Every year, the most poignant memory I have of that awful, horrendous day is of the people jumping from the buildings......My heart's with the memory of them today.
My heart is also with those who happened not to be home when their loved ones called and left messages in their final few seconds or minutes......Having lost my Mr. Z 11 months ago yesterday, I can understand the huge sadness of that even better now than I have the last 9 years.
I have a ton more to say, but I can't make myself be political on the anniversary of 9/11.
What is the most poignant memory of 9/11 do you have?
God bless those people who perished, their families, and this great country.
z
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My memories in pictures are my post this year, because I'm so distressed by the recent disgraceful actions by certain politician(s) that I really didn't want to wade into my thoughts.
Like you, so much more to say... I have a half-written post that is waiting, to be finished or not we shall see...
I too will never forget the people jumping. What a place to be, that that is your choice.
I also will never forget the images of the Muslims celebrating in the streets.
Don't tell me I need to be more understanding, of the "Religion of Peace."
I pray that those who lost loved ones are healing, as well as can be...
poignant memory
My memory, besides the pics and video was instantly myself and business partner told all employees to halt work immediately and come watch the news.
We told them to go home and care for their loved ones now,no reprimand GO!
All knew we were under attack. We told them to get gas and water and if they had a weapon keep it at the ready as no one knew what was next.
You see, we in the Detroit Metro are are very close to Dearborn,MI a very large and consentrated population of Muslim Arabs and excuse the term but possibly an explosive situation in more ways than one.
Never Forget, Never Surrender as neither is an option.
I left the following comment over at GM's 9/11 thread:
I didn’t immediately know about the attacks because I was at the bank making a deposit before going to work.
Besides, back then, I didn’t even watch the morning news.
That day, we had a beautiful cerulean sky here in the D.C. area, so I was driving my Mustang convertible. I had a cassette tape in the tape deck — a book on tape, I think.
I arrived at the bank at 9:01 AM. The computers were running slowly, but nobody at the bank yet knew why.
When I arrived back home, I popped the cassette out of the tape deck and heard: “The White House is being evacuated. A plane has struck the Pentagon.”
Overhead, I could already hear the air cover roaring.
I rushed into the house, turned on the TV, and found out what was going on.
The air cover was still roaring overhead.
I turned on the water to fill the bathtub — something my mother always did in a crisis so that water would be on hand. Then I went upstairs and removed from the cedar chest the flag I from great uncle’s funeral at Arlington Cemetery all those decades ago. That flag had never been displayed before; it remained displayed on my front porch for about a month subsequent to 9/11.
I canceled classes for 9/11. Two of my students’ parents were unaccounted for! Thank God, they were both okay. One wouldn’t have been, however, had he not been called out of the Pentagon to go to the DOJ; his office at the Pentagon received the direct hit, and everyone in there perished.
I spent the next 14 hours after learning about the attacks in front of the television set. I saw the Twin Towers come down on live TV. Surreal!
I knew that what I was watching was an act of war.
Various talking heads appeared on news shows later in the day. I wrote down every name (Robert Spencer, Walid Phares, Steven Emerson, etc.) and went to the library the next day. I had to find out why somebody would do such an evil thing! Yes, I found out. Talk about a steep learning curve! I had never been much interested in politics, probably because my mother had been so interested in that very thing.
I didn’t sleep the night of 9/11 and not much for many nights after that, either.
I’ve been “on watch” ever since, but I didn’t begin blogging until nearly four years later. I had to much to learn before I was ready to open my mouth.
Since 9/11, I have visited all three sites attacked that day. I have cried and prayed at each site. My great uncle’s grave at Arlington Cemetery was covered with rubble for some time after 9/11. My Uncle Bill had served in WW1 and was wounded so badly that he could never work again. It really angered me to see rubble on his grave!
And now, whenever I see that cerulean sky overhead, it all comes back to me. We’ve been having beautifully blue skies the past several days here in the D.C. area. I don’t like blue skies anymore. Should air cover fly over, I still cringe.
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Not really poignant, but those are my most vivid memories of that day.
Note the children in that link that Beamish left.
Any ideology that can make children rejoice over the deaths of thousands is evil.
Here's mine from a 4-year old post -
Remembering 9/11
Always, you very poignantly said "And now, whenever I see that cerulean sky overhead, it all comes back to me. We’ve been having beautifully blue skies the past several days here in the D.C. area. I don’t like blue skies anymore. Should air cover fly over, I still cringe."
If I could describe the beauty of 9/11's day in Paris before we put CNN on!...it was indescribably beautiful and so abruptly everything changed.
Something I don't believe I've shared here is how hard I tried to get the FBI number so I could at least report the apartment across the street from ours..Arab after Arab arrived, pointed at a TV which seemed to be against the window wall, and they hugged and hit each other on the backs, rejoicing. This was in a very upperclass neighborhood and I tried to give them the credit; stupid me was clicking thru my remote looking for a soccer game they must have surely been watching which would have given a bunch of Arab men the same reaction, but alas...........they had to have been sharing their pride in having killed so many Americans.
I could find nothing by Googling that helped me know where Americans could find a number with which to report this. I felt very vulnerable and very impotent.
I too remember the people falling from the building when I think of the day. I think it made it human. A building being damaged is different, it's just a building. Watching humans fall seemed to make it more real.
Sadly when I think back of that horrific day, one thing that sticks in my mind is listening to that moron Brian Gumble right after the second plane flew into the second tower say "this could still be an accident"...
Nine years later and we're still letting Islam infiltrate America... Islam is not a religion of peace, and will not rest until they have instilled their Sharia Law world wide...
Please accept my appologies for that rant and may I say "God Bless everyone who died on that day and God Bless America"
My heart sank when the towers fell.
Anger. Burning anger at the pygmy culture that bought this horror to our nation. Today I'm numb. I don't understand the world any more and I don't understand our country. Islam did this and a Muslim sits in The White House. Politics aside its important to remember the solemnity of today. God Bless all those who were murdered. May HE comfort their loved ones. God Bless America. Johnnymac.
My most poignant memory came when I saw fat Muslim women dancing in the streets of Gaza passing out candy, yet we give those animals humanitarian aid.
I posted my 9/11 piece on my blog.
http://houseofharkonnen.blogspot.com
Yeah, I brought the blog back a few days ago.
My most poignant memory? There are two.
I was worried sick that my brother was in one of those towers when the planes hit. He did work with Shearson-Lehman (I think that's the company) 3 or 4 days a week, and spent at least two days a week in one of the towers. When the 1st plane hit, everyone in my family was calling my brother's cell phone and we couldn't get him.
Somehow or another his service was destroyed that day. He had spent the early part of the morning working out of his apartment in Manhattan, and HEARD the plane speed through the air and hit the 1st tower.
My brother watched the horror from the street as friends of his died, and maybe even jumped? He finally found a good phone to call us and let us know he was okay. My heart hurts for those who lost loved ones that day.\
Then there's Flight 93.
Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania after an onboard struggle will live on in my memory more than the others because they knew what was happening and they chose to FIGHT the islamic animals, rather than appease them and hope for the best.
You have to wonder what those brave souls of flight 93 would think of us appeasing islamists who threaten violence if we keep them from building a "victory dance" mosque on the site of their greatest crime?
You have to wonder what those brave souls of flight 93 would think about the preacher capitulating to muslim threats of violence and deciding NOT to practice his 1st Amendment right to burn some korans?
Appeasement to tyranny has a PERFECT track record---of disaster! G-d bless and keep the brave souls who fought and died that day.
I think I'll write a post today to honor our 9-11 heroes.
I have to agree with Steve. It is likely I will never forgive the Palestinians for this.
The people of Gaza dancing in the street is exhibit A in dispelling the myth that most of Islam is a peaceful religion hijacked by extremists. Most of this argument is based on the premise that the extreme imams and some in the governments of the ME are making the rest of Muslims look bad.
The people in the streets of Gaza celebrating, firing guns in the air, handing out candy were not extreme imams or government officials, they were the Muslim "street". They were common, everyday citizens.
In my mind Islam is not extreme or moderate but extreme and more extreme.
If anyone doubts that Islam is NOT a 'peaceful religion', just watch the celebrations by the multitudes of uneducated, unwashed 'faithful' on You Tube. Thank you, Beamish. Oh, I forgot, they wash their faces, hands, & feet before going into their terrorist mosques to vent their collective spleen against the West, & the U.S.A. in particular. Sorry about that omission. Not.
I'm watching the footage of the attacks, the remembrances, & crying, so I'm not in a very good or forgiving mood today. I remember seeing the second plane come in & saying out loud, 'What the Hell is going on!'. I called my husband who had served in 2 wars, told him about the Towers & the Pentagon, & his first comment was. 'This is WW III'. I had to change channels when O. showed his hypocritical face today at the Pentagon service.
I still have very moving footage on my comp. of that horrible event sent to me by a friend, & I will not delete it. It needs to be shown daily, so that people don't let the memories fade or die.
NO MOSQUE AT GROUND ZERO!!!!!! EVER!
Silvrlady
I'll never forget the day I thought a war was starting. I was at work in Alexandria, VA, maybe a couple of miles from the Pentagon. My office had a view on the Congress.
The news broke with rumors flying pretty quickly and we were told Congress was the next to get hit. I never heard the noise of the plane hitting the Pentagon but the smoke was in the sky.
I tried to reach my family in France right away. Cellphone lines were too busy but I was able to instant message my brother and say a last goodbye in case things would go awfully wrong.
Roads were blocked afterwards so we couldn't leave work. We went to a friends to watch the news, totally shocked.
I then went home and was terribly depressed for a week. The mood was very much so in DC.
To help a little bit, I did a drawing for 9/11 that was then published in the DC city paper.
I naively thought I'd never see this in my life. It's very easy to forget that my parents, my grandparents, great-grandparents have seen wars.
That day it was like a war was starting.
I "saw" the terror through the victim's eyes. I placed myself upon those planes, seeing the tops of skyscrapers in the city scream past just beneath, knowing that my fate had to be mere seconds away.
I felt the desperation, the realization that I would not get to say good-bye to my family and loved friends. I lived the emptiness of recognizing my children would grow up without me... or perish beside me.
I wore the indescribable pain of my burning flesh as I hung hopelessly from torn, gapingly sharp openings in my once rock solid, majestic tower... only to finally know I was going to die.
This harshly reminding day is not merely a burden for us to bear. It is a strange blessing to live to experience this never healing wound. Blessings are not always pleasant, nor should they be. Our victims did not get that gift.
NEVER, EVER let them escape our conscious respect and regret. May God allow us to understand the remaining duties before us all.
From a friend via Email: Well wroth reading:
Yes--I think the muslims are more vocal because our own liberals encouraged them. They are a pushy lot (both muslims and liberals) and always whining about discrimination. Muslims are used to arguing--it's their way of business and life. We are more accommodating. When they push forward and we take a startled step back, they won. And notice--it's always RELIGIOUS discrimination, not racial. Actually Islam is a political party, but they don't want us to see that. The media fawned over the "peace loving" muslims. Where are the atheists NOW to protest that favoring muslims violates separation of church and state?
Kudos to your friend Z! That's a smart e-mail!
The visit to Berlin, Germany was drawing to a close and my wife and I hailed a cab to get back to the Bahnhoff or train station for our trip back to the Cruise Ship docked at Warnemunde. Before we climbed aboard the train there was a commotion around the TV at the end of the stairs but in boarding, we didn't pay attention, besides, my German was good enough to tell the cabbie where to go, but not good enough to understand a news program. I wish it had been.
A significant number, if not the majority of Americans booked on that ship were ex or retired military and as the news spread through out the train faces that at one time wore butter bars, railroad tracks, oak leaves, eagles and stars let alone all kinds of stripes grew grimmer and grimmer.
Arriving dockside, the German Army was in evidence. The path leading back to the dock was partially blocked by an armored personnel carrier with a machine gun mounted on the top. Soldiers were everywhere with grim faces as we lined up to show our passports, had our packages inspected and were at long last allowed to re-board the ship. The couple in front of us had a large package gift wrapped for some loved one, but they had to take the wrappings off and have the package inspected. Metal detectors had to be passed through and then we headed straight for our stateroom.
The images on the TV are forever impressed in my brain as we watched a burning tower and a plane slam into another. Again, and again and again; fear and outrage obvious in the voices of the German and American announcers described the atrocity as we flipped channel to channel to channel.
I didn't sleep that night, I was mesmerized by the TV images and my heart was breaking. Then, as now as I type these words. The pain is still fresh, the anger still there, the resolution to never, ever, to forget what happened 9 years ago today.
Thank you Z, for allowing me to post this here as I did at my own blog.
Jingo, the courage of Flight 93...thanks SO MUCH for that, how COULD we not list that, too, as a more poignant memory? AMAZING men.
Was one's name Scott Beamer? I think so. I was touched that his little baby was born on my birthday after the 9/11 on which he was killed.
GM, I'm so honored to have you post that here, thank YOU.
FB, I can't imagine what it was like to live in DC for that... I lived in Paris and it was pretty stunning in so many ways. My mother had left 9/10 back for LA and it was a blessing that she didn't leave 9/11 and get stuck in Bangor Maine for 3 weeks or something all by herself.
Defiant Infidel, my friend, it's hard to read your comment because it's something I think we ALL allowed ourselves to do, and still do..."how did THEY feel?" THEY are US, aren't they.
You put it into words so well.
(it was very good to talk to you last night!xxx)
SilvrLady, it does still bring such tears, doesn't it.
ALL of you, thank you ....so much for commenting..
And yes, one of THE worst things is seeing happy Arabs...happy that Americans were violently killed. But, where is that outrage around the world at THEM?
The image of people hanging out of the windows waving stuff and jumping/falling from them, I think.
Etched in my mind forever.
And yet we're supposed to make nice with these barbarians.
#$@# them. When they attacked us, they brought upon themselves our wrath. We will never forget, and we will never allow them to conquer us or accept their vile pagan moon-god belief system.
We are Americans, and we will prevail.
Karen, I hate it when you're "so PC" (SMILE!)...YOU GO, GIRL!! xxx
Z - More than any one memory, when I think of 9/11, sometimes I can scarcely let myself remember how those Americans met their death - so bravely. For me what happened on the planes is unthinkable. Yet it did happen. It has become a sacred memory for me. Those people overcame the evil actions of the terrorists.
One person I admired so much was on the plane that slammed into the Pentagon, Barbara Olson, the wife of the Solicitor General Ted Olson. I saw him interviewed in some clips. How heartbreaking for all the survivors.
Yes, Z, it was Tod Beamer, the husband of Lisa. He may have been the one who said 'Let's roll'.
I've always been tolerant of different beliefs, but no more when it comes to Muslims. Don't tell me about the 'nice' ones, either. You don't see them condemning the actions of the terrorists.
If I ever was PC, iti must have been for 5 minutes in Kindergarden.
Silvrlady
Z, I'm fired up now-- so much that I had to write another post (with appropriate song).
Ducky, where are you?
I've been waiting for you to come tell us your most poignant memory of 9/11 is how you wondered how we could best make muslims like us again so they didn't have to sacrifice 19 muslims in killing 3000 lousy Americans again.
:-) Am I close?
And no, I don't have THAT low an opinion of you and I do think the attacks bothered you, too, but the way you comment sometimes, I honestly don't think I'm too far off base.
1. Finding out that a neighbor and friend of my father's was on Flight 11. Wondering about the nature of his final truth when that plane hit.
2. First hearing the news on the car radio when a local sports radio shock jock laughed at the initial impact on the towers thinking it was an "awesome accident" that you just had to see.
3. As the calls to nuke Mecca and kill Muslims came in to the same station I remember one broadcaster, a Protestant minister, who counseled restraint and the need not to make a blanket condemnation. If the man does nothing more to witness his faith in his life he was probably justified in the days after the impact. He was one of the very few.
And now we are even more divided, more driven by hate and less likely to avoid a long national decline. Our armies are useless and it's only going to be our own good sense that pulls us through and in that regard we continue to be found lacking.
Ducky, silly that you'd pronounce that pastor as singular...just plain silly and shows you're not open to the truth.
And, of course, it's WE who are lacking again....how very sad, what a terrible mindset. But no surprise.
I don't think I can single out one poignant memory. To be sure the people jumping to their certain deaths was horrifying.
For me it was difficult to assimilate what I was watching, as it was such a shock to my system. The combination of such great sorrow, and anger was so overwhelming.
I couldn't process it. It was hours later when I allowed myself to break down into sobs, finally taking it all in. We were at war.
Today, it seems so perverse that we are even discussing a mosque at ground zero, and told to be tolerant.
I am not willing to forgive and forget, and for that I blame the hatred of barbarians, who have robbed me of that ability I possessed for so long in my life.
9-11 is burned into my memory and my heart.
So, from my heart I wish to say, God be with those families who suffer so still today. There is no closure to losing a loved one. And a senseless death perpetrated by ignorance and hatred, is an even greater burden.
Finally, God bless America. We do need His guidance, and gift of strength because we will continue to fight this battle with those purveyors of darkness.
God help us all.
Pris
I moved to South Carolina from Maine on October 13th, 2000. As I drove across the Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River I snuck a look down river and saw the WTC in the distance, thinking to myself that it was so clear that day for me to see them. Little did I know that would be the last time I ever saw the Twin Towers standing. Realizing that 11 months later as they fell was poignant....
Pris, it's so horrid to consider jumping and the fear those people experienced that I can sure see that's why, above ALL the horrors of that day, that's a real NUMBER 1 on all our lists.
Of course, as Jingo reminded us, the COURAGE of those on Flight 93 sure is something to remember and honor.
Steve..that is a VERY poignant moment.
As I've said here before, we were living in Paris during 9/11 and just about the very moment the first plane must have hit, we were passing a florist that sells only roses, lovely petals scattered out onto the sidewalk as we passed, and I said "Honey, imagine a world without roses?" I think that's what we've got now, I really do. Something so beautiful was stripped from ALL Americans that day...I hated watching CNN for five minutes today as they only singled out "those people living there in NYC, DC and Shanksville...who 9/11 affected" I thought "This is typical CNN, they don't even GET that if you're an AMERICAN and ONE of ours is hurt, it hurts us ALL, especially when they're hurt because they're Americans.
Last night I watched the special on FNC. Today I will watch the two hour timeline on MSNBC. Every year, I take the time, and every year I am just as horrified as I was that day.
A survivor described hearing an elevator that had had its cables snapped, and hearing the people screaming... then there were no screams from that elevator shaft.
As I mentioned in my first comment - the very idea that whatever you face in the place you are is so horrendous that you are driven to jump from a building a hundred stories high. I can't begin to imagine.
Hundreds of brave men and women went to that location, to do that which they had done so many times before - rescue those in need - but all of those brave firefighters, paramedics, and police officers who died that day never stood a chance.
Imagine the last sound you hear is the building above you giving way... and crumbling down on top of you.
Imagine the horror.. there had to have been some who survived, but could not be rescued, and died in the rubble. The days of pain, just wishing someone could reach you.
This was not an earthquake - and we should not make any effort to understand.
This was an ideology that chose four very specific targets. All that is good about America was targeted for destruction by men who followed an evil belief system, and that evil belief system remains amongst us.
With every passing moment that we appease those who follow that evil, those people and that evil gain strength and come closer to their desired end - the destruction of freedom and liberty.
Why is it that we do not ever hear leaders from the Middle East speak out and condemn the acts of that day? Oh.. that's right, King what's-his-nuts from Saudi Arabia and his check, the check that Rudy Guliani correctly ripped to shreds. Of course, the leftists probably think Guliani was hurtful to the good King, and should have been more understanding of his feelings.
Ducky - you mentioned the calls to "nuke Mecca and kill Muslims."
You are correct - our armies are useless, in the method they have been used by both George W. Bush and Barack Hussein Obama. The Military Industrial Complex continues to benefit, but Americans continue to die.
The second world war was ended because an evil nation needed to know that we would indeed destroy them if they did not stop their murdering ways. For that, regardless of what your pathetic sham of a hero Barack Hussein Obama thinks, we should never apologize.
And your comment, Ducky, about how we are "more divided" - it is not I or those who think like me who is divisive. I still remember what that evil looked like on September 11th, and I do not want to appease those who perpetrated that act upon my fellow Americans. I will never forgive, and I will never forget.
But I'll give you that you listed to Barack Hussein Obama's speech today and that you've got your good little leftist talking points well rehearsed...
in my 2007 post for 9-11 i wrote that i don't think that most people remember the significance of the day. in 2007 i thougt my most poignant memory was my memory of the pain in realizing that our innocence as a nation was gone forever. and i still think was a horrible thing that we had to learn.
however, yesterday as i wrote my post for the 9th anniversary of 9-11, i realized that my most poignant memory of 9-11 is that i remember when seeing the second plane hit the tower, thinking "nothing will ever be wonderful again."
and while there have been some amazing things to happen in the AFTER since 9-11 - the birth of my granddaughter, the graduation of my children from high school, meeting mr. & mrs. z, defiant-infidel and the other virtual friendships from the world of blogging - how much sweeter these things would have been had they happened BEFORE...
Well, I live just outside of DC. At the time, I was working in the district. I had a doctors appointment that morning so I was late going into work. I put a tape on in my car and was driving on 395 (the road that runs along the Pentagon) totally oblivious to the happenings of the day.
I was getting pretty annoyed because at almost 9:30 there shouldn't have been any reason for me to be stuck in traffic.
Out of nowhere, I hear this really loud sound and saw a big shadow. I look up and see a plane flying very fast and very very low.
I was in my car thinking I was going to die when the plane crashed onto the highway. But, it didn't crash onto the highway, it crashed into the Pentagon.
Not that I knew it at the time, but someone I knew was on that plane, just as terrified as I was. But I am still here and she is gone.
It gets me so angry when I hear about the truthers spouting off about President Bush being behind the attack. I know what I saw and it was a plane.
Truthers actually had the nerve to show up at the 9/11 memorial here in DC today. Even if that were true (which it is not) innocent lives were lost, they need to be respected and their memories treated with dignity.
Today I honor Sharon Carver, a civilian employee at the Pentagon who killed as she sat in her office.
http://912member.blogspot.com/2010/09/project-2996-sharon-carver.html#comments
I will never forget that day. Sitting on the bed sipping a cup of coffee while my son was watching "Arthur" on PBS Kids and my husband was our bike riding up Lake Shore Drive back home in Chicago. I was watching Good Morning American - Diane and Charlie reported the first plane hit the World Trade Center....
No one wanted to speculate, they just were waiting for further reports saying it was most likely a fluke accident, perhaps a small aircraft....
Then the second plane came into view and their was silence, utter silence, my world stopped, the plane flew right into the second tower and I dropped my head into my two hands and cried.
I knew it was Islamic terrorists - Jihad - and I was never the same....
The world I once knew had just died.
My husband was out-of-town on business. I had some carpenters working on the inside of my home. I always watched Fox and Friends and was doing so that morning when the news of the first attack came.
When he second plane hit the tears were already flowing, as four men I didn't know stood beside me watching the television.
I called my husband to tell him about it. He did't know. We both remember that call every 9/11.
I won't wax poetic here. The most poignant image to me was the photo of the firemen carrying the body of their beloved Chaplain, Father Mychal Judge, through the smoke and dust and debris.
He had been killed by a piece of building that fell on him as he knelt beside the body of a firefighter who had been killed by a falling body. He was praying for the firefighter's soul.
Something tells me this was one prayer that made it to the Father's ear.
I also remember how the entire country came together. A country united. Now, 9 short years later, we are a nation divided, and amazingly, we are divided over race and religious differences. How short our memory!
I'm so touched by so many of you chiming in, and the stories you share with us here. Thank you so much.
This was SO HUGE and it shows in that our memories are forever marked with that day.
Mark, that picture's in all our minds, isn't it..that poor Chaplain's head tipped to the right as his firefighter friends carry his body......
I also remember a saying that REALLY moved me...that those firefighters who would be dashing upstairs never to come back down ever again on their own two legs were "going up a stairway to heaven". That makes me cry right now. oh, man...here come the tears. Who wouldn't cry thinking about that?
Thank you AOW, for picking up on a key part of everything in my "poignant memory" link. You too Steve. Pay attention, Ducky.
Children dancing in the streets, celebrating the success of a violent terrorist attack on American soil. Children raised and steeped in hatreds, fueled by Islam.
Minutes after the attack the ground work of the blame America game began. Imbecilic leftist after imbecilic leftist came forward, taking their cues from the barbarians, to blame America for 9/11. Their mantra became "9/11 was caused by American support for Israel." Leftists can apparently can side with misogynistic, totalitarian, child-raping monsters as long as they want to eliminate Jews from the world.
One of the most asinine people that ever walked the Earth, the "leftist intellectual" (oxymoron) Susan Sontag summed up the nascent leftist talking point thusly on 9/12/2001 - "Where is the acknowledgment that this was not a 'cowardly' attack on 'civilization' or 'liberty' or 'humanity' or 'the free world' but an attack on the world's self-proclaimed superpower, undertaken as a consequence of specific American alliances and actions? How many citizens are aware of the ongoing American bombing of Iraq? And if the word 'cowardly' is to be used, it might be more aptly applied to those who kill from beyond the range of retaliation, high in the sky, than to those willing to die themselves in order to kill others. In the matter of courage (a morally neutral virtue): Whatever may be said of the perpetrators of Tuesday's slaughter, they were not cowards."
Such brave warriors of jihad, dying to get our leftists to wax poetic about them while the fires underneath the rubble of the WTC towers was still incinerating people's loved ones.
And so it continues.
Divided, Ducky?
Americans allegedly "came together as one nation" on 9/11.
It wasn't because right-wingers changed positions.
Arab after Arab arrived, pointed at a TV which seemed to be against the window wall, and they hugged and hit each other on the backs, rejoicing. This was in a very upperclass neighborhood...
That speaks volumes!
Me...I was in the front end of a Lear 35 heading to Washington National Airport ( R. Reagan Airport - DCA ). We were told to turn back to Miami after about 15 minutes aloft. We looked at each other and figured we're in real trouble! What could we have possibly done?
Busted an altitude or speed restrictions? Nah...so we landed back at Miami...went into the FBO / pilots lounge and saw the unfolding horror on the TV.
Within a few minutes, the guy I was flying with ( a former Naval Aviator and officer ) burst into tears. Tears and rage knowing that we were under attack.
Both of us, as former serviceman knew what this meant. Him...he wanted to be back on an aircraft carrier launching an F16 for a fight.
Me...Well I can't really explain those emotions that were running through me.
But, 3 days later were allowed to fly again and our first trip was to Teterboro in New Jersey. TEB is directly across the Hudson from NYC. We were assigned a northern route parallel to the Hudson by ATC at around 3000'.
Then...when I saw the smoke....when I saw the destruction from that perch...I too was in tears. When we landed it hit us again. Before 911 we used to see the towers to the east from the ramp at the FBO where we parked after landing.
I will never get over that...never...nor the outrage and anger over my country being attacked by savages. I don't think I'll ever give a muslim a break or benefit of a doubt again. Seeing that first hand...removed all doubt.
It's a day that I remember well. My wife and I were scheduled to drive out of town to pick up an elderly relative to bring her home for a visit before she returned to her home in B.C. Before leaving I was watching CNBC and they broke into the program to say there had been reports of a plane striking a tower at the WTC. It was the first plane and shortly after that the second plane struck the second tower, which was a strong indication that this was no accident.
We had to leave and while driving we were hearing that there were other planes that had been hijacked and one struck the Pentagon and another that was missing, that was the one that would be known as Flight 93.
Right at that point I thought this was an act of war. And the total recognition that this was something that nobody had ever experienced in our lives in this part of the world.
I, like many others would spend much time trying to understand just who it was and what it was that could strike this way out of the clear blue sky in such a devastating way on innocent people going about life in normal productive ways.
I still think this was an act of war. More oddly, though, I have come to see it as a war in which ideological allies within our world share much in common with primitive enslaving religious barbarism, the allies within being of the expanding statism variety. Both seek the destruction of the values of individualism, freedom and responsibility for ones actions. They pretend the collective salvation of their group or tribe is paramount.
Waylon
AOW, I Googled all over the darned 'net to find an FBI number I could call to report what I'd seen..who the hell KNOWS who lived there..all Arabic looking people...only men in that room (I could see women in other rooms), all rejoicing each time another walked in the door.
The next day, I looked at the door names and I was right...Arabic.
Imagine I looked through EVERY French channel to see if a soccer game between Kuwait and some other country was going on?
Naaa...they were DELIGHTING in the carnage of Americans. And I could find ZIP with which to at least try to report them.
Impertinent: That grown men cried at 9/11 is such an amazing testament to their patriotism, including yours. I am very touched by that story......
Waylon, BRAVO for that comment. well said.
Isn't it ODD that 99.9% of the people I know or have heard talk about 9/11 say that they saw the second plane hit? News traveled THAT FAST that we all quickly went, in that small window of time, to the TV, to see the second plane hit. Even me, in Paris...I called to Mr Z in his office "Come see this, something's hit the WTC"....he came in and we saw the second plane go what WE thought was "around" the building but then Mr. Z said "That's not come around............this is an attack!"
MY GOD, I can barely think of it even now.
I saw the 2nd plane hit, live on television.
I was working a 3rd shift job, had just come home from work and settled into my usual after-work wind down, playing video games until my eyes couldn't stay open. Around 8 in the morning, I shut off the video game and the TV was tuned to some network morning show on the local Fox affiliate. They were abuzz about a plane flying into the World Trade Center, showing footage of the fires caused by the first plane.
I remember firing off a quick prayer for the 50,000 plus people that would have been in the buildings. I knew then from the that the people trapped above the impact zone and fires were doomed.
I called my mother, the only person I knew that would be home at the time, and as I was talking to her I watched the 2nd plane strike the other tower. At first I wanted to believe the first plane strike had been some sort of freak accident. With the second plane I knew then it was an attack.
Later came the horrifying footage of people desperately leaping to their deaths to escape the fires. And then the Pentagon was struck. Then the plane in Pennsylvania went down.
The skies overhead my home were streaked with scrambled interceptor fighter aircraft. All flights in America were shut down and the Air Force was seeking to force all air traffic to land until no air traffic remains. To this day, I believe the attack was intended to be bigger, involving 12 or more planes but the Air Force's response got commercial flights out of the skies before those other flights could be hijacked.
My adrenaline rushed in anger. Whatever tiredness was in me from work was instantly gone. I did not sleep again until collapsing in exhaustion sometime three days later.
I've never been so angry in my life. Every September 11th since has only rekindled that anger. It will never be a good "anniversary" for me.
I'm extremely difficult to be around on September 11th now. The anger just wells up in me, still.
And then, the anthrax letter attacks...
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