Comments on: September 11th, three years later

September 11th, three years later

SuzySmith — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 11:31:24 -0800

The original thread as posted here on metafilter. On the first anniversary this thread consisted mainly of links related to the terrorist attacks. Last year was this thread. Remember those who were lost in this one thread, please, without the politics.

By: SuzySmith

SuzySmith — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 11:33:19 -0800

Sar's is still looking for Don.

By: psmealey

psmealey — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 12:28:17 -0800

Yikes. I'm still looking for a way, three years later, to remember Sept 11 without reliving it. Was a fascinating trip down memory lane, but brought back a lot of memories that I'm still trying to suppress.

By: the fire you left me

the fire you left me — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 12:28:18 -0800

It's like Christmas, only every one keeps dying, year after year.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 12:36:09 -0800

no, it isn't, and no, they don't.

By: aacheson

aacheson — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 12:45:17 -0800

What strikes me about the original 9/11 thread is how RIGHT people were. About us going to war. About the world changing. About our civil liberties being taken away. So many people were right and it had just happened.

By: Satapher

Satapher — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 12:45:32 -0800

my human gets me blues

By: tommasz

tommasz — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 13:19:48 -0800

It was as difficult today to read through that thread as it was that day.

By: Turtles all the way down

Turtles all the way down — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 13:28:43 -0800

Chilling. That brought back to me precisely the feeling I had that day: nothing is going to be the same after this. I'm amazed at some of the prescient comments that were made even as it had just begun to happen: "This is going to be a big turning point in the history and character of this country, I think." posted by Doug at 6:51 AM PST on September 11

By: PrinceValium

PrinceValium — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 14:17:50 -0800

Speaking of prescient, the Fark thread mentions Osama Bin Laden at 9:23 AM. I was doing okay this week until I read the NYTimes story about the jumpers, and it all came back. (Best not to be clicking on the link if you are content in your memory repression.) I was in Boston that day. I still remember the subway ride home. I was giving 50/50 odds that someone would blow up the Park Street station while I was waiting for my connection to the Red Line. Later that afternoon, back home in Cambridge, we heard F-16s overhead and I was giving 25/75 odds that they were not F-16s at all but the next round of attacks. I remember wondering if being a quarter mile from Harvard Square was too close for comfort. I remember wondering if it was even safe to go outside to get Chinese food. In March 2002, I went on a business trip to lower Manhattan and stayed at the World Financial Center Marriott, which had just re-opened. As I walked from my room to the elevator one day I looked out the hallway window and saw that someone had spraypainted on an edifice on top of a nearby roof, in construction-worker orange, "Plane Parts" and "Human Parts", each with arrows. I still don't know if it was too grotesque to be something other than someone's sick joke. Later that night I walked around Battery Park City looking for food - absolutely nothing was open - and got yelled at by five cops sitting in a van parked perpendicular to the "pit." They said I was supposed to turn around and go some other way. They looked pissed. Really pissed. Everything's gotten better since then, but I often wonder if we have slid too far into complacency. Politics has subsumed our grief; I can think of no other rationale for the Republicans getting away with the 9/11 references in their convention. They tell us that we - as generic flag-waving Americans - are supposed to think of 9/11 in the abstract, as the opening salvo in a "war", as a collection of vignettes evocative of bravery, or patrotism, or whatever. Bullshit. I was back in Boston last week and when I saw the Hancock building I still visualized a plane flying into it, just as I had done hundreds of times walking to work from the T. They can't genericize our memories.

By: somethingotherthan

somethingotherthan — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 17:32:03 -0800

I can't even read 1/3 of the original thread before the tears start threatening. I am probably one of the few people on the planet who didn't watch any TV that day -- I followed the story here and at the NYTimes site. And that was bad enough.

By: Silune

Silune — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 17:39:56 -0800

9/11/00: Are we facing The End of News? Will we ever again live in interesting times? *sigh*

By: gesamtkunstwerk

gesamtkunstwerk — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 19:23:21 -0800

I am finding today almost worse than Sept. 11-01. I remember the day so clearly, but the numbing shock that got me through the day has worn off. I am much closer to really grasping the horror.

By: SuzySmith

SuzySmith — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 22:08:00 -0800

I agree, gesamtkunstwerk. Today was worse. I didn't have my 2 year old niece to distract me and I wasn't in shock. I spent much of the day away from the television and the net. Other than watching about 15 minutes of the History channel special before my husband turned it away so I could calm down.

By: tomplus2

tomplus2 — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 22:20:08 -0800

I'm reading through the original thread, there really were some suprising posts (note the times): a rumour that the Iraqis have hijacked 7 passenger planes around the world and are planning more of this. this is the rumour here, I'm in Paris, has anyone else heard anything like this? posted by hazyjane at 7:07 AM PST on September 11 -- Bin Laden Warned of 'Unprecedented' Attack posted by muckster at 10:04 AM PST on September 11 -- Afghanistan also sent its condolences - Afghanistan who despise America?? Wasn't there an explosion outside the State Department or something? Car bomb?? posted by Mossy at 10:26 AM PST on September 11

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Sun, 12 Sep 2004 12:30:30 -0800

I'm still waiting for this to turn into a bank holiday where stores have sales and people honor heroes alive and dead instead of just mourning loss. I don't want this day to become a mushy syrupy thing, but I also don't like it being the dark and disturbing thing that it still is. I hope time takes the terror and tears out of Nine Eleven and turns it into something more hopeful and heartwarming. Without being corny. This was the day where for one brief shining moment, every civilized heart soul and mind on Earth was an American. They didn't break our spirit. If anything, they proved how impossible it is to crush our spirit. We learned that sometimes all it takes to be a hero, is to walk down the street with a stranger who needs a helping hand for a moment. I still call that day "Nine Eleven" when it comes around but that's too somber and cold. I wish I could call it "Hero Day" but that's too corny and will never catch on. I pray that some day there'll be a found happy medium. I pray for a Nine Eleven in which it is life that is celebrated, and not death. Maybe next year.