Third Anniversary of 9/11

C-Fan · Post by **C-Fan** » 09 Sep 2004 23:42

So tomorrow is the third anniversary of 9/11.

As a New Yorker, it`s still hard for me to come to grips with that day. I remember so clearly waking up that morning to a phone call from my girlfriend, who was hysterical and crying on the phone about `the end of the world` and not being able to reach her father on the phone. I instinctually tried to calm her down, and checked the New York Times online to figure out what was going on. By this time it was already pretty late, like 10 am or so, and both planes had hit. It was real clear it wasnt just an accident. I call my folks, cause there was a good chance my Mom had gone to work that day at the UN (where there was a bomb threat), but I cant get through. My mind cycles through all my friends who are still in the city, and tries to think if any of them are near downtown. I think about my crying girlfriend, who, like myself, was at college, so far away from where our hometown was being attacked. I think about how wonderful it was to watch the sunset from `windows on the world` on the top floor of the WTC at our prom.

It took a couple weeks, but eventually I learned that all my family and friends were OK. But I`ll never forget that period of not knowing. September 11th still reminds me to tell my friends and family that I really love them. Cause man, you never know when shit will happen, and they won`t be there for you to tell them how you feel.

I don`t have Sept 11th nightmares as much anymore, but I`ve definitely had more than a few. It still produces emotions in me that I`m surprised to have.

I read this story today in the NY times (free registration required, no spam): http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/10/nyreg ... mpers.html
It really reminded me of how I felt that day. How incredibly horrible it was. I`m a pacifist, and I really don`t believe in violence, but I have to admit: I supported Bush bombing the fuck out of Afghanistan. You don`t hear people talk about Osama Bin Laden much these days, but that`s just because he got away, and its embarassing to the US that we didn`t get him. I have a lot of problems with President Bush, but easily one of my biggest is how he fucked up the response to 9/11. Fuck Iraq, Iraq didn`t bomb my hometown. Invading Iraq meant letting OBL get away, and for no reason. That`s a fucking travesty.

I don`t really know what`s the point of this post... I guess I just wanted to let it out a bit. If you take anything away from this, let it be this: take advantage of your time, and let your loved ones know how you feel.

PS- I don`t want this to become a political thread. I don`t even know if I want this to become a thread at all. In fact, I`m horrified at the prospect of politicians using 9/11 for political gain. But that`s already happening, with the Republican convention in town, and Cheney claiming that terrorists are more likely to attack America if Kerry is elected. I dunno, as a New Yorker, I can`t say I think the Bush administration did a very good job against terrorists before 9/11, and I especially think they fucked up after 9/11. I guess you can post your 9/11 feelings here if you want, but try and stay away from the political.

max · Post by **max** » 10 Sep 2004 00:14

I remember I was schooling at home for an exam, listening to some music on the radio. In between two songs they calmly announced that they heard a plane had crashed in one of the twin towers. I honestly thought it was the DJ just joking around, talking shit. Still I switched on the TV because if a plane had hit the twin towers then SURELY it'd be on television. Nothing on the 6 public channels still airing their mid-afternoon crap.. I get back to studuying. 5 minutes later the DJ announces that the news HAS been confirmed and a plane DID crash into one of the twin towers. So I switch the TV back on.. surf around those six channels until 5 minutes later the breaking news is aired.. by one channel quickly followed by the other 5.

It was just absolutly surreal. When I mean surreal I mean "very hard to believe". It looked more like a movie than actual real footage. I'd lived in New York previously for 4 years and had been in the twin towers on several occasions with my family, and here I was just watching this massive tower with a huge smoking hole in it.

Then again that was nothing compared to when the second plane hit. LIVE. I was horrified. It was just crazy, listening to the news casters speculating away when suddenly a second plane just appears and heads straight for the second tower!! That's when "terrorist attacks" started being said A LOT. I immediatly called friends and relatives that were in the NYC area to check up on them (thankfully all were safe).

France like most of the world talked about these events non-stop for months on end. Never had the US gained as much sympathy from the rest of the world. I'm not quite sure as to what happenned next.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 10 Sep 2004 01:20

I had just finished reading "The Running Man" by Richard Bachman (Stephen King) where the hero flies a plane into the head quaters of the nasty corporate empire company - giving the CEO the finger while his guts are hanging out at the end (one of my top 5 favourite books) - went to bed, was woken up shortly afterwards by my brother calling to let us know. I got up watched tv for a while then went back to bed.

It was pretty scary seeing it happen like half an hour after I had read something very similar. My brother was at a camp and they had just finished watching Snatch. There had been much debate earlier about if they should watch that or Fight Club.

I must say that while I thought it was a tragic event at the time for the individuals, I had hardly any sympathy for the US in general since in those days I was much more hardcore anti american and thought it was about time they experienced what they were happy to make other countries experience.

full nelson · Post by **full nelson** » 10 Sep 2004 09:13

Jeremy wrote:I had hardly any sympathy for the US in general since in those days I was much more hardcore anti american and thought it was about time they experienced what they were happy to make other countries experience.

Your extremist views can make you a real asshole sometimes. I figured your no death penalty, no war mind would be against any sort of violence on such a scale, but it seems your biased judgements toward our country have turned you into a hypocrite.

It's good to know that you thought it was "about time" that we, being american, experienced death like that. It sure did solve the problem...

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 10 Sep 2004 09:40

yeah well my opinions have definitly changed since then and I definitly have a lot more sympathy for the US as a nation than I did at that stage. I always had sympathy for the people involved but that's not the same thing at all. I guess at that stage while I was much less of a pacifist than I am now. I believed that there are causes worth killing for and although I wasn't sure if the s11 attacks were one of those causes, I guess I still believed in "justice" and vengence.

These days I don't really believe in either of those to a great extent. I certainly don't believe in retaliation attacks - which is basically what I still see s11 as - not an out of the blue attack at all, but a retaliation from people that feel like they are oppressed by the US and have no means of changing that oppression other than improvised attacks on the US - They have no army, no weapons nothing to fight with except the unconventional. But I've realised come to realise a. that retaliation achieves nothing and more than that, that violence achieves nothing, and b. that if I'm opposed to the retaliation attacks from the US, Israel and Russia, I also have to be opposed to the retaliation attacks from those opposed to those nations. I am now a complete pacifist and don't support violence under any situation.

I guess also in those days I hardly knew anybody in the US - I wasn't playing footbag - which is where most of the people I know in the US come from. I did however know a number of people who were very hardcore anti americans - much more than me - some of them lived in Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, Cuba and other countries that have felt the brunt of US oppression and hearing the horrible storiest that they had to say really turned me against the US - I guess in the same way that the media now demonises "terrorists" and other people opposed to US imperialism.

Anyway these days I have very different views than I used to. One of the realisations I've come to is that there is no way of knowing if I'm right, or if anybody else is. While I believe that the way I would deal with the problem is best, I think it's unlikely that it is. So I think it's important to have has much discussion as possible, to analyse all the different views and to look for solutions that don't force your views onto other people. For example going to war in Iraq is forcing the US views onto the Iraqi people - many of which don't want this to happen. The s11 attacks were forcing views onto the people killed and effected. I don't believe it's possible to come up with satisfactorary outcomes to any situation where one party is forced into something by the other.

Anyway I could talk about this all night but it's 3:40 am so I'm going to bed.

I hope I didn't offened you Brad with my last post - those were the feelings I had at the time of the attacks - they are not my present feelings. I'd rather be honest about how I felt then than pretend that how I feel now is the same as how I've always felt.

Muffinman · Post by **Muffinman** » 10 Sep 2004 10:04

It's my brother's birthday tomorrow. I was at school the day it happened. I was outside the main Fine Arts office and all the smokers were just standing around by the stairs talking about it. I didn't even understand. They said there were TV's set up all over campus so people could see what was happening. I went home and we had my brother's birthday dinner -- more glancing into the other room for updates on what was happening than actually paying attention to my brother. I didn't know what happened until, like, a year later. It didn't really affect me directly in any way at the time.

It's really sad that the people in authority allow these things to happen (ie: going to war). I'm not very religious but the apocalypse has to start somewhere, right?...

sandman420 · Post by **sandman420** » 10 Sep 2004 10:54

9/11. Wow. What a day. I remember it like it was fucking yesterday man.

Woke up next to me EX girlfriend. We lived together down in College Station TX, a VERY conservative town. Funny thing was - I WAS also conservative at that time. Her sister called and woke us up. I could hear my g-friend next to me saying someting like "What someone flew a plane into the WTC?" "I Bet the pilot was drunk" Then we got out of bed and turned the TV on and immediately saw the 2nd plane hit LIVE. Wow.

Needless to say the rest of the day was speculations and hysteria and what not. Sad day, lots of innocent people died. Close to 3,000 I believe. One statement I would like to make is that in Iraq the current CIVILIAN BODY COUNT (IE Innocent Civilians) Is between 11,793 ~ 13,802. Now, I cant really understand this at all. I mean, this war has against terrorism is doing nothing but killing poeple. Lots more innocent people than the FUCKING TERRORISTS themselves. Does nobody understand this or see this or what. I cant get past this shit. Its not right. No innocent people need to die. Better yet, no one needs to die.

I am a patriotic man. But many wouldnt agree with you. This country DID stand for many great things. Sadly that has all fallen apart in the last 90 years or so. Every day this country becomes more of a global policeman, moral policeman, and just total marxist socialism.

Anyway thats some of my little thoughts right there

lightningbolt · Post by **lightningbolt** » 10 Sep 2004 10:56

It feels like yesterday. I rember it all so well. I remeber geting woken up at 5 am by my grandma. See, I had a great grandma who ws very sick at the time, so my thought jumped to her passing away. My grandma said, "Turn on your tv now!"

Freaked out, I ran into my sister room, turned on the t.v. and there was the pentango on fire. The were saying a small plane crash landed there, at the time. I went and woke up my family.

When I came back, my sister was in tears. The twin towers where on now. The kept saying that the thought the north one collasped (which it had). I just rember huddle up on the sofa. Think noway could this happen. This gotta be a mistake.

Then the second one fell. I swear, that was like a scene from a moive. Surreal. This was nomistake. This was for real. Then Don Rathers said, there was usally 20,000 people how work in thoes buildings alone. Thats when it really hit me. That alot of people died. Sounds chilidish but I just turned 12.

I took the dog for a walk with my mom and nobody was out. Like a ghost town. We usally see 5-10 people when we walk her. 9-11 we saw none. This is really happing I thought, this is not a dream. It was still dark out, but light were on in everybody house.

I was stupid. I thought this could never happen to us. I thought we were the most powerful country in the world. I thought we were the fucking Uinted Sates of America! Nobody could attacks inside our borders, I thought. We were to strong, to powerful. I belive that inside the U.S nobody could attack us. How worng I was.

I didn't go to school that day. I watched the news coverage all day. I shocked. People kept calling and making sure we are okay. We must have got 50 calls that day. It was crazy.

My dad's, who was in air guard, unit go delpoyed and he had to the guard headquaters, which douables as a bomb shealter. He stayed 6 days in there. He a public affairs officer and we would see him on T.V. talking about how all these troops got depolyed to go guard a ice chuck or something. I don't really know.

My sister taped some of the coverage. We have Bush's speeach on tape I belive. I not going to watch that for a long time. Brings back so much pain. The not knowing if were safe. Looking back, sbeing freaked for my onwn safty is stupid. Who the fuck going to attack in Alaska. No news people are up here. Nothing up here.

Nobody I knew died in the attack. But the plane that crashed was only a couple of miles from were my most of my family lives. They said they heard it crash.

It's just sad. Sorry if this is a little stupid but, I think it be better if I didn't edit it for stupid senctence. This is how I felt.

AIvanyo · Post by **AIvanyo** » 10 Sep 2004 18:12

I was too young to know what terrorists were when it happend. I was in school, there was a big assembly about it too. Did anyone know someone that was in the WTC? I did, my old baseball coach, he was pretty cool. Remember that one super-bowl where they showed all the names of the people that died during the half-time show? I saw his name there.

zachatree · Post by **zachatree** » 10 Sep 2004 18:43

I was in 8th grade, and was in sex ed watching a video like one with inside cameras while a couple were mateing. It was kinda cool in 8th grade, but the video turned off and the news was on. A screen with the tower in fire and smoking and replays of the plane it was nuts! My one english teacher told me later that day: "You will remember this day for the rest of your life, you all will, this is gonna change your lives for ever " so far she has been right. Just to go get my driver test it takes so much pain in the ass stuff bc of tarrist like involving my social security number, my card is lamanated and I had to go get a new one just to take my permit bc it was lamanated. I wish for peace, but wishing is all I can do to help.

Shaun · Post by **Shaun** » 10 Sep 2004 18:50

I remember I had gotten to school and like someone was saying that a plane had hit the twin towers.. And that is pretty much all I heard of it that day, until I got home and thats all they played for like the next week, but whatever.

Heres something to make you think about the attack on the pentagon.

http://www.freedomunderground.org/memor ... gon121.swf

Shaun · Post by **Shaun** » 11 Sep 2004 08:52

Sorry for making a double post and this post will probbably get bashed so much, but its my opinion so whatever.

I think 9/11 was a setup just to have an excuse to go over to Iraq and start a whole war thing to get the oil. I mean the planes that hit no one survived. And the media has been telling us that the people that crashed the planes were either from Afganastan or Iraq. But I think they really could have been americans. This way Bush could go and make a big deal about it and be like "Let's go be lame, go to Iraq and try and start a war and get over 1,000 of us killed. Also if any of you have seen the video I posted above it seems like the pentagon attack was set up. I mean look nice circle holes made in like 5 foot thick concrete walls. That doesn't happen from a Boeing 757. Also how any company near that had cameras set up and could have seen the missle hitting. The fbi was to those places within minutes and took the tapes. The video has never been released. You think that if they wanted to show what the planes did they would show the tapes, but no footage has ever been shown from those cameras.Also it is very easy for the media to just say "Hey, these foregin people crashed these planes" As for the plane that crashed in Pensilvania(sp? and if that is even the right place) Since it was said to hit the place where bush was at the time, it could have just been setup to show that they wanted Bush dead, just so they could go get the fucking oil.

This probbavbly sounds stupid coming from a 13 year old. But thought I should state my opinion.

Colin · Post by **Colin** » 11 Sep 2004 09:32

It sounds fine coming from a 13 year old. It would have sounded stupid coming from an adult.

It's great that you're brave enough to voice your opinions, even when their so far from the accepted norm. Just make sure that your opinions don't dominate your reasoning, and that you never defend them for just the sake of keeping them intact.

sandman420 · Post by **sandman420** » 11 Sep 2004 14:53

Newf wrote:It sounds fine coming from a 13 year old. It would have sounded stupid coming from an adult.

I disagree. There is much credible evidence that points to either a small military jet or cruise missile hitting the pentagon instead of a 757. Much much more than points to a 757 flying into it.

This does however raise much more scary possibilities that are hard to think about people actually doing.

lightningbolt · Post by **lightningbolt** » 11 Sep 2004 16:01

Shaun: Thanks for posting that video. I always like to hear both sides. It was brave of you to post that. Props.

The only question I have about the video is if it was a missile or something. What the hell happened to the flight that crashed into there?

My brother really into this conspircy crap. He conviced that Bush was behind the whole attacks and he goes to some place every months to have his sins washed away or something. He also thinks the plane that crashed was infact shot down and Bush made up "hero" story for a feel good story.

Personally, I think there are some werid facts. Distrubing facts about the events on 9-11. We will never know for sure what exataclty happened. So, I think it's best to mourn thoes who passed away that day, and move on. But keep that in the back of our minds.

Shaun · Post by **Shaun** » 11 Sep 2004 17:05

sandman420 wrote:
Newf wrote:It sounds fine coming from a 13 year old. It would have sounded stupid coming from an adult.
I disagree. There is much credible evidence that points to either a small military jet or cruise missile hitting the pentagon instead of a 757. Much much more than points to a 757 flying into it.

This does however raise much more scary possibilities that are hard to think about people actually doing.

Yah,I did say that I thought a missle hit it and not a 757. And Mellisa I am totally with your brother about the whole 9/11 thing. I am into alot of the conspiracy stuff to.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 11 Sep 2004 18:11

Shaun wrote:And the media has been telling us that the people that crashed the planes were either from Afganastan or Iraq.

If that's the case your media has been lieing to you! None of the people on any of the planes (terrorists or not) were from Afghanistan and I'm pretty sure none were from Iraq either. There is also a big difference between the country you come from and if that country supports what you are doing. Most of the people suspected of carrying out the attacks were from Saudi Arabia - It is possible that some of the government there supported the attacks but you would have to be really really stupid to go to war there and completely destroy your economy. Some of the terroists came from Egypt but I highly doubt that the Egyptian government would have had any support at all for such actions or the morals behind them. Many of them crossed into the US after living in Canada for a large period of time but I'm pretty sure the Canadian government was not helping or supporting them.

There are plenty of conspiracy theories about the events, but having looked into them, I think they're a load of crap. Planes are made as lightly as possible so that they can fly. If they were made out of lead it would take a great deal more energy to get them off the ground. People who have no idea about this and do not know much about physics or crashes might think that a plane didn't crash into the Pentagon. I've heard a number of plane crash experts take this theory apart and while I can't remember the details I find them much more believable than someone who has no idea what they're talking about, sees a picture of the Pentagon and thinks - "It doesn't look like a big plane crashed into that to me."

Shaun · Post by **Shaun** » 11 Sep 2004 18:48

I didn't know the exact countries. I knew it was somewhere over in the east. Thanks to the people that complimented me.

lightningbolt · Post by **lightningbolt** » 11 Sep 2004 19:17

I just remember something.

My brother is a wild forest firefighter. He was depolyed at some fire in cailforina on 9-11 and he says after the attacks, over 200 people came up to him and thanked him or baked him cookies.

Maybe that was off topic but whatever

james · Post by **james** » 11 Sep 2004 20:23

I played footbag on September 11th.