Seven years ago today, on September 11, 2001, 4 airliners were hijacked. Two were flown into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, one into the Pentagon, and one crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. A lot of people died.
This video - and I must warn you there are some graphic images here - is the one that has moved me the most, and is a stark reminder of why the day is so memorable:
Another video posted by the same Youtube user reminds me why I couldn’t be bothered remembering.
I was thinking back this morning about my experience on 9/11 and how much the SDMB was an integral part of it. I was at work, in suburban southeastern PA, when I happened to notice a short news item on Yahoo about a plane hitting the World Trade Center. There wasn’t much additional information available and so I headed over to the Straight Dope to see if anyone was discussing it. As the morning progressed, I didn’t have access to TV or radio and all the major news websites were slowed to a crawl, but I was able to stay as informed as possible thanks to this board. I hope someone can link to that thread today(I don’t even know where to start). It worth a read as a document of the unfolding events and all of the concerns for members and emotions everyone was feeling.
Edit - can someone report this post so that a mod can delete it or merge it with Annie-Xmas’s thread. I swear it wasn’t there when I posted
I’ve watched a couple of shows out there now on the technical aspects behind the collisions, why the WTC towers collapsed and why one lasted about twice as long as the other, what was accomplished by the new construction at the Pentagon to mitigate the effects of the impact, etc. Those I found fascinating and absorbed with no problem.
I’m still not ready yet though to watch the dramatization of Flight 93 or relive the horror that N.Y. and all of us glued to the TV went through that day. I’m keeping your link and someday will be able to view it, but for now it just makes me so damn sad.
Me, neither. I’m in awe of the guts it took those men to storm the cockpit knowing that the best case scenario was dying without taking more innocent lives. Holy mother of God.
I have watched the documentary of the towers falling once. It put me in a funk for days.
The best song (in my opinion) composed in memory of 9/11/01 I think is Alan Jackson’s “Where Were You When the Wold Stopped Turning”. This video has Jackson’s version of the song with images added by someone else - there’s a bit too much flag waving I think, but again it shows stark reminders of that day so if you you don’t want to view that video here’s Mr. Jackson singing it on a stage without footage from that day.
One of the reasons I like the song is that it’s NOT talking about kicking ass or getting revenge - it’s more about how people going about their lives on a typical Tuesday morning had everything just stop as we watched this happen live on TV. Or, worse yet for some, not on TV but right before our eyes.
Sorry, YouTube just depresses me too much…
:rolleyes:
That’s why I don’t read YouTube comments. SDMB has spoiled me.
I always tell myself not to - “Just watch the video; ignore the morons”, but I can’t help myself. And then it gets me angry and depressed. I just tend to steer clear of YouTube altogether these days…
Don’t read the comments - like I said, I liked the Alan Jackson song because it DOESN’T talk about kicking ass and other tough-guy crap.
it seems like yest. and years ago.
my thoughts jump all over the place today. thinking about those who knew their loved ones were on the flights. those who waited and waited to find out if their loved one escaped the towers. those who wondered where in the pentagon their loved one was.
and i wonder how the soon to be 7 year olds born after their father’s died are doing.
the memorial at the pentagon is simple and beautiful. the benches and the way they face are an elegant reminder.
I’ve merged all three of the 9/11 threads, in case anyone’s confused about where their thread went.
I have to admit, I was ranting just as hatefully and incoherently, seven years ago this morning. For about an hour. “Nuke the fuckers off the face of the Earth!”, that kind of thing. Then the strong emotions just ran out, and I needed a nap, which I took after trying to phone those closest to me. Oddly enough, at around dinner time, I went out to vote and then get some food. It was a beautiful day, everyone was friendly, and you’d have never known that anything was amiss. It was very weird.
OK, one more video and then I’ll stop - no lyrics, no commentary just what happened so, needless to say,** more sensitive viewers may want to skip this.**
WHY do I watch these? I feel that if people had to live it - or die in it - I should confront that fact head on because as horrible as it is to watch it was far, far worse to be in it. But I also completely understand that it is too painful for some, and at times too painful for me.
I look back and see it as the start of a lot of bad things I don’t like about the present. The world is a colder and more bitter place than it used to be.
I’m not going to turn on the TV today because it’ll just be talking heads masturbating to get ratings. I would much prefer it if they would just say “Hey, this is what happened” and roll footage without feeling compelled to comment, spin, and otherwise tell us what to think. Given the amount of footage both professional and amateur shot that day it’s not like we have to speculate - we can see what happened.
And I also like to take this day to remember the Bali bombings and London and Madrid… all caused by the same depraved assholes who struck the US. I remember the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, and the bombing of the USS Cole. And I wonder if there is a way to really stop this sort of thing from happening, an effective way that doesn’t result in putting the rest of the world in “lock down”. I wonder if there was a better way to approach the problem in the last seven years than the ones taken.
Then I put it all away until next time and get back to living, because that’s what you have to do - keep on living and trying to make the best of things.
I’ve seen it, its so good I’ll never need to watch it again. Someone else mentioned that before I saw it on the Boards, I understand perfectly what they mean.
The song that affects me the most is Springsteen’s Empty Sky. Actually, a number of songs from The Rising capture the emotions of that morning very well.
My wife and I both worked in Manhattan at the time. I was further downtown (Hudson and Houston) and I’ll never forget walking across the city to my wife’s office and witnessing what was going on in the streets. The mix of chaos, anguish and terror was unbelievable. I know there are parts of the world where this happens frequently, but I can’t imagine ever getting used to living like that.
It was an excellent film, and I’ll watch it again, but not quite yet. It’s not exactly a slapstick comedy. It’s hard to watch.
Speaking from a strictly film critic POV, there was one thing that bothered me about it. Some of the actors were professional actors, and some were amateurs who played themselves. The mismatched levels of acting were a bit jarring.
I’m honestly not trying to hijack a thread about what is obviousley a very emotional subject but do you think that the way some people react to a tragedy like this in the US is in part due to the shock of it, the fact that in effect this was maybe the 2nd external terrorist attack on US soil?
I remember waiting to find out if my Dad had been killed or injured when his office was blown up by the IRA in the Bishopsgate bombing but don’t remember anyone blaming the Irish themselves. Maybe it was in part due to the length of the campaign and the fact it was essentially winding down (I know that people weren’t so understanding in the 70’s) but I do really hope that, over time, people realise that these b*stards are not representative of a country or religion - I hate the way a few nutjobs can pit entire cultures against each other. I know this isn’t a view espoused by most on the Dope but those YouTube comments sadden me beyond belief.
Just so you know my Dad also made business trips to the Twin Towers 4-5 times a year and could easily have been a victim (he has ex-colleagues who were involved) so I empathise deeply, I’m just saddened by the hate a few extremists can generate.