Remembrance

[lwoodbloo]

This is my story....

Read it, don't read it, I honestly couldn't give a flier.


Could we use this day to understand how we got to this point? About how the last....thirty years of american foreign policy put us here? About how if you asked every major state in europe, they could have told us this MIGHT be an issue at some point? They've all dealt with homegrown terror organizations, y'know.

Ah, fuck it. People all around the US will be mourning today, and I for one wish they didn't have to.

Comments

[violetshade.livejournal.com]

Took me a few minutes to realize what you meant.

[lwoodbloo.livejournal.com]

It sticks in my head for reasons that become apparent.

[violetshade.livejournal.com]

They do, don't they.

[lwoodbloo.livejournal.com]

you are always there for me when I'm upset. Thank you for that.

[violetshade.livejournal.com]

Anytime.

While I'm sorry you had to experience the hell that that day was for you, I'm grateful to you for the opportunity to see your viewpoint on it as a result of your location. It helps temper somewhat my tendency to underblow that event in reaction to those who overblow it.

Oh, and *hug*

[lwoodbloo.livejournal.com]

I write about it here because I don't talk about it alot except with friends from work, because we were there, and my mom, because, well, you know.

wish they didn't have to.

[erisreg.livejournal.com]

i second that,...
and hope those that predict another event are wrong,..o.0

[lite.livejournal.com]

I keep wondering what, in the whole calendar of events leading to and occuring after, 9/11 really means.
I feel that 9/11 is now dwarfed. A few thousand dead in New York? Paltry compared to the number of deaths and injuries we've given to others in Afhganistan and Iraq. The destruction of a powerful liberal image? Compared to the toppling of two governments?
What *DOES* 9/11 really mean anymore? Is it good? is it bad? What are we supposed to take out of it?
Is it the day that freedom was attacked? or was it the turning point for the last superpower in the world to beat the snot out of a couple of small and not-well-armed nations?
I guess I'm curious to see what, in 20 years, if anything, 9/11 really means.

[lwoodbloo.livejournal.com]

POint taken.

But I wasn't in Iraq, or Afghanistan. And I'm still shook every year at this time. I walked out of lower manhattan that day.

I don't believe we're evil. I don't believe we intend to do bad things to other people. I don't think we belong in Iraq.

I think the whole situation was questionable. But three thousand people died that day who never reckoned on being casualties of war. I think you're minimizing that. I don't think that's fair to their memory.

[lite.livejournal.com]

Meh. Innocents die every day. How many innocents die every day to drunk drivers or gang fights? How many innocents die due to chemicals in their neighborhoods or fatal accidents? What makes a 9/11 victim so much more than a gang victim or a drunk driving accident victim et al? What makes a 9/11 victim so much more than a victim due to war in Iraq or Afghanistan?

For me, I lost no one in 9/11. 9/11 never personally touched me that way. In a way, I think this makes me more unbiased.

I don't believe we, as a people, are evil, but I do believe we intended to do bad things to other people. I believe that our parents generation, seeing the cost of war in Vietnam and Korea and our grandparents generation who knewthe horrors of World War II, knew what this might entail. That said, we all believed that this was the right thing to do. Most of America was for going into Afghanistan. Less people believe in Iraq, but we still went along with this.

I do believe the whole situation is questionable. I do believe that it is a tragedy that those 3,000+ people died that do. But no more a tragedy than the other numerous innocent deaths occuring every day. We don't speak in hushed tones about the day that the Oklahoma City bombing occured or Columbine occured. Only 9/11. Why is that?

[lwoodbloo.livejournal.com]

That was a hard day for me. And I hope you can understand that I'm writing about it. I'm sorry about what's happening to the iraqis. I'm sorry about what happened to innocent afghans. But guess what? I didn't shoot at anyone. I didn't do anything here. And neither did they. And it's a tragedy.

You know something? I am biased. And I cherish my bias. You didn't walk out of lower manhattan that day with ash in your hair. You didn't have crying parents on the phone because hey, they worked in tower 1 and just happened not to be there that day. It's equally tragic as if it would have happened to someone in Iraq or Afghanistan. But guess what? it happened to me.

Terrorism sucks. It sucks when two teenagers shoot up their school and then blow their own heads off. It sucks when Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols and perhaps some other people decide to blow up the Murrah building. And I guarantee you the people of OKC haven't quite forgotten what happened. But you know something? Someone declared war on us on 9/11/01. And that's different than any of the other things you mention. And you're smart enough to know that.

[lite.livejournal.com]

Let me back off a little bit.

Let me start by saying, as I did before, 9/11 didn't personally affect me. What did anger me was all of the hullaballoo surrounding it, from the ads, to people (mis?)using it for political gains to the recent RNC and Cheney's latest comments suggesting that if Kerry gets in office, the next attack will definately occur.

9/11 is a tragedy. I do believe it belongs on the same scale as a number of other tragedies, but it is totally different in some not easy to pin down way.

I imagine that if I'd lost someone in it, or if I had been as close to it as you had, it might be as important to me as it is to you, but for me, it's a rallying point for disgust for what we did beforehand (I hate that we probably brought this upon ourselves with 30+ years of bad foreign policy) and what we've done with it (See my attitude/arguments re: Afghanistan and Iraq.)

I really don't believe that any one life is any more improtant. I do believe that no one deserves to die, for whatever the cause. I do believe that 9/11 was a terrible tragedy and it is a terrible tragedy that those people had to die. But, I think that most human death is a tragedy, especially when it could have been averted.

I don't want to start some big rift between the two of us over this. I guess I still have some very strong opinions on the subject and you were the poor sucker who opened the door for me to express them. Sorry.

[lwoodbloo.livejournal.com]

There's bring this on yourselves and bring this on yourselves. Americans didn't bring this on themselves, and neither did the Iraqis or the Afghans. The policies of this country did so, as did those of the Hussein Regime (the sanctions) and the Taliban (harboring Al Qaeda). In this day and age, citizens of the world pay the price for ill considered policy decisions.

No one deserves to die. That's true. No one is good and holy enough to be chooser of the slain. All these deaths could have been averted. But they weren't. And they're all tragic.

The furor about the attacks and CHeney's attack on Kerry are disgusting. Using the attacks as political hay is demeaning those that died. Not that the current adminstration would know anything about that, as they never served nor got anywhere near ground zero that day.

Did we deserve what happened? No. I don't think we did. I think that a whole lot of people were hurt irreparably that day that did nothing more than go to work every day and live their lives. And more have died since. 30 years of bad policy.....H, do we punish Germans for the Holocaust still? Or Russian leaders for the gulag? Come on. The people of this country didn't deserve this.

It's not important to me in that sense, or some kind of rallying point. What it is, is an important point in my life. I don't advocate war against anyone because of it. Read my original post. The 02 one and this one, and remember what I said.

[tink-loves-bell.livejournal.com]

Point is taken but right now it means that a lot of families are very sad and I also wish they didn't have to be.

[torontoangel.livejournal.com]

I still cry every once in awhile. I don't think the grief will ever go away...

[scriptgirl.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you wrote this. Totally amazing. I am still constantly surprised at how this stuff effects me. Just so much of it is beyond words. I for one, am happy that you survived and are still around. It's good havin' you here.

Wow

[acidcookiegirl.livejournal.com]

Thank you for that account. Being on the West Coast, I've allowed time to cancel out just how strong emotions were that day. People witnessed total chaos (and died from it) and that's not something to be forgotten.

I've also been somewhat angered by the political spins applied to 9/11. That's sort of driven me to not seeing it for what it was, a tragic day that destroyed families and people's sense of well being. The individuals who lost their lives didn't deserve their fate.

However, the fact that something like this was damned near inevitable because of a few bastards running this country so corruptly for so long is something I wish more people would be willing to acknowledge. Instead, certain people have used it as a rallying cry to forward irrelevant political causes. I'm suddenly realizing that everything I just said has been expressed on way or another on this thread. So I'll end it here :)

[daisyconfused.livejournal.com]

On 9/11/01 I was supposed to be teaching a class right near the Pentagon as I had the previous day, but it got called off. One of my colleagues drove right under the plane and said it nearly tipped the highway.

I suppose I could be a good person to run emergency operations because, even though I knew many people near Ground Zero and the Pentagon, I went into chess mode. I remember asking my boss, "What's next? What will terrorists target next? What should be prioritized for protection? The Indian Point Nuclear Plant? That could wipe out millions in minutes from Long Island to Albany, and beyond.

What will the U.S. do in revenge? Bomb Saudia Arabia? Iran? Iraq? Pakistan? Syria? Are we finally going to get a national move to alternative energy and energy efficiency? Are we finally going to get sensible policy with respect to Muslims to help moderates limit the influence extremists and ultimately eliminate them?"

He just looked at me with the most zombie-like stare and that's when I started to get scared. I thought "If people's reactions are to get active, if people start to understand why this is happening, we have a chance. If they turn into sheep, we don't." So far, I see too many sheep. I don't see nearly the level of activity and the right focus that is required and I see exactly the wrong leadership from G.W.B. and his Administration. The way that they are using 9/11 for their own political gain literally makes me throw up. And the way that they keep complaining that it was a "failure of imagination" which kept them from instituting preventative measures ought to count as criminal accessory to murder.

It was thoroughly imagined by lots of people, including the folks who dealt with the last bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, but they never got the funding to do anything to prevent it or to improve evacuation plans. Even before 9/11 I made a stink at various airports more than once because security people weren't paying attention. And truckers routinely bypass an inspection point in Baltimore, among other obvious weak points which should be blocked and which don't require the review of library borrowing records. But has it helped? Well, it gets me thoroughly scanned more frequently than anyone else I know.

And where is our National Guard? Where are a huge portion of our first responders: the firemen, policemen and, EMTs which could help us deal with another attack, be it by explosion or by anthrax or other? They're in Iraq. Even the Army War College has published papers describing how absolutely backwards the war in Iraq is with respect to the stated goal of stopping terrorism. So, now we have "leaders" of the country that failed to protect us, yet huge numbers of people are acting like the victims of an abusive relationship -- looking for protection in exactly the wrong place.

Anyway, I hope that my ability to remain calm never gets tested again. But I'm pretty sure it will be. Please prove me wrong. I'm an agnostic, but I'm willing to pray to be wrong. Please God, I'd really love to be wrong this time.