Republicans & Conservatives: Archives

Otto,

I was on a comuter flight from Pendelton, Oregon to Pasco, Washington, on my way to do a show at a convention in Washington, DC. I was to land at Reagan International at 10pm local time.
We were on the runway in Pasco enroute to Seattle when we were called back to the gate.

I ended up driving home to Phoenix.

Probably glad to stay out of the skies that day, huh?

Otto,

I lost a weeks work in Washington, and no I was pissed that I was stuck in Pasco.

Okay…

I was sleeping when my girlfriend called me at around 9:30. I got out of bed knowing that I had to go to work at a restaurant around the corner at 11. After seeing the unbelievable images on T.V., I went to take a shower and cried for about ten minutes straight. We were so slammed at work because of the panic of what was happening, People were just leaving work early to get to a TV. They all seemed to come straight to the bar where I worked. I was pissed at being so busy and I was also pissed at what happened. Needless to say, I made the most money I had ever made at lunch that day. After that, I dedicated the next four years to getting my degree in criminal justice and becoming a police officer.

I was at work when one of our cutsomers called in to tell us what happened. We all went to our computers to check the news, and I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. Then the guy next to me snickered, “Cool,” and it was all I could do not to punch him in the stomach.
I never knew exactly what older people meant when they asked each other where they were when Kennedy was shot; now I know, because there’s a memory that will never lose clarity in my mind.

I was in a hotel in Iowa getting ready for work and saw the 2nd plane hit the WTC live. I had to pull myself away from the t.v. to get to work. While at work everybody was glued to the t.v. when we heard about the plane hitting the pentagon, at that moment out of ignorance and panic I rushed home to be with my family.The scarriest thing for me about this whole thing was not knowing what was going on.

God Bless the people who died and have lost, You will forever be in my heart, prayers and thought.

Alejo,
You showed much more restraint then I think I could have. I wonder how cool he would have thought it was if he were in one of the top floors of either of the WTC buildings. What a P.O.S.!!

I do not think this Thread is appropriate when thousands of lower-income people in New Orleans are dying from lack of food and water.

Where were you when Katrina hit?

Kevin —

Yeah, that fat f*** was lucky I was in shock at the moment.

I was driving to work in Scottsdale, AZ, listening to two local DJ’s talking about Anne Heche’s looney-tunes-insane interview of the day before, when one DJ said someone handed him a report about something big going down at the WTC’s. They thought it was a sick joke perpetrated by someone at the radio station. They blew it off. So did I. Got to work a minute later and turned on the t.v.’s in the operatories (dental office). No one was talking about terrorism yet. “Just” a plane crashing- possibly into the WTC. Thinking to myself that no pilot on any airline in the United States would just be flying along in NY and happen to not NOTICE the big building up ahead??? Then another report of a 2nd plane crash. I instantly thought terrorism- war- called my mom to pull my daughter out of school. My best friend since 5th grade was flying that day (a flight attendant for a major airline and that was her territory) and of course, no answer on her cell. Information came so slowly, trickling in on the news… talking heads looking shell-shocked, reporting something one minute, changing it the next. I remember every patient who came in that day, with white faces and shaking hands, almost every one with a new nugget of info we couldn’t get on our little t.v.’s with only local “antenna” reception. I could hear the reports but couldn’t see the t.v.’s from my desk.
I remember driving home that evening in a state of sustained panic and bursting into tears when my best friend called to check in. There was a complete lock-down at her airport, which kept her trapped in a plane on the runway with irritated, inconvenienced customers who did not as of yet know what had happened or why they were to remain on the runway for hours that morning.
She has since been laid off, did some seasonal work in Alaska and is now back in school full-time.
I didn’t watch the scenes on t.v. of people jumping out of the burning towers. I was at my desk trying to normalize the day for patients. I still have not seen video of the crashes or the jumping or any of the horrific visuals that so many Americans were witnesses to that day. I don’t want to see that video and still to this day avoid even the possiblity of it. My heart is too tender, and the burning in my chest when I think about 9/11 is as keen today as it was on the day it happened. My compassion for the people who have those images burned into their brains is only surpassed by my compassion for the people who were directly affected… those poor souls who lost a loved one that day.
I was proud of our country, of Americans on both sides of the aisle, for pulling together. I miss that spirit of unconditional love for fellow countrymen regardless of political leanings.
What has changed for me, personally? A lot of clarification happened for me, about what is worth fighting for and what isn’t. I know where I want my tax dollars spent and where I don’t. I was able to observe the proverbial “seperating the men from the boys” in respect to our politicians and officials. Thankfully, my career was not affected like so many people I know. I’m better off today, financially, than I was four years ago, because our economy rallied so beautifully, and I am closing on my very first home this month. In short, I think more about the world around me, appreciate my loved ones more, I’m much more grateful for what I have than I was pre-9/11.
Culturally, I’ve seen that sweet post-9/11 solidarity between Americans unravel as political parties move farther and farther away from each other, ideologically, as arrogance and finger-pointing escalates. I’ve observed gross pessimism that reminds me of times when my brother and I were children and we’d get so angry with each other that NOTHING the other one did could possibly be right. Nothing the Republicans do is right in the eyes of the Democrats. Nothing the Democrats do is right in the eyes of the Republicans. I have a childish desire to see us love each other as people, even as we despise each other’s politics… which is exactly how we behaved in the bittersweet days just following 9/11.

Aldous,

Start your own thread if you don’t like this one. You never fail to prove yourself unlikeable.

Otto,

BTW, my first thought on seeing the plane going into the building was Timothy McVeigh.

I was at a meeting for the alumni leadership of the engineering school of my Alma Mater. At the end of the meeting, the Dean of the school told us that he had been told during the meeting that one of the towers of the WTC collapsed after an apparent terrorist attack.

I listened to NPR on the drive home, trying to figure out what on earth was going on.

I was unemployed at the time, so I sat at home all day watching the news, rescheduling a job interview I had that afternoon.

Great perspectives everyone.

Aldous -

As diplomatic as always - I think on the eve of this current catastrophe it’s even more relevant to reflect on 911 as we approach its anniversary.

missjoy -

Ditto.

Rocky -

Timothy McViegh? Because he attacked the WTC the first time, right? At least in my mind, the first WTC bombing was one of the first things that occured to me.

When I suggested that it was probably a good thing to be out of the skies that day, it wasn’t in reference to what a lousy week you had - it was due to the amount of choas and uncertainty going around that day.

But we’re all sorry for you loss(es)…

I was frustrated that day because I had to leave the house in the morning to work until midnight and I would have prefered to be with my family and friends watching everything unfold and learning what was going on in real time instead of just getting radio bites here and there.

I do have all of my newspapers from that day and a couple of days after - it’s interesting to read about what we knew and when we knew it.

Remember the immediate death toll estimates at up to 50,000?

Remember the immediate death toll estimates at up to 50,000?

I was watching the news with a good friend and we were estimating up to 40,000.

Missjoy,
It is so unfortunate that it took something like that to bring us together and even more unfortunate that we went back to the way we were so soon after.

Lawnboy -

I guess if they could have timed it better, like an hour later, it may well have been that catastophic. Still, just the symbolism of that - not knowing, and really not knowing for days after what the true numbers were - I just remember the cable news tickers at the bottom, how the estimates dropped by the hour and then by the day.

I was at home that day, getting ready for work, I had the T.V. on as I hustled about, at first it just wasn’t sinking in! One of those things where you just keep telling yourself…..”I’m hearing this wrong, why is my brain not working?” Finally, I sat down and watched, I switched channels to make sure I wasn’t just a victim of a farce! To my disbelief, I sure wasn’t! I ran upstairs and told my husband to turn the T.V. on……..we both just sat there….??????? Why?????? The people. The faces. The emotion. Is it over?????
A part of me did change that day……it woke me up……I wasn’t afraid, I was strong!!!

I was working in a factory of 3,000 workers. We went on break and heard the news of the trade center being hit.
We went back to the lines and SHUT down, and every one praied. We said very little the rest of the day.
People were given time off the production lines to call relatives.

Does anybody believe the next attack on US soil will unify us the same way this did?
I don’t.
Our country is on the downward slope of its greatness and the bottom is in sight.
9-11 was the last time America will cry or smile as one.
We’re too far gone, best of luck to all.

Otto,

“Timothy McViegh? Because he attacked the WTC the first time, right? At least in my mind, the first WTC bombing was one of the first things that occured to me.”

No because the terrorist action that had taken the greatest amount of American life on American soil before this was purpetrated by one of us against us.

Uh … Timothy McVeigh never attacked the World Trade Center. The first WTC attack was also Middle Easterners (Al Quaeda also, I think, although I may be mistaken). No, McVeigh blew up the Murrah Building in Oklahoma.

I was up in college about that time, Junior year. The morning was pretty much free, so I came into the Penland dorm first floor lobby about Eight or Nine o’clock on my way to breakfast, which typically would be waiting in the Food Court attached to the dorm building.

The dorm has a series of sofas arranged all around in a wide open lobby, with a big screen TV set up in front of a set of windows that look out onto fifth street. I first saw the first tower on fire, and didn’t really understand what was going on. then another plane hit. I’m not sure that I knew at that moment it was an attack, but it didn’t take long to sink in. Once it did, I knew immediately it was al-Qaeda. I remembered the Embassy Bombings quite well, and knew this fit their profile and their intentions. I watched for a while, and had a thought then and there about what it all meant I’ll share it at the end of my recollection here, for the sake of relating the events that followed.

I was eating my breakfast, when the towers came down. I had not expected it to happen, for hadn’t the towers already survived the impacts? But fall they did, and we received a quick education in how buildings really come apart.

I spent the next few days absorbing the images, absorbing the impact of history’s change. If you wonder where my strong dislike of Bush comes from it comes from the passion of that period of time. What I wanted from a leaders, ultimately, was leadership, was the willingness to go in and do what needed to be done. I actually had hope for him at first, actually thought he might molt out his old self, and become a better leader forged in the fires of crisis.

He disappointed me badly. Afghanistan’s triumph briefly revived my faith in him, but the inability to capture Osama Bin Laden soured that. I could have lived with that disappointment and not have gotten so angry, but then he one day held a press conference where he said he wasn’t that concerned about finding Bin Laden anymore. God, that killed it, right there. You don’t leave people like Bin Laden, or folks like al-Qaeda in action, even once you have them at a disadvantage. You destroy them utterly, because anything else they can spring back from.

Then came the 2002 elections, and the drive for the war in Iraq. I didn’t disagree there with the notion of settling Saddam’s hash once and for all. I did, though, think that Iraq was not involved in the War on Terror, and that it could wait until other, more clear and present threats had been taken care of. During the 2002 elections, Bush further alienated me by going on a neverending tirade against those who wouldn’t support the war. It was the cheap tactic of McCarthyism reborn, and it was sickening to see in our day and age. Then came the case for war. That actually made me give the invasion the benefit of the doubt, though I found it distasteful how Bush circumvented the UN.

You know the rest.

What was my thought, back there in the residence hall lobby?

This is how great nations fall. You have an event like this, which pushes people to think with that ugly knot in their stomachs, out of fear, and people take advantage of that, and slowly the government slips away from the control of the people, as people let freedoms go, as people give free hand to folks who should not have it, in war or out of it.

Rocky -

I can understand thinking that - it would have been even more frightening to realize throughout the course of the day and the week that it was an ‘inside’ job by American radicals. I guess it’s a good thing it wasn’t - we as a nation would certainly be going down a different path today, and I’m not sure it would have been a better one.

I was just waking up when my dad called the house from his work. My mom answered the phone, all he said was to turn on the news. She called the whole family together to see what my dad wanted us to see. As we watched the news my mom started crying uncontrollably. I tried to console her but as I started to really understand what was on the TV, I just let her cry. I say I understood what was on the TV, but it didn’t sink in.

My whole family stayed home that day. We watched the news, alternating from channel to channel to see what tid-bits of information each one had. After an hour or so of watching, my mom was still crying. I was unable to cry. I was in too much shock to have any real emotions show.

When I started watching the news, the first World Trade Tower had flames and great plumes of smoke comming from the top. A few minutes later the second one was hit. I think that’s when it really sunk in for me what was happening. I didn’t think that it was a terrorist attack, those thoughts came a little later.

Then they announced that the Pentagon had been hit and that another plane had crashed supposedly en route to Washington. That was the last straw for some members of my family. They had to leave the room.

The next day was terrible. We were living on a military base at the time so safety precautions were insane. I understood why we needed these new precautions and it made me even more tense to think that we might be hit next. Looking back it was very nieve of me to think but at the time it seemed very plausible.

I would have to say that the most unsettling thing that I have ever witnessed in my life was all of those poor souls who jumped from the towers. To throw oneself from one fate right into another is beyond my comprehension and hope that it always will be.

I think that the most amazing thing about the whole event was that all of a sudden everyone was patriotic. If you did’t have a flag flying over every property in the nation then it was unpatriotic. Our nation banded together as if there were no tomorrow. For there very well could have been no tomorrow. But now people know that there will always be a tomorrow. The brothershiping is gone. Flying an American flag in some places is now taboo. My question is, was it really that easy to forget what happened that day?

I was right outside of Virginville. Pa., comming from upstate New York when I heard the report of the 1st plane hitting the WTC. Within a minute my daughter called and as we tried to get more information, the second one hit, confirming my suspicions that we were at war. I advised her to pull her kids out of school, call her husband and make sure her guns and ammo were close at hand. Then I called my wife and told her to do the same as she relayed information to me. I went home frustrated, confused, and extremely angry.

I was in my 3rd period high school Speech class. Everyone in the school learned pretty quickly and pretty much every tv in the building was tuned to the news. Ended up doing nothing but open class discussions the rest of the day in every class except calculus. US History was the best class that day.

“Flying an American flag in some places is now taboo. “

uh….yeah, ok…please list sources of this happening.

oh, did you mean in other countries?

well..see, they have their own flags.

Views,

I don’t have any sources, I’m looking into finding them right now. But I do know of several instances in the news and other places where it was reported that this or that person refused to let the US flag be flown over a library, or tried to get their nieghbor to take down the US flag because it offened them. These are actual cases in the United States of America where poeple have had to take down the flag because it offened someone.

(Still looking into finding the actual sourses.)

Where are you now? A lot worse off if not dead or rich.

Cherish,

It took less than 3 seconds to find examples on google.

American Flag Banned on Campuses Across the Nation
American Flag ‘Outlawed’ by Edwards
Company banned flag

I was at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. When it became apparent what was going on, they let the few visitors who were there huddle into a small theatre and watch CNN, dumbstruck.

It was the last day of a 4-week family vacation/roadtrip and we raced home immediately.

I can imagine that for Gulf Coasters, the great “where were you” will refer to Katrina, who has done more damage than Bin Laden could hope to inflict. Unfortunately, it seems that the response among victims to this tragedy has been infighting and selfishness, not the solidarity we have seen in NYC ever since 9/11.

Chops-
Kindly reserve judgement. On 9/11, we lost buildings. This August, the Gulf Coast has lost civilization. This is the kind of apocalyptic disaster that rarely happens in a nation’s history, and it’s still ongoing.

I had just come out of Office Depot, picking up supplies for my store, when I heard the local DJ say that a plane had crashed into the WTC. Being from Metro NY (now in NC), I thought it was probably some moron in a small plane. When I got to the store, we watched on CNN, and noted that it was a awfully big hole for a small plane. Then the 2nd plane hit….I looked @ a customer (Gus, a Viet Nam vet) and we both said “BIN LADEN!” As my brother is a NYC fire fighter, my thoughts 1st went to him and his family, then to the 10s of thousands in the building @ that point (Brother survived, close call)
A moment that I will never forget as related to 9/11; several weeks later, we were @ the Nascar race in Charlotte, N.C., when they delayed the race to show the start of military action in Afghanistan. 70,000 people erupted in cheers and song while we watched the bombing on the big screen in the infield!

For me it was a normal day. Get up, get the kids dressed, breakfast, videos, play. My morning routine didn’t include television or radio news. Then, around 10:30am, my best friend called. She knew we didn’t watch t.v. or listen to the radio much; she knew we didn’t know.

“We’re under attack!” She told me.

I didn’t believe her or understand her. She tried to explain it to me, but…no, that can’t happen. This is America. War of the Worlds was going through my mind. I tried to tell her it was some kind of sick prank.

“It’s everywhere, Steph. Turn on your t.v.”

But, I couldn’t do it. If it was true, I knew I didn’t want to see it. Yet, I turned on the radio and there it was…the worst thing I’d ever known. No bit of history, no piece of far off news, nothing could have prepared me for this. The United States of America was not invulnerable or invincible. And everything changed.

Now, my best friend, the one who called me, is going into AIT and is going to be a soldier soon. The only thing that is more powerful than my fear for her is my love for her and my pride in her.

Now, songs on the radio can bring me to tears in moments, which I’m not used to…patriotic songs used to be something I took for granted, like every other symbol of America. Now, I honor them and celebrate them.

Now, I have more drive to participate in politics than I ever thought I would. Voting used to be something that was voluntary…now it’s obligatory. Participating in dialogue like this used to be something I didn’t feel qualified to do; now I know every American should strive to qualify themselves, to discover who they are, what they believe, and which direction they want this nation to go.

Now, I know America can unite like I never imagined possible and now I also know how easily partisanship can tear that apart.

SirisC,

Thanks for the links. I am not yet very good with search engines.

Cherish:

I have seen a few overblown examples in which flags as a whole (not specifically American Flags) were banned for specific reasons, but none that would offend my patriotism. One example I remember was a homeowner’s association that had banned free-standing flagpoles (but not flags in general) that was sued by a marine who wanted to fly the flag HIS way (but who never appealed to the homeowner’s association to change the rule — he just flew it anyway). Another example (linked by SirisC above) involved a school that had banned flags (of any type) hanging from dorm windows because they were a fire hazard. Neither banned the flag, though. They only limited its usage.

Of course there are people in this country who would rather not see the flag fly… and that is their right. But they’re vastly outnumbered by those who prefer it.

Personally, I think we tend to focus too much on the flag, and not enough on what it represents. Then again, at the rate we’re throwing away our freedoms, the flag may soon be all we have left….

I was at home screaming the question to my wife: “What the hell good was that 1/3 trillion dollars of our tax money spent on intelligence communities and defense departments?”

Turned out the money was fairly well spent, the Whitehouse simply had no interest in making use of the intel and products of all that money spent, until after 9/11.

I see Bush is accepting the Saudi’s latest Ambassador to the US who our own intel has established had high level dealings with al-Queda priot to 9/11. Given the extremely important facts now being shown to have been left out of the 9/11 report and coming to light in new hearings and investigative reports, it is getting far more difficult to ignore a connection between powers in the Whitehouse, al-Queda, Great Britain, and Pakistan as having contributing parts to play in making 9/11 happen, not just letting it happen.

I was in Arlington Virginia, not far from the Pentagon attending a conference. The organizers told us that there had been a terror attack in NYC. Oddly he didn’t mention the Pentagon. We came out to a TV in the hall to see the towers fall. Somebody said, “they couldn’t have fallen; it must just be we can’t see them for the smoke.” They fell. It was no illusion.

Everybody worried that the terrorists would strike other targets or maybe release poison gas. We were told to disperse. I walked out along Glebe Road, which is one way to get to the Pentagon. Fire engines and ambulances passed me. I was walking TOWARD Washington. Most others were going the other direction. Strangers talked to each other and asked questions. Nobody knew anything. F-16s flew low overhead. Some people thought they were “enemy” aircraft. They were relieved when I told them they were ours.

The crowd coming from Washington was enormous. The only other time I saw such a crowd was after the July 4 celebrations. Everyone was so nice. People helped each other. Cars didn’t beep their horns. It was oddly silent as people spoke in hushed tones. I stopped into a restaurant. The staff was Middle Eastern or South Asian (I don’t recall anymore). Some were crying and saying that they couldn’t believe such a thing could happen in their country. I had a cup of coffee. They wouldn’t accept any payment. We were all Americans suffering the same sadness.

I walked to the Potomac. You couldn’t cross into Washington, but you could go to the bridge. From the Key Bridge, I could see the smoke from the Pentagon. People talked about attacks on the State Department or the Capitol, such turned out not to be true, of course. The next day the DC National Guard was out in force. Fat guys in Humvees. They were nervous.

I was supposed to leave Washington later that day, but I couldn’t get a flight out until September 17. There was nothing for me to do. I volunteered to help, but I was just in the way. I walked a lot. The weather was beautiful all week. Cooler than usual, clear and sunny. And it was so quiet. Almost no cars. No flights at Reagan National. I have never seen Washington as beautiful.

Back in Poland, my wife was one of the few in the neighborhood to have cable and Internet. She tried to comfort people. I knew that she and the kids were safer in Poland than practically anywhere else in the world, even the U.S. Thousands of Poles brought candles to the U.S. Embassy to show their solidarity. NATO invoked Article 5 for the first time and NATO AWACs patrolled American skies. Ironically, we were in no position to do so ourselves. The possibility of this thing had never really occurred to anyone. It is hard to think back about how we were in that more naive time.

I didn’t know who did this, but I figured we would be fighting a war soon. I thought a lot about World War I. How the people of 1914 just didn’t have any idea that their peaceful world was about to end. I thought of the Sum of All Fears and was glad that our nukes were no longer on such a hair trigger.

I am rambling now, so I will stop.

I live in Phoenix, but I was across the street from the World Trade Center, in the American Express Tower. 30th Floor. I watched the second plane go in.

My hotel was right there, also. I couldn’t go back to it. I have that much more sympathy for the victims of Katrina when I remember leaving the Amex building with only the clothes on my back and what was in my briefcase, and all the stores in New York being closed for several days.

One more ramble.

A couple days later, I went out the Shenandoah to walk up my favorite mountain. I have been doing it for twenty years whenever I am in the area. It always makes me feel better. Old Rag it is called. It takes a couple of hours to get to the top, which is made up of bare granite. (I found some pictures on the Internet for refernce so you can imagine the scene) There are usually dozens of people climbing. It is not a lonely place, but not crowded. At the top, someone had planted a big American flag. I remember it blowing in the breeze in front of a shining sky. Corny as it sounds, a group of five young guys in front of me, scraggly looking guys, began to sing “God Bless America.” I joined in and so did some others as they came up the hill.

Hey Remer…you’re not following the thread. If you’re gonna bring up this other point, we can have a long discussion about Able Danger if you’d like, but start it in another place.

I was packing my bags for a flight to DC when the DJ on the oldies station I was listening to broke in with the news. The flight, of course, was cancelled and I drove the rest of the day listening to the reports on the radio as they came in. Tons of friends & family who knew I was intending to fly that day called on my cell to be sure I was ok.

So Robert, what the hell good was that 1/3 trillion dollars I screamed about on 9/11 spent for the express purpose of protecting and defending the people of the United States. It is a question I asked on 9/11 and still has not been answered to my satisfaction.

The author of this article is asking us to remember what 9/11 meant to us and what our memories of the day were. Don’t mean to rain on schmaltzy right wing patriotic frenzy over here, but, that’s where I was and that was one of hundreds of memories burned into my mind on that day. It’s 9/11 again, and we still don’t have a credible answer to my question in this most secretive government since WWII.

Jack-
I don’t call that corny. I felt heartened by the patriotic displays after 9/11. I only started to get annoyed really when it became repetitive and ritualized instead of spontaneous, when everybody was singing God Bless America, like it was a second National Anthem. I’m a storyteller, and I always hate it when somebody takes a good, creative genre and gets too formulaic with it.

It shouldn’t be something required from people, or made to be the mark of true Americans versus false ones. America doesn’t require idolatry on it’s behalf. That’s the beauty of this country. Most people love it by choice, even when they see it as a flawed country. My brother, who epitomizes the academic, post-modern liberal, thinks this is the best country in the world, and having seen much of Europe, and even parts of the Middle East, he’s in position to make a comparison.

Back in the bad old days of the Cold War (as opposed to our current bad old days) The Soviet Union and other countries demanded patriotism, and punished dissent harshly. Everything about the country had to be trumpeted from the hilltop. We’re different. Our nation is one where the goodness of our country doesn’t need to be beaten over people’s heads. We simply know it. We know we’re free. I’m sure there isn’t a entry on any side of this Blog that wouldn’t get somebody shot if it’s equivalent showed up in some other country. But we have the confidence and the pride to be able to speak our minds, and that is beautiful.

cherish and sirusc:

please give me a link that is NOT an ultra-right wing propaganda site…

something from the AP, Washington Times, hell the Wall Street Journal…something…

sending me into a site which has nothing but Reagan Deification posted all over it is in my humble opinion, a bit skewed.

views,

What? You don’t think that a site that calls another newspaper a “monomaniacally Bush-hating yuppie tabloid” could be fair and balanced?

How silly ;)

I get a lot of the same senses from most of these stories - the situations are normal, even everyday boring, but underlying each one is a subtle tone of combined shock and fear along with concern and sadness. It’s almost like there was a new and temporary vein that ran through each of us and connected people on some unrecognizable level that bled through cultural and political differences.

Well, for many of us anyway.

BTW, thanks Mr. Remer for keeping it non-partisan. When I read through these in ten years, your comments will certainly stand out.

American Us.mp3

Starts a little slow but builds. Shows Bush at his presidential best (IMHO).

Does the world have to go through this every damn year? Yeah, great tragedy and all, no doubt, but why wallow in grief again and again? Far be it from me to belittle the pain of the deaths of all these innocents, but let’s be honest here: it’s been four years. Learn the lessons and move on, America, or the deaths of your sons and daughters will just be in vain.

I had just gotten out of the shower and came upstairs for breakfast when my mother told me that a plane crashed into one of the WTC towers. Then as I was eating my brother said “There is another plane… Oh my God!”. On my way to school the radio was jumping in and out of news updates and crappy comercials. When I got to my 11th grade Trig class everyone was watching CNN. Soon my teacher made us turn the TV off to take our quiz. 30 minutes later we were done and turned the news back on, only to see the second tower come crashing down on whatever could have been below. Now here is the irony. A kid in my class that morning was later killed in Falujah (sp?) trying to save a friend who was already shot. 4 years, wow.

Please understand that I don’t mean to troll. I’m just saying that instead of staying in the “denial” and “anger” stages of the cycle of grief, maybe America should start moving on to the “acceptance” and “resolution” stages. It’s not good for a person’s psyche to stay in those stages forever; why should it be good for the psyche of a whole nation?

OttO, thank you, they will stand out. Because nothing will have improved, and there were folks like me saying that 10 years ago.

It is long past time for voters to show up at the polls and Vote The In Guy Out. It is our only hope that politicians ever be reminded of just who they hell pays their salary and who they work for, Not Haliburton, Not Shell, Not MoveOn.Org, not AARP. They were hired to work for all of us, and they need the sternest of reminders. Anti-incumbent voting is the only way of kicking that reminder into their thick skulls and party machinery.

Thanks for the contribution Reality. I think it’s safe to say after reading many of these, that we are past the acceptance ‘stage’. This is merely reflection and for me personally its a sort of scrapbook for years down the road, something to show the next generations.

I think it’s quite appropriate to take a little time on the anniversary of 911 and talk about it.

What I don’t understand is why you would voluntarily post on this board to let everyknow that you aren’t interested in posting a comment on this subject and that you are hostile to those who may have something to say. You’re not even disagreeing with anyone, you’re just talking down to them for opining on a big event in our lives that really wasn’t that long ago.

Maybe you would be happier just moving on and letting people who want to participate be.

Or…tell us your reactions to the attacks…

David,

Yeah, I get it. You don’t like Republicans. You’ve made your point. Now do you have something to contribute to the board in the way of your own personal experiences (besides your gut reaction to the president) from that day or week.

Any recollections of the way pop culture responded?

I recall watching Tom Petty on a live charity event staring into the camera with a stern look on his face and singing “I Won’t Back Down”. I also remember Richard Gere (and someone else) getting booed off the stage for preaching to a very angry New York crowd.

Neil Young recorded “Let’s Roll” and Paul McCartney recorded and performed “Freedom” at the Superbowl the following year.

I recall the charity funding feud between George Clooney and Bill O’Reilly.

And I could be wrong, but I think that The 25th Hour (excellent flick) might have been the first movie I saw that made direct references to 911.

Any others that jump to mind?

Or even in the news, how creepy the following months were. Besides the aftermath of the attacks and the subsequent war, we had anthrax attacks on media and political targets, a plane falling from the sky in Queens, the small private plane doing a ‘suicide’ flight into a building in Florida, the Nirvana-head from Wisconsin who was planting pipe bombs all over the country and the DC sniper.

wow Otto, I guess i forgot about the plane in Florida, how when the two words ‘plane’ and ‘building’ are combined everyone post 9/11 will get chills down their spine. And the DC sniper,OMFG, what was up with that???

Yeah, it was a pretty screwed up year for terror or even just the perception of it.

Remember the kid who was trying to display a smiley-face across the country by putting pipe bombs in mail boxes? Anyone know where he’s been lately (still locked up I’m sure)?

Or how about Johnny Lindh Walker, the ‘American Taliban’? He got 20 years but I last heard he was being considered for some sort of softer sentencing.

Whatever thoughts I’d initially had at this “invitation” has been somewhat colored I think by the responses I’ve read. But I’ll share with you what I experienced the morning of 9/11.

Pacific Standard Time it was roughly 6:30ish, my quiet time before the rest of the house woke up. I think the broadcasts had been playing for several minutes before they caught my attention.

I saw the photos, heard the news reports. Possible terror attacks meant nothing at the time. Who? Another Mc Veigh? Unibomber? Atlanta bomber? I don’t remember thinking unequivocally “muslim terrorists” but I do remember thinking “my poor mother”. Two of our sons were currently in the army and navy respectively, but my thoughts weren’t even with them. They were with my mother.

My mother was in Paris when the Germans invaded. She wasn’t Jewish, just the daughter of someone who helped the Poles and Jews. Her family, their history and fortunes were devastated; America the so called salvation. To marry an american air force officer and bring her child (me) to this country, where it was safe was drilled into me from the moment of my conscious memory. The stories I grew up with; based on hatred and bias; helped form the perception with which I viewed the news that morning. How is my mother going to take this?

Knowing she was just rising; knowing that she did not have the news on; I called her, told her we were all okay and to sit down. With the first words “planes have hit the WTC towers”, she started to cry; turned the tv on and started making plans for the family to come together in case of a major invasion like what she had experienced before in a different time and place…

But then, as now, I have to say I had no immediate cause for alarm for myself, my sons or my adopted country… just for her and I remember thinking that when the news about the pentagon hit some half hour or so later… that this couldn’t be happening. Not here, not in America and it was probably then that I felt the first trickle of fear. To breach the most heavily fortified building in the world? This had to be the act of someone greater than an anarchist wanna be.

Still, there was a sense of unreality and then I went to work and discovered a whole world of people with the same thoughts and mentality as I. Had it been, in my mind, something known, something planned, something definitive, I know one of our 2 boys would have called thru our network of military parents. Silence. So, how real was the threat if the military wasn’t galvanized? This is not right or wrong thinking, just what made logical sense to me at the time.

Now, being of average intelligence, the mother of 3 military and the wife of an aviation engineer, I find more questions about what happened than cause. Oxymorons rarely make good political points so I won’t try to make any here… not even after 4 years of thinking about it and so many easily answered questions still go unheeded.

Just my thoughts.

About 9-11 and where I was….. I was driving in my car from Bullhead City, AZ to my home in Needles, California (15 mile drive)…I was listening to the radio and heard that one of the planes had hit the WTC , then before I could get home another plane had hit… The annoucer said “This is going to be one of those questions that people ask, like where were you when JFK was assinated, Martin Luther King was assinated, and where were you when WTC in New York City, USA was bombed with her own planes loaded with americans under the supervision of TERRORISTS… As we watched the events play out on every channel of the satelite t.v. (and remember we watched the funerals of kennedy and king for a couple of weeks (or so it seemed) on the only T.V. channels we had in Needles ABC, NBC and CBS.. As a youngster 12 years old at the time of their assinations I didn’t really realize that Terrorism existed even in the 60’s… only it was within our Borders not from a muslim extremist group that hates “The INFIDELS”… what a shame that these events/vivid pictures are burned into our memory’s forever.. I tried to explain 9/11 to my oldest granddaughter 7 years old and she cannot understand why anyone would want to KILL anyone else because of religious beliefs.. and for that matter neither do I…and I’m 50 years old. Thank you for letting me share where I was on 9-11… Oh, by the way when I got home, put my groceries away I got on my knees and prayed for all those involved in the rescue attempt and the families of lost love ones..
Please America !!! Pray for Our Country !!

Remer,
You have to be the most bitter person ever,”I hate this, I hate that, Bush sucks, America is doomed,” does anything make you happy? You sound like the type of person that would go to a movie and complain about the reality of it instead of enjoying the entertainment value. I feel sorry for you at times. Your begining to sound like a broken record.

Your inability to either read or comply with our policy of Critiquing the Message, Not the Messenger gets you an invitation to post your flame baiting comments elsewhere. They are no longer welcome here. —WatchBlog Managing Editor

OttO, I guess you missed all my sentences critical of Democrats as well. I guess bipartisan criticism is like any other bipartisan talk, just goes right over some conservatives heads.

Don’t like Republicans indeed. I like John McCain. I respect and like Chris Matthews. I very much like Sen. Warner. I am acquiring some respect for for former Rep. Joe Scarborough. I like my neighbors, the hubbie is the Chair of our County’s Republican Men’s Association, which he has invited me to. Amazing how biased lenses taint the world for folks. Same old story. Anyone critical of Republicans is a Republican hater. Anyone who criticizes Bush is a Bush basher. And any Republican who does these things is a RINO.

Yeah, I get it.

Otto,
I was at work, and my best friend called, tearfully. “Jim, they’re flying planes into the World Trade Center,” he said quietly. “What?” and then he just said it again. I stood up, and other people who had just got the same call from a loved one stood with the same stare I had on my face. Someone rushed and turned on a conference room television, and even though the screen was fuzzy, we all crowded around and saw the smoldering towers. No one really looked at each other, and after a few minutes of paled numbness, I returned to my seat and called my mom. She didn’t answer, so I concluded that she was watching the television and didn’t notice the phone. As I hung up my receiver, my co-worker, Dennis, who’s in his early 50’s, made a funny noise and threw his headphones down. He had been listening to the radio over his PC, and he turned to me with red eyes barely holding tears and said, “Jesus, Jim. They’re jumping out of the windows.”
We both stood together, knowing work was useless, and we walked back into the conference room where the television was, just in time to see the 1st tower fall. Another friend, looked at no one, and said, “I’m going home to be with my boys,” and turned around and left. I thought to myself, “Why the fuck are we here, right now,” and I went to my PC, turned it off, and walked out the doors.
I was stunned. It really seemed the world outside in our little office complex was silent. No car noise, no planes, I didn’t even notice if birds were singing. What I did notice was that it was the most perfect, beautiful day, filled with sunshine and a warm but not to warm breeze. I got into my truck, drove out along the country route I take home because I hate the highway, and I thought to myself the last words of Christ before he died on the Cross; “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.”

Don’t you think that maybe we have something more pressing to worry about right now than the anniversary of 9/11?

Get with the program!

This thread is for remembering 9/11. Many of us made a promise to not just remember, but to never forget as well. This promise was made so that we could work at never allowing terroist to take advantage of us again. We are fortunate that, as many of the posts above show, many stood and fought back. We didn’t crumble as the towers did, but stood together.

As for the more pressing matters, we can address those as well in a timely manner while still keeping our promise. We as human beings have the capabilities to multitask. And with our “anger”, “resolution”, or whatever else people want to call it, we will address those matters with all our hearts and minds, to show the world in everything we do, we will show we are the united states.

David -

I didn’t say bipartisan, I said NONPARTISAN. Why is it no one can distinguish the difference between the two words?

And I’m going to defend Kevin here - he was absolutely criticiquing your message and I agree with him 100%. I recommend that the management withdraw its instructions to not post here anymore. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think that these rules should apply to unwarranted and immature attacks on people, not responses to your own words. I find it disturbing that a forum like this would try to squash opinions and dissent (sound familiar?) that aren’t popular with the management because the management may be (and deservedly) the target of the opinion. Did he hit close to home or something?

I’ve made specific requests regarding this conversation. Obviously, anyone can post what they want (as long as it doesn’t offend *certain* people) but I would again request that if someone isn’t interested in the discussion as it stands, perhaps that someone should remove himself from the discussion intead of trying to push buttons and then threatening people when they push back.

Otherwise, nice perspectives everyone, and well said Tabitha - this tactic (and Andrew isn’t the first) of coming into a discussion to criticize that discussion and announce that he isn’t interested in it is almost humorous.

BTW David -

Chris Matthews? LOL. He worked for Jimmy Carter, loved John Kerry and is a registered Democrat.

I like Zel Miller, does that show that I like Democrats in general (policies, not people)? I don’t think so…

I giong to Atlanta on business and was near Jonesboro (a town just south of Atlanta)when my wife called and asked if I had the radio on in my truck. I didn’t, but turned it on.
She was so upset that I turned around and went home.

Otto,

I like the thought of this thread and I wanted to share my story. I didn’t really have the “courage” as you might say to pour it all out b/c first, I didn’t want to get attacked by David or any other person who preaches free speech but can’t seem to stand speech that might be against their idealogy (wish that was a 100% joke..but only 50% probably), and second b/c it still is something that is close to me and still scares me. I was in college at the time. I was a 5th year senior at the time as well. I was supposed to have class that day at 9:30 CT and I usually woke up around an hour early. I was feeling groggy that day and didn’t want to get up and was just kinda lying in bed when I heard one of the other guys in my fraternity house who lived down the hall from me say to another “neighbor”, “hey are you watching tv? some idiot flew a plane into the WTC!” His reaction, which ended up being FREAKILY right was “Is someone attacking us?” and the conversation continued but I woke up quickly and hopped out of bed absolutely puzzled. At the time I got online to see what I could find online in the news…when I turned around just as the desk person at CNN or Fox (can’t remember) said something like “look there’s another plane” just SECONDS before the second plane hit. The rest of the day was kind of a blur. The only things I remember feeling were that in one class I was so upset that we were still “going on with our lives” without even having any answers like…should we arm ourselves (Paul Revere’s Ride revisited…only this time it was “three fires means they are coming by air”). To say I didn’t feel ABSOLUTELY patriotic to see the way our “first responders” took on the task. Fearing the worst with the estimates still by the end of the week believing that there were over 20,000 lost which was still WAY above the final tally (thank GOD—sorry David). My next thoughts throughout the day were to the people who would “be in harms way” over the next (as it turns out now) 4 years and counting…with MUCH progress and still a lot to go. Wondering whether I should join them, but at the LEAST knowing that I would ALWAYS respect them. After that, the feable attempts at causing terror seemed so miniscule compared to that day. I kept saying to myself “these people thought they’d beat us down and we’d surrender (like France probably would have…sorry had to put that in there) but we fought back and so they wanted to try to continue to scare us. This ONLY happened in the media as it turned out. I remember that also the ONLY people in music/entertainment/sports that stood up were in country music (Toby Keith, Darrel Worley, Aaron Tippin, Hank Williams) although I did not know about or see the Tom Petty appearance you mentioned, but there were a LOT of people that never got to see the Toby Keith performance on the ABC 4th of July special in 2002. But they did show it on CMT and some other places (if you look hard in the video for “Angry American” you can see people in suits waving flags and pumping their fists like “a bunch of beer swillin rednecks”). Sorry I rambled on so long but that’s my story and now that I’ve written it I’m GLAD I shared it. Thank you Otto.

Otto is it possible that we COULD start a debate blog with David and all the other libs to talk about his “Billions of Dollars”—(ala Eddie Murphy in I,Spy)? I’d like to tell him where all that money went and what REALLY went wrong…given the Able Danger news that we have now that’s not even getting ANY face time, other than the Katrina story OF COURSE since it is tragic, more recent, and definitely deserves our attention.

I’m just wondering when there will be an investigation into the “investigation” that was the 9/11 commission. I don’t know how to start a blog…sorry.

Better yet…where will you be when the next 911 attack comes as we learned NOTHING from the first one and it is obvious even after 30 billion dollars later we have NO HOME DEFENSE for “PREPAREDNESS”… WHAT WE DO HAVE is a lot of insensitive people who would rather think and talk about their self, while others can’t even get a F@#$ drink of water; the big picture is we have more to focus on right now. MORONS

I WAS IN THE FEILD WITH THE 2-27 WOLFHOUNDS IN HAWAII PREPARING FOR A LIVE FIRE EXERCISE. I FELT SO ALONE AT THAT VERY MOMENT. THEN I FEALT SUCH ANGER AND BITTERNESS AT WHAT HAD HAPPENED TO MY FELLOW AMERICANS.

Thank YOU Robert and Ron and CHARLIE.

And a special thanks to Annie for such a great story!

Robert -

If you have something to say, I do invite people to write on The OttO Show.

Or I could help you get started on your own.

Either way, e-mail at ottosjacket1@yahoo.com. I only check mail account about once a week, so you may not hear back from me for a few days, but let me know.

David Gilbert made this comment to The OttO Show:

I was working for a national automotive supply warehouse on 9/11. I was on the phone with a client when the first plane hit. The warehouse manager ran in and turned on the TV. The Today Show was on and smoke was billowing out of the first tower. I thought it was a freak accident or something. Before I knew what was going on, the second tower was hit. We instantly knew that this was no accident. We closed the office for the rest of the day and went home to be with our families. When I arrived at my house, my wife was terribly upset. She was crying and praying. We were glued to the TV for days. I, like most americans, will never forget the events of that terrible day. What would it have been like if the attack on Pearl Harbor was viewed in real time by every person in the country?

Is THIS STORY GOOD ENOUGH?
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nypost/20050903/cm_nypost/39i39mterrifiedireallyamifeelliketheworld39sgonenuts39
Excerpt:
‘LET them know I’m a human being,” implored Yolanda Harris.
Standing amid urine-soaked trash on the floor of the convention center and wearing two left-foot shoes, Harris recounted the horror she had seen …”I’m about to lose my mind, I saw so many dead people,” she said.
“They’re treating us like we’re the enemy!” roared refugee Elton Washington…
Families scrambling away from the center told of a 5-year-old girl raped and her throat slit.
All day long, as a burning chemical warehouse belched acrid plumes of smoke into the sky, helicopters buzzed overheard and emergency vehicles — some towing boats — raced in every direction.
But there seemed to be no centralized plan!

Refugees lined the sides of freeways, running into the middle of the road to flag down emergency vehicles in a desperate quest for water or rescue. Some got lucky.

PS We always hear the president end with God Bless —- September 2, 2005
The primary mission of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is to secure the homeland and protect it against conventional and unconventional attacks in the United States. DHS also leads response efforts to natural disasters, administers our Nation?s immigration system, ensures the safety of America?s waterways, and helps stop illegal drugs from crossing our borders.
At this time, where is your compassion??. blind allegiance is WITHIN your folded hands?. So let me sarcastically tell you, ?THANK YOU??

Annie -

What is your problem? Why are you rambling hysterically? Sounds to me like you’re feeling guilty about something - perhaps you’re not doing your part in this? I don’t know. All the time you spend trolling I’m sure could be put to much more productive use for the Katrina victims that you want us all to know that you are so concerned about.

Telling our stories about 911 doesn’t take anything at all away from what is going on now and show some lack of compassion.

You can keep freaking out, but you could probably find more effective places to do it than here - no one here is interested right now in getting into a blaming match with anyone on anything - go pick a fight on another thread please.

Or…tell us your story.

OttO,

“Robert -

If you have something to say, I do invite people to write on The OttO Show.

Or I could help you get started on your own.

Either way, e-mail at ottosjacket1@yahoo.com. I only check mail account about once a week, so you may not hear back from me for a few days, but let me know.”

OttO, mind if I pop over there, too? I tried joining the editors here, but I have no experience. Since this is the only blog I’ve ever participated in (I found it completely by accident, looking for opin ed pieces and boy, did I get that!), I didn’t really go looking elsewhere. Lack of experience would be a problem for me, though.

OttO,

I would also like to thank you for responding so civilly to your detracters. It really makes this thread much more poignant.

I was sleeping soundly and my wife was at work. The phone rang several times, I usually don’t answer it when I am asleep but it rang incesintly so I finally picked it up and my wife told me that the tower’s had been attacked and they were down and there were othere suspected attacks going on so I got up and turned on the news. The rest of the day is a blur but I saw the second jet slamming into the tower so much that it made me physically sick. I do think our press should have the compassion not to show things like that over and over. I now refrain from watching news and just get my headlines off the computer. I haven’t had the heart to watch the news of Katrina but what I have heard is awful and I pray for the victims every day. (-:

William - Thanks and ditto about Katrina.

Stephanie -

E-mail me and we can talk - ottosjacket1@yahoo.com

Annie, I apologize for OttO’s violation of our Critique the Message, Not the Messenger policy. Appropriate steps have been taken. We do expect more from our writers here. —WatchBlog Managing Editor

I just woke up and shuffled down three flights of stairs to the cafeteria in my dorm for breakfast. On the way down I saw one of the towers burning. I thought, “Oh, no. what now?” and hurried to the TV in the cafeteria. I watched, unbelieving as another plane slammed into the second tower.

Later, when I heard that they had both crumbled I was not only unbelieving but indignant. How could they not remain standing? Now how are we going to repair them? It was days before the reality sunk in.

I didn’t really cry until the one-year anniversary.

OttO: My experience? Sure.

It looked too much like a movie to be true at first, then I checked the channel and realized it really was the BBC. Call me a little cold-hearted, but with all the violence that happens all over the world, the WTC attacks weren’t all that unusual and out of place to me. I didn’t and never have underestimated its impact on the American psyche in general and the families of the victims in particular but, let’s face it, the only thing that made 9/11 ‘special’ was that it occured on American soil. Bad things happen all around the world all the time and, because it isn’t happening to Us, it isn’t Our problem. I admit, I was naive enough to think that maybe this will make the average American citizen rethink this attitude, that maybe some good may come out of such a tragedy.

About my original posts: I’ve grown cynical between then and now. I know how the drill goes; around 11th September, every network will start milking the tragedy for ratings and every US politician for mileage. A lot of the earlier posts struck me as similar “Never forgive, never forget” rhetoric, and so I reacted. I apologise if it struck any nerves. But still, my advocation still stands: should America continue to allow itself to wallow in self-misery every time 11th September comes around, or should it learn its lessons and move on, in honour of the people who died then and the people who died afterwards?

Annie

Due to your flame baiting and violation of our policy in more than one of your comments here, your privilege to post comments at WatchBlog has been removed.

Robert,

I kept saying to myself “these people thought they’d beat us down and we’d surrender (like France probably would have…sorry had to put that in there) but we fought back and so they wanted to try to continue to scare us.

You know, France was (and probably will be again in the future) hit by terrorism too.

Make a laugh at “french surrenders” all you want, but fact is you can’t really stop someone commited to give his life on suicidal terrorist act.

What you can fight back is stopping people being ready to do it: catch them before they’re and, far better, stop them hating you that much. By fixing why they do.

Here we call this counter-terrorism policy.
I guess it sounds just weakness for you, alas.

——

Back on topic: I was at my Paris’s office around 9/11 16 p.m. when news fall about WTC drama. It was unbeliable. Really.

My first reaction was “who did it and why?”. My second was “please America, don’t rush in rage without any clues”.

I was relieved when USA move after OBL in Afghanistan some months later, except that only the “Who?” question was really answered so far and the most important one, “Why?” was not debated at all or simply shortcutted to “they’re religious fanatics”.
Anyway, I was happy that France joined to help international forces leaded by US in Afghanistan because we’re concerned too, we share most of US culture after all.

Then, suddently, your country shifted his focus to Iraq. But that’s another story.

- From Euroland.