9/11 Remembered

Great thread Tammy

Remembering the victims. You'll never be forgotten.

 

R.I.P. to those who died on 9/11 and their families and friends. I remember that morning I was a sophomore in high school and found out right before school. I could not fucking believe or understand it.Half the kids stayed home and we spent the day making blustery statements about killing those camel fuckers and other ignorant anger-fueled bullshit.

That being said...

I am going to piss some people off but if it weren't for the U.S. fucking around with foreign governments i.e. Air America type bullshit and various black budget programs I doubt 9/11 would have ever happened. Bin Laden was a CIA asset at one point and an ally during the soviet-afghan war back in the day. Clearly we did something to piss him off. Leave the middle easterners to themselves and mind our shit. The U.S. has 700+ military(perhaps 1000s of unkown sites depending on the definition :smt006 ) bases worldwide for what reason? We could have quit supporting foreign drug cartels and using black money to pay spies to topple uncooperative foreign governments but now we are stuck doing this type of shit to maintain U.S. hegemony worldwide. we made our bed. Now this is the order we are stuck with.

 

My own personal photos taken from the 9-11 Pentagon Memorial

 

I cannot forget the horrific events on that day even if I wanted to. Coincidentally, my sister's birthday is on September, 11th. I remember I was at work and my boss told me about it. I though it was a joke since he often joked with all of us on the job to lighten the mood. But when I got off work, I drove to a store to buy my sister a present. I turned on the radio and heard nothing but news about the World Trade Center and The Pentagon. When I got home and watched the news, I thought I was seeing a fantastic scene from an action or disaster movie. But it was real. All too real. I was horrified and then saddened followed by anger. I did all I could to help. I sent money and gave blood. But, then I heard about the opportunistic scammers that were trying to profit from this tragedy. I could not look at that footage again. I wonder when the new Freedom Tower will be completed to replace the towers. I am a little concerned because the are where the towers stood and fell is considered hallowed ground. Nothing should be built there. But, this is New York City, the Big Apple. The World Trade Center was a part of the skyline. Another building will be built to add to it. May the victims of that day Rest In Peace.

 

12 years ago today this picture was taken.

 

In 1999, I was in New York City for spring break. I tried to take a picture of the World Trade Center from the Empire State Building with a disposable camera. I couldn't get the shot because disposable cameras work very well during daylight hours. I just didn't have the right light to capture the towers. Who would've thought that my naked eyes on that day in 1999 would be the last time I would ever see them with my naked eye again.

 

What that tells me is you can never take anything for granted.

 

TearDrop Memorial(Tear of Grief)



To the Struggle Against World Terrorism (also known as the Tear of Grief and the TearDrop Memorial) is a 10 story sculpture by Zurab Tsereteli that was given to the United States as an official gift of the Russian government as a memorial to the victims of the September 11 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. It stands at the end of the former MOTBY in Bayonne, New Jersey and was dedicated on September 11, 2006 in a ceremony attended by former U.S. President Bill Clinton and then President of Russia Vladimir Putin.

"I would like to thank the people of Russia for this gift of solidarity in the war on terror. I thank my friend Zurab Tsereteli for his ability to catch the feelings that can not be expressed by words" -Bill Clinton

 

The Final Run of Ladder 118



FDNY Ladder 118 crosses the Brooklyn Bridge into lower Manhattan. This picture captures the last alarm all 6 of the members riding on that rig would ever respond to. The men from Ladder 118 responded into the chaos and emerged at the doomed Marriott World Trade Center hotel. Survivors remembered seeing men with the number 118 on their helmets running up the stairs to help the panicked guests. The next time anyone saw the firemen was when their bodies, still side by side, were dug out of the rubble.

 

This is beautiful. Bing's homepage picture is of a memorial I'd never seen - a tribute to the 746 residents of New Jersey who lost their lives. It's called the Empty Sky. I couldn't save the photo.

http://www.bing.com/?oma=toggle_off

 

I will never forget where I was and what I did on Sep 11th, 2001.

Early that morning, I waited at the pentagon for my shuttle bus to take me to my office, located about 5 miles south of the pentagon. Shortly after arriving to my office bldg, as I walked into the ops center, I see people huddled around a news broadcast on the tv. The first plane had just hit the world trade center. A short time later, a second plane hit. I stood there in awe...

I worked in a call center for the military, educating people about vaccines for service members. In particular, at the time, anthrax vaccine. Suddenly, our hotline starts ringing off the hook, emails pouring in, wondering about whether or not there were terrorists and if they might have had anthrax. What should they do, what did we know...

Then the plane hit the pentagon. Our officers are running around the area, pulling the blinds, closing curtains. We were rushed into the ops center for a briefing. What we needed to do, say...all I could do was stand there in disbelief.

I stayed at work that day, with one other person, answering calls from terrified, schizophrenic people...had little info myself, so mostly reassuring people and teaching safety measures. Worried about my children all day...buy they were safe, waiting for me at home when I returned from work, much later than usual. I remember the drive home that night (no traffic...in fact sparse). The days that followed were surreal.

a while later, I remember later the endless tanks and military vehicles passing by the traffic, on their way to the beginning of the war. Tears just streaming down my face...

I also remember quite fondly the flags and stickers on our cars...coming together as a nation. something I will never forget.

 

Too true.