9/11 Never Forget

KyAllroad wrote: Alfa, I think it has to do with the scale of the event and the pure hatred expressed by an "other" that we as a nation can rally around. A text and drive death sucks for sure but it's simple negligence and just a few lives affected (no matter how badly). 9-11 told us, as a society, that there are people out there motivated enough to commit mass murder on a monumental scale on the basis of religion and culture.

Couple of things, though.

At what scale do we remember like this? Was Sandy Hook large enough? That was against innocent kids. Or will the recent attack Orlando be large enough? How many does it take that we have anniversary events where the news reminds us in great details what happened?

Second- how long is long enough? We've fought a war, we've killed the leader, and really gutted the actual group that did this. Last time a similar attack happened was in 1941, and I kinda doubt we were reminding ourselves like this in 1956. Sure, there are movies and what not, and they keep coming back. But not the all day media event on so many channels. We've not forgotten Peal Harbor, either.

Is it really good for us to remind us of the rage? Does hating "them" make us better? And by "them"- who are they and why do they hate us so much? I can't see us ever killing all of them, so that seems pretty pointless. It's not as if radical Muslims are the only ones who have committed mass murder on a monumental scale just due to religion and culture- heck, they have millions of people to go to catch up with others.

Instead of rage, maybe we should be reminded that it's virtually impossible to fight terrorism with violence, but it's useful to fight the ideas behind the reasons. Probably save a lot of lives that way.

And never forget the people willing to lay down their lives for us, or the loved ones that we lost. And always remember the loved ones we have with us.

Don't forget the thousands of people who have died from health related issues of breathing the dust, fumes and other materials in and around Ground Zero.

I'll remember the people that died that day, but don't forget to also think about the 200,000 or more Iraqis we killed in response even though their country had absolutely nothing to do with it. [REDACTED}

Never forget indeed.

My daughter was born September 8 2001. I had two days to enjoy my new baby. Then everything changed.

One memory I have I being on a roof with some people shortly after while all flights were still grounded and as we stood there a blacked out 747 came I low and hot. Really hot. We could feel the blast wave from it as I passed over us.

The thing that gets me the most is a statistic I read the other day- this year's high school freshmen will be the first to learn of 911 as a history lesson that they were not alive for.

JohnRW1621 wrote: My baby was born on Sept 11, 2014. That joy has trumped the sorrow of the same day 13 years earlier. I suppose someone is born on Pearl Harbor Day every year since.

Not to one-up but an army buddy of mine's daughter was born on 9-11-2001 at 8:15 AM

It's a bittersweet day for them.

can we not flounder this and get it locked? Let's remember the dead, not the politics

My birthday is the 12th. When I woke up that morning I felt as though I had aged much more than just a year. There are no good answers to this, no perfect thing to say. Remember, learn, and love.

Time for the Two Minutes Hate.

A great history lesson about the relative lack of preparedness lies within:

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2006/08/norad200608

Trans_Maro wrote: Time for the Two Minutes Hate.

Open your eyes! Emmanuel Goldstein is a fabrication of the Ministry of Truth!

Thank You Alfa and Huckleberry, I came with more or less the same idea. I wanted to write something sooner but had little time yesterday and was hoping I'd come up with better words. I doubt that anyone who was alive at the time will forget the events of 9/11 but the rage and hate has stuck around a lot longer than it should.

Many people will never be able to shake nightmares, health problems, and mental illnesses that can be traced back to the events of that day. Other's will remember the feelings of helplessness as their fellow Americans were being killed and maimed on live television while they could do nothing but watch from a distance and wonder if they too were in danger of attack from a then little known enemy.

Soon after banners went up everywhere "Never Forget" I see them in my buildings at work, and at homes and business almost everywhere I've traveled since that day. It is an admirable sentiment and there are many post 9/11 things I wish we hadn't forgotten. For months afterwards we showed concern for others. We were able to put aside our differences and just talk with genuine caring about how our neighbors were doing. People donated their time and money to charities to help the less fortunate in their communities. We have since forgotten all that. Once a year we roll out our flags, take some cookies down to the firehouse or police station, or slip a buck to the homeless veteran outside the supermarket. The rest of the year we watch our elected officials haggle over every penny that goes to take care of the people suffering long lasting effects these days we've promised to never forget. There first responders who are fighting cancers and other ailments and being denied coverage saying they couldn't have picked it up then as the EPA said the air was just fine. The soldiers who came home from the subsequent fighting to a country that proudly told them what heros they are but is reluctant to pick up the tab for treating them for the injuries they have brought home.

What we have chosen to Never Forget is that anywhere and at anytime we can be attacked by terrorists. We've gone from a nation that had nothing to fear but fear itself, to a nation that fears every unattended box and brown person with an accent. It used to be an Arab would take over running the gas station in your town and you wouldn't think much of it. Now the first though for a sad number of people is that a sleeper cell is setting up shop in their town. Fifteen years on we I still get complaints from people when one of my Muslim drivers ducks into a mosque to use the restroom because he is probably really getting his assignment from Allah. We don't help it by putting up signs everywhere reminding people that they are our first line of defense and "If you see something, say something".

I understand the need for memorials. I lost several friends and I have friends in the FDNY and NYPD that lost friends and family in staggering numbers and probably until our generation dies off there still be services every year but even re more a remembrance of those lost rather than filled with the rage and hate I see from a lot of the general public.

I'm sure a lot of what I said comes off as gibberish and contradicts itself here and there. I'm a very inconsistent person with many many issues I wont deal with properly, at least that's what my dog tells me.

alfadriver wrote: Second- how long is long enough? We've fought a war, we've killed the leader, and really gutted the actual group that did this. Last time a similar attack happened was in 1941, and I kinda doubt we were reminding ourselves like this in 1956. Sure, there are movies and what not, and they keep coming back. But not the all day media event on so many channels. We've not forgotten Peal Harbor, either.

I don't know if this helps make your point but my father still bitches about the E36 M3ty Japanese baseball glove he had in the mid 50s and by the early 1960s Roy Rogers, King of the Cowboys, was plugging Nissan Patrol.

Lamb Of God- Ashes Of The Wake

T.J. wrote:

I'll remember the people that died that day, but don't forget to also think about the 200,000 or more Iraqis we killed in response even though their country had absolutely nothing to do with it. [REDACTED}

Never forget indeed.

"We killed a lot of innocent civilians. To us every civilian in Baghdad was a terrorist. They said 'they are now in civilian clothes' that makes everybody free game, But if they came in our perimeter, we lit 'em up. And when we would pull the body out, and when we would search the car, we would find nothing. This took place time and time again. No harm, no foul, that's OK, don't worry about it, Because this is a new type of war, this is an eradication."

Can't believe it has been 15 years.

I remember that morning like it was yesterday. It was a Tuesday, and it was an off day from college classes. I woke up early because around 8:30 I was going to grab fellow GRM'er and good friend Greg (Pseudosport) and hit up the junkyards looking for stuff, and after that, we had planned to hit up Newbury Comics (a record store chain) to see what new albums came out that day. First thing I did was fire up the PC and hit up AOL's homepage to check my email. And then, I saw it. One of the towers had been hit. I called him and told him what happened and headed into the family room to turn on the TV while he did the same at his place. As we watched the building burn, we wondered if it was just a plane accident. As a student of history, I recalled an incident where a B-25 bomber hit the Empire State building back in 1945.

And then we both watched the other plane hit. It went into the tower and transformed into a fireball of death and destruction. That was the exact moment where everything changed. It wasn't an accident. Then, there were reports of the Pentagon and Flight 93. The US was under attack, and everyone knew it for sure.

I remember the thoughts going through my head. How many cities are being attacked? Is this just the US getting attacked? WHO is attacking us? It was unbelievable. The feeling of helplessness was overwhelming as I sat there on the phone with my friend, while we watched people... real people.. just dying. And I couldn't take my eyes off of the tv.

After the towers fell, we decided to try and go about our business as planned after calling our families. First observation: there was no music on the radio. Even at the junkyard, where there's always booming stereos of strange music coming from both inside and outside the yard, there was just chatter from the various news reports being telecast on the radio. People were out and about, but they were scared. No one was smiling, joking, or anything else.

After that, we made it to the record store, and there's always the "Staff's Picks" music on the sound system. Not today. More talk. I made my way to the new releases rack, and picked up a copy of Slayer's new album that came out that day. It was called God Hates Us All. Great.

The next crazy thing: no airplanes. When they grounded all the flights, the normally busy travel lanes above my house in suburban Boston were dead. I went to go visit my uncle later that day, who lives in Hull, MA (across the water from Boston) and the silence was unbelievable.

After the shock, yes, there was anger. But there was also a togetherness that most people in this country has completely forgotten about. For a brief time in modern history, people were actually nice to each other! Petty bickering was cast aside. It didn't matter where you were from, what you did, or anything else, people banded together. When people say "never forget", that needs to be included. It's too bad that most people don't, because we could use a little of that mentality these days.