9/11/01. Forgive me for being maudlin.

The BBQ Pit
1

A friend sent this site to me. I’d forgotten it existed.

Frankly, aside from all the angry ultra-nationalist stuff, it surprises me what an impact a collection of photos of that terrible day still has on me. I have not cried for any reason since the first time I heard the audio of the bodies hitting the ground at the base of the Twin Towers. It was the most horrible thing I’d ever heard, beginning with a disquieted curiosity about those repeating POP noises, then rising to a desperate, panicky denial that such a thing could really be happening, then helpless, futile, cornered-and-tormented-dog tears. I wanted to reach through the TV and tell them all to STOP, that this can’t be happening.

The photos of that day made me cry again.

So many surreal images. The NYC skyline without the Trade Towers still makes very little sense to me. “New York City closed to all traffic.” What does that even mean?

Siiiigh. The memories of that day and the days after it will be seared into my memory for as long as I live, and I hope I live long enough to see the day that the phrase “suicide bomber” makes no sense.

:frowning:

2

I should amend:

Caution: the above link is a very large Flash movie.

3

It makes me wonder if the person who made that had permission to use the song, the copywritten images and broadcast clips.

I understand it is a tribute of sorts, but…

4

Er… what angry nationalist stuff?

The Flash movie was rather well-done, IMHO. Tasteful, and the pictures were selected well. Enya I’m not so sure about…

I didn’t really think of myself as an American during 9/11, so this affects me on a rather general level of empathy, instead of being personal. Like, say… the Alamo.

Still… I hadn’t really looked at this type of image since the cable news channels stopped showing the feed. Disturbing.

5

Oh, just the flag-waving Angry Merkin sort of sentiment along near the end. I probably overstated the case.

Shrug Dunno. I know it was a page which was widely passed around after 9/11. I’d think that if anyone had a problem with the material, the creator would have long since been sued.

6

On the one hand, I was emotionally moved, though not really by the author of the film. I remember a lot of the images being shown in stills and video on TV on Sept 11. I spent the day watching the news coverage and the fear, bewilderment, and sadness of the experience is still with me. I felt especially connected with the young man carrying the large sign saying only, “WHY?”

On the other hand, there is an obvious political message behind this video that I simply don’t agree with. I don’t agree with Bush’s foreign policy in response to 9-11. I don’t share the simmering angry sentiment towards Afghanis or other people of the Middle East as a whole. I don’t feel that Bush has responded masterfully. I feel we’ve lashed out from all of this confusion and fear, and at least part of that anger was misapplied.

Really, though, this brings me back to all of those ‘what if’ questions. I wonder what America would be like today if Sept 11 never happened. I wonder what would have happened if the second hijacked plane had hit the Pentagon or the Capitol or the White House, and how must worse things could have been if not for the choices of a few individuals.

7

It made me remember. :`(

8

Well, to be fair, this video was made right after 9/11, when emotion was still running at critical levels. We ALL felt shock, fear, grief and yes, even anger, in those days immediately following 9/11.

9

I watched a tape my dad has of the 9/11 nightmare and the days that followed. I cry every time I see it. I cry when I see pictures of the towers crumbling. I cry when I see all those lost people wandering around, stunned, unable to comprehend what happened to them.

And I agree, Bush was anything BUT masterful in his handling of the disaster. The homeland security thing is mostly wrong, and our freedom will suffer for a long time as a result of Bush’s actions in response to 9/11.

10

Powerful reminder. Its so beautiful to see a nation come together in response to the trajedy. I believe every American including the president responded admirably.

A contrast to today where all the bickering about the leadership of your great country appears to present America as a divided and unsure country.

But that is just what makes America great isn’t it. The absolute freedom, indeed obligation to voice dissent where one believes it is warranted.

I wish the enemies of freedom could comprehend that.

11

Funny you should mention this now…

Yesterday, I was sitting in a doctor’s waiting room. Beside me, a copy of “O” (Oprah’s magazine). Well I’ve hit the jackpot of doctor’s waiting room literature! (Much better than golf magazines I’m sometimes stuck with). It was a pretty recent edition too, I think November 2003.

Anyway, I’m flipping through and contemplating the shades/sheens of my lipstick inventory. As I’m happily flipping through the magazine, contemplating my upcoming lipstick purchase, I’m hit with a picture.

It was a blue car’s hood, covered in ash. Someone had written on it (with their finger) “I SURVIVED”.

I’d have to say it was one of the most thought-provoking pictures I’ve ever seen. I pictured the people walking by, covered in ash, lost and scared. And someone had to make the declaration, as if to convince themselves, that they indeed were alive.

Such a simple picture. Evocative of enough emotion to fill a few novels. Then I realized, there were tears dripping off my chin. I discretely patted my face dry and put the magazine down until my name was called.

It still hurts, just like the day itself.

12

I just watched the clip…

For some reason, I had no audio. What was the song that was playing?

The clip is excellent. I had never seen it before. I needed a pause button. As soon as one picture had evoked an emotion in me, another picture was shown. It was a bombardment of emotion. Nothing like tears streaming down your face at 10:30 in the morning. :frowning:

Though I’m Canadian and Jewish, I’d have to say two of the hardest pictures for me to see were the ones with the fire fighters bringing out the priest, who was in the building giving the Last Rites. That was the only time I actually said something out loud (“Oh G-d”), as I wept. Funny how united we are in such a circumstance. I’m ashamed to say I’ve forgotten that priest’s name. Does anyone remember?

The people jumping from the buildings is another jarring thing to look at. They knew they would die if they jumped. Whatever was behind them was scarier than death. On some random morning, you’re at work, and you commit suicide. I can’t fathom it. I remember there was one picture photoshopped. They took a pic of a guy falling, head first, and inversed it. It was made to look like he was going “to heaven”. Nicely done.

“Let’s Roll” hit me too. The memory had faded a bit. Just those two words brought it all back. Imagine their spouses. Imagine the phone calls. The phone messages. Imagine being in that situation, and trying to call your husband/wife, and getting the answering machine. Imagine how many people who have kept the message on their machines, to this day. Imagine the people who lost the message accidentally. Imagine all of the heartbreaking stories there are.

Though I wasn’t alive when JFK was shot, I know that even today, people speak of “remembering exactly where they were the moment they heard the news”. Until 9/11, I always figured my “remember exactly” moment was when I was standing at my high school locker, getting books for my next class, and the guy at the locker next to me told me that Challenger had blown up.

I can say with absolute certainty that I will remember the minute details of where I was, what I did, how I heard, what I watched, who I called, who I cried with on September 11th, 2001.

13

There’s this one too.

:frowning:

14

I’m a Long Islander & a university student; I was waiting to go to class when I first heard something about a plane hitting one of the towers - classes were cancelled soon after.

I suppose that the September 11th attacks were…the first great American tragedy of my generation; I mean, many people my age recall hearing about/seeing the news of the Challenger explosion, but that didn’t evoke as visceral a response for a number of reasons, most of which I’m guessing you can gather.

It’s odd to sit down & actually think about the fact that I can easily recall a time when the National Guard didn’t have a presence in Penn Station. Odd to think about the fact that…something of this magnitude happened during my lifetime. History was made & I can recall other, mundane things about that day.

I recall the fact that I thought, upon hearing the first sketchy reports from someone’s too-loud car stereo, that someone’d flown a puddle-jumper into the building.

I recall my shock at hearing some guy, in the midst of mass confusion, tell his friend that the towers had fallen; I just kinda looked at him & exclaimed, “What??”.

I recall my frantic phone calls to friends working in the Manhattan area - I knew that they weren’t near the WTC, but I just felt the need to check in.

I recall being glued to the television on that day & for weeks afterward, watching the body count rise & fall.

I recall my extreme reluctance to go into Manhattan for a couple months after that day; it had…temporarily lost its’ magic. It was a creepy, morose, frightening place.

I recall my regret at never having been to the WTC while i was old enough to really appreciate it.

I dunno, I’m just blurting things out onto the screen… There’s really no way to end a post like this. This’ll have to do, I s’pose.

15

It makes no sense to me right now.

16

I’m at a loss for words.

One thing: Our anchor woman cried when she brought the news. I guess she showed how we all felt.

17

I was at work. We were supposed to be listening to a classical music station, but once the news break came on they just switched to news coverage. We didn’t know what to make of what they were telling us. A plane? Smashing into the WTC? It just didn’t make sense. Then the horrible clarity that came when the second plane hit… My boss was on edge for a few hours because her husband was an airline pilot, scheduled to fly to Los Angeles that day.
I will never forget the footage of people falling from the building, like squirrels leaping off a cliff fleeing a forest fire.
My mother called and asked me if I wanted to check up on my then-girlfriend, who lived in a suburb near Philadelphia.
One of my friends, who is a security guard for a celebrity, was wrapping up his vacation visiting friends. He was scheduled to be leaving that morning on flight 93. Because he wasn’t familiar with his friends’ alarm clock, he set it wrong and slept in, missing the flight. Needless to say, he didn’t make it back that day. And in the end, he took the train.

18

Ok, godamnit. sniffle. I thought I’d be immune after all this time but apparently not.

Now you’ve got me in tears too.

19

Me too. Funny how everything I felt that day and the days following can come rushing back in an instant.

I watched the clip, and in no time tears were running down my face. The audio clips got to me the most- the screams and confusion and the “oh my gods” and “it looks like a second plane” and the phone call placed by a woman inside the building to say goodbye to a loved one, etc.

I remember that day in detail. My mom wakes me up to tell me what happened, I go to work, get updated as events unfold- there’s another plane, tower collapsed, plane hit the pentagon. It’s all happening so quickly; it doesn’t seem real. A coworker makes the comment that our country is under attack, and that’s when it finally hits me and I start bawling.

For me, and I think probably for most people, those memories will never go away. They’ll always be in the back of my mind, surfacing occasionally if I so choose, or if something reminds me of it. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing. We have to remember. We’ll always remember. It’s the only way that everything and everyone who existed that day that don’t exist anymore can live on somehow.

This thread urged me to go back and read a couple of essays written by someone who was in downtown Manhattan at the time of the attacks:

http://www.tomatonation.com/thouart.shtml

and the followup a year later:

http://www.tomatonation.com/fastest.shtml

I recommend them.

We can only hope and/or pray that all the people who lost their lives senselessly are at peace, in whatever it is that comes after this life.

20

I have this SDMB thread bookmarked.