: I am a New Yorker.
And New Yorkers have: Tenacity, strength and courage way above the norm
Compassion and caring for our fellow citizens
Love and pride in our city, in our state, in our country
Intelligence, experience and education par excellence
Ability, dedication and energy above and beyond
Faith--no matter what religion we practice
Terrorists hit America in its heart
But America's heart still beats strong
Demolish the steel in our buildings, but it doesn't touch the steel in our souls
Hit us in the pocketbook; but we'll parlay what we have left into a fortune
End innocent lives leaving widows and orphans, but we'll take care of them
Because they are New Yorkers
Wherever we live, whatever we do, whoever we are
There are New Yorkers in every state and every city of this nation
We will not abandon our city
We will not abandon our brothers and sisters
We will not abandon the beauty, creativity and diversity that New York represents
Because we are New Yorkers
And we are proud to be New Yorkers
--Unknown
It appears the US goverment was negligent in 93 and maybe we should have attacked Iraqi back then. This article was written in 96 by a terror researcher.
[url]http://www.fas.org/irp/world/iraq/956-tni.htm[/url]
[B]It appears the US goverment was negligent in 93 and maybe we should have attacked Iraqi back then. This article was written in 96 by a terror researcher.
[url]http://www.fas.org/irp/world/iraq/956-tni.htm[/url] [/B][/QUOTE]And next you're telling there's stockpile of ABC weapons in Iraq...
You shouldn't trust conservative fanatics whose scratchpads are inch wide.
[url]http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Laurie_Mylroie[/url]
Most of your "think" tanks are as badly biased ideologically/politically as Pravda. Remember that next time.
I honestly didn't think any more of it until I arrived at class and saw the towers burning on television. I don't think I'll ever forget where I was or what happened.
Ironically, I was set to give a speech that day about the USS Arizona and the attack on Pearl Harbor. I did so, mindful of the events which were unfolding.
You can't say that Center for Media and Democracy is an unbiased source.
look what Wikipedia states
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Media_and_Democracy[/url]
a 2 man operation ???
[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by E.T [/i]
[B]And next you're telling there's stockpile of ABC weapons in Iraq...
You shouldn't trust conservative fanatics whose scratchpads are inch wide.
Most of your "think" tanks are as badly biased ideologically/politically as Pravda. Remember that next time. [/B][/QUOTE]
My mind is still on an evil individual who could convince others to give their lives in doing this horrible attack...
The fact that he is still alive puts salt in the wound...
bulletin.
Longitude: 74 degrees, 0 minutes, 23 seconds West.
Latitude: 40 degrees, 42 minutes, 51 seconds North.
Follow the sound of sirens.
Some things are beyond words.
Beyond comprehension.
Beyond forgiveness.
The questions come:
How could you let this happen?
Why didn't you know this was coming?
How do you say we didn't know? We couldn't know.
We couldn't imagine.
Only madmen could contain the thought, execute the act, fly the planes.
Even those we thought our enemies are moved. Because some things surpass rivalries and borders.
Because the story of humanity is written not in towers but in tears.
In the common coin of blood and bone.
In the voice that speaks within even the worst of us, and says This is not right.
Also here are those who face fire without fear or armor.
Those who step into the darkness without assurances of ever walking out again, because they know there are others waiting in the dark.
Awaiting salvation.
Awaiting word.
Awaiting justice.
Ordinary men.
Ordinary women.
Made extraordinary by acts of compassion.
And courage.
And terrible sacrifice.
"We've voted, and we're going to try to take the plane.
It's the only way to stop them hitting Washington.
I love you."
Ordinary men.
Ordinary women.
Refusing to surrender.
Ordinary men.
Ordinary women.
Refusing to accept the self-serving proclamations of holy warriors of every stripe, who announce that somehow we had this coming.
-- ...probably what we deserve....
All of them who have tried to secularize America...the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians and the ACLU.... I point the finger in their face and I say, "You helped this happen."--
-- it is God's will that America should fall through their iniquity and their sin --
We reject them both in the knowledge that our tragedy is greater than the sum of our transgressions.
Bodies in freefall on the evening news.
Madness in mosques, shouting down fourteen centuries of earnest prayers,forgetting the lessons of crusades past:
That the most harmed are the least deserving.
There are no words.
There are no words.
The death of innocents and the death of innocence.
Rage compounded upon rage. Rage enough to blot out the sun.
And the air still filled with questions.
Is it going to happen again?
What do I tell my children?
Why did this happen?
What do we tell the children?
Do we tell them the evil is a foreign face?
No. The evil is the thought behind the face, and it can look just like yours.
Do we tell them evil is tangible, with defined borders and names and geometries and destinies?
No. They will have nightmares enough.
Perhaps we tell them that we are sorry.
Sorry that we were not able to deliver unto them the world we wished them to have.
That our eagerness to shout is not the equal of our willingness to listen.
That the burdens of distant people are the responsibility of all men and women of conscience, or their burdens will one day become our tragedy.
Or perhaps we simply tell them that we love them, and that we will protect them. That we would give our lives for theirs and do it gladly, so great is the burden of our love.
In a universe of Gameboys and VCRs, it is, perhaps, an insubstantial gift. But it is the only one that will wash away the tears and knit the wounds and make the world a sane place to live in.
We could not see it coming. No one could. We could not stop it. No one could.
But we are still here. With you.
Today. Tomorrow. And the day after.
We live in each blow you strike for infinite justice, but always in the hope of infinite wisdom.
Because we live as well in the quiet turning of your considered conscience.
The voice that says all wars have innocents.
The voice that says you are a kind and a merciful people.
The voice that says do not do as they do, or the war is lost before it is even begun.
Do not let that knowledge be washed away in blood.
When you move, we will move with you. Where you go, we will go with you.
Where you are, we are in you.
Because the future belongs to ordinary men and ordinary women, and that future must be built free of such acts as these, must be fought for and renewed like fresh water.
Because a message must be sent to those who mistake compassion for weakness. A message sent across six thousand years of recorded blood and struggle.
And the message is this:
Whatever our history, whatever the root of our surnames, we remain a good and decent people, and we do not bow down and we do not give up.
The fire of the human spirit cannot be quenched by bomb blasts or body counts.
Cannot be intimidated forever into silence or drowned by tears.
We have endured worse before; we will bear this burden and all that come after, because that's what ordinary men and women do. We persevere.
No matter what.
This has not weakened us.
It has only made us stronger.
In recent years we as a people have been tribalized and factionalized by a thousand casual unkindnesses.
But in this we are one.
Flags sprout in uncommon places, the ground made fertile by tears and shared resolve.
We have become one in our grief.
We are now one in our determination.
One as we recover.
One as we rebuild.
You wanted to send a message, and in so doing you awakened us from our self involvement.
Message received.
Look for your reply in the thunder.
In such days as these are heroes born. The true heroes of the twenty-first century.
You, the human being singular.
You, who are nobler than you know and stronger than you think.
You, the heroes of this moment chosen out of history.
We stand blinded by the light of your unbroken will. Before that light, no darkness can prevail.
They knocked down two tall towers. In their memory, draft a covenant with your conscience, that we will create a world in which such things need not occur.
A world which will not require apologies to children, but also a world whose roads are not paved with the husks of their inalienable rights.
They knocked down two tall towers. Graft now their echo onto your spine.
Become girders and glass, stone and steel, so that when the world sees you, it sees them.
And stand tall.
Stand tall.
Stand tall.
J. Michael Straczynski[/quote] [url=http://jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-16664] Source[/url]
I cut school that day actually and where I usually sleep when cutting school I would always get this dream about going upstairs from where I was sleeping looking out the front door and seeing the sun wither away & turn black. Oddly I did not have the dream that day. I don't remember feeling much when I turned on the T.V. Maybe it was shock? I did not lose anyone I knew...I did look it up on the internet a few days later and saw my name as one of the deceased. He was 39 and looked nothing like me but it sure made me paranoid for the next few days. It was an atrocity but something has to replace it or someone.