9 years ago today

[wiegie]

I can't believe it was 9 years ago. If I think about it for any length of time, the feelings I had then bubble back up to the surface.

 

May God bless America.

Edited September 11, 2010 by wiegie

[T_bone65]

 

 

I can still remember looking out of my office window seeing the black smoke rising from the Pentagon

[Scooby's Hubby]

Scooby and I got married in Vegas ... thanks to the attack we had to drive a U-Haul back to Texas. It is like the Pearl Harbor of our generation and I am affraid that the last 9 years is just the beginning of a religous based war against America and all those who do not go for the bullying tactics of the Taliban. What abunch of crazy a$$holes...

[loaf]

my Dad's birthday. He just can't win. Poor guy

[detlef]

I still remember the bizarre sense of disbelief that everyone walked around with that day. My guess is that it was close to how people felt when Pearl Harbor was attacked. It was this strange mixture of anger, sadness, and, again, disbelief. And its something I'll never forget.

[Scooby's Hubby]

Scooby and I got room service right after the towers fell and the waiter was middle eastern and he was scared to even come in our room. Talk about disbelief, that town was emptied and everything was basically canceled. Noone was winning at the tables and noone really even wanted to play. It was bizzaro Vegas ...

[whomper]

This day always reminds me of my friend Chris Amoroso . After multiple trips of going in to the towers to save people he went in and never came out again. A real hero. I met him in pee wee football. His dad was our coach. Great family. Chris was a sweet kid that never had anything bad to say about anyone. RIP Chris

[SheikYerbuti]

2 or 3 days after the attack, I was driving up the West Side Highway. At the time I was driving a beat up old Jeep Wrangler with Florida plates. We had spent the day donating it to help transport canned food and blankets to the Jacob Javits Center, which was converted into a supply depot. I got off at the 181st Street exit, headed back to my apartment. A cop stopped me at the exit. He asked to see my license and registration, telling me that he was required to do so for any vehicle that didn't have NY or NJ plates. I told him that I lived in Manhattan, but the car was recently registered in Florida where my parents lived. The cop had this bleak look on his face and said "Why would you want to live here?" I said "Because this is the greatest city on Earth, filled with the greatest people."

[dmarc117]

surreal day. watching on cnbc before the markets opened. remember running out of the office cause they said they were coming for chicago too.

[Scooby's Hubby]

that horrible event put Fox News on the map ...

[muck]

God Bless America

[gilthorp]

Just talking with my youngest daughter about that right now, as she was my son's age at the time, and doesn't remember a thing.

 

It was the most bizarre day ever, working by O'Hare Airport at the time, they evacuated us and told us to go home....total disbelief. Like Wedgie said, the longer you reflect, the more fresh the wound is.

[Clubfoothead]

It feels forever ago to me and yet the memory is so vivid.

 

I am reminded of my friend from high school, Steven Berrell, who got blown to bits over Lockerbie. When I think a about my life since September 11, 2001, I think about all the major life events of the past nine years that the victims were robbed of - married, bought a house, had two kids, burried my grandfather, watched my parents turn gray, seen my baby brother go to war and come home safe and sound to get married and have a kid. 2,977 plus all the dead in Iraq and Afganistan are gone, never to experience their major life events.

 

I think a lot about how the experts were wrong and the event hasn't united us.

 

I'm still plenty enraged and sad.

[DMD]

Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but it has been nine years and there is still no memorial of any kind at the spot. There wasn't a couple of years ago when I went there. There was a firehouse thing for the firefighters (there was a unit actually housed right across the street). The greatest loss of life in an American terrorist event and there was no memorial. Not even a park bench with a plaque. Hopefully the memorial they have next year is appropriate, but it has been ten years in the making.

 

It was a sad and sobering day and all those victims deserve better IMO.

[nuke'em ttg]

not seeing any air traffic for acouple days or whatever it was and then seeing a plane again was creepy, thoughts & prayers to the familys affected.

[buddahj]

 

[Chavez]

9 yrs ago today one of the most shocking events of my life occurred.

 

6 yrs ago today, something even more shocking happened - a beautiful, intelligent, vivacious woman agreed IN PUBLIC to be my wife.

 

 

Never forget the first occurrence, but cherish the second all the more.

[The Holy Roller]

My 7th graders today were 3 years old then. They have no feelings for that day and will never know what America was like before it. Many only know that their dads (and some moms) are gone for up to a year at a time and being at war in a faraway place is how life has always been. Everything changed that day.

[Riffraff]

Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but it has been nine years and there is still no memorial of any kind at the spot.

Not at the ground zero spot, but Russia gave us a Teardrop Memorial

[wiegie]

I still remember the bizarre sense of disbelief that everyone walked around with that day. My guess is that it was close to how people felt when Pearl Harbor was attacked. It was this strange mixture of anger, sadness, and, again, disbelief. And its something I'll never forget.

I'd suggest that what we feel about 9/11 might actually be worse than what people felt about Pearl Harbor due to three factors:

 

1) WWII had already been going on for more than 2 years when Pearl Harbor was attacked, so while the attack was a surprise, the US ending up in the war was not. Whereas with 9/11, I think in general it was a much more of a surprise to most people.

 

2) The victims of 9/11 were overwhelmingly civilians whereas those killed at Pearl Harbor were mostly military who (with WWII ongoing) knew that they would very likely come into harm's way sometime in the near future. At Pearl Harbor, civilians became acutely aware that our soldiers were at risk of being killed--on 9/11, civilians became acutely aware that they were at risk of being killed.

 

3) 9/11 happened live before our very eyes. While we knew people were killed at Pearl Harbor, we actually watched them die on 9/11.