I was in school, Classrooms had TVs in the corner and aired the event. They said if anyone needed to call a relative they could. I got a hold of my dad who worked at a state park. He was sent home early. It took him 2 days to reach his brother who worked at Morgan Stanley (Tower 2). He was slated to go to work that day but a chance flat tires (as in two) delayed him. He got stuck in traffic about 10 blocks away. He managed to avoid the smoke plum by running into a convenience store.

He (My uncle) got home around 11:pm. My dad and my family managed to visit him 2 weeks later. He has PTSD from the event and won't go up any higher than 5 floors in any building.




One of my favorite memories was visiting the site on the 18th anniversary.

It was really breathtaking, The Videos don't do the memorial justice. The reason it was a good memory was because, I saw a 9/11 truther get knocked out cold by a dude with the thickest Brooklyn accent I've ever heard saying quote "Take ya bullshit back wit ya whereva ya came from" to the sound of cheers.

I've always hoped someone filmed it and could find it on the internet.

(September 11, 2024 at 4:06 pm)Jackalope Wrote: It's a very somber day for me, not just over the lives lost but also over the collective reaction to it (Patriot Act, global war on terror, xenophobia, etc).

Right. It's like something snapped inside the country.

I had recently moved to Key West, Florida (from Key Largo) and was on a series of job interviews. I watched reports of the first tower on TV just prior to the first interview. It was mind-blowing but I put it aside. I watched details of the second tower while waiting for the second interview. At that point, it was obvious what was going on.

The next several days were spent glued to the TV. As much as I yearned to see us find and exterminate the perpetrators, I quickly tired of all the frothing at the mouth patriotism.

An interesting juxtaposition is the day of the Challenger disaster. I was at a philosophy seminar, and instead of our usual discussion of philosophy, the professor brought a TV in and we watched them repeat the footage of the shuttle blowing up and people talking about it. The philosophy professor asked us to try to answer the question of what makes a specific death meaningful. I don't remember my answer, but it's interesting that the death of a handful of people in the shuttle can provoke a reaction very similar to several thousand people dying in the Twin Towers. What made the death of the crew of the shuttle so important as to rival the death of thousands?

(September 11, 2024 at 11:52 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote:

(September 11, 2024 at 4:06 pm)Jackalope Wrote: It's a very somber day for me, not just over the lives lost but also over the collective reaction to it (Patriot Act, global war on terror, xenophobia, etc).

Right. It's like something snapped inside the country.

One of the more offensive things I’ve seen about the WTC attacks runs something like, ‘The best way to honor the victims of September 11th is to be the kind of people we were on September 12.’

Maybe try to be the kind of people you were on the 10th.

Boru

(September 12, 2024 at 7:50 am)Angrboda Wrote: An interesting juxtaposition is the day of the Challenger disaster.  I was at a philosophy seminar, and instead of our usual discussion of philosophy, the professor brought a TV in and we watched them repeat the footage of the shuttle blowing up and people talking about it.  The philosophy professor asked us to try to answer the question of what makes a specific death meaningful.  I don't remember my answer, but it's interesting that the death of a handful of people in the shuttle can provoke a reaction very similar to several thousand people dying in the Twin Towers.  What made the death of the crew of the shuttle so important as to rival the death of thousands?

A couple of things come to mind: celebrity and scale.

The astronauts who died were celebrities - their names, faces, and bios were all over the media in the days and weeks before the disaster. The public - rightly or wrongly - felt a connection with the astronauts.

To the public at large, the WTC victims were essentially nameless, faceless strangers. The nightmarish scale of the attack took the place of any personal connection.

Boru

I was driving my company truck through downtown Seattle at 6:00am when I heard about the first plane hitting the towers. By the time I got to the warehouse in Kent at 6:30, the second plane had hit, and no one knew how or why it had happened. We had to load our trucks and make our deliveries, so I listened to the radio all day.
The more I heard throughout the day, the angrier I became. I will never forget that day, or the people who died that day, and years afterward.

(September 11, 2024 at 11:52 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote:

(September 11, 2024 at 4:06 pm)Jackalope Wrote: It's a very somber day for me, not just over the lives lost but also over the collective reaction to it (Patriot Act, global war on terror, xenophobia, etc).

Right. It's like something snapped inside the country.

There was certainly an abruptness to it, in my estimation, but in retrospect, it was just the kindling. I don't want to steer this one off topic so I'll leave it at that.

(September 12, 2024 at 12:17 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote:

(September 11, 2024 at 11:52 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: Right. It's like something snapped inside the country.

One of the more offensive things I’ve seen about the WTC attacks runs something like, ‘The best way to honor the victims of September 11th is to be the kind of people we were on September 12.’

Maybe try to be the kind of people you were on the 10th.

Boru

I'm not sure we were any better on the 10th. The events of the 11th only brought that shit out. In the same way Trump has made voicing racism acceptable, the anger after 9/11 made voicing specifically anti-Arab racism -- and violence against them and other foreigners -- either acceptable, in the former case, or newsworthy but not meaningful in American political discourse in the latter.

That's who we were on the 10th as well, taken as a whole people. The attack made expressing that racism more acceptable to white Americans, and that was racism that was already there on the 10th.

(September 12, 2024 at 10:21 pm)Jackalope Wrote:

(September 11, 2024 at 11:52 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: Right. It's like something snapped inside the country.

There was certainly an abruptness to it, in my estimation, but in retrospect, it was just the kindling.  I don't want to steer this one off topic so I'll leave it at that.

That could make a thread on its own.