9/11 Never Forget

I just wanted to take a moment and ask that everyone please don't forget the terrible events that happened today 15 years ago. Many lives were lost from people of all walks of life and many people were affected in one way or another. I wanted to tip my hat and salute all of the first responders and members of the armed forces who put their lives on the front lines to help out those who were affected by the attacks.

That is all. Back to your regularly scheduled Sunday programming.

My best friend called and woke me up that morning. I remember exactly what he said: "The twin towers are gone." It was such a surreal statement, I just couldn't process it at first.

I lost a few friends that day who were first responders.

At the same time, remember your own loved ones.

It's extra sad when so many lose their loved ones that fast, but they are the same loved ones we all have.

My wife and I had been married just over a month. We didn't have a TV but had a massive CRT video projector in the basemt. I left work early after the planes hit and set the projector up in the living room and we watched Dan Rather spend hours and getting a sore throat covering updates as they came in. The world seemed so much less stable after that.

I remember I was creating student user accounts for the School system network I was an admin of.

Turned the TV on just as the second plane hit.

I arrived at work and could immediately tell that something was up because the TV was on. It was a few moments later that the second tower was struck. That's when I knew it was no accident. That night the skies were clear and quiet with no planes overhead. Looking up at the sky it seemed there were more stars than usual. Hard to believe it's been 15 years.

This past Wednesday our pastor at our prayer meeting asked an American Airlines mechanic what he was doing on 9/11/01.

He said he was working his 2nd shift at O'Hare and there were planes grounded everywhere - even some sitting on runways. He still had to run around and do normal maintenance and he mentioned these planes normally don't sit long so the mechanics were running full speed but he said it was odd to be at O'Hare airport and not see a single plane arriving or departing.

I can't think of it without being moved to tears or consumed with rage. I will finally forget the events of 15 years ago today, and how it changed our world, when I am dead.

I remember being is a college class when I found out about the second tower and leaving. As I drove up the interstate to get home I had the entire road to myself.

At one overpass a biker was standing there with a really big American flag on a 15' pole. Everyone felt like they had to be doing something and that was his response. It worked, he reached people.

Hard to talk about it even today. My sister had one of the planes pass over her head while she was walking to class at NYU. She remembers remarking how low the plane was and how odd it seemed.

Posted last night.

My Cousin Marty Glembotzky live filming of towers The shadow and camera is him running at 13:45 .

etifosi wrote: I can't think of it without being moved to tears or consumed with rage. I will finally forget the events of 15 years ago today, and how it changed our world, when I am dead.

I know this will be unpopular, but I always wonder why we want to remember the moment so that we have rage in our hearts? Rage at what?

Yes, I get the sadness of losing lots of fellow Americans suddenly due to some horrible people, but many of us have lost loved ones in the mean time- do we remember their deaths the same way? Do you have a whole day of remembering the day they died? More Americans wake up the last time each day than who were killed that day.

Many people have died violent deaths since then, too. I'm sure some here know people who were violently killed- does the day they died fill you with rage, too? We just had someone get killed by someone texting. Should we rage over texting and driving?

Do we remember this day to be angry and want revenge? Or do we remember this day for the people who protect us and don't hesitate to put their lives on the line to save us? And spend time remembering the great days of our loved ones?

For sure, I'm not saying forget this. Just questioning what each one of us wants to dig up.

Alfa, I think it has to do with the scale of the event and the pure hatred expressed by an "other" that we as a nation can rally around. A text and drive death sucks for sure but it's simple negligence and just a few lives affected (no matter how badly).

9-11 told us, as a society, that there are people out there motivated enough to commit mass murder on a monumental scale on the basis of religion and culture.

A relative was 3 stories below one of the planes. He called his wife, said, "Honey, I love you", then no connection.

I'll stop there.

I remember it so we don't become complacent. Because those that brought the war to our shores will do it again given the chance. That is what you should never forget.

Karl La Follette wrote: My Cousin Marty Glembotzky live filming of towers The shadow and camera is him running at 13:45 .

Thanks for sharing that. That was really crazy to watch.

Just all the, "What are you thinking?" "I... I don't know..."

I remember it for a lot of reasons. Many of them competing.

For the people who were lost.
For the people who lost loved ones.
For the people who stepped forward.
That our country is able to come together and help each other out in times of crisis.
To remember that there are people out there willing to murder innocents who we must be vigilant against.
To think about the history and factors that led to people being willing to carry out such acts.
That things were different before 9/11 and not just take expanded security as a given. To mull over what level is actually healthiest.

Jerry wrote:

I finished that last sentence with "... See ya! I'm going riding". And that is what I did this AM.

I hate to be crass here - because this was a polarizing moment in the lives of everyone who was around to experience it, myself included. I worked in the city, 3 blocks away and had the good fortune to be in a boardroom in Bethlehem PA, discussing the potential impact that the filing of securities charges against Worldcom (MCI) on Aug 27 would have on our business (we folded, BTW). I am not without some sense of the scale of the devastation and loss that took place but I fail to see how putting it on the front page and dedicating an entire news day to broadcasting is helping anyone but advertisers. For berkeleys sake - enough with the full court press of media jamming it back down our collective throats in the interest of... who? What? I don't care a bit that Mary Jane from Tuscaloosa Alabama is having a candlelight vigil for local firefighters and made little twin tower shaped cup cakes. I don't want to watch Diane Sawyer pull a tear-soaked story out of some poor schmuck who lost a father/mother/brother/sister so they cry on TV to sell Cialis during the break. I remember 9/11 every berkeleying time I try to board an airplane in this country. No one needs to remind me not to forget.

You know, it's fair to say I don't remember a world before the events of fifteen years ago, mainly because 9/11 is the oldest memory I have. I was helping my grandad wash his red B12 Sentra (I think I still have a picture of me scrubbing the wheels), when the music on the radio stopped. There was screaming and crashing noises and everything. He took me inside and immediately called my mom. When she came to pick me up, not a word was said in the car. My dad was home really early then, and stayed home for a couple days. Even though I was way too young to know what was actually going on, I could tell that something had happened that was big enough to weigh on the heads of everyone. As I grew up, I learned more and more about what happened that day, and it just got worse in retrospect. Maybe it screwed me up for life, who knows. All I know is that there was a then, and there is a now, and the divide happened on September 11th, 2001.

In reply to Huckleberry:

I would agree with you actually.
This picture was more about saying you love someone every chance you get because you might not get another one. My stepdad was carrying luggage up the steps of his condo for a vacation and fell backwards, hit his head and because of the cumoden he was taking as a blood thinner he ended up with uncontrolled bleeding of the brain. He died 5 days later. My mom never got to say she loved him again, or goodbye. Neither did I or his daughter.

Today I took my dog for a walk in the park in 75F weather finally. Got a library card so I could order season 5 of Fringe since Netflix dropped it at midnight. Bought a new air filter for Subarust. And just cut the grass (see 75F comment earlier). And otherwise lived my life as usual.

My baby was born on Sept 11, 2014. That joy has trumped the sorrow of the same day 13 years earlier.

I suppose someone is born on Pearl Harbor Day every year since.

today is also the 2nd anniversary of my nephew's suicide.

Never forget that 9-11 was when Halliburton started the process of sucking billions of dollars out of the American taxpayers pocket as the single source supplier for the war on terror. A war that was eventually declared on countries that had zero to do with the Twin Towers event.

Yes, there were a lot of heroes minted that day, but it is also the day that America surrendered its freedom to Washington in a pre-arranged plot that was much larger than the towers.

So as a human being, I take a moment to reflect on the selfless actions of the heroes who tried and the innocents who died. But as a closet admirer of the long con, I really have to doff my hat to Washington.