Just a post

September 11, 2005 1:46 PM

9-11 I've never posted a link before and don't mean to create any debate or make any statement. I just thought that before the day was out we do the obvious and remember.
posted by brautigan (136 comments total)

Very good of you, brautigan.
posted by dd42 at 1:46 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by dazed_one at 1:51 PM on September 11, 2005

dot
posted by [expletive deleted] at 1:51 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by umberto at 1:59 PM on September 11, 2005

Metafilter's 9/11 thread.
posted by marxchivist at 2:04 PM on September 11, 2005

D.O.T. (.)
posted by Balisong at 2:05 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by killdevil at 2:06 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by about_time at 2:10 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by jonmc at 2:14 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by id at 2:17 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by maryh at 2:19 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by Corky at 2:20 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by Lafe at 2:20 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by Freen at 2:21 PM on September 11, 2005

[Do we really need an FPP to "remember"?]
posted by nonmerci at 2:22 PM on September 11, 2005

[Is it hurting anybody if we do, nonmerci?]
posted by jonmc at 2:24 PM on September 11, 2005

. (yes)
posted by quiet at 2:24 PM on September 11, 2005

[who?, and don't say the Iraqi people, I'm against that war as are many people who wish to show their respects here]
posted by jonmc at 2:26 PM on September 11, 2005

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Thanks brautigan.
posted by caddis at 2:26 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by tweak at 2:28 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by PhatLobley at 2:28 PM on September 11, 2005

Anyone know why this memorial list doesn't include the victims from the Pentagon or flight 93?
posted by Bonzai at 2:29 PM on September 11, 2005

True, brautigan.

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posted by Samizdata at 2:30 PM on September 11, 2005

Photos from Sep 11, 2002, one year on.

Squandered international support (We are [no longer] all Americans?). From One Thousand Reasons.

I want to remember September 11, 2001.

Russia remembers...

The Israeli context in 2005.

20,000 US troops remain in Afghanistan.

A barrel of conspiracies.

New York Times obits.

September 11/Iraq War Myth continues.

A raft of opinions, events and messes resulting from September 11, 2001 that server, to me at least, as a reminder of just how much that day changed everything.
posted by nthdegx at 2:30 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 2:32 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by feelinglistless at 2:33 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by tetsuo at 2:33 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by wheelieman at 2:35 PM on September 11, 2005

Scroll to the right, Bonzai.
posted by blendor at 2:35 PM on September 11, 2005

FAO bonzai. just scroll right.
posted by brautigan at 2:36 PM on September 11, 2005

"Before I experienced the attack, my biggest fear was getting stuck with a bar tab. An enemy was somebody on a rival collegiate swim team. Patriotism meant wearing American flag boxer shorts on the Fourth of July.

"It took just a day to change all of that."
posted by nthdegx at 2:41 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by Kellydamnit at 2:42 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by brundlefly at 2:43 PM on September 11, 2005

These are great: Art Crimes September 11 graffiti murals.
posted by nthdegx at 2:45 PM on September 11, 2005

Excellent, brautigan.

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posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 2:45 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by seawallrunner at 2:46 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by oflinkey at 2:48 PM on September 11, 2005

My favourite news article about this years rememberance of September 11 is this one.. Why you ask? Primarily because of the following paragraph.

"Three years ago, television networks devoted their programming to a day of remembrance. This Sunday they offered live coverage of the start of the American football season, including the opening game of the New York Giants, and the season premiere of the cult cartoon sitcom The Simpsons."

On the first episode of The Daily Show aired after the September 11 attacks, host Jon Stewart famously said that the show was able to do what it does because of the freedom that the US gives them. He said as a result of September 11, his show had changed; for instance ""Subliminable" was no longer a punch line. But he also said that he hoped that one day The Daily Show would become what it was before September 11, because if it did, it meant that "we [had] ridden out the storm."

So I like that news article, and theparagraph I quoted within it, because living outside the US, it shows to me that at least to some extent, America has, or at the very least is, riding out the storm.

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posted by Effigy2000 at 2:49 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by Chanther at 2:52 PM on September 11, 2005

[Reread my comment, jonmc--I made no mention of whether it 'hurt' anyone or not, but rather asked a simple question.]
posted by nonmerci at 2:53 PM on September 11, 2005

.^2
posted by Mikey-San at 2:53 PM on September 11, 2005

"Peaceful Tomorrows is an organization founded by family members of those killed on September 11th who have united to turn our grief into action for peace. By developing and advocating nonviolent options and actions in the pursuit of justice, we hope to break the cycles of violence engendered by war and terrorism. Acknowledging our common experience with all people affected by violence throughout the world, we work to create a safer and more peaceful world for everyone."
posted by nthdegx at 2:54 PM on September 11, 2005

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Rest in peace.

Some highlights from the 9/11/01 thread, as it is quite long in its entirety. It's amazing to have this record of what we were feeling as these events unfolded. The horror, the uncertainty...

Wait a second, TWO? Two?

Was it on purpose?
posted by jragon at 6:16 AM PST on September 11 [!]

looks like the top 20 or so stories of both buildings. the base of the buildings should be ok, asboth buildings are designed for massive disruptions simliar to this....
posted by mich9139 at 6:36 AM PST on September 11 [!]

Some sort of bombing at the pentagon just occured.
posted by donkeymon at 6:45 AM PST on September 11 [!]

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 [!]

Oh, man... I am so sick. This is the day everything changed. I was just there the day before yesterday, the World Trade Center.

There are so many people there....
posted by anildash at 6:52 AM PST on September 11 [!]

radio is reporting the second tower has collapsed
posted by NortonDC at 7:04 AM PST on September 11 [!]

The 2nd tower is gone. F*ck, the WORLD TRADE CENTER IS GONE.
posted by Spirit_VW at 7:37 AM PST on September 11 [!]

c-span is training their live cam on the capitol, waiting for the next hijacked plane to hit it.
posted by mich9139 at 7:38 AM PST on September 11 [!]

It is my hope that everyone will now carefully watch our politicians. Those who invest in the war machine and military of this nation, which many people have in their invest portfolios, now stand to make millions to billions on the fear and anger caused by this event. So, don't think that everyone is unhappy about this.
posted by memorydream at 10:44 AM PST on September 11 [!]

Numb. I'm just completely numb.
posted by mathowie at 10:51 AM PST on September 11 [!]

People in the streets are screaming at Arabs near me. Its absurd, and horrible. One woman, "Are you happy with what you've done?" Another man, "It's going down soon, man."
I have a friend who claims the ash I'm breathing is asbestos. Internal memo at ABC News.
posted by Doug at 12:29 PM PST on September 11 [!]

todays date: 9 1 1
posted by tsarfan at 1:20 PM PST on September 11 [!]

I just saw #7 collapse on MSNBC... it is so scary. Is it actually over, or is there more to come?
posted by owillis at 2:27 PM PST on September 11 [!]

The US must not stoop to the level of the terrorists, it must identify the culprits and then work with it's allies to bring these people to justice.
posted by johnny novak at 3:30 PM PST on September 11 [!]

"I hope I live. I hope I live." That amateur video on CNN was horrifying.
posted by gleuschk at 3:45 PM PST on September 11 [!]

apparently 200 firefighters dead, 78 police officers in NY (from FARK)
posted by Mossy at 5:03 PM PST on September 11 [!]

It will be hard to sleep tonight. After the roller coaster I had with where the hell my dad was, with my in-laws, and everything else, and practically crying on the way home to get my son from day care, this is just too much. I would wish that this would all go away when I wake up. Shit is going to change. My dad already is saying that the markets are going to be fucked. This is definitely a changing point in our history to a degree that we can not even imagine yet.
posted by adampsyche at 5:49 PM PST on September 11 [!]

First time post, long time reader. I just want to say that the people of NYC really came together for this tragedy. I was out and about walking around with my camera and the way people were treating each other was like a brother or sister. It was amazing watching the number of cars pulled over with their radios on news stations that people gathered around or the water stations set up around the city. I feel as though today proved why New York is the greatest city.
posted by spudworks at 6:07 PM PST on September 11 [!]

Wild eyes, box knives, retractable razor blades, sky terror, toy planes crashing into toy buildings, but they aren't toys, and the explosions are real and surreal, and it's an unholy peek into a nighmare damnation, and the rain is shards of glass and bone, all to dust...

Beyond comprehension. I wanna go home. I wanna go splash in the inflatable pool painted with the starfish and the seahorsies that my father blew up one purple-faced breath at a time, that he set up in our unfenced backyard where all the neighbor kids came to play.

I'm tired, and sick, and I just wanna go home.
posted by Opus Dark at 9:28 PM PST on September 11 [!]
posted by leapingsheep at 2:56 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by Duncan at 2:58 PM on September 11, 2005

"SonicMemorial.org is an open archive and an online audio installation of the history of The World Trade Center. We are continuing to collect stories, ambient sounds, voicemails, and archival recordings to tell the rich history of the twin towers, the neighborhood and the events of 9/11."

If you search "Ambient sound" there is this:

"In 1982, radio producer Lou Giansante recorded a number of interviews with people at the World Trade Center, as well as some of the sounds of the buildings. This is the sound of the elevator going up to the Observation Deck."

By no means unique: a recording of something that can no longer be heard, but no less unsettling for it.
posted by nthdegx at 2:58 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by WillieD at 2:58 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by unrepentanthippie at 2:58 PM on September 11, 2005

First person account of the Pentagon attack posted to Slashdot on the day.
posted by nthdegx at 3:00 PM on September 11, 2005

"re:constructions is an on-line resource and study guide, designed to spark discussions and reflections about the media's role in covering the events of 11 September 2001 and their aftermath."






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posted by nthdegx at 3:04 PM on September 11, 2005

I hope that as time passes, September 11 becomes a day of reflection about the role of the United States in the world, and a day where people think and talk about peace and what we need to do to ensure peace.
posted by mert at 3:05 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by keswick at 3:07 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by exlotuseater at 3:11 PM on September 11, 2005

I'm tired, and sick, and I just wanna go home.

I think we all felt that way.


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posted by Smedleyman at 3:16 PM on September 11, 2005

libera animas defunctorum de ore leonis,
ne absorbeat Tartarus, ne cadant in obscurum.
posted by naxosaxur at 3:20 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by kalimac at 3:23 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by mrplab at 3:29 PM on September 11, 2005

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+ happy birthday to me
posted by picopebbles at 3:29 PM on September 11, 2005

Terrorism is a farce and should be ignored.
posted by jeffburdges at 3:45 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by alumshubby at 3:48 PM on September 11, 2005

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It's almost surreal to look back on how I was on that day. At the time I just closed myself to what was happening. I didn't watch the news much, I only talked about it when it was brought up by others, or discussed in one of my classes. Reading the 9/11 thread and seeing the reactions as it was all unfolding reminds me of how remote (I made?) it all seemed to me.

It wasn't really until one year later, when I was reading page after page with lists of names printed in my paper of those who had died that the reality of what had happened truly hit me for the first time, and I broke down sobbing at my kitchen table.
posted by kosher_jenny at 3:48 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by gai at 3:49 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by Snyder at 3:55 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by bjgeiger at 4:03 PM on September 11, 2005

It's almost surreal to look back on how I was on that day. At the time I just closed myself to what was happening.

I can certainly understand that, but some of us didn't have that luxury. I was still working as a salesman in a computer store that day and I was working a 1 to 9 shift so I was looking forward to sleeping late. My better half woke me up to tell me what happened. After the shock wore off, I immediately thought of my best friend (on the right) who was an EMT in Washington Heights at the time. The rest of the day I couldn't stop imagining him at the bottom of a pile of rubble. But I went to work because I had to. Some asshole came in and when me and a co-worker asked "Can I help you?" he said "I'd like to place a trade on the New York Stock Exchnage, can I do that here?" When we greeted him with blank stares, he said "Just a joke." Hilarious, prick.

My boss let me out early because he knew I was worried about my buddy. Around midnight I got a phone call. He was on vacation in Hawaii. He came back two days later and worked several 24-hour shifts at Ground Zero. When I visited him 2 weks later, he showed me the scented gelpackets they used to ward off the scent of the corpse gas that escaped when the dug them up. Months later when I visited him at a retirement party for his Liutennant he showed me the plaques for the 3 guys his squad lost that day. I can't be detached, much as I'd like to.
posted by jonmc at 4:05 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by VulcanMike at 4:05 PM on September 11, 2005

Reading the thread brings back some of the surreal feelings. Katrina brought some back too. I'm not American, but it changed us all.
posted by Acey at 4:07 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by redbeard at 4:07 PM on September 11, 2005

Terrorism is a farce and should be ignored.
posted by jeffburdges at 3:45 PM PST on September 11 [!]


Wha?
posted by Smedleyman at 4:09 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by twiki at 4:10 PM on September 11, 2005

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Thank you, brautigan. I was afraid that the inevitable 9/11 thread would dwell on the parts that we already have to think about every day. This is sweet.

(+ happy birthday to picopebbles)
posted by Epenthesis at 4:14 PM on September 11, 2005

Acey writes 'I'm not American, but it changed us all.'

It changed all non-Americans? That's a bit of a stretch.
posted by signal at 4:15 PM on September 11, 2005

signal: I'd say you could easily argue it's changed much of the planet. However, this is not the place for me to go on.

So...

(.)
posted by Kloryne at 4:27 PM on September 11, 2005

Thanks, Marxchivist, for the link to the original thread.

I was in Seattle at the time, working for a dot-com startup so close to failing that we had shut off our phone service just to save money. Usually my wife would contact me via IM, but of course the servers were down. I thought it was just a quirk that I couldn't get online. I sent her an email that said something like, "Hi, chat servers are down. Hope you have a good day." Her reply was uncharacteristically in all caps:

GO TO A NEWS WEBSITE
THE US IS UNDER ATTACK
THE WORLD TRADE CENTER HAS COLLAPSED
THE PENTAGON HAS BEEN ATTACKED

I thought she had sent me a weird piece of spam or a badly formed haiku or something until I went to a payphone and called her.

Reading that original thread really reminded me of that feeling of confusion and anger on those first few days.
posted by jay.jansheski at 4:28 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by phredhead at 4:32 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by Miko at 4:34 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by reflecked at 4:39 PM on September 11, 2005

NPR's chaotic, but spooky coverage. Take the TV-video out of the equation, and Bob Edward's flat delivery contrasted with live coverage from New York and , in particular, Tom Gjelten inside the Pentagon (as the actual attack occured), is hair-raising.
posted by Jazznoisehere at 4:41 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by bluefin at 4:49 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by klausness at 4:56 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by bwg at 4:59 PM on September 11, 2005

tough birthday picopebbles, have a good one tho.

The one silver lining here, I think there was some measure of pride and gratification in being needed, that feeling of "I have something I can do to help" in first responders and other folks even tangentially related to the events. I know I felt it. Nowhere near as much as a firefighter or doctor of course. I know my mom had that deer in the headlights look of helplessness.
posted by Smedleyman at 5:02 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by onalark at 5:11 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by whatideserve at 5:11 PM on September 11, 2005

I never really felt like an American before the attacks. I was born and raised here, sure, but "I'm an American" wasn't a big part of how I thought of myself. The attacks made me feel like we were attacked, like I was part of an us that was threatened. The "we're all in this together" feeling that everyone seemed to share made me prouder to be an American than I'd ever felt before and have ever felt since.

Unfortunately, some of the things we've done as a reaction to the attacks have made me more ashamed to be an American than I'd ever thought I'd be. Anger and sorrow and numbness all have had much larger shares of my emotional life than they did before the attacks.
posted by kirkaracha at 5:12 PM on September 11, 2005

A pivotal moment in the history of mankind. Fours years later and here we are on our new trajectory. 9/11 is of profound importance to us all. We all made decisions based on the way we reacted and most of us took sides, it's a good time to take a pause, look at where we are and think carfully about what is happening.
posted by piscatorius at 5:14 PM on September 11, 2005

We're in the middle of another disaster, that's where we are--one made worse by decisions made after 9-11. What new trajectory is this? Do you have any idea how much money this nation will have to spend over the next few years? And with Iraq still a mess? It's tough not to feel really down and alienated from our government at this point. Remember the victims, but the talk of 9-11 and how it made people patriotic in one day can only come from people who aren't living in the here and now. Never forget, but move on.
posted by raysmj at 5:22 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by grey_flap at 5:27 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by ST!NG at 5:27 PM on September 11, 2005

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And, our first anniversary thread, which was also a moving experience.
posted by yhbc at 5:29 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by Seth_Messinger at 5:32 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by mwhybark at 5:33 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by pwally at 5:41 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by tozturk at 5:42 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by shimmerglimpse at 5:47 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by Pliskie at 6:04 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by kyleg at 6:14 PM on September 11, 2005

Howard Stern was on the air in NYC doing his show talking about Pam Anderson when he heard the news

here's a torrent of that fascinating show on that horrible day
posted by tsarfan at 6:20 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by kbanas at 6:22 PM on September 11, 2005

I have to say, the most scared I've ever been in my life was on that day. I was lazily sleeping in (until around 8am MST) when I was rudely awoken by some thumping from upstairs... and being yelled to come up to see the news because the US was under military attack. "Fortunately" that wasn't really true... but that was the most scared I've ever been.
posted by vernondalhart at 6:30 PM on September 11, 2005

I Like to Watch.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 6:34 PM on September 11, 2005

Archived worldwide coverage from web sites, from the Library of Congress
posted by Rumple at 6:36 PM on September 11, 2005

Thanks, I forgot all about this! And I swore I was never going to do that.
posted by moift at 6:45 PM on September 11, 2005 [1 favorite]

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posted by kuujjuarapik at 7:16 PM on September 11, 2005

Note: Jesse Helm's I Like to Watch is very not safe for workm or sensitve peoplr.
posted by wheelieman at 7:35 PM on September 11, 2005

Sombody fix those typos as well. Thanks
posted by wheelieman at 7:36 PM on September 11, 2005

I remember that morning with a clarity that equals very few of my other memories.
It was during my first week of college and I was a freshman, living in the dorms here in Philadelphia. I had a 10am class and as soon as I opened my door to head over to the classroom at about 9:45, my next-door neighbor burst out of his room, ranting incoherently about blowing up the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. His major had something to do with film or video or TV production or something and I was pretty skeptical as he dragged me into his dorm room and sat me down in front of his television. "You're pulling my leg," I said, sure that he had stayed up all night fabricating this elaborate video hoax, assembled from parts of bad movies that I had never seen. "No. It's for real," came his quiet reply. He changed the channel. It was still on. He changed it again. And again. The same footage of those two burning buildings was on every station, but with different voices rambling. Just as he had been.
In a fog, I walked over to class. Most people had already hear the news and were discussing it. Others, coming in late, were still uninformed. Many students at the college were from places like Brooklyn and Long Island and promptly left the classroom upon hearing of the attack and went to call their families. The teacher showed up and dismissed us all. All classes were cancelled.

College alone ushers many people into adulthood and shapes their perception of the world. Living in a new place on your own, meeting new people, and being responsible for yourself more than ever before. The destruction of the World Trade Center, quite literally, is one of my first truly adult memories and, almost more than anything else, has impacted my world-view in a way that I am still utterly unable to describe.
Still, to this day, if I meet someone new or if I run into someone who I haven't seen in years, especially if they're approximately my own age, it's inevitable that our conversation will ultimately wind up at the question "What were you doing on 9/11?" I feel like I could pick a stranger and start a conversation and, given enough time, the discussion will wind up being about that day. It's entirely pervasive. It's a significant and, in many ways, defining memory. Coinciding with that particular time in my life, it is a substantial roadmark or, like many have said in previous posts (here and in the linked threads), a turning point. The world changed as I changed. And that realization by itself left a mark on me. I remember thinking that the events of that day would have, in one way or another, a continuing impact on the rest of my life. It was a bizarre glimpse into the future.

That day, I couldn't give blood. I had been tattooed too recently. After spending a couple hours glued to the television, I couldn't take it any more. There was nothing that I could do to help and the unreal, sickening horror of it became too much to bear. I took a walk. The city was silent. Hardly any people were out and traffic was almost nonexistent. The weather was absolutely perfect that day. In fact, it was exactly the way it was today.
I went to the park and spent the rest of the afternoon sitting on a bench, watching people mill around, walk their dogs, and run their errands and I marveled and laughed to myself at what strange creatures we really are.
posted by Jon-o at 7:48 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by keptwench at 7:55 PM on September 11, 2005

Hmm, wow.

Personaly, I just don't think that 9/11 really changed all that much, other then making our government much worse then it had been.
posted by delmoi at 8:09 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by c13 at 8:16 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by adgnyc at 8:27 PM on September 11, 2005

I remember it was a Tuesday because it was my day off and I had gotten up a little late and out of my usual habit, turned on the tv. After the initial shock, I spent the day watching coverage and crying at a friend's house.

Thank you for the post & links.
posted by artifarce at 8:40 PM on September 11, 2005

That was four years ago, and "9/11" was almost immediately turned into a pretext for two foreign invasions and tyrannical measures at home. For those who actually lost somebody they knew well on that dire day in 2001 I have sympathy; everybody else should get over it already, you're sounding more and more like the Serb fascists' celebrations of that Battle of Kosovo Serbs lost back on "Saint Vitus Day, Tuesday June 15th 1389".

And kirkaracha, my family's lived here for hundreds of years (thousands in the case of my father's mother's family) and since "9/11" I've felt less like an American because of such things as you cite. I used to argue with people that America was really not "the land of the free and and the home of the brave"; now I regard those who say that as too dangerously insane to do more than quickly sidle away from in a cold sweat.

Anyway, Hurricane Katrina's recent devastation of the Gulf Coast was a much worse disaster: in "9/11" a few occupied office buildings were knocked down, but Katrina stomped and drowned three cities and parts of five states. It makes more sense to spend the next 50 years going "Remember 8/29!"
posted by davy at 8:46 PM on September 11, 2005

To me, the 9/11 attacks, though grievous and terrible, were only the first firecracker on a devastating chain that continues to explode.

In reaction to the attacks, my nation, acting with other concerned nations, took over the country harboring the 9/11 planners. Damn straight.

But then we let bin Laden go. The President thought lining up an attack on a nation unrelated to 9/11 was more important. (See today’s NY Times for the gory details.) Whether for revenge, or oil, or hallucinations of empire, who knows why.

So we swept into Iraq, after misrepresenting to the world what we knew about Iraq’s WMDs. (Bush, Rumsfeld, Powell, said the American government was sure. As has been proven repeatedly since, those statements were flatly not true.)

In Iraq, we have spent $200 billion to put on a morale boosting demonstration for every raggedy terrorist on Earth. The U.S. has paid to demonstrate how the most powerful, well-training military in existence, with its Stealth bombers, laser-guided munitions, satellites and nuclear carriers, cannot win the peace in a disputed land against a few thousand jihadis with nothing more sophisticated than a car bomb.

We are putting on a clinic for the next generation of bin Ladens. Ten thousand innocents or more have died in the struggle. Abu Ghraib, Guatanamo and Fallujah have become recruiting posters across the Muslim slums of the Third World.

Osama bin Laden is laughing his accursed ass off, watching how his infamy has weakened the United States.

My fellow citizens re-elected George Bush, the man who made the call to go after Iraq instead of bin Laden. The man who could have united this nation like no one since FDR. Instead he decided to divide and conquer, to call a 5-4 Supreme Court vote and then a 51 percent election victory a mandate, license to do whatever he wanted.

I find myself thinking of my children whenever I consider 9/11. How will their world continue to be mutated by its toxic residue? All I can do is pray for my children, and those who died, and hope that those deaths, that dark day, will come to stand for something different than what it stands for today.
posted by sacre_bleu at 9:19 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by foozleface at 9:21 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by sanko at 9:45 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by eateneye at 9:46 PM on September 11, 2005

9/11's stockbrokers died for nothing -- no dot of remembrance from me
posted by Rothko at 9:47 PM on September 11, 2005

reading the last comment on this site made me cry.
posted by eateneye at 9:50 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by afroblanca at 9:51 PM on September 11, 2005

Hurricane Katrina's recent devastation of the Gulf Coast was a much worse disaster

Both were terrible - but both were educational.

On 9/11/01, America saw the world as it really is.

On 8/29/05, America saw America as it really is.
posted by davelog at 10:37 PM on September 11, 2005

Some asshole came in and when me and a co-worker asked "Can I help you?" he said "I'd like to place a trade on the New York Stock Exchnage, can I do that here?" When we greeted him with blank stares, he said "Just a joke." Hilarious, prick.

Christ. What a total cock.

Months later when I visited him at a retirement party for his Liutennant he showed me the plaques for the 3 guys his squad lost that day.

I'm glad that your friend survived, Jonmc. He is--and this is a term I try not to use lightly--a real hero.

I can't be detached, much as I'd like to.

I was also a very different person then, compared to now. I was still just a freshman in highschool, which is probably why it just didn't compute at the time. I certainly felt different during the London bombings. I was glued to the television with horror, then.

on a different note, one of the things that I will find interesting in the years to come will be hearing of accounts from children who were very young during 9/11.

I had an incident at my old job in a afterschool program. We were having a group talk with the kids, where we would ask them a question and the kids would come up with all these different answers. It was supposed to get the kid interacting with each other or something. Anyway, the question that was asked on this particular day was "what would you do to punish someone who stole your Halloween candy?"

They were all pretty outlandish and mostly violent. (the least violent one was "public pantsing", IIRC. Ah, kids) . But one child's response in particular floored me and my boss:

"I'd put them on top of a building and crash a plane into it."

This kid was only about three or four on 9/11.
posted by kosher_jenny at 11:35 PM on September 11, 2005

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posted by LooseFilter at 11:45 PM on September 11, 2005

Even over in the UK, people at my 6th form school (including me, for some reason), are wearing black shirts. I hate to be the one who antagonises everyone, but isn't it important to learn and move on?
posted by malusmoriendumest at 1:22 AM on September 12, 2005

Just when I thought we'd got away with it some dork has to go and unleash all the dots and "I remember..." comments.
Don't tell me when I must remember, I do remember, but this is as pointless and repetitive as a drunk in a bar who always tells the same anecdote. Is it going to be like this every year?
posted by Joeforking at 1:36 AM on September 12, 2005

Probably, Joeforking.

Miguel's thread was a good thing, two years back, I thought.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 1:50 AM on September 12, 2005

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posted by Pendragon at 1:59 AM on September 12, 2005

Get over it and move on. All this faux sadness and drama with the posting of a . means nothing. Yes we're a changed country and world. Many might aruge that the world has not changed for the better.
posted by damnitkage at 3:05 AM on September 12, 2005

I was across the street from the Trade Center and got to watch it out of my office window.

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posted by AJaffe at 5:23 AM on September 12, 2005

Many might aruge that the world has not changed for the better.

It was the most beautiful morning New York was capable of giving its citizens, a dappled Indian Summer day, absolutely sublime. Although I live a couple of miles from Ground Zero, the sirens didn't register on my consciousness until my sister called to say "turn on the TV."

It could have been a turning point for the good, gaining some redemption for all the death. Instead, the masters of war embraced the worst in all of us. The intervening years have done what seemed impossible at the time: made me ashamed to be an American, and sick and tired of hearing "9/11" cited in cynical and shameless ways to justify our own country's most terroristic impulses. New Yorkers, though still traumatized, have largely put that day in a box we take out only to cry over in private. The endless exploitation of that evil day for ratings, political deception, and seething, primitive nationalism sickens me. As far as I can tell, the terrorists seem to have won exactly what they wanted. Who knew our society was quite so weak?

So yes, I mourn. I mourn for the busboys and bankers and firemen and cops and everyone else who died. But all the more so because they appear to have died for something worse than nothing. Most of all, I mourn the loss of my country's soul.
posted by realcountrymusic at 7:57 AM on September 12, 2005

PS -- and by "something worse than nothing," I mean specifically to indict our government for invoking their deaths to visit equally brutal and senseless punishments on innocent civilians in a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, and for destroying the very freedoms that were supposedly attacked by foreigners on that day. Bush needed Osama. May they both rot in hell.
posted by realcountrymusic at 8:02 AM on September 12, 2005

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[better late than never]
posted by mystyk at 8:22 AM on September 12, 2005

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And best wishes to the families and friends of those lost on that awful day.
posted by Fuzzy Monster at 8:24 AM on September 12, 2005

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posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 9:02 AM on September 12, 2005 [1 favorite]

In the worst incident of terrorism in US history, approximately three thousand people were murdered by terrorists in 2001. That event became a media orgy, and many people still honestly believe that it changed the world.

In the same year, in the same country, and largely unremarked, approximately sixteen thousand people were murdered by people not considered terrorists, and approximately forty-two thousand were killed in car accidents.

In the US and around the world, government responses to the threat of terrorism seem to me to be wildly out of proportion to the actual scale of that threat.

"How do we prevent another terrorist attack from happening this year?" is the wrong question. The right question is: "how do we prevent as many tragic, violent deaths as possible this year?"

Honour the memory of those who died, and fasten your seat belts.
posted by flabdablet at 9:53 AM on September 12, 2005

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posted by Addiction at 10:31 AM on September 12, 2005

(Biting tongue...)

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posted by raider at 5:16 PM on September 12, 2005