NationStates Jolt Archive

(Yes I am getting a head start on it, no not for any perverted reason, and if you don't like to talk about this or have an urge to post "Oh jeez, not this shit again." picture, then leave the thread and go to some porn website, Thank you.)

So, tomorrow is 9/11/07, six years after 9/11/01, a day for most people in America that will always be in their memory, burned permanently into their mind. Like Pearl Harbor, or Kenn State, or when Elvis died. It was the day when we witness the murder of 3,000 innocence civilian by extremist Muslim.

So where were you when you heard about the attack on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and the Flight 93? I remember it very well. I was a senior in High School and I think I was in a math class. When this girl who was sent to run an errand to the office ran back to the class telling us "We are at war!" The teacher turned on the TV set and we saw the aircraft hit the second tower. The whole school froze and every time we changed class, we just sat there watching the event unfold on TV. It was the only time the whole school has been quiet for more than five minutes.

Now share your story.

So, When exactly did Elvis die..?

Anyways, I was in my car driving 'n listening to some nice tunes when my gf called and painted my day black. My first feeling..? "oh, already!?!"

I was a senior and in class and the principal came over the intercom saying the twin towers were on fire. We turned on the T.V. and watched from there. It was a pretty fucked up day.

I was in my last year of high school, what they used to call grade 13 (OAC) before it went under the axe of the "Common Sense Revolution". I had just finished my 12A Visual Arts class and since I had no class between 9:50-1:30 I would go as I was usually close enough.

My dad picked me up since he was "working* *cough* from home that day. He had the radio on in the car and the radio jockeys were talking about how two planes had crashed into the WTC. Now, this being asinine talk radio, we thought it was a joke but they kept giving more and more details.

When we got home, going in the front door we heard the TV, which my dad had left on and it being CNN it was all "BREAKING NEWS" about how these two planes had crashed into the WTC along with the footage.

Strangely when I went back to school in the afternoon almost none of my peers knew what happened. Apparently there had been a black out on information and a student's radio had been confiscated in the school cafeteria.... We were given some really lame excuse about how the teachers wanted to tell the school after they thought of how to tell us... LAME!!

I was trying to fix my broke ass HMMWV in the motor pool in Germany. I ended up being put on Quick Reaction Force for a month and had to live in the break room of the MP station.

Now share your story.
I was sleeping. (it was what...2:30 am or some such) when my sister woke me by screaming that a plane flew into the World Trade Center. I believe my reply was "oh... that's nice"

Her reply was "another plane just flew into the WTC!"

I was awake after that.

Is this going to happen every year?

Is this going to happen every year?

The threads? Yes

Another attack? I hope not.

...yeesh

I remember, I was in school, the teacher told us a couple planes hit the twin towers. I'm thinking that's a really weird way to start the day, but okay, whatev. I did school stuff then...probably had some homework, can't really remember.

The threads? Yes

That doesn't seem feasible. I mean, with a thread commemorating every 3,000 deaths and the one year anniversaries of each....

my idiot step mother called and woke me up, I was pissed because it wasn't very long after I had gotten to sleep (had a new baby in the house) and she said "this plane or something flew into some building in like New York or something" and I was like "go to hell" and she was like "fuck you" and then my husband emailed me about it so I turned on the T.V. just in time to see the first tower fall.

The threads? Yes

Another attack? I hope not.

I was specifically referring to the "Where were you when you heard?" threads.

The threads? Yes


Jebus! I don't think I can invent a new one for the sixty years to come (next year it would have involved the London Eye and the Fantastic Four!).

I hope I die young!

Where were you when a gas pipe blew up in Belgium?

Where were you on Bloody Sunday?

Where were you when Peru got hit by an earthquake?

Where were you when... <insert other event where people died in horrific ways>

Honestly, no, I do not care to tell you where I was, because: I don't remember.

(Yes I am getting a head start on it, no not for any perverted reason, and if you don't like to talk about this or have an urge to post "Oh jeez, not this shit again." picture, then leave the thread and go to some porn website, Thank you.)

So, tomorrow is 9/11/07, six years after 9/11/01, a day for most people in America that will always be in their memory, burned permanently into their mind. Like Pearl Harbor, or Kenn State, or when Elvis died. It was the day when we witness the murder of 3,000 innocence civilian by extremist Muslim.

So where were you when you heard about the attack on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and the Flight 93? I remember it very well. I was a senior in High School and I think I was in a math class. When this girl who was sent to run an errand to the office ran back to the class telling us "We are at war!" The teacher turned on the TV set and we saw the aircraft hit the second tower. The whole school froze and every time we changed class, we just sat there watching the event unfold on TV. It was the only time the whole school has been quiet for more than five minutes.

Now share your story.

I had to go to the town where I was born in order to get my birth certificate (I needed it so I could start work at Mohegan Sun, a tribal casino here in CT). My roommate was with me, and the first clue we had that something was amiss was the local weigh station was open (it was the first time I'd ever seen it open). Also, as we were driving down I-95 South (towards New Haven, CT) we kept seeing the electronic billboards saying, "All bridges in NYC are closed".

We made a stop at my uncles house in the area, and when his wife answered the door, she was crying. That's when I found out about the WTC. I found out about the Pentagon and Flight 93 later.

I was in Geography class in Year 8 (7th Grade I believe). We were just doing our work when one of the PE teachers walked in and told the teacher who told us. One of the students thought it was a joke and got the coldest stare ever from the PE teacher. I got home after that lesson and kept the news on all day.

Where were you when a gas pipe blew up in Belgium?

Where were you on Bloody Sunday?

Where were you when Peru got hit by an earthquake?

Where were you when... <insert other event where people died in horrific ways>

Honestly, no, I do not care to tell you where I was, because: I don't remember.
Where were you when Chile was hit by its 9/11?

Where were you when Chile was hit by its 9/11?

Same answer: I don't remember.

I'll study these things, sure. I might keep them in mind and consider them horrible, yes, because they often are. Things we can learn from earthquakes, for example, are how to avoid that they happen again. Things we can learn from terrorist attacks is why they happen, what they might be able to do and how we can stop it (Although IMO, it's been taken too far when the means that have been implemented are shown to be effective... and then increased!).

However, to ask that I remember where I was in instances that do not affect me directly is to ask just a little too much. I'd remember if someone I knew had someone who they know die on the WTC. I'll honour their right to remember them year after year, because I know I would do the same for my loved ones.

But by the gods people, most of the US didn't know anyone that was on the WTC and everyone is acting overly emotional and not nearly rational enough. That will, naturally, merely lead to another of these events taking place with no one having learned anything from the first.

But by the gods people, most of the US didn't know anyone that was on the WTC and everyone is acting overly emotional and not nearly rational enough. That will, naturally, merely lead to another of these events taking place with no one having learned anything from the first.QFT

My brother, who lives in Pawcatuck, CT, called me up at about 5 or 6am, it happened at 8 or 9am EDT and I lived in Ellensburg, WA at the time, in the Pacific Time Zone. I remember thinking "this better be good." I was supposed to fly out to spend a week with him on Wednesday, September 12th. His call was to inform me that I wasn't coming. I had to clear the fuzz from my head before I asked him why. He just said "turn on the TV" and hung up. I'd never heard his voice so toneless before, and he'd seen some serious shit as an 82d Abn paratrooper in Gulf War One.

I turned on the TV just in time to see the second plane hit the South Tower. I had just finished reading a Chalmers Johnson article (which would become part of his excellent book, Blowback) which was about the chickens coming home to roost with regard to US foreign policy since Guatemala in 1952.

The very first thought that came into my head as I watched the smoke billow was of the 1993 bombing and a 60 Minutes report on Osama bin Laden. My then girlfriend woke came out and watched with me, and all I could say was: "we earned this -- our government's presumption has finally come back to bite us in the ass."

9/11 was a tragedy not because of the loss of buildings or lives or money, but because of the losses caused by our foolish response to it.

On 9/11 I'd gotten off work about an hour earlier, I was at my computer reading news and doing my normal post work wind-down routine prior to going to sleep when the first plane hit. I think I was up most of the day.

Where were you when Chile was hit by its 9/11?

Actually, for me it is far easier to remember where I was on September 11th 1973, than it is for me to remember where I was in 2001. And I remember exactly where I was in 2001. Oddly enough, I was with a Chilean.

My frst thought was that the pigeons had come home to roost. Having a Chilean beside me, and my own memories to deal with, I found myself in a quiet state of shock.

Horrid, horrid day.

Im going to stay home tomorrow, not in remembrance of 9-11, but those affect world wide with war after 9-11

I always thought the movie was a tad over dramatized myself:phttp://us.movies1.yimg.com/movies.yahoo.com/images/hv/photo/movie_pix/twentieth_century_fox/independence_day/id4newyork.jpg

being English and 11 nothing happened for me apart from the teacher talking to a receptionist outside for a moment though for some reason I do know that it was a science lesson and a sex education one at that

I was in fourth grade and class was just starting. I had been out sick the day before and I was getting my homework written down. Then around 8 or 9 the school went on lockdown-- it was apparently a drill. Oh well, 9 year old me doesn't realy care. We go to lunch, and nobody in my class knows what happened. It's pretty much an average school day.

But then I got home and the first thing my sister says is "some people flew planes into some buildings in New York and flew one into the Pentagon!" I was like :eek:.

I remember thinking "wow, everything's gonna change."

What about the thousands of civilians killed by extremist Muslims in Iraq, Sudan and Afghanistan? The thousands held hostage by tyrannical regimes in Burma, Iran and North Korea? Why don't we mark the death of at least 800,000 Rwanda tribes people?

Not to sound like a prick,

But 3,500 rich people killed in one day is lick spittle nothing. The only reason they are remembered is because the attack was so grandiose and fantastic. Because it was all caught on camera and because it happened to rich people. No one really gives a shit when they read the ticker on CNN telling you that 100 people died were found dead in Baghdad today. It's because you've never met anyone who was there. It's because you just don't care.

9/11 is only important to people in the West because it was Fa-bu-lous.

Being a Canadian citizen I can understand the sort of loss people are feeling. 14 Canadian citizens were killed that day. But at the same time, as a human being with a rational mindset, I can assess that the damage done to the Muslim world has now far outpaced the events that took place 6 years ago.

In short, I think marking the passing of 3,500 Westerns in the WTC attacks is selfish. I think the 11th should be a day to mark the beginning of a war that has cost the lives of tens of thousands on both sides. In neighbourhoods all over the world.

That's just my two cents.

Is this going to happen every year?

Unfortunately. And here, if you speak out against it, then for some reason you side with terrorists

Im going to stay home tomorrow, not in remembrance of 9-11, but those affect world wide with war after 9-11

I'm going to stay home tomorrow, not in remembrance of 9-11, but because I'm lazy. To be honest, I probably wouldn't have noticed the date, were it not for this thread, and I'll likely forget by tomorrow.

QFT

Oh yeah, and btw, I wasn't born back in 1973 :p So no, I do indeed not remember where I was back then.

I had just returned from school and decided to watch some tv to relax. Trying to find something interesting to see, I stumbled upon what I though was a documentary about the 1993 bombing of the WTC. Since it seemed interesting enough I decided to watch that, and I eventually realised that it wasn't a documentary. This also meant that I was the one that had to deliver the news to my family instead of being told about it. I guess I had the role of the idiot stepmother in Smunkeevilles story, though I didn't call people to tell them about it. I can certainly relate to the fuck you your step mother gave you, I so wanted to smack my dad when he just laughed it off when I first told him about it. Guess he didn't think I was serious.

my idiot step mother called and woke me up, I was pissed because it wasn't very long after I had gotten to sleep (had a new baby in the house) and she said "this plane or something flew into some building in like New York or something" and I was like "go to hell" and she was like "fuck you" and then my husband emailed me about it so I turned on the T.V. just in time to see the first tower fall.No offence, but I can see why you call her idiot step mother, 1,5 hours after the first plane and that's as precise as she can be? Unless there is a large gap between her call and the email, then it might make sense. From your description it just seems like she didn't actually know about the WTC before 9/11.

The only reason I think I actually remember where I was was because my birthday is september 12th. I considered the possibility of mr. Bush starting a nuclear war over it, just in time to ruin my birthday. I was a real pessimist at the time, and egoistic too. Now I'm a bit more optimistic, and even more egoistic.

Oh yeah, and btw, I wasn't born back in 1973 :p So no, I do indeed not remember where I was back then.I was 4 and a half, SO i DO REMEMBER!

...daycare..?

sorry to break it to you Auman, you do sound like a prick. I bet we'll have atleast 5 more posts just like it before midnight. Why should we care? because like it or not, it affects everyone, not just americans.

On a bus when someone commented on the news reports. We'd also had a bomb scare at school that day so it was no big deal. That and bomb scares generally don't live up to their names

No offence, but I can see why you call her idiot step mother, 1,5 hours after the first plane and that's as precise as she can be? Unless there is a large gap between her call and the email, then it might make sense. From your description it just seems like she didn't actually know about the WTC before 9/11.
she thinks that NYC is the capitol of NY and that Washington D.C. is the capitol of Washington. She also thinks Minneapolis is a state. I loathe her. Luckily since my dad died I don't have to talk to her anymore.

My husband actually emailed me before she called, but he knew that I was probably asleep and that there wasn't going to be any reason to wake me, so he was just giving me a heads up and letting me know that he was at work but he would come home if I needed him. She called at about 6am my time, and was pissed that I didn't answer the phone the first 4 times she called and let it ring and then hung up, apparently she didn't want to pay the long distance charge.

sorry to break it to you Auman, you do sound like a prick. I bet we'll have atleast 5 more posts just like it before midnight. Why should we care? because like it or not, it affects everyone, not just americans.

And yet it doesn't conjure up much emotion from me

sorry to break it to you Auman, you do sound like a prick. I bet we'll have atleast 5 more posts just like it before midnight. Why should we care? because like it or not, it affects everyone, not just americans.

No it doesn't and it didn't back then. It affected some americans and some people from all over the world. Those people and their relatives are the people who should be caring and be emotional, remembering where they were.

We, the people who have very little at all to do with WTC or anyone that was on it that fateful day, should rather learn that these things happen and what to expect next time. Much like earthquakes, where you learn where to stand, how to build your houses and what to do with survivors.

5th grade, I felt kind of sick the night before, so I decided to stay home the next day.

I woke up and put Evolution into my Dreamcast and turned on the TV to toggle with the TV/video button...

I clearly remember, "We think the towers are going to collapse." Then it happened and the smoke went everywhere.

I, like Smunkee's idiot step-mom, had to tell my parents what happened.

I was in Manhattan. It was a bad day.

I was in 6th grade. They didn't tell us shit. It was like the third day of school. The one teacher left because of 'family problems' (never explained) and the rest were on edge the rest of the day. I didn't find out until I got home. And I was sore because not a single TV channel was showing anything.

We found out later my older cousin (who is married and was working at Goldman Sachs [a neighboring building] at the time) was okay. Her harrowing story was amazing. She made it out of the area and on to a ferry. On her way, she was hit with a boarding pass from one of the flights. On the ferry, it almost capsized as so many people went to one side to watch the second tower fall (I think).

Interesting day.

EDIT: Forgot my dad drove a rental car from Maine to get home safely. Interesting fight with the rental car people. :D

I was in fifth grade, and we were doing math when the teacher was called out into the hall. In retrospect, she was out there for quite a while and I'm surprised that everyone just kept working quietly. Then when she came back in, she asked us to come sit in a circle on the floor, and told us that planes had just crashed into the World Trade Center. I immediately assumed that it was an accidental crash, because I don't think any of us kids really registered the existence of terrorists in the front of our minds at the time. They kept us inside all day with the building locked, but that was actually for a different reason: a bomb threat or something at the high school, which meant code yellow for all the other schools. When I got home, I found that my mom had bought an American flag for our house, which I remember freaking me out because it looked like a person moving when I saw it walking back from the bus stop.

Obviously, I found out that the whole thing had been no accident. And then Bin Laden and the Anthrax scare were etched into the national consciousness, but that's another story...

I was sitting in my 8th grade science class when we were told that something had happened. We later learned from a girl who had heard from her mom that the Twin Towers were hit by two planes.

Wow, it wasn't well publicized in schools?

I was in school and we watched it, then went to music and listened to it on the radio, then went back and watched it..

I remember begging the TV to show something that wasn't news. It got seriously annoying after the first 3 days.

Wow, it wasn't well publicized in schools?

I was in school and we watched it, then went to music and listened to it on the radio, then went back and watched it..

I remember begging the TV to show something that wasn't news. It got seriously annoying after the first 3 days.

I watched it over and over and over on the day it happened. And never since. I always avert my eyes or leave the room if I see it. :/

3,500 rich people killed in one day is lick spittle nothing.

Yeah, you gotta love those millionaire janitors, the school kids that were there, secretaries... because they were all so rich. The people in the commuter trains below the towers: rich. Not to mention the rich airline pilots, rich stewards and stewardesses, and rich passengers in coach who flew into the side of the building.

Disgusting. Because of course they're not people at all -- they were RICH.
(And they weren't.)

Yeah, you gotta love those millionaire janitors, the school kids that were there, secretaries... because they were all so rich. The people in the commuter trains below the towers: rich. Not to mention the rich airline pilots, rich stewards and stewardesses, and rich passengers in coach who flew into the side of the building.

Disgusting. Because of course they're not people at all -- they were RICH.
(And they weren't.)

I agree that their deaths shouldn't be treated with disdain but just thought i'd add that they weren't rich in relation to the average american but they could be considered rich in comparison with many poorer countries

I was in 7th grade art class...The teachers had all been talking to eachother, then my art teacher told us that the WTC was attacked...and my first thought was "What's the WTC?"

I agree that their deaths shouldn't be treated with disdain but just thought i'd add that they weren't rich in relation to the average american but they could be considered rich in comparison with many poorer countries

So that makes them less human, I see. I dunno, I think it's as tragic they died as the folks in the Sudan who are getting raped and murdered without anyone outside of Africa giving much of a shit 'cos they're just brown people.

So that makes them less human, I see. I dunno, I think it's as tragic they died as the folks in the Sudan who are getting raped and murdered without anyone outside of Africa giving much of a shit 'cos they're just brown people.

Did you read the beginning of my post?

I never said they were any less human.

I remember where I was but I don't care.

What matters about September 11, 2007 is that it's one of my friends' birthdays and I'm going to miss the party because I'm living in a different city.

I was in school chatting with someone who had snuck in a pocket radio... When it came over the radio he told the whole class, teacher included.

Then we spent worry time guessing on where the fourth one would hit. (We didn't know about 93 crashing.)
I had a bet on a nuclear power plant. I'm glad I was wrong.

I was in 6th grade. They didn't tell us shit. It was like the third day of school. The one teacher left because of 'family problems' (never explained) and the rest were on edge the rest of the day. I didn't find out until I got home. And I was sore because not a single TV channel was showing anything. Similar here, they clamped down on it soon afterwards, yet you can't stop the gossip line. Everyone knew by the middle of the day.

We found out later my older cousin (who is married and was working at Goldman Sachs [a neighboring building] at the time) was okay. Her harrowing story was amazing. She made it out of the area and on to a ferry. On her way, she was hit with a boarding pass from one of the flights. That would give me nightmares. Especially if you could tell it was a boarding pass.

On the ferry, it almost capsized as so many people went to one side to watch the second tower fall (I think). Rubber necking is something that humans will never stop I guess.

Getting ready for school, I think. The first plane had just crashed when I woke up, and we were watching it on the news. It almost made me late. Of course, how was I to know that the same footage and identical copies of the news report would be dominating the television for the next two weeks?

The school day was relatively normal, I think. We did some current events / cultural damage control in English though.. that might have been a few days later, I can't really remember.

Well, I was in 6th grade and they basically covered it all up because we were young and might panic. Near the end of the day, an announcement was made about a "telecommunications and traffic disruption in NYC" (paraphrased) that might cause parents to come home late, not at all, or be unable to communicate. My class was actually outside doing a science lab and we were informed during Social Studies the next and final period. As I was getting off the bus and walking to my house, my mom said that the twin towers were hit by airplanes and destroyed. I stared at the TV for quite awhile. I didn't get really emotional, being too young and all. But it did change my life a lot. Soon after, I stopped believing in God.

8th grade. They made an announcement over the intercom, but we didn't even get a chance to watch it until I got home and saw it on TV...

School.I remember I felt the vibrations and heard the bang a little.School was maybe 8-8.5 miles from the WTC.The older grades were on the top floor and had a magnificent view of the Manhatten skyline.Two teachers sawa the Twin Towers on fire. I also remember it was a buitiful day,probably perfect, but instead of going out for recess we sat in the gym as if it were raining and we didn't know why.Some kids left early.After school most of the kids in the afterschool program got picked up by there parents.Then I heard about the WTC.Finally when I got home I saw it on TV.

I was in school, we watched tv for a while, talked about it, blah blah blah.

No one cried, which I thought was odd, because I was in 5th or 6th grade and we were notoriously thin skinned.

then leave the thread and go to some porn website, Thank you.)


Can do!:D

Just trying to lift the mood, don't let the Shit hit the fan....

I was sitting in my livingroom preparing for a LARP, as I watched the news on television. My first thought was something along the lines of "Fuck, it's WW3, I knew USA would get us into shit."

Then I thought it was sad. But in that distant way I feel sad about any catastrophe that's happening thousands of miles away from me. I was mainly angry and frightened that the USA and whatever nation that had gotten angry with the USA would get us all into a huge war. Since whatever happens over there affects the rest of the world in a big way...

she thinks that NYC is the capitol of NY and that Washington D.C. is the capitol of Washington. She also thinks Minneapolis is a state. I loathe her. Luckily since my dad died I don't have to talk to her anymore.

My husband actually emailed me before she called, but he knew that I was probably asleep and that there wasn't going to be any reason to wake me, so he was just giving me a heads up and letting me know that he was at work but he would come home if I needed him. She called at about 6am my time, and was pissed that I didn't answer the phone the first 4 times she called and let it ring and then hung up, apparently she didn't want to pay the long distance charge.
Wow....that was 6 years ago and she is still living in your mind.....rent free!!

“Bitterness and an unforgiving spirit can be likened to you taking poison and expecting that someone else would die from the effect. Forgiveness is about setting the prisoner in your heart free only to discover that all along, you had been the real prisoner.” - ‘Tope Popoola, Clergy and Author

Is this going to happen every year?

We still do Pearl Harbor threads. So... no. :)

It's been 6 years. Time to get over it.

It's been 6 years. Time to get over it.

It's not going to happen. Not because it was any more or less tragic than any of millions of other needless deaths that have occurred in the last few decades. Because of the sudden shock of it. People still remember where they were when Space SHuttle Challenger exploded. If they are old enough, they remember where they were when JFK was assassinated(my mother does). If they are very old, people even remember where they were when Pearl Harbor got bombed. I'm sure it's the same in other countries. I'm sure Spain understands. Or Lockerbie, Scotland.

It's a historical trauma. *nod*

lol, 9/11

queers

It's been 6 years. Time to get over it.

It's not that simple.

Unfortunately for your claim, that's not possible. Because of the shocking nature of the event, the American people will not "get over it" for quite some time. Superficially, there was the shock of the visual images, the destruction of important national icons and the economic impact that resulted from the attacks. Psychologically, many preconceptions regarding the strength of the government and the security of key pillars of American society were shattered. Such an event cannot but burn itself into the consciousnesses of the targeted group, and will not be forgotten by anyone capable of understanding what happened.

We have not, and will not get over it. Show some subtlety.

I remember exactly where I was. I was running a hotel at the time and was in the lounge talking to some guests when the BBC interrupted their broadcast to begin live coverage after the first plane had hit. Everything ground to a halt and around 40 of us simply sat, quietly, and watched as the events unfolded. My feelings now are the same as they were then - profound sympathy for those involved/affected and utter disgust at the targeting of civilians in a terrorist attack.

Comparisons with the death tolls accrued by natural disasters are unfair. This was no natural catastrophe, but rather a deliberate attack by one set of idealogues on what they probably considered to be a representative sample of those they perceive as their enemies. It was designed to provoke a response, and it has.

Those people who have stated in this thread that the events of that day have not affected them are wrong. The consequences - be they the ramping up of security to newly paranoid heights left, right and centre throughout the Western world, the polarisation of the world's populace as a result of the U.S. response, the widespread demonisation of certain religious beliefs, or any of countless shifts in political thought- affect every facet of our lives.

The world changed that day, and not for the better.

I was out taking care of the cows. When I came in my wife had turned on the TV and told me a plane had hit one of the towers. Just then the other plane hit. The first words out of my mouth, "This is war!"

Of course I expected a real war against those that attacked us. I never dreamed we would use it as an excuse to fight a war for the fun of it.

My daughter had just arrived in Israel for a vacation. Thank God for e-mail.

I also remember how blue the sky became after all the planes landed. I couldn't remember such a beautiful sky. The stars at night were diamonds in the sky. And the quiet. Like all machinery stopped. Only the sound of nature.

Wonderfully spooky.

I remember as we got asked to be an interim traffic redirector (bridge) for the footage going to a bunch of raw video strems going around the country (my boss had been some sort of head honcho at an upstate college which got asked to act as a broadcast station and he got us in on the loop)

Got to see some crazy un edited stuff that never made it to primetime air

lol, 9/11

queers

LOL, warned for trolling.

It's not that simple.

Unfortunately for your claim, that's not possible. Because of the shocking nature of the event, the American people will not "get over it" for quite some time. Superficially, there was the shock of the visual images, the destruction of important national icons and the economic impact that resulted from the attacks. Psychologically, many preconceptions regarding the strength of the government and the security of key pillars of American society were shattered. Such an event cannot but burn itself into the consciousnesses of the targeted group, and will not be forgotten by anyone capable of understanding what happened.

We have not, and will not get over it. Show some subtlety.

Boo hoo.

6 years.

Boo hoo.

6 years.

And HOW long were the Catholics and Protestants murdering each other?

Boo hoo.

6 years.

Boo hoo.
Not everyone thinks like you.

See, I made it rhyme.

I got out of bed just in time to see the second plane crashed into the WTC.

The day that America was sent down a course of disgraceful nonsense and disaster.

At any rate, it is already 9/11 Day here where I live, has been for nine hours.

Grass still green, sky still blue, &c, &c.

And HOW long were the Catholics and Protestants murdering each other?

Several hundred years. It ended a few years back. People are over it now.

Not that it's of any relevance.

Several hundred years. It ended a few years back. People are over it now.

Not that it's of any relevance.

Sure it is.
Took them several HUNDRED years to "get over it."

I was a senior in high school, we were taking a test in Biology class when the principal came over the intercom and told us that the WTC had been hit and that the Pentagon was also on fire. Only thing I could think was that someone was going to get their ass kicked for doing such a thing. Of course I never expected we would end up in Iraq... damn it all.

Smoking a cigg on w. 10th.
It's been 6 years
Get over it.

Sure it is.
Took them several HUNDRED years to "get over it."

Yeah, and I sure wish it had taken just a few longer. My, how I miss those bombs.

Oh, and not that I agree that its a valid comparison, or of any relevance. At all. In fact, even in bizarro world where it might be relevant, you're taking it completely arse-about-face, but that's your call.

Ironically, the original post reflects what I remember most about the days after 11/09: the expectation of conformity backed up with a huge heaping spoonful of coercion. I remember that a couple congress-critters were shouted down for daring to criticize Bush ever so timidly a few days after 11/09. I remember observant Muslim friends of mine who feared to go out covered. I remember that a family friend of my friend's was raped for wearing the hijab. I remember that another friend who was Latino, not even an Arab, getting chased down the interstate by a couple yahoos in an SUV for driving while brown.

It was an evil time and the sooner we let it pass into memory the better it will be.

Of course, that's never going to happen. In fact, I'm pretty certain that 11/09 is going to become a new national holiday. Not this year, perhaps, or even the next, but definitely within the next twenty and probably within the next five to ten.

Of course, that's never going to happen. In fact, I'm pretty certain that 11/09is going to become a new national holiday. Not this year, perhaps, or even the next, but definitely within the next twenty and probably within the next five to ten.

It is a national holiday.

It had already happened by the time we were at school. We where grade 8, and while high school was much better elementary, we still did not want to go. We all spent the whole time talking about how awesome it would have been if one of the planes hit the school, so we would get a week off.

It's been 6 years. Time to get over it.

I've never liked the phrase "get over it". It sounds like after a while, you should realize your dead wife wasn't that big a loss, or that you no longer need her. It's not true, I doubt anyone ever "gets over it". Similarly, the US and world will probably never "get over" 9/11 any more than people have gotten over the Holocaust. Eventually, there will be no more people who were alive when it happened, and then it will simply be a time for respect, not sincere sadness, but for people who saw the tower collapse, it is thoughtless to tell them to "get over it."

However, there does come a time when active mourning should give way to continuing to live our lives fairly normally. Starting a thread seems to be a harmless enough way to remember 9/11, as long as the OP is continuing to function in real life.

It is a national holiday.\

It's not a legally recognized federal holiday (http://www.opm.gov/fedhol/2007.asp). You may consider it a holiday, but Congress hasn't authorized it yet. I'm sure the day is coming, though. Someone looking for a bump in the polls will introduce the legislation and nobody will dare vote against it.

It'll need to be reconciled with Labor Day, but I'm sure the unions will agree to have their day scrubbed away so as not to appear appear "unpatriotic", in the same way that we've all been taught to ignore that the international labor day is May Day, to celebrate the Haymarket Martyrs. They were anarchists--definitely an unpatriotic thing to be.

Once that little hurdle is cleared, then the stage will be set for Patriot's Day!

And there will be much rejoicing. Yay.

We found out later my older cousin (who is married and was working at Goldman Sachs [a neighboring building] at the time) was okay. Her harrowing story was amazing. She made it out of the area and on to a ferry. On her way, she was hit with a boarding pass from one of the flights. On the ferry, it almost capsized as so many people went to one side to watch the second tower fall (I think).

A boarding pass? I'm guessing that is made out of paper or cardboard type material? If so just more evidence to debunk conspiracy theorists who don't believe passports could have survived the attacks.

lol, 9/11

queers

Yeah. American-style dates are silly. 11/09 FTW.

Furthermore, we're not asking you all to interrupt your lives and get out the condolences to send to us. In fact, you're the ones who interjected yourselves into this thread about our experiences, you're the one's who went out of your way to bring this into your lives. Does it really matter to you all what some of us should choose to think about one day a year?

Several hundred years. It ended a few years back. People are over it now.

Not that it's of any relevance.

well, how many people bring up the Crusades or Spanish Inquisition? and how long were those over? seems people still can't get over those. :p :D

well, how many people bring up the Crusades or Spanish Inquisition? and how long were those over? seems people still can't get over those. :p :D

Perhaps people should get over them, too ;)

I was in Manhattan. It was a bad day.

I didn't quite get to Manhattan. I was getting ready to walk out of my apartment in Jersey City to take the PATH train to the WTC. I had a doctor's appointment in WTC 3, and then I was going to go to work 3 blocks away.

Then the first one hit and I got to watch everything from my balcony. I had a telescope in my living room. I could see the jumpers.

My wife had left for work a little bit earlier than me that morning and passed through the WTC maybe 10 minutes before the first one hit. I was frantic- I wasn't able to get through to her office for a while, with the phones all tied up.

I still remember the smell from the fire. It would get in my clothes every day for months.

I remember the missing person posters all over Manhattan-relatives hoping against hope that maybe their loved ones would turn up. My wife called them "missing cat posters from hell."

I remember getting a call that night from a high school friend who was doing his medical residency in McGill in Montreal. As part of the emergency reaction plan, all of the residents had been called in to the hospital, in anticipation of receiving wounded from the WTC. I told him they might as well all go home- there would be no one for them to care for that night.

I remember jaded, liberal New Yorkers cheering when F-15s flew overhead. Too late, too late.

I remember realizing who our friends were in the world when I saw Israeli search-and-rescue teams feeding their dogs at a Humane Society tent set up a couple of blocks from my office.

I remember ceasing to ever again care about what happened to the Palestinians, when I saw them cheering in the streets after the attack.

I remember seeing Wall Street "masters of the universe" break out in uncontrollable cheers when a group of firefighters walked down Wall Street, on their way to get some rest after searching for survivors who weren't there.

I remember a lot of things about that day, and the weeks that followed.

I heard about it, as I was either 12 or 13 at the time and the first thing out of my mouth was "What else is new?"


I still hold that position now. I really that much about it. People die every day in many countries, and incidents like this just point out how rapid events make the every day seem extraordinary. A larger number of people died in a bigger way... and all I can say in response is, "And?"

I was at home watching news when I saw a video on the news of the planes crashing into the towers, I was actaully shocked for a long moment

*snip*

It's crazy the things I forgot... I was 11, and it was my first year of taking the subway to school by myself, and I went through Union Square every day, and the posters really got to me... And the smell... I still can smell it sometimes when I'm remembering it, like now, and I feel like gagging. Oh man. The smell seems so real right now.

I've never liked the phrase "get over it". It sounds like after a while, you should realize your dead wife wasn't that big a loss, or that you no longer need her. It's not true, I doubt anyone ever "gets over it". Similarly, the US and world will probably never "get over" 9/11 any more than people have gotten over the Holocaust. Eventually, there will be no more people who were alive when it happened, and then it will simply be a time for respect, not sincere sadness, but for people who saw the tower collapse, it is thoughtless to tell them to "get over it."

However, there does come a time when active mourning should give way to continuing to live our lives fairly normally. Starting a thread seems to be a harmless enough way to remember 9/11, as long as the OP is continuing to function in real life.

Holocaust was far far worse, by about of a magnitude of a few thousand.

The reason people are telling you to get over it is that there are maybe 100.000 people directly affected by those events, plus the people in New York who happened to see it, because they knew someone or knew someone who knew someone. Those 100.000 (and NYC) should be given the honour to remember in peace, rather than have 290+ million people pretend they knew anyone on the WTC that day.

I know it's unfair, but when so many people take advantage of such a day to grieve for something that didn't even affect them directly, but deny grieving for everything else that affected them just as much, those people who do have a reason to remember and grieve are going to get caught in the crossfire.

Well America likes to play the victim, but in reality 9/11 was a long time coming.

Well America likes to play the victim, but in reality 9/11 was a long time coming.

Still doesn't justify 9/11.

And whats with all the bitching in this thread? If you don't want to mourn 9/11, you don't have to. Just shut up and let other people talk about it. Seriously, if you can't be bothered with it, then don't be bothered. Don't post anything. Don't let your anti-American feelings get the best of you.

The fact that the event itself was taken as an excuse to bring so many excessive changes to American (and to a slightly lesser degree, global) society doesn't change the circumstances of the event itself. I don't revere the date any more than any other, nor do I agree with what has been done in its name, but seriously, let the people who DO want to remember have their one day a year.

Three thousand plus innocent civilians died in a hostile attack. Rich, poor, who gives a shit? People could argue, perhaps rightly, that it wasn't an unprovoked attack, on a national basis, but how many of those three thousand do you think had an active role in whatever particular aspect of American hegemony that is being called the "justification" for the hijackings? Nobody who knows me could call me a fan of U.S. foreign (or, as an aside, domestic) policy, but I know the meaning of the word "bystander". Maybe America had it coming. None of those people did.

Yeah, people die every day, all over the world, singly and in numbers, quietly and horrifically. Does that make the death of one person, let alone thousands, less terrible?

Well. At any rate. I'd have been fourteen then, almost fifteen. First heard about it at the busstop on the way to school in the morning (in BC, Canada, Pacific time). "The World Trade Center's been bombed!" All the TVs at school were tuned to CNN, naturally (they were in every classroom, normally being used for school messages). I remember seeing somebody jump from near the top of one of the buildings, arms flailing, and I tried unsuccessfully to imagine what that would be like. It was another five years before I saw that particular piece of footage again, in some documentary I think. I suppose my Socials teacher changed the curriculum for the Current Events segment that day on a moment's notice, because we took notes on Hamas and Al Qaeda and the PLO.

Come to think of it, I recall correcting him on the definition of "Jihad": he said it was a literal definition of "holy war", whereas I had caught a panel discussion on CNN earlier in the day with a Muslim scholar of some sort, who elucidated the meaning as something along the lines of "life purpose". He saw it my way a few days later, I guess after looking it up. ;)

Kind of speaks to the misunderstanding of Islam in the western world, I think.

I also remember in the weeks to come wondering what the "Muslim" guy I would sometimes see driving a tractor for one of the local orchards in my town might have been going through. I now realize he was actually Sikh, but I think that speaks to something as well.

Rich people, poor people, white people, black people, American people, Canadian people, Iraqi people, people who knew someone who died on September 11th, people who don't. They're all people still. The world would be a much better place if we just remembered that.

I think that's the end of my "why can't we all just get along" spiel.

Gentlemen, the terrorists already have plans to strike the US again, soon. These plots include hijacking a school bus in Florida and killing the children on it, detonating car bombs throughout southern California, and an attempt to kill the President of the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of the UK.

The US and the UK governments are aware of the plots and are doing everything they can to foil them. The FBI, CIA, and Secret Service are coordinating with their counterparts in the UK and other nations to find and apprehend the people behind the plots.
Several of the plotters have been taken into custody and are currently at Guantanamo being questioned.

Your governments are working overtime to protect you from future attacks.

Well America likes to play the victim, but in reality 9/11 was a long time coming.

Sir, you are sick. Get help.

I was working my boring ass job as a tie-salesman in a tie-store at a local outlet center.(Thank god I quit a month later) Since no costumers were in the shop, I was reading and listening to radio. I heard the news and then my friend who lives in the states called me and yelled. I'd already heard the news. Crazy day, it was. Didn't affect me much though.

What about the thousands of civilians killed by extremist Muslims in Iraq, Sudan and Afghanistan? The thousands held hostage by tyrannical regimes in Burma, Iran and North Korea? Why don't we mark the death of at least 800,000 Rwanda tribes people?

Not to sound like a prick,

But 3,500 rich people killed in one day is lick spittle nothing. The only reason they are remembered is because the attack was so grandiose and fantastic. Because it was all caught on camera and because it happened to rich people. No one really gives a shit when they read the ticker on CNN telling you that 100 people died were found dead in Baghdad today. It's because you've never met anyone who was there. It's because you just don't care.

9/11 is only important to people in the West because it was Fa-bu-lous.

Being a Canadian citizen I can understand the sort of loss people are feeling. 14 Canadian citizens were killed that day. But at the same time, as a human being with a rational mindset, I can assess that the damage done to the Muslim world has now far outpaced the events that took place 6 years ago.

In short, I think marking the passing of 3,500 Westerns in the WTC attacks is selfish. I think the 11th should be a day to mark the beginning of a war that has cost the lives of tens of thousands on both sides. In neighbourhoods all over the world.

That's just my two cents.

A war that Al Qaeda started. The problem with it started when people kept thinking that Al Qaeda and Islam were the same thing and demanding we attack our own allies. Foolish. Wars are only won when you keep your eye on the real threats.

I completely forgot today was the 11th.

Awww, now I want to stay on NSG all day and watch the arguing.

Sir, you are sick. Get help.

Dunno about that.

Anyway, I think I was in my lounge or something before school. Meh, wasn't that much of a deal to me then and sure isn't now.

I was on a boat, on a lake, in a foreign country.

I received an SMS from a friend, who was in another country himself - after that, SMS's poured in.

I was in front of a TV watching CNN within 20 minutes.

My thoughts on it were that we've become such a connected world - there I was in a developing country and watching events occurring in America within 20 minutes.

That connectedness meant nearly the entire world knew about it within 12 hours - extraordinary - getting up-to-the-minute details on the Internet with video, diagrams and well as a multitude of perspectives in written word along with gripping and shocking images, the speed at which those planes flew into the WTC and the resulting confusion and eventual collapse.

That same connectedness caused and allowed the event to happen itself, the decisions America makes does affect the world and, for that reason alone, notwithstanding the 3, 500 and thousands of consequent deaths, it was a major event unlike any other.

People can say that it stands low on a scale of crimes against humanity but you can't deny it had a tremendous impact on the world, possibly the greatest since the moon landings.

It will be remembered for a long time.

People can say that it stands low on a scale of crimes against humanity but you can't deny it had a tremendous impact on the world, possibly the greatest since the moon landings.

It will be remembered for a long time.

I dunno, I'd say the fall of the Wall and maybe Vietnam were more significant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE9TLgCVLBM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZV2L0EM08I

speaks for itself. no?

I dunno, I'd say the fall of the Wall and maybe Vietnam were more significant.

Good point - I was around for the wall but not Vietnam, nor the Moon Landings - I just get the sense that the same sense of awe that such a thing could happen, as well as it coinciding with the advent of TV, made it extremely impactful as a singular event - 'one small step for man' still resonates today, so it seemed to strike the same vein.

Being a New Zealander, everything happened on the 12th of September, our time. Well, I suppose I will begin with the evening of 11th September. That night, on TV3 was a travel show and they had made their way through New York on that episode (the travel show showed one person living the rich life, and the other one as a backpacker).

The next morning, I woke up at 6:13am, and heard on the radio that the World Trade Center was gone, the Pentagon had been hit and America was in crisis. I went to school quite early, and we all discussed what had happened. At the time, I thought it might have been related to the US walkout on a conference that had heavily criticised Israel the week earlier. Later that day, I had production rehearsal, and I missed all the special lessons and the TV watching that happened everywhere else.

I still remember discussing that day about what it would be like in sixty years time when they made the 9/11 movie - indeed, it is a pity that Pearl Harbor did not come out post 9/11; it would have probably been a box office hit in that environment.

...indeed, it is a pity that Pearl Harbor did not come out post 9/11; it would have probably been a box office hit in that environment.

Jesus Christ man! Get a grip on yourself and think what you're saying.

That film was a tragedy all in itself, it's no pity whatsoever!

It's not going to happen. Not because it was any more or less tragic than any of millions of other needless deaths that have occurred in the last few decades. Because of the sudden shock of it. People still remember where they were when Space SHuttle Challenger exploded. If they are old enough, they remember where they were when JFK was assassinated(my mother does). If they are very old, people even remember where they were when Pearl Harbor got bombed. I'm sure it's the same in other countries. I'm sure Spain understands. Or Lockerbie, Scotland.

It's a historical trauma. *nod*

Selective memory methinks. Remember those threads back a while with polls showing how a big chunk of America couldn't place nations on the map or for that fact, thought Iraq was responsible for the crashes.

If you whisper it enough times in their ears, I bet you could convince the same chunk that rabid ninja weasels and their Chtulu overlords from the land of Bonga Bonga were responsible for the crashes.

I remember ceasing to ever again care about what happened to the Palestinians, when I saw them cheering in the streets after the attack.

If I might hazard a guess, I doubt very seriously you cared much beforehand either. Otherwise, you might have understood a reaction of elation when someone strikes back at a country which has strangled all one's aspirations to nationalism and bankrolls a significant slice of the military budget of one's oppressors.

However, this point is moot since the evidence that came weeks later is that the American media had staged many of these events. An elderly woman notorious for dancing at the news of the towers' collapse was found by Der Spiegel and interviewed, and she said that she had no idea what was going on, but had been offered free baklava to dance for the camera. She hadn't even heard about the WTC attacks until later. That the American media is institutionally racist should come as no surprise to anyone who's read Edward Said's Covering Islam or, in the field of film, Jack Shaheen's Reel Bad Arabs.

The interesting thing about the woman was that she was in Ramallah, Nablus, Gaza, Jenin, Rafah and on and on, and eventually she became the whole of Palestine. That was my first indication that someone was telling lies. The same thing goes for the rest of the depictions of Arabs celebrating; the attributions bounced around from one major city to the next like some geographical pachinko game. And yet there wasn't a single example offered which wasn't completely decontextualized. Nobody that I remember referred to bin Laden, New York, the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, etc. I'd know if they did, because I speak Arabic. It was just random cheering which could have been pulled from stock footage anywhere.

September 11, 2001 was a beautiful day. Drove in to work, windows and sunroof open, enjoying the fresh air. Had a couple of meetings that morning, then I had to go for a travel briefing. Was sitting in the first meeting when someone came in to tell us that a plane had hit the WTC. We all thought that it was an accident. A few minutes later the same person came in and told us that the other tower had been hit. We immediately all scattered to our desks to see what was going on. Just as I got back to my desk I felt the building shudder and heard a loud "thud". Someone came into the office and shouted that the Pentagon had been hit (at the time I worked just across 395). We all run to the windows - the fire cloud was still rising. Boss came through, told us all to go home immediately. Grabbed a few coworkers and started to head out. Gave up after going about a mile on Route 1 in an hour and walked to my apartment. Watched the tv the rest of the day.

That night I rode my bike over to the Navy Annex and just sat on the hill watching the work. I knew it was going to be bad - that people were going to be motivated to do things that they would normally be opposed to. That we'd be going into a war that would be difficult to win, even with perfect planning (my thought was that you can't wage a war against an idea). I knew that people would use this to target Muslims. I knew it was going to be bad.

I later found out that I knew two people that died in the Pentagon.

Where was I? I was just getting out of school, a psychology class to be exact. It had been a long day and I was really looking forward to a relaxing afternoon. People were talking in the corridors, whispers. I could barely make them out, but ripples were starting to spread. The voices became more frantic. As I reached my lockers, a couple of guys I knew accosted me with the story. I thought they were joking.

It was only after I got into my mum's car and turned on the radio, just on a whim, that I finally heard the truth: Steve Irwin was dead.

-Allaina

And whats with all the bitching in this thread? If you don't want to mourn 9/11, you don't have to. Just shut up and let other people talk about it. Seriously, if you can't be bothered with it, then don't be bothered. Don't post anything. Don't let your anti-American feelings get the best of you.

Actually, it's more out of respect that I try to get people to realize that until they realize what a small event it truly was for the vast majority of people, the longer it will be a major event, loaded with emotion.

And until you can pass that threshold, there will be nothing for you to learn from it.

I accept and acknowledge that there are people who do have a reason to grieve and mourn for the losses they did indeed suffer, but the vast majority of the people who claim to have been affected by it, have been affected by it, because they claim that is what it has done.

Actually, it's more out of respect that I try to get people to realize that until they realize what a small event it truly was for the vast majority of people, the longer it will be a major event, loaded with emotion.

And until you can pass that threshold, there will be nothing for you to learn from it.

I accept and acknowledge that there are people who do have a reason to grieve and mourn for the losses they did indeed suffer, but the vast majority of the people who claim to have been affected by it, have been affected by it, because they claim that is what it has done.

Time will heal all wounds, as long as you stop picking the scab off on a regular basis.

How many people remember where they were the day of the Union Carbide Bhopal gas leak? Or remember, or even know of, the incident at all?
It killed as many people instantly as 9/11 (or 11/9, as the rest of the western world call it) and ultimately killed tens of thousands.
Which (if you count Iraqi and Afghan deaths as well as American) actually makes it pale in comparison with Teh September Eleven...

... I stand corrected. Clearly it is worth remembering after all. As the day America took the leashes off, and shifted to overtly attempting to conquer the world.

As a Kiwi, I remember where I was the day the Rainbow Warrior was bombed in Auckland Harbour. The difference is I don't start a thread about it on an international forum, in the expectation that everyone is gonna either (a) care and sympathise, or (b) shut the fuck up and leave Americans to their disproportionate 'grief'.

If you whisper it enough times in their ears, I bet you could convince the same chunk that rabid ninja weasels and their Chtulu overlords from the land of Bonga Bonga were responsible for the crashes.

Stop spying on me! :mad:

Honestly, I mostly remember it as the day that for some reason, and just on that one specific day, we started to write the date the wrong way around.

It was six years ago, get over it.

What about the thousands of civilians killed by extremist Muslims in Iraq, Sudan and Afghanistan? The thousands held hostage by tyrannical regimes in Burma, Iran and North Korea? Why don't we mark the death of at least 800,000 Rwanda tribes people?

Not to sound like a prick,

But 3,500 rich people killed in one day is lick spittle nothing. The only reason they are remembered is because the attack was so grandiose and fantastic. Because it was all caught on camera and because it happened to rich people. No one really gives a shit when they read the ticker on CNN telling you that 100 people died were found dead in Baghdad today. It's because you've never met anyone who was there. It's because you just don't care.

9/11 is only important to people in the West because it was Fa-bu-lous.

Being a Canadian citizen I can understand the sort of loss people are feeling. 14 Canadian citizens were killed that day. But at the same time, as a human being with a rational mindset, I can assess that the damage done to the Muslim world has now far outpaced the events that took place 6 years ago.

In short, I think marking the passing of 3,500 Westerns in the WTC attacks is selfish. I think the 11th should be a day to mark the beginning of a war that has cost the lives of tens of thousands on both sides. In neighbourhoods all over the world.

That's just my two cents.

This post here is disgusting. And i have read some other posts on here that are just as bad. Its onet hing to be upset or disagree with War in Iraq, but its another to use it against a specific topic that was started for 9/11.

And for anyone to say that it wasnt murder and it was not important date to remember is disgusting too. Lets just say this poster then is not important either then.

How many people remember where they were the day of the Union Carbide Bhopal gas leak? Or remember, or even know of, the incident at all?
It killed as many people instantly as 9/11 (or 11/9, as the rest of the western world call it) and ultimately killed tens of thousands.
Which (if you count Iraqi and Afghan deaths as well as American) actually makes it pale in comparison with Teh September Eleven...

... I stand corrected. Clearly it is worth remembering after all. As the day America took the leashes off, and shifted to overtly attempting to conquer the world.

As a Kiwi, I remember where I was the day the Rainbow Warrior was bombed in Auckland Harbour. The difference is I don't start a thread about it on an international forum, in the expectation that everyone is gonna either (a) care and sympathise, or (b) shut the fuck up and leave Americans to their disproportionate 'grief'.


So where the fuck is he going to put it? I swear some people do not either a. appreciate history and learning form it or
b. understand that this was caused by a bunch of radicals that want to harm others.

If you witnessed a event liek you did, if you actually did, you wouldnt be stating this post....

It was six years ago, get over it.

Yes so it can happen again. Really, wish it never happened and hope it doesnt. Thats how it happened in the first place.

Actually, it's more out of respect that I try to get people to realize that until they realize what a small event it truly was for the vast majority of people, the longer it will be a major event, loaded with emotion.

And until you can pass that threshold, there will be nothing for you to learn from it.

I accept and acknowledge that there are people who do have a reason to grieve and mourn for the losses they did indeed suffer, but the vast majority of the people who claim to have been affected by it, have been affected by it, because they claim that is what it has done.

In your opinion and what you know of those people. Point is we are all affected by it, because it is a wake up call to allof us that we are not safe and we are not high in the clouds.

September 11, 2001 was a beautiful day. Drove in to work, windows and sunroof open, enjoying the fresh air. Had a couple of meetings that morning, then I had to go for a travel briefing. Was sitting in the first meeting when someone came in to tell us that a plane had hit the WTC. We all thought that it was an accident. A few minutes later the same person came in and told us that the other tower had been hit. We immediately all scattered to our desks to see what was going on. Just as I got back to my desk I felt the building shudder and heard a loud "thud". Someone came into the office and shouted that the Pentagon had been hit (at the time I worked just across 395). We all run to the windows - the fire cloud was still rising. Boss came through, told us all to go home immediately. Grabbed a few coworkers and started to head out. Gave up after going about a mile on Route 1 in an hour and walked to my apartment. Watched the tv the rest of the day.

That night I rode my bike over to the Navy Annex and just sat on the hill watching the work. I knew it was going to be bad - that people were going to be motivated to do things that they would normally be opposed to. That we'd be going into a war that would be difficult to win, even with perfect planning (my thought was that you can't wage a war against an idea). I knew that people would use this to target Muslims. I knew it was going to be bad.

I later found out that I knew two people that died in the Pentagon.

One example of a person there. Point is doesnt matter if you think the Iraq War is a phony, the attacks weren't on the towers, pentagon and such. Point is i find it sick that i am reading posts on here how it is not worth talking about.


Where was I? I was on campus finishing up one of my courses and walk in the halls near student union area whne i saw that there was people hundled around the TV. I was in shock, disgust and also not suprised.
The rest of the day was busy doing nothing but talk about the events in next classes.

This post here is disgusting. And i have read some other posts on here that are just as bad. Its onet hing to be upset or disagree with War in Iraq, but its another to use it against a specific topic that was started for 9/11.
Since 11th Sept. was the start of the so called War On Terror of which the war and occupation in/of Iraq is a facet then it's certainly not off topic.

And for anyone to say that it wasnt murder
Where has anyone said that?
and it was not important date to remember is disgusting too. Lets just say this poster then is not important either then.
I don't think anyone is saying that it's not an important date either. The might be saying that it's getting a disproportionate amount of attention, but that's not the same thing.
So where the fuck is he going to put it?
On an American forum perhaps? On a forum where one can pick and choose who posts in one's thread?

If you witnessed a event liek you did, if you actually did, you wouldnt be stating this post....

No true Scotsman fallacy.

Personally, I see this type of thread to be of great importance, both to those in the US and around the world. Why? Because they are useful to analyze the feelings and emotions at the time through the eyes of what has happened since. I know a great number of people who were ready to bomb half of the world back to the stone-age in response to 9/11. Those same people are now very much against the War on Terror and how it has been pursued. By taking the time to look back at their feelings at the time, maybe they can identify how the government used those feelings to move the country in a way it really shouldn't have gone. Maybe they won't let it happen again.

For those not in the US, it is helpful to understand some of the feelings that the people here had. To see how how it has affected the world - you may not care that the US was attacked. You may feel that it was deserved. But nobody here can disagree that the ramifications of the attack has altered the world.

I don't mind threads like this. Things like this can actually help people "get over it". And maybe by seeing how other people around the world viewed the events, it will give them a better understanding of how it has affected everyone, even though we were the ones attacked.

because it is a wake up call to allof us that we are not safe and we are not high in the clouds.

That was a silly idea to have, huh?

On an American forum perhaps? On a forum where one can pick and choose who posts in one's thread?


That's the dumbest thing Ive heard in a long time. Next time someone posts about Israel, France, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, or any other country (and those countries, esp. Israel and Venezuela, seem to pop up quite a bit on this forum) make sure to tell them to take it to an Israeli, French, Russian, Venezuelan, or Cuban forum. This is an international forum -- America is part of the world -- so he can post it here.

Point is we are all affected by it,
No, not really.
because it is a wake up call to allof us that we are not safe and we are not high in the clouds.

Yeah, because terrorism was totally unknown before America went to war on it. Those made in the USA terrorists don't count. Nor the Northern Irish ones. Nor those Chechen Seperatists. Nor their Basque equivilants. Yup, the whole world sure was totally ignorant of the dangers of terrorism before 11th Sept.

That's the dumbest thing Ive heard in a long time. Next time someone posts about Israel, France, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, or any other country make sure to tell them to take it to an Israeli, French, Russian, Venezuelan, or Cuban forum. This is an international forum -- America is part of the world -- so he can post it here.

As such:

...don't start a thread about it on an international forum, in the expectation that everyone is gonna either (a) care and sympathise, or (b) shut the fuck up and leave Americans to their disproportionate 'grief'.

That's the dumbest thing Ive heard in a long time. Next time someone posts about Israel, France, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, or any other country make sure to tell them to take it to an Israeli, French, Russian, Venezuelan, or Cuban forum. This is an international forum -- America is part of the world -- so he can post it here.

lern2read thread

I never suggested he couldn't post it here, I answered when Earabia asked where else he might post the thread. And if you want to have a thread about 11th Sept. without people popping in to suggest that you get over it one of these years, then an American forum or a forum where you can decide who posts in your threads would probably do nicely.

One example of a person there. Point is doesnt matter if you think the Iraq War is a phony, the attacks weren't on the towers, pentagon and such. Point is i find it sick that i am reading posts on here how it is not worth talking about.


Where was I? I was on campus finishing up one of my courses and walk in the halls near student union area whne i saw that there was people hundled around the TV. I was in shock, disgust and also not suprised.
The rest of the day was busy doing nothing but talk about the events in next classes.

So you don't think its important that we were purposefully lied to as justification for a war? You think we shouldn't question Dear Leader Bush and Stay On Course(tm)?

The fact is that this day is overblown, overdone, and overrated. If the Bush administration actually cared about throwing over dictators and freeing countries they would go after places like North Korea.


And I would advise laying off the Ad Hominems, they're getting old.

So there, deal with it!

Err...deal with what? That's our line...

Reading some of the post here, I sense indifference, stupidity, and arrogance. We must remember that we (United States) were not at war with anybody. They came over here and flew planes into our buildings. We did not go over there and start trouble, nor did we want to start anything with them. They started with us! They gave us a black eye! Our response? As the song of the time put it, put a boot up their ass! Now here are some questions which have been answered:

Were there WMPs found in Iraq? Yes
Were there conections between Iraq and Al Qaeda? Yes
Did Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein have ongoing dialog? Yes
Were there terrorist trainging camps found in Iraq? Yes
Is Iran now trying to invade Iraq? Yes
Was the US wrong for going in and cleaning up the place? Hell no!

So there, deal with it!

I was asleep. I woke up at about 6:00 because I heard my sister and mother screaming. At the time I believed they were saying something about Britney Spears. My mother took me to school and they told us what happened there. I didn't really know the bigness of what happened until a year later. I just thought it had been a normal plane accident.

I was at home reading in my room, went into the kitchen to get a piece of fruit and saw it on the TV. If I'm being honest, I had no idea it was as serious as it was (is?).

I was only 11 or something though, which probably accounts for it.

Im going to stay home tomorrow, not in remembrance of 9-11, but those affect world wide with war after 9-11

Riiiiight. Like you really care. Any excuse to stay home, right?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE9TLgCVLBM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZV2L0EM08I

speaks for itself. no?

I'd never seen that Cosgrove film before. That was harrowing.

If I might hazard a guess, I doubt very seriously you cared much beforehand either. Otherwise, you might have understood a reaction of elation when someone strikes back at a country which has strangled all one's aspirations to nationalism and bankrolls a significant slice of the military budget of one's oppressors.

However, this point is moot since the evidence that came weeks later is that the American media had staged many of these events. An elderly woman notorious for dancing at the news of the towers' collapse was found by Der Spiegel and interviewed, and she said that she had no idea what was going on, but had been offered free baklava to dance for the camera. She hadn't even heard about the WTC attacks until later. That the American media is institutionally racist should come as no surprise to anyone who's read Edward Said's Covering Islam or, in the field of film, Jack Shaheen's Reel Bad Arabs.

The interesting thing about the woman was that she was in Ramallah, Nablus, Gaza, Jenin, Rafah and on and on, and eventually she became the whole of Palestine. That was my first indication that someone was telling lies. The same thing goes for the rest of the depictions of Arabs celebrating; the attributions bounced around from one major city to the next like some geographical pachinko game. And yet there wasn't a single example offered which wasn't completely decontextualized. Nobody that I remember referred to bin Laden, New York, the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, etc. I'd know if they did, because I speak Arabic. It was just random cheering which could have been pulled from stock footage anywhere.

Excellent point. I remember the news from various sources showing pictures of Palestinians shooting their guns in the air and celebrating, but never were their cheers translated. We were not told by anyone who could speak Arabic what they were saying as they danced. I remember being livid with anger then, but reading your post and remembering that we never knew why they were celebrating makes me far angrier.

News is now a commodity, with the attendant variances in quality the "free market" allows for and encourages. I shouldn't have to shop for objective reporting.

Reading some of the post here, I sense indifference, stupidity, and arrogance. We must remember that we (United States) were not at war with anybody. They came over here and flew planes into our buildings. We did not go over there and start trouble, nor did we want to start anything with them. They started with us! They gave us a black eye! Our response? As the song of the time put it, put a boot up their ass! Now here are some questions which have been answered:

Were there WMPs found in Iraq? Yes
Were there conections between Iraq and Al Qaeda? Yes
Did Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein have ongoing dialog? Yes
Were there terrorist trainging camps found in Iraq? Yes
Is Iran now trying to invade Iraq? Yes
Was the US wrong for going in and cleaning up the place? Hell no!

So there, deal with it!

We may not have declared war on anyone, but we certainly earned what happened to us on the 11th of September, 2001 -- as a nation and a government. They did not start anything. WE did by arming and bankrolling their enemy and generally messing around in the Middle East in order to assure our selfish need for more and more oil. We started trouble LONG before 9/11, and on that day, some of the trouble came home to roost. Honestly, if you think the US is utterly blameless in that situation, you need to read more and learn more and stop accepting the "company line". My country's goverment has been interfereing in the affairs of sovereign nations since 1950 if you count Korea, and since Guatemala in 1952 if you don't count Korea.

The 3000 people who were murdered that day are no more valuable than the hundreds of thousands murdered by "smart" bombs and other, more insidious US policies around the world. I love my country, but I do not trust those entrusted with its governance any farther than I could throw them. I felt awful that morning as I watched the towers fall and learned of the deaths in Virginia* and Pennsylvania, and I wanted revenge. My government gave me a gossamer-thin pretext to invade Iraq. You are being lied to if you think US foreign policy has not been blown back at us with the 9/11 attacks.

We may not have declared war on anyone, but we certainly earned what happened to us on the 11th of September, 2001 -- as a nation and a government. They did not start anything. WE did by arming and bankrolling their enemy and generally messing around in the Middle East in order to assure our selfish need for more and more oil. We started trouble LONG before 9/11, and on that day, some of the trouble came home to roost. Honestly, if you think the US is utterly blameless in that situation, you need to read more and learn more and stop accepting the "company line". My country's goverment has been interfereing in the affairs of sovereign nations since 1950 if you count Korea, and since Guatemala in 1952 if you don't count Korea.

The 3000 people who were murdered that day are no more valuable than the hundreds of thousands murdered by "smart" bombs and other, more insidious US policies around the world. I love my country, but I do not trust those entrusted with its governance any farther than I could throw them. I felt awful that morning as I watched the towers fall and learned of the deaths in Virginia* and Pennsylvania, and I wanted revenge. My government gave me a gossamer-thin pretext to invade Iraq. You are being lied to if you think US foreign policy has not been blown back at us with the 9/11 attacks.

Very well said. It still boggles my mind that more people can't come to this realization...

I was at my friend's house, the TV was on, I started drinking vodka and bracing myself for the years of new foreign policy that would ensue.

I have very little compassion for people who used to be all for the war, but had months to cool down and then changed their minds. They made their decision based on emotions, and they were the petty, spoiled, cruelly indifferent kind of emotions that lead to all the "let's nuke the middle east" and "kill the towel-heads" shit that far too many people would now deny ever feeling. Instead of thinking, they allowed themselves to be manipulated by media and government into supporting the deaths of tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of innocents. Buncha hotheads, dangerous hotheads whose rational decision-making capabilities are obviously sub-par. Then finally they saw the blood that'd been on their hands for years and decided they had enough. La-de-da. I'm supposed to jump for joy at my saviors and their wishy-washy, first-let's-nuke-'em, nah-let's-give-them-democracy attitude because at least now they're sorta against the war. Well, fuck that. I live in a country of angry dumbasses who get into temper tantrums and then invade and conquer other nations. So what if they feel regret afterwards? What good does that do anyone? Most still won't even support leaving from these nations we've invaded. No no, maybe the blood is not enough after all.

I was at my friend's house, the TV was on, I started drinking vodka and bracing myself for the years of new foreign policy that would ensue.

I have very little compassion for people who used to be all for the war, but had months to cool down and then changed their minds. They made their decision based on emotions, and they were the petty, spoiled, cruelly indifferent kind of emotions that lead to all the "let's nuke the middle east" and "kill the towel-heads" shit that far too many people would now deny ever feeling. Instead of thinking, they allowed themselves to be manipulated by media and government into supporting the deaths of tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of innocents. Buncha hotheads, dangerous hotheads whose rational decision-making capabilities are obviously sub-par. Then finally they saw the blood that'd been on their hands for years and decided they had enough. La-de-da. I'm supposed to jump for joy at my saviors and their wishy-washy, first-let's-nuke-'em, nah-let's-give-them-democracy attitude because at least now they're sorta against the war. Well, fuck that. I live in a country of angry dumbasses who get into temper tantrums and then invade and conquer other nations. So what if they feel regret afterwards? What good does that do anyone? Most still won't even support leaving from these nations we've invaded. No no, maybe the blood is not enough after all.

I for one am quite happy that people have come to this realization. Yes, it would have been much better that they had never supported the war, but is it not good that they have seen their error and perhaps won't let it happen again?

I for one am quite happy that people have come to this realization. Yes, it would have been much better that they had never supported the war, but is it not good that they have seen their error and perhaps won't let it happen again?

I'm far too cynical to think that's how it's going to be. More like, next time they'll vote for it and let it happen but change their minds after only 6 months. See, that's an improvement, they learned from their errors. A few more invasions and perhaps the turnaround time for their opinions will be such that they will actually be against a morally repugnant policy to begin with!

I'm far too cynical to think that's how it's going to be. More like, next time they'll vote for it and let it happen but change their minds after only 6 months. See, that's an improvement, they learned from their errors. A few more invasions and perhaps the turnaround time for their opinions will be such that they will actually be against a morally repugnant policy to begin with!

My fear is just the opposite - that the majority of the people in the US will get fed up with the war and start to demand an isolationist government. Then we won't be killing people with our bombs, just our neglect...

Selective memory methinks. Remember those threads back a while with polls showing how a big chunk of America couldn't place nations on the map or for that fact, thought Iraq was responsible for the crashes.

If you whisper it enough times in their ears, I bet you could convince the same chunk that rabid ninja weasels and their Chtulu overlords from the land of Bonga Bonga were responsible for the crashes.

Not selective memory, Flashbuld memory. Memories of events that affected you so badly that they are remebered permently in almost perfect detail. Post-Tramua Syndrom is another example.

Not selective memory, Flashbuld memory. Memories of events that affected you so badly that they are remebered permently in almost perfect detail. Post-Tramua Syndrom is another example.

Good call. Flashbulb memories can be personal/individual or group/shared across a wide number of people depending on the magnitude and perceivability of the event in question.

Holocaust was far far worse, by about of a magnitude of a few thousand.fair enough.

The reason people are telling you to get over it is that there are maybe 100.000 people directly affected by those events, plus the people in New York who happened to see it, because they knew someone or knew someone who knew someone. Those 100.000 (and NYC) should be given the honour to remember in peace, rather than have 290+ million people pretend they knew anyone on the WTC that day.I got over it.. 2 weeks after the hit.

but deny grieving for everything else that affected them just as much, those people who do have a reason to remember and grieve are going to get caught in the crossfire.Life is unfair.


when so many people take advantage of such a day to grieve for something that didn't even...you have a point.. I agree.

But I am going to post my personal condolences anyways, with this picture:
http://www.willinghearts.org/cms/uploads/images/13weeks_02_canal.jpg
Dedicated to:
#1 the families of the deated Firefighters/rescue teams. Yes I know is not "deated"
#2 the other deated.

P.S. This post -in No way- tries to underscore the greater horror of the other 911.

...or any of the other Disgraceful acts directed/realized/ and/or produced by the US gov.

Biology Teacher: "A plane just crashed into the U.N.!"
Me: "Oh snap!"

*five minutes later*

Me: "Where did you get your teaching degree?"

An Irish mate of mine said he was at work in a car garage. The news came over on the radio, and his co-worker Mick spat out "Jeesus, where'd fuck was John McLain?!" in a thick Oirish accent.

Gold.

http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/images/6/6f/Valentinessm.jpg

Nevar Forget
---
http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/images/f/f0/Sovietwtc.jpg

http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/images/f/f0/Sovietwtc.jpg

http://www.peif.net/images/imasection/newwtc.jpg

lol, JEWS DID 9-11, NEVAR FORGET.

4chan references from all the pictures of course, and to this as well.

I had gone to the local gas station to get a crappy sandwich before my next class, and this radio was playing inside the store, with all the clerks huddled around it. I asked them what had happened and when they told me, I swear my first words were, "and yet they MISSED the White House? Talk about adding insult to injury."

Needless to say, I got some pretty mean looks.

fair enough.
Anything to get a holocaust-denail post in, huh Ocean? The grass is green..the sky is blue....the usual, huh?

I was only in second grade. My mom was watching the TV and she was kinda freaked, and i turned around as I was about to walk out the door and saw the second plain hit. We just listened to the radio all day in class.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE9TLgCVLBM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZV2L0EM08I

speaks for itself. no?

That first one was.....words cannot express it.

I wonder what must have gone through her head when she realized that not only he, but the entire fire-fighter team she had on the phone we lost in that instant. Horrifying to watch.
-----------------------
Watching some 9-11 videos on youtube eventually led me to this. Any sympathy I had before for the Palestinians (which was, I admit, non-existant) is now in negative numbers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyaixXr6PvI

I was in 8th grade, sleeping. My dad woke me up an hour early and told me a plane had crushed into the WTC. My thoughts were,"where the hell is that and why do I care" but because my dad told me breakfast was ready I got up. I started watching it and when he was turned around making coffee the second plane hit.

Then that whole day I watched and then after that I started to study the enemy.

Now I'm in the United States Marine Corps getting ready to goto Iraq for my first time.

I was 10 at the time, and saw the first tower fall, the second plane hit, and the second tower fall as well. At school it was pretty much a normal day in classes, but we spent most of lunch predicting that the US was going to bring a world of nuclear hurt on whoever did it. I also remember it completely ruined my cousin's birthday.

I woke at 630 AM Pacific time wondering why NPR was talking about the plane crash that hit the Empire State Building in 1944. Then they started taliking about a second plane hitting the WTC and I decided it was time to look to see what the hell was going on TV.

I took the day off from work that day. I am a historian, and I had to watch every second.

Watching that first tower fall was almost a physical blow. I pictured all those people dying in an instant as I remembered how long it took to evacuate the WTC back during the last attack in 1993. Thank god most people managed to escape from them on 9/11.

That evening a wargamer friend and I spent time figuring out what US forces would be going to Afghanistan based on how much logistical support was available to the US, and wondering if we would ally with India and invade Pakistan if they didn't cooperate.

Stop spying on me! :mad:

Spy? Why I never. But chipmunks tell much for walnuts.

Not selective memory, Flashbuld memory. Memories of events that affected you so badly that they are remebered permently in almost perfect detail. Post-Tramua Syndrom is another example.

Soooo....poor memory overall, but occasional flashbulb memory.

Didn't flashbulbs use to burn out once used?

Wow, some of you idiots make me laugh...and I mean the "LULZ, I ARE MAKE A FUNNEZ BY SAYING I NO CAREZ AND LULZ AND CIRTCIZ THE THRD MAKR FO NO ORIGINALITY DURR DEE DEE"

Seriously, if all you have to say is "I don't care to remember.." or Sarcastically say "Where were you when Dip Shit Chile got his by it's 9/11, obviously none of us in the modern day gives a flying fuck because it's never the fuck on TV...", and etc...fuck you, grow up seriously.

Anyways -

I was in 6th, it was my 2nd Period Class when the Teacher got a phone call from my Principal and said that my Mom was coming to pick me up or something. So my Principal showed up, and we were walking to the front doors and I remember saying "Wow, this must be the luckiest day of my life." referring to the fact my mom Majestically decides to take me out of school randomly. He said that "There is an important thing your mom wants you for" or something, and I remember we walked by the School Office [by the Front Doors] and the entire lot of secretaries and some teachers were watching some small TV Screen and it showed a building on fire and I thought to my self "Huh, must be a large fire somewhere in town" :-P mind you 6th Grade Thought Process...

So, I get into the car and my mom is all frantic [She's a Hyper Paranoid/Anxious type...dare I say what she was thinking? Nay...], and was going on about how a "Jet" crashed into a building in New York City [She's a Conservative, and was listening to like Fox News on the Radio and they were getting reports that it was a Jet...but she was all hyped up by it saying I just know there is not a chance in hell this was an accident], and they were talking and bla bla bla, we get home and I'm sitting down waiting for her to get ready [we were all going to go to her one friend's house and hang out there for a little while] and I remember my brother and sister absolutely clueless, and I was watching TV [I live in Nebraska, so all the events were being broadcast live to me and I'm only an hour back on the clock so it wasn't unfeasibly early for me] and I decided to go to the News [Voila, like mother/father like child, I was glued to Fox News] and they were zoomed up on these "objects falling from the twin towers", and well the second plane apparently hit about the minute I turned the TV on and they were repeating it and repeating it after just repeating the first plane and it's all chaos and hell on the Television.

So, some time passes, I've already realized those things are bodies after I talked with my mom a little, we speed over to her friend's I guess, and we catch both towers fall on TV.

Oh, and I remember what we ate that day - Burger King :-P

So yea, that's my memory...