We remember what happened, we remember the horror, we remember where we were when we heard about it, we remember the nonstop news coverage, we remember those people desperately looking down from so high up and knowing they would die, we remember all those firemen who ran up those stairways to heaven, we remember those who got home to phone messages from loved ones they'd never speak to again, we remember families torn apart, we remember so much. And we remember who did this.
Please share anything you might like to share. Mr. and Mrs. Z were living in Paris, France. As amazingly kind as the French in our neighborhood were to us, we got to see nothing of the patriotism here I have heard about that was engendered by this disaster. I remember wishing I had.
May God be with us all.
z
42 comments:
A Wry Memorial
The Swarthy Ones took over;
And made weapons of four planes.
The riders had no cover;
They suffered dreadful pains
That ended once their deathtraps
Burst into roaring flres
Turning instantly to mere scraps–––
Cinders––made of former flyers.
The burning towers crumpled,
And fell into the street.
New York was more than rumpled;
Briefly, it knew defeat.
The nation drew together
We felt collective grief.
Anger broke its tether;
To express it gave relief.
But only six years hence
We're at each other's throats;
We've built ourselves a fence
Over which the Devil gloats.
We've failed to give the orders
To build a proper wall
Sealing off our borders
To fiends who'd make us fall.
Instead, we've made division ––
Went to war against ourselves ––
And are mired in derision
Sparked by partisan elves,
Who forget this blessed land
In pursuit of powers lost
In close elections manned
By fraud, they say. So tempest-tossed
The country is in turmoil.
The enemy's our own.
He says it's all for Big Oil,
And he'll soon usurp the Throne.
The heap of twisted rubble
Raising toxic fumes for weeks
No longer gives us trouble
Because of media leaks
Designed to throw us off the scent
Of whom we need to blame
And encourage ruinous dissent
That hopes to break the frame
That holds us all together
And preserves our liberty,
So many now doubt whether
We really should be free.
And each rabble rousing louse
Should 'neath these words be pinned:
"He who troubleth his own house
Shall inherit–––the wind."
~ FreeThinke 9/11/08
Thank you, FT.
I'm just so glad that we didn't shrink back like we had for the attacks leading up to this.
z, why was I censored. I didn't swear and I made no personal attacks.
Is that the kind of site you run?
Ducky...you know the kind of site I run. I have fantastic commenters here and am honored and very happy about that. You have participated mightily in big differences of opinion, which I welcome, with fj and beamish and Pops, for example.
But, lately, since Palin you've become like CNN or MSNBC....I don't watch Keith Olbermann and I won't have 'him' here in you, Ducky. I've told you that.
Calling America's actions after 9/11 'jingoism' in such a biting manner like you did today is too much for any blog, especially today and I won't have it here.
Am contemplating Haloscan soon..no problem......you'll be banned as well as a few others who I welcome here if they stop insulting or doing whatever I feel has to go. It's my site...everyone who's got a blog keeps reminding me that I call the shots.....This is like my house, Ducky...I welcome people who are polite and don't grate on me. That's what I'm running here. Thanks.
To say I will never forget this day as long as I live, is so tame and small.
Watching the towers go down, hearing newscasters say another plane was in the air , listening to the course being described, I realized it was most likely heading toward Washington, DC.
The realization of being attacked, taken to war, hit me.
First I was stunned, then I reacted with tears at the horror and then that cold hard feeling came over me.
I got calm and knew something..that we had to go get the bad guys.
Folks, do not be lulled , today there are still bad guys out there.
They have not changed their desires.
Stay vigilant and be ready.
WVDOTTR
Back in 2001, we had planned to go visit relatives 2 or 3 days after 9-11 had happened.
We kept to our plans and did that.
It was sort of strange, seemed to me, and every place , one saw cars and trucks with AMerican Flags or other symobols of our country, prominently displayed.
People who passed by you in traffic or any other situation really looked at you, looked into your face , at your eyes.
That searching , questioning glance, not disrespectful, just questioning..who are you, friend or foe?
And as we drove towards our destination, I marveled at how beautiful this country is .
I thought to myself, no way can I allow this place to be taken away, to be destroyed.
I only hope I have the courage in me to make my fellow country men proud, should the need arise to take some action.
WVDOTTR
I was in the jungle of Venezuela. I posted my story today as well.
I remember the stark disbelief on people's faces... the realization that what happened could always happen... in the past, the present, and the future. That was a big digestion for anyone (and there were so many) that had formerly believed we were somehow insulated from the threats. I remember the empty, silent and jetless skies. I remember the brief unity of America... and then the sleep and complacency, and finally the contempt that the lefties quickly returned to.
Never, ever forget.
God bless you, Z.
It was Pearl Harbor all over again. Those who believe they have the right to rule the world has to take us out first and that was the first blow of a failed attempt. They will try again.
I was working as a nurse aide in obstetrics, and had just finished up a 12 hour night shift. I went home and went to bed.
I remember my husband waking me, telling me that I had to see the news. It was unbelievable.
Later that night, I went back to work. The usual anticipation and joy at the birth of children was now mixed with uncertainty and tension. It took awhile for that to fade away.
WV DOTTR....great sentiment. How many of us WILL have that in us? It's there....I pray we never have to really show it. but......
JM....everyone should visit your site...especially today; what a story.
Infidel: thanks SO much. Same to you. Funny you should mention planeless skies. About 2 yrs after 9/11, I was taking a walk in the neighborhood and suddenly heard a small plane overhead...I guess they'd closed certain air paths down because it stunned me as if "Gee...something's different!" (we live near a small plane airport) I then saw another female walker and she was looking up, too. She said "isn't that odd?" I admitted it was and wondered at that...only then did I realize we hadn't had planes overhead in a long enough time that the sound of them now made two women wonder about it! We looked at each other, complete strangers, and remembered 9/11 and WHY we hadn't heard planes for a while.
Shoprat: I'm sure they're planning now, as they see the NYSlimes blow our cover and read liberal blogs saying Republicans are using terrorism as a political ploy. My teeth grind, don't yours?
Brooke..If I were ever in the hospital, I'd be praying you or Chuck were there. thanks, sweetie.
It was an awful day. We picked up our girls from school because we didn't know what else would happen and we wanted them close to us.
I watched the horrible images for hours on end and didn't cry, I couldn't cry because I was consumed by rage. It was well over a week before I shed the first
tear.
Even now, 7 years later, I can't see a movie with the Twin Towers standing proud without feeling like I had been gutpunched and the rage returns.
I don't think that feeling of rage will ever go away.
Re: BROOKE...her blog has an excellent tribute; please check it out.
And she said something I couldn't agree with more...something to the effect of "Let's build the buildings back up as they were, better up to code...but the same buildings..all of them." I'd love that.
As I said at her site; I like it just as it was.
My son and I were sleeping in and the phone kept ringing off the hook...I finally got up and shoved it under the couch cushion. I decided I better answer it and my husband was on the other end telling me to turn on the television we were under attack... I turned on the tv just in time to see the towers fall. I remember screaming "O My Gosh there are people in there!" it was surreal...the next day the scouts in our neighborhood put up as many flags as the eye could see. It was amazingingly haunting and inspiring. :)N
at the time we were living in texas about two miles from nasa. mr. j was on his way to a training class and called me to say "hey is something going on - i can't tell if the guys on the radio are cutting up or if something's really wrong." so i turned on the news as they were showing the burning tower and then the second plane crashed into the wtc. i said "something is really wrong. please come home." he did.
my oldest was in her freshman year of high school and so was no longer home with me as a matter of coarse. she had left the house about an hour before (school started at 07:02cdt and was already in her second class for the day when they made the announcement about the wtc.
at that point, katerina started packing up her stuff and when challenged by the teacher she said "my mom's coming to get me and i need to be ready to go." the teacher argued with her, but sure enough about 5 minutes later they were calling her to office and telling her to bring her stuff with her because she was going home.
i could not bear to not have my children around me. i cried all day and for days after that. to this day when i see pictures of the wtc in movies i will often start crying all over again.
kat and maybe jesse (he was in 6th grade at the time) understood, but tatiana had no clue. she understands now. i keep a picture of the towers draped with the u.s. flags on my computer desktop to remind me of something i will never forget.
DOVER BEACH (1851)
The sea is calm to-night.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand;
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the A gaean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
~ Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)
Submitted by FreeThinke
The most eloquent, beautifully written, evocative lament and evaluation of human nature I know. An elegy in the truest sense of the word. Written a good ten years before our Civil War Dover Beach never fails to send chills up and down my spine. - FT
As I read the comments of others here there are tears running down my face. I have stood on top of those towers and have felt the wind blow through my hair as I gazed across the New York skyline and felt the towers sway beneath me. The towers themselves were nothing short of awesome. When all that runs through your mind and then you begin to realize how many Americans were silenced forever that day........it's too much.
thanks for sharing your stories, everyone.
And your wonderful poem by Arnold, FT.......amazing.
Pops is right. I had dinner at THE WINDOWS ON THE WORLD years ago, not long after they opened, I think... so I know what it was like to be inside......I remember arriving at the WTC for dinner that night and looking WAAAAAAY up, I had NO IDEA how high they were! Honestly, I said to myself "THAT is HIGH! I hope the restaurant's on the ground floor...but why would they, with the view they must have up there?"
Afterwards, for years, I teased about how "you could polish your nails in that elevator ride and they'd be dry by the time you finally reached the top"
The view was SO big and panoramic, and you felt SO divorced from it because everything's SO SO far down there, that you felt like it was one of those view wallpapers plastered around the room.
I met the manager that night (my cousin who took me wrote for a Restaurant mag. in NYC) and told him the painting on the wall was a strange choice..it was a blank canvas which had a very large fire ball in bright orange in the center of it....I said "It's off putting to think of fire when you're this high up in an office building" He said many had said the same sentiment and they were taking it down.
I always wondered if they did.
So, my connection was with a painting and a building.
What I can't look at, but feel I MUST, is the shots of people contemplating jumping that day....how far down it is.
I cry, too, Pops....hard.
I got up that fateful morning, and turned on the TV news as I always do and saw the smoke rising from the WTC. My husband came in the room and we wonderd what had happened.
Of course it wasn't long before we learned the terrible news of the brutal, evil attack on our nation.
I sat stunned, numb. Unable for some time to assimilate what I was seeing and hearing. My husband, much the same. Finally, "I said oh my God how can this be?" and "today, we are all New Yorkers". "This is an attack on us all". "We are at war".
Then the tears came, for both of us. I thought about our children and grandson, and what the future may hold for them.
As I watched the people as they fell to their deaths, I became inconsolable. It was simply a horror too terrible to comprehend.
Then came the anger. Then the determination and resolve of the President. We were Americans and we would fight this evil in our midst. Our President would rise to this challenge and I was proud of him and grateful for him.
I will never forget that day, nor take America for granted. Our country will stand as long as we are willing to stand up for her.
Today, my heart is heavy.
God bless America.
Pris
This we pledge to the memory of everyone who lost their lives on 9/11/2001, and their families, we will never, ever forget!
The local VFD had all their engines, ladders, and volunteers on an overpass over I-95 waving American flags and and arms at passing motorists today... as they do every 9/11... to remind us of the patriotic outpouring exhibited in the weeks following that tragic event. I suspect that the American flags that decorate the overpasses throughout our country will likely be refreshed in the upcoming week.
I love this country.
Talk about love of country!
How better could we have all described it here than we have?
like family
I think one of the most haunting images is the people jumping/falling to their deaths. I remember thinking how long they would be falling and the horror they must have been feeling. Sadly the lucky ones were probably those at the impact site.
I remember getting phone calls from friends asking me what was happening. I remember wondering how many more planes would come down. I remember cradling my first born in terror. I remember knowing that our lives were forever changed.
Thanks for posting this, Z.
We visited NYC six months after the murders of 9/11. Words cannot describe...
i was a new mother to a 6 week old, and was supposed to go to the dr.'s office for the post-delivery visit. i got a call, saying that they were cancelling the visit.
not having watched tv, i asked why it was cancelled. they were horrified that i asked.
i called my husband at work, made him come home to be with his wife and child, and i just sat in a rocking chair holding my newborn.
i remember thinking, "what kind of world have i brought this child into?" after having already buried a baby less than two years prior, i was now horrified with the thought of my baby boy having to grow up in this world of horrific terrorism.
thanks be to God, and the men and women who serve our country in office and the military, who have kept us all safe since 9/11.
z, thanks for the post.
I remember watching it on the news with my wife when we lived in L.A. We watched in disbelief, and spent time on the phone trying to contact friends in NY.
I remember some of the stories I heard on the news or read in the paper. People accidentally sleeping in and being late for work in the towers, people in the airplanes calling their loved ones to speak with them one last time, fire fighters running INTO the building as everyone was running out, ... you've heard them all.
What currently bothers me about this is, for some reason, we are restricted to talking about this horrific event on only one day of the year (by politicians and others who want us to forget about it). We should be encouraged to remind people about this tragedy often, so that it doesn't happen again.
I remember that morning like as if it was yesterday, my children and husband had just finished singing me "Happy Birthday" when we turned the TV on, the first airplane had already crashed, and the TV Broadcaster said "viewers, this is not a movie, this is not fiction, this is real, we are under attack." I still get chills when I remember that morning!
Birthday has never been the same. Can't change the date so in memory and out of respect, we now celebrate it on the 12th.
Thank u Z...Just got home from Ground Zero..will post about it soon..blessings to u. :)..stay strong.
i remember every detail of that morning. one day i will tell it to my boy who was only 1 at the time. We were waiting for the next attack as the day progressed, they seemed to come every few hours.
i often thought of the people in the planes, knowing they were about to die. the moms with their kids, trying to calm fears when they know what was about to happen.
may it never happen again...
Chuck...those are the pictures that haunt me the absolutely most...People standing there, leaning out, looking down... the ones where they're in midair.
well...it's unimaginable. almost unspeakable, isn't it.
m.a...when are you moving back to LA!? (smile) Yes, you'd THINK any normal country would make a big thing out of this day, Olbermann thinks we should never mention it......except if a lefty does.
me! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! My bro-in-law has this birthday, too.....must be hard.
salubrina...I'm so sorry about your little one and I hope and dream this America will be like the one WE know (knew?) when your boy is grown.
Woman..I'll look forward to your post on the site visit....
kris..thanks for coming by. Imagine having got home and heard your husband on the message machine? imagine missing that call? Maybe it was a mercy. sort of.
God bless and keep them all.....it's unthinkable.. yet it happened. and to US.
I just emailed Priscilla, who had emailed that she was so touched by ALL these wonderful comments...it's like we all share a relative, a dear Grandmother, in common, and her name is America.
I love this country SO much and it sure comes through that you all do, too.
Please share anything you might like to share.
Video I made.
America came together on 9/11.
The right-wing didn't have to change a position to do so.
WORDSMITH.......EVERYBODY should watch your video. It's just AMAZING.
thanks so much. xx
Z - It appears that we each have intensely personal experiences which, in a larger sense, are shared by everyone who is an American.
When the first plane struck, my immediate reaction was confusion and disbelief, but I chose to cling to the tremendous hope that I had witnessed a horrible accident, with neither malice nor intent as the cause. But, as the moments passed, my hope quickly diminished.
The second plane turned my doubts into a stark certainty that this world would never again be the same. Let us never forget the sadness of that morning - and may we always remember to tell those whom we love how much we love them, everyday and at every opportunity. There is no greater regret in life than those words left unspoken.
Killers
I am singing to you
Soft as a man with a dead child speaks;
Hard as a man in handcuffs,
Held where he cannot move:
Under the sun
Are sixteen million men,
Chosen for shining teeth,
Sharp eyes, hard legs,
And a running of young warm blood in their wrists.
And a red juice runs on the green grass;
And a red juice soaks the dark soil.
And the sixteen million are killing. . . and killing
and killing.
I never forget them day or night:
They beat on my head for memory of them;
They pound on my heart and I cry back to them,
To their homes and families, dreams and games.
I wake in the night and smell the trenches,
And hear the low stir of sleepers in lines--
Sixteen million sleepers and pickets in the dark:
Some of them long sleepers for always,
Some of them tumbling to sleep tomorrow for always,
Fixed in the drag of the world's heartbreak,
Eating and drinking, toiling. . . on a long job of killing.
Sixteen million men.
~ Carl Sandburg (1078-1967)
Submitted by FreeThinke
miradena, thanks for coming by and commenting so beautifully. That is surely an important piece of advice. One never knows what the future will bring.
FT...thanks... very fine poetry, indeed.
September 11, 2001, the worst day in our history.
September 11, 2001, the best day in our history.
September 11, 2001, the day all Americans became one and even people who had absolutely no idea what "patriotism" meant, displayed it, and 300,000,000 Americans shed enough tears to create a river.
Isn't it a shame how many have forgotten already?
Joe
It still shakes me to the core every time I see anything on it.
God bless America!
Thanks for taking the time to watch that video, z. In case you missed it, here's last year's.
Death Be Not Proud
by John Donne
(1572-1631)
DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
Submitted by FreeThinke
Check out this amazing 9/11 account.
EVERYONE...please we Wordsmith's link...it's UNREAL.
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