I was temporarily "between jobs" and thought that was a huge deal.

Then, perspective.

I remember.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
I'm going to say something that is probably going to be unpopular. Keep in mind that I am not insensitive to the loss, ignorant of its significance, nor unpatriotic...

At what point does this fade and we move on? Were they still reading the names of every single person killed at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1958? I doubt it...

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

A lot of people, to this day 17 years later, are still ignorant of the significance of the event, how it changed our world, and the continuing threat of islamic extremist terrorism. I am ok with setting a side the day to go through the events and pay respects to the victims.

No, in 1958 they probably weren’t reading names and ringing bells. The war was behind us, we had won, life returned to “normal” and things moved on. That is not the case today, this war still continues even if the enemy has morphed from one group into others, there is no “normal” to return to and there may never be.


If nothing else, the fact that college campuses are banning rememberence posters due to them being “offensive” or “insensitive” to some students tells me we need to keep driving this home. The power of denial and ignorance in large groups is overwhelming.

Making it personal, hearing personal accounts, listening to people tell the story from their perspective is a means to make it “real” to those who were either to young to understand, who were not yet born, or for some other reason have not yet fully understood the impact of the event.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

I appreciate and respect your opinion.

At what point does this fade and we move on?

Hopefully never. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana

Were they still reading the names of every single person killed at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1958? I doubt it.

Maybe they should have

I think that it's time the nation grew up some. Bad shit happened, a lot of folks died, we paid back those responsible (and continue to). Let's move on.

Intimidation warning. . . Don't be so condescending. We are not immature because we regard events that changed us. And if you are not for disregarding it, then you must allow people the freedom to regard it the way they do.

The more that our precious history is disregarded, the more we lose our identity. It makes it easier for the revisionists to pervert our foundation and our origin.

Just my $.02.

Thank you, and I bet we agree on most other things

(did you really just compare the deadly attack on the USA to losing a pet?)

As I said in my previous post:

quote:

9/11 is a part our history, and as history I think it's time that we remember it but leave it in the past.

I'm not suggesting forgetting what happened, just how we, as a nation, deal with it.

Nobody has forgotten what happened at Pearl Harbor. Rather, they/we have accepted that it happened, remember it, and gotten on with life today.

I believe that we should do the same with 9/11.

And...I'll bow out now.

I manage CO's for the footprint that is now Verizon in many States, part of my territory that day was NYC. I was due to be in NYC on 9/11, I would have taken the PATH from Newark and been coming up those escalators into the WTC around that time, walking around the base of that building to get to a pre-planned meeting. The meeting was re-sched to 9/10 and thus I wasn't there, thankfully - however, I did watch the events unfold from the rooftop of our building in NJ and the pall of smoke/dust/debris over the island that day was unforgettable.

I spent the next week or so travelling into NYC to try to find space within our Tech Facilities for personnel of companies displaced by the loss of the Towers. The City was unrecognizable; 'MISSING' posters tacked up on every vertical surface, people trying to track down their loved ones post-attack. NYC police were everywhere, I was travelling in downtown NYC because that's where we had space, I was meeting Customers - the police forced you to show ID (Company ID), state your purpose, etc. before allowing anyone to proceed beyond a certain point; they didn't want looky-loos and were cautious about any possible follow-up attacks. People walking around like zombies, the subway cars virtually dead silent as people were in shock/grieving in their own ways.

I met with some folks looking for space that were from Cantor Fitzgerald, the firm that lost (IIRC) around 700 people the day of the attack; they told harrowing stories of trying to evacuate the building and depending on who they listened to, or what their gut told them - depending on what exits they chose, turned out a life/death decision because many chose 'wrong' and didn't make it out of the building.

We lived in NJ at the time and moved further South in NJ as soon as possible to get away from the big city, figuring another attack would come some day. Moved further south yet (NC) as soon as possible for the same reason.

As someone else said - I've not been the same since that day.

While we're on the subject, and maybe to Gustofer's point (while I disagree with it, I understand it) -

If you've been to NYC since the attacks they either were not allowed to or refused to re-build on the footprints (real estate) that were the towers. There is a very well-done memorial there that sits on that property. While I understand the sentimentality behind it, when I saw it I was torn; a memorial to our lost dead, on one hand, but on the other, and maybe more importantly (to me) - it memorializes the attack itself and I feel like those terrorist assholes are winning by the very presence of such a memorial, and the fact that we didn't rebuild on that very lucrative real estate as a big FUCK YOU to the terrorists, letting them know they won't beat us.

I feel like that memorial does the opposite. Maybe it's just me.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
As I said in my previous post:

quote:

9/11 is a part our history, and as history I think it's time that we remember it but leave it in the past.

I'm not suggesting forgetting what happened, just how we, as a nation, deal with it.

Nobody has forgotten what happened at Pearl Harbor. Rather, they/we have accepted that it happened, remember it, and gotten on with life today.

I believe that we should do the same with 9/11.

And...I'll bow out now.

I agree with you mostly, However, we can't deal with it as a nation.

The nation is people and we are all different. It touched us all but on different levels, and to different degrees.

We don't want to forget it, and we don't want to be debilitated by it. Somewhere in between, each person needs to find their own balance.

Thanks for your input, And. . .I'll bow out now.

With all due respect to those who would like to "move on", this is exactly what I meant 17 years ago when I said I hope America has the fortitude to see this through. 9/11 wasn't just a day that happened and that we can put behind us. It was one battle in a decades long Jihad against American ideas and freedom that continues today and that our grandchildren will be fighting after we are gone. We still have troops dying on foreign soil trying to hold them at bay. We damn well better not put it behind us.

In retirement I was driving a local school bus. That day was no different. I had just finished my morning route, parked the bus at the garage and got into my car for the very short drive home. I was listening to talk radio and heard of the first plane. I was home within minutes and turned on the tv just in time to see the second plane collide into the building.

My wife was teaching at the local university and I called her. She had seen the second plane

also.

Not knowing what was happening, I loaded AR magazines until all were full.

I have never experienced revulsion, horror and the need for vengeance as I did on that day.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Gutpile Charlie,

Gustofer,

I appreciate your comments. I have been blessed to read all of your stories. It is very appreciated.
When will I stop remembering 9/11 and move its remembrance to memorial day?
When we bring the boys home.
I have lost students over there, a few that were lost after they got back.
I have a cousin that after his 3rd tour left his wife, joined a cult and has now married a witch.
I sat next to a student last week in our campus Starbucks and he had a semper-fi sticker on his laptop. This kid who looked 15 to me left a leg in Afghanistan.

I promised to never forget and to support our troops. This is a small part of how I do it. This doesn't end for me until it is over.

Odd how somethings will always stick with you, I was teaching a class on a application for generating reports when a class member got a call from her husband that a plane had crashed in the tower. Not knowing any of the details we went on with the class but as updates came in it was obvious what was happening. Class adjourned, to say the least, we were all glued to a small office TV for hours, the whole world changed that day.....

I was in my car one the way home from a workout.

Heard about the first crash and wondered how that could happen on a perfectly clear day. Then the 2nd plane hit and I knew.

We must not forget that 2 other planes were involved as well. One hit the pentagon, the other crashed in an empty field in Pennsylvania due to passenger actions.

I knew that we were at war, and wanted to re-enlist, but the calendar said I was too old.

My fear today is that our "education" MCF will continue to ignore or downplay that event, just it does so many other important issues.

Yes, we are still at war! I KNOW this because my oldest grandson (Nate) has been in afcrapistan 5 times now, and is very likely to go again when they assign him to a new team.

I think it was about 2 days after the 9/11 attacks that I got my CHL, and have carried everyday since. I never leave the house without it.

Are we in a war! Absolutely! And the tragic part is that so many of the people in country have no idea about it, or why.

I had been laid off from a dot com company a week prior. I was working swing shift at the same 7-11 I had worked at in high school and college while I looked for another job. So I was sleeping in and my mom came and said hey a plane crashed into a tower in NYC so I started watching the news and saw plane 2 real time. Sat there and watched news until time to go to work then listened to news all day at 7-11. Then came home and watched news till like 3am. Was wired in adrenaline the whole time. Since I was freshly graduated from college and young I seriously considered joining the military. My dad a Vietnam vet talked me out of it. I still wonder sometimes if I had joined up how my life would be different.

I worked night shift the night before, and was in the bed asleep when the planes hit. I had an appraiser coming to the house at noon, and when he came he asked me if I had heard what had happened. I spent the rest of the day watching television, alternating between shock and anger. I'm still pissed.

One memory of that day is how unusually clear it was. Not a cloud in the sky. And even more unusual, not an airplane either. We're directly on the flightpath for Charlotte, and I always see airplanes. But not that day.

I was working on Sept. 11th, the customer had a tv on and we saw the news of the first, then the second plane hitting the towers.

At the time living and working in the DC area, I received calls from various Govt. customers asking for assistance. The Radio stations in DC were reporting bombs going off all over town.

I ended up at the Pentagon about 90 minutes after the crash there. As we were setting up some communications systems, I finally noticed, I was about 100 yards from the impact point.

I spent the next 4 days there working with 1st responders on communications issues.

That day is still as vivid in my memory today as it was that day. I saw things no person should ever have to see an I can still smell the smells of that day.

I'm still pissed at that assholes that did this to us, and I have the utmost respect for 1st responders who do the job they do in situations like that day.

God Bless the USA.

I was sleeping. My friend knocked on the door and woke me up. He said, "You seen this shit on the tv?" I asked him what he was talking about. He said, "Turn on the TV!" So we sat and watched the tv for few hours. And the rest was history.

The thing that sticks with me that I will never forget, is that I got in my car to go to work later that day, and ALL 5 or 6 pre-sets on the radio FM radio in the car, all of them, played the exact same news broadcast. No music on any radio channels, all of them broadcasting the same exact news broadcast.