remembering 9/11

[MarcO]

So, today's the day. Five years on from perhaps the single most defining moment of our generation.

Think about how different things are now from before that day, how the focus of the world has shifted, the ramifications it has had on geo-political alliances.

Think about where this event has lead the world, how it has transformed America.

Think about the innocent people caught in the expression of terror, the heroic acts of bravery that brought out the best in people.

Think about the Bush administration and how it has responded, in it's "War on Terrorism".

Think about where you were that day, how the news reached you and your response to it, who you called, who you worried about. Remember those few bizarre hours before it became clear that the worst was over, the psychological impact of thinking a major Western city was under attack from..... from whom? Saddam Hussein? Al-Qaeda? Saudi Arabia? Huh? Who? What?

Think about what it means to be free, and to be oppressed. To be democratic. To be for peace, or to be for vengeance. Think about the roots of terrorism, how it stems from poverty. Think about cruel acts of vicious violence and the helplessness that results.

It's easy to forget just how important this act of terrorism was to our modern world. Please take a moment today to think about it.

And then please share your thoughts.

[The Chameleon]

I am obiously saddened by the loss of innocent life and I remeber watching happen before I left for school that morning.

I recall thinking the first plane was a amature pilot who made a huge mistake. When the second one hit, I knew soemthing more planned and deliberate occured.

As the story unfolded and the building collapsed a got the sense that things were very planned. I recall thinking, WOw, those building sure came down in an orderly fashion for a terroist act, in downtown NYC. Then I can remember thinking: "Well that's what the US gets for thier brutal foreign policy and payback is a bitch".

I still feel this way. I still think the US had a hand in making this happen to facilitate the Iraq war and areason to rape the rest of the oil from the middle east. I also still think as bad a sit was that thier years of self centered/destructive foriegn policy brought this about.

I beleive now that the images of 9/11 and all the docs, and movies that have coem about are tools to keep the American people scared and in-line with the war.

It's very sad to think the lives of the innocent people in the twin towers are now being used as a tool, by the Bush administration.

Edited September 11, 2006 by Guest

[M.O.B.E]

why would anyone want to remember this? I'm still trying to forget.

[MarcO]

why would anyone want to remember this? I'm still trying to forget.

looks like you clicked on the wrong thread then.

[Booche]

You know, this is the first thing that comes to mind so I am going to go with it.

I vividly recall co-workers/colleagues and extremely close friends wanting to exact revenge IMMEDIATELY on an unknown enemy. One went so far as to say "We should bomb the middle east right now. What have they ever done for you?"

Can you imagine? Obviously, I am sure you can but I felt like someone had just punched me in my soul.

As sad as I was for the victims and their families my heart couldnt bare to hear some of the words coming from mouths I didnt want to be listening to at the time. It became unclear if I was sad for me, or for them. My world became dull in color that day and I was the opposite of forthcoming when pressed for my feelings. Actually, I questioned a bunch of opinions and was called a few things before I shut her down.

[M.O.B.E]

why would anyone want to remember this? I'm still trying to forget.

looks like you clicked on the wrong thread then.

No I didn't. At the time this happened I was getting ready to go to work up The CN Tower. This scared the shit out of me. I made it 6 more weeks and I had to get out.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

I'll always remember the dream I woke up from that morning (two hours before it all started) - being in our basement, which had all the appearance of an eviscerated, concrete bunker, trying to spin one up, and the door bursting down and soldiers or SWAT cops or something charging in with their guns drawn. I wish I could say I made that up; it's always struck me as way too uncanny.

I also remember having subsequently dropped the girls at school and daycare, walking home under the blue sky, the air with a hint of fall chill, turning on the TV, watching half an hour of it, and thinking, here we go. Then time got sort of mutable, and it all got weird.

I expected overreaction, hoping, of course, for better. Now you can hear from people like Richard Clarke how a number of ducks had already been lined up, so the line became, Yes, we'll take on Afghanistan, but they're only first - what we really want is Iraq, for other reasons. So the US squandered what sympathy it had been given. This is almost not worth commenting on.

I despair over how things will go from here, in part because there aren't many tools around for sorting through the issues. A "war on terror" is an unintelligible concept; you can't wage war on an abstract concept or strategy, and terror, anyway, is always what's experienced on the other side of any violence. Yet nobody's going to frame it for popular consumption as a war on radical Islam, because you never know who's going to subsequently want to identify as a radical Muslim even out of spite, and so get drawn into the fray.

If we do keep using the word "terrorism", though, I don't know if the relationship between it and poverty is quite clear, either; people with the means to do the really whacked stuff often enough (cf. the 9/11 characters) come from positions of extraordinary affluence, against the backdrop of the often really dire poverty in their home countries. I think it's of the same stuff that drives people into fundamentalism of any stripe (Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Sikh, etc.) - existential insecurity. They are in the process, for want of better words, of losing their shit. They're hopelessly full of themselves, which means the reality of other people fades from view, and they can annihilate them without losing any sleep over it.

Conversely, you see in the way people threw themselves into the rescue efforts that day precisely the opposite thing - altruistic concern for others. That's what I always hoped would prevail. Unfortunately, again, I think it was horrible squandered and lost amid all that insecurity that was deliberately cultivated in the days afterwards, and flushed decisively down the tubes when the sights were turned on Iraq.

[Birdy]

I remember watching footage of an airport in saskatchewan or somewhere... where they were interviewing people stuck at the airport and asking them their thoughts... one guy said he wanted to nuke the entire world outside of north america.

i woke up just in time to catch the second plane hit the tower live. that, by far, was the oddest day of my existence. i still don't know what to think.

[Davey Boy 2.0]

I can't help but think that the most crass and nauseating fallout is the american gov't using that day's events as an opportunity. I think that that is the most insulting aspect of the loss of life on that day, a slap in the face to those who died

I also think that the whole story will never be fully revealed, that there are things that just don't make sense about it— I wouldn't go so far as to say that the gov't was somehow complicit but there are too many question marks and that in itself shameful

the other sad thing that comes to mind is that americans, long known for being (very generally)self involved, self centred and ignorant of the rest of the world are moreso now— there are many exceptions to this rule of course but i think we can all see the trend

[Hux]

Until Bush is gone, I really don't think this event will come full circle.

Hopefully a Democrat is elected President and the world can take a long-overdue deep breath of relief.

I think it's been a worse case scenario/reaction by the US Gov't since 9/11, but despite that, I think the world can still turn a corner.

[M.O.B.E]

Must See TV.... this link is for Loose Change. I cant not put this up, as today should be a day for truth not sensationalizing the lies already told. The dead at least deserve that much.

[Sunshine]

I spent about 4 hours last night watching different shows on 9/11. I was so saddened and recall the way I felt 5 years ago.

I was working at Talimsan Mtn. Ski Resort, and there was a small TV in the back office. Someone got word that something was happening in New York. We all rushed to the TV. 15 people stood around the TV, goosebumps, tears, fears......

I ran to the phone and called my Mom and Dad....I was nervous and needed to hear their voices. Then I went back to the TV.....oh my god....a second plane....once again.....I called my mom and dad.

Talisman is near the Meaford army base and I remember hearing the large military planes flying overhead. More fear set in......is something happening in Canada....or is the Military just in the air practising....coincindence??

My heart goes out to all the families who lost their friends and family. Also to all the people on First Response who worked for months trying to clean up the disaster, and to all those people who are now developing serious health conditions due to the toxic air they had to breath in.

[YearsAlongTheSea]

I was in Colorado at the time and had no idea what was going on until I got to work and and noticed everything was silent but for the television playing and a somber atmosphere with few people crying, consoling, etc...

I was told what happened and to go home yet it still didn't really hit me. I got home and woke up my roomates to tell them and we gathered around a computer (only media source in house) and it all sank in. I spent a good portion of my life living in a commuter town 45 minutes outside NYC so I began to worry and think of whom I might know that may have worked in the twin towers or had family that did. I called my friend who lived in Brooklyn. I called my dad who worked at 7th and 50-something at the time but all the phone circuits were busy. This is when it really began to sink in that this was a fucking crisis and a half. I know a few acquaintances from high school that perished or had family that died in the attack. It was kind of surreal as nothing had ever happened at this level on US soil before.

As days passed and the Administration reacted, I became slightly sickened and scared. The war on terror exploded from the loins of the White House and being a resident of the US would never be the same again. I saw 'Support our Troops' stickers pasted to bumpers alongside oversized American flags with a new onset of nationality that was cult-like. As time passed even further and I saw my rights as a resident being thrown out the window I tried to scale the event by contrasting it to other massacres that have happened and continue to happen in overlooked corners of the world and the realization came to me that this event, while terrible, paled in comparison to other events that had passed yet, stirred up so much larger a response. It almost seemed hipocrytical at the time and still does. What makes America so special that it can't rationally respond to such an event without overstepping its' boundaries; physically, socially and politically?

By that time, I was no more than bitter that Al Queda had provided the catalyst, and American had provided the calculated response to manifest a World War III.

So, when I look back at 9/11, I'm sad for the losses as one would be berieved in any comparible situation. I'm also angry that the US and the world's lack of loin to stand up to the Bush Administration, has milked the events of what happened five years ago today, to wage and unending, oil slicked, religious war.

Sorry for the rant, but that's how I feel about 9/11.

[Birdy]

YATS - a good post.

[edger]

Conversely, you see in the way people threw themselves into the rescue efforts that day precisely the opposite thing - altruistic concern for others. That's what I always hoped would prevail.

I was watching portions of a program yesterday on the Twin Towers (I believe it was put on by National Geographic... not sure). Anyhow, one of the stories told was about this man (I didn't get the details on his 'position of employment'), however he had NUMEROUS opportunities to get out of the towers alive. Yet he was determined to just reach one more floor after floor to help those that were trapped or in need of assistance. The total number of people that he saved that day is undetermined, but there appeared to be many. He never made it out alive himself.

I was sooo choked. I wondered to myself, how would I have reacted if I had been this man's wife? On the one hand I would have been proud of his heroic and selfless efforts...on the other hand I would have been devastated and mighty pissed that he chose not to come to his family that day (or atleast knowingly took that calculated risk). Unbelievable actions on the part of normal, everyday people!!! I can only dream or wish that I would react with the same degree of selflessness, unwavering humanity in the same situation. I couldn't help but doubt my own integrity...

[Ms.Huxtable]

Five years sure goes by quickly doesn't it? I had just started working for the company I am still with. There was a lot of people running around very aggetated and then everyone went into the boardroom where we watched the events unfold on the TV. I couldn't believe what I was witnessing, it seemed surreal.

Because our building is fairly close to Parliament Hill and the American Embassy, our Emergency Services department told us all to go home. I couldn't. My first instinct was to go to the Red Cross and donate blood. Looking back I know that seems of little to no help, but I was compelled.

When I did make it home, I was glued to the television for days. I remember crying and wishing there was something I could do.

In the days and weeks that followed I watched the American government act like heros and receive an incredible amount of praise for the way they handled the aftermath of 9/11. Bush went to the site and gave a speech, he hugged countless family members and the Democrats and Replublicans sang the Star Spangled Banner together. It was all very camera friendly, and I suppose the American people needed that.

For the Bush administration to use 9/11 as the explaination for the Iraq war is obviously as ludicrous to all of you as it is to me. I'm sick of hearing that this is a war on terror. It's not only a media ploy that undermines the intellegence of American citizens and the rest of the world, but it cheapens the tragedy of September 11th and the deaths of all those people.

Bush has done irreparable damage to this globe.

[timouse]

For the Bush administration to use 9/11 as the explaination for the Iraq war is obviously as ludicrous to all of you as it is to me. I'm sick of hearing that this is a war on terror. It's not only a media ploy that undermines the intellegence of American citizens and the rest of the world, but it cheapens the tragedy of September 11th and the deaths of all those people.

Bush has done irreparable damage to this globe.

amen.

i spent a great deal of the day in the waiting room of a GM dealership hoping that they would eventually fix my car and let me go home.

CNN was on the TV, and within an hour of the buildings falling, they were split-screen showing a live press conference from afghanistan and a loop of the crash/collapse. the audio feed from the press conference was unintelligible, and it struck me that this would beceme the dominant media riff, the connection between muslims and 9/11.

it struck me that they had the names of the hijackers awfully quickly after it happenned as well. i have heard mumblings about the hijackers not being on the original flight manifests and revised versions being put out later in the day.

as sharon said, the use of 9/11 as a pretext for invading iraq pretty much clinched in my mind the idea that we were being had...well, still are being had.

democrats in 2008!!!

[M.O.B.E]

For the Bush administration to use 9/11 as the explaination for the Iraq war is obviously as ludicrous to all of you as it is to me. I'm sick of hearing that this is a war on terror. It's not only a media ploy that undermines the intellegence of American citizens and the rest of the world, but it cheapens the tragedy of September 11th and the deaths of all those people.

Bush has done irreparable damage to this globe.

I couldnt agree more, especially with

it cheapens the tragedy of September 11th and the deaths of all those people

thus the reason for my previous posts in this thread.

[afro poppa]

I was in class (Grade 11 English) and I remember my friend coming in a little late and telling me planes crashed into the WTC. It didn't really sink in until I went home later that day and watched it all on the news. I didn't really understand any of it at the time and I guess I still don't. One of the most horrible things I have ever seen is watching people jump to the their deaths from the WTC windows, before it collapsed...if for people that was a better way out it must've been hell inside.

I remember reading quotes from people who were on the phone calling their loved ones one last time before they died, and I just cried. I pictured someone calling me to say they were about to die...awful. At least some of them got to say good bye.

[show---whore]

[YearsAlongTheSea]

Wow, you're an asshole.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

it struck me that this would beceme the dominant media riff, the connection between muslims and 9/11....

I remember too that video of the people celebrating in Palestine (aka the "woman with the funny glasses" clip), which turned out to have been stock footage from at lrast a year or two earlier.

[Birdy]

WHY?

[YearsAlongTheSea]

In other news, Canada just sent 15 tanks and 120 more troops to Afghanistan. When? Today. So why don't you just burn yourself Show-Whore, you ignorant fuck...

[Hux]

Harper going on TV tonight, pretty presidential/Bushy if you ask me - doesn't this guy get it?!?