17 years. Are we starting to forget?

a reply to: Somethingsamiss

I think it depends what you mean by "we".

You and I haven't forgotten. I have not forgotten watching things unfold from my couch, in the house I grew up in, commentated by the BBC news readers, pundits, talking heads and on site reporters. I have not forgotten seeing the dust, the glass and chunks of broken masonry the size of the house, and the bodies falling from those towers. Nor have I forgotten the panic in the voices of those recorded on video at the time, or the aftermath, wreckage sticking out of the ground at strange angles, as ghostly figures coated in dust stumbled blindly through the thick clouds of debris that seemed to remain aloft for much longer than was reasonable. I remember the days afterward, where yet more ghostly, dust covered people, sought bodies in the rubble, the collapsed remains of the towers.

I remember all the reportage from the time, I remember the impact videos, the collapse videos, the attack at the Pentagon, and the story of the passengers of one flight who apparently overpowered their captors and nosedived the plane they were in, out in the sticks some place, an impact that must have been ridiculous, since barely a scrap of that plane larger than a postage stamp remained to tell of it.

I remember those things that I saw on the news, in the papers, on the web. I remember them and I do not forget, any more than I forgot any of the things I learned about WW2 from my grandfathers, or any of the things I learned about the Iraq War, or any of the things I have learned about Afghanistan, the history of the CIA, the history of the SIS or MI6 as it is more commonly known, and their connections with the terrorist group that was allegedly responsible for the 9/11 attack.

I am unlikely to forget any of those things, because knowing of them, and as much about them as possible, is necessary, as it is necessary to know about any event which had such an effect on so many people world wide. Some people are forgetting, and some people HAVE to, because otherwise they would be unable to get past the fear inspired in their hearts. Others have to forget because of the sorrow involved for them personally, because tragedy did not strike far enough from home for them to be able to get past it, without ignoring it completely.

And a smaller number forget because they have only limited space in their minds, and have to prioritise, often badly, with regard to what information they retain at the forefront of their minds.

But I have not forgotten, so as I said before, it depends what you mean, when you ask whether "we" have forgotten.

I wouldn't say we've forgotten, but I suspect in another decade or so, it won't be as sore of a wound as most people will be too young to have experienced that day. We will know we've jumped the shark when we start seeing department store sales on 9/11.

I'll never forget it. I worked at a management consulting firm and traveled weekly. I was halfway across the country working in Philly on a $50 billion merger. There were no TVs and internet was slow and iffy at the time. A co-worker comes by and says a plane hit the WTC. We were thinking something like a Cessna. I remember Yahoo having a hard time loading due to the traffic. When we figured out it was big plane, everyone went across the street to a hotel bar to watch. The firm I worked for also had an office in the WTC complex, so we were worried about our colleagues as well.

Anyway, as I watching everything unfold on TV, two things dawned on me. First, I knew air travel would be shut down. Secondly, in the heat of the action, I forgot I was scheduled to get married that weekend! My bride to be was back in Chicago and here I am in Philly four days from our wedding!

I get on the phone and my fiance is still sleep since she was in grad school at the time. Anyway, I tell her to turn on the TV. The only light hearted thing I could say was "Well, wedding planner didn't plan for this sh*t" Our biggest fear was rain.

I had to figure out how to get home. Fortunately, I had a rental car and basically "stole it" as I decided they could pick the car up at O'Hare and sue me. I needed to get home. Myself and three other colleagues, hopped in a car and drove back to Chicago / Detroit.

This is also one thing that kind of got me interested in prepping / shtf scenarios. Seeing how quickly things started to fall apart and the decisions being made spur of the moment.

My wedding wasn't cancelled, but guest list went down from 400 to about 75. Planes weren't flying that weekend, so everyone out of town had to drive to the wedding. Wife's family was from NJ.

It turned out nice and people thanked us for having it to take their mind off the events.

One of my team members was from Boston. She often took the flight that went down from Boston to LA, but cancelled at the last minute. The other company in the merger had an office in LA which we sometimes went to over the course of our project. She literally cancelled her trip a few days prior due to a conflict.

a reply to: DrumsRfun

I was wondering the same thing and was wondering what an 18 year old thinks of 911. We saw it and lived it.

I was 19 at the time. Got a phone call from my mother (I worked third shift and was still sleeping) who was clearly in distress. She was going to leave work and pick up my brother from school and wanted to make sure I was accounted for.

Went down to flip on the news to see the 1st tower aflame. Stayed glued until I left for work later that day. The whole city was odd. I knew everything was about to change on that bus ride.

I heard they spent 14 million on the 9/11 commission.

Yet 40 m on the clinton-lewinsky bs.

I was 19, I thought surely it was an accident, came home was on the tv, first tower struck, I'm asking questions about it, like what happened, pilot lost control? or wha?

As I utter that to my family watching, the other plane appears and proceeds to smash into the 2nd tower.

I'll admit, you mofos got me with that #.

Firstly thinking what the hell just happened, definetely not an accident, then next day they mention ol Bin Laden.

All can think of is, we need to destroy him, even though he didnt really llook like the bin laden in the video, but emotions were high so yeah lets do it.

Glued to the cable news war stream, that never really is all that, afghanistan, caves yadda yadda, now Bush is mentioning Saddam trying to kill his datty, now we are going to Iraq for part 2, wtf I suppose this is when I started smelling the BS.


Axis of evil etc, No Blood for Oil etc.

And well here we are now, god I hate to fly.

After 9/11 I was still frequent flyer logging about 100k miles a year for business. It sucked. For weeks after 9/11, the lines at the airport were ridiculous. I mean I'd have a 7am flight and need to get to O'hare at like 4:30-5am just to get through security in time and I wasn't even checking bags and almost always in first class!

I remember being on one flight and it was obvious one of the flight stewards was an under cover special forces guy. He was ripped, had that military haircut. He could barely get his Gregor Clegane body down the aisle pushing the drink cart.

Defining moment for a lot of us, a slap in the face of your life just changed,reality . The unity of the nation was something I've never seen before. Be great to capture that unity again without the tragedy that motivated it.

After 17 years, it's fading to the annals of history like the Edmund Fitzgerald sinking or the IRA bombing campaigns, and it's exactly where it belongs. To dwell is to never move on, and that's the WORST way to handle anything, personal or otherwise. I personally think it's way past time to let it be a private observance thing for those who lost someone or were injured, any other approach is dragging it out and not for any meaningful reason.

Now if you want to get all conspiracy theorist on it, we've clung to 9/11 for almost 2 decades now, and its actually really nice to see just a smattering of threads instead of an inundation of them. It tells me some of the brainwashing that turned it into a cult-like observance is starting to break.

a reply to: Somethingsamiss

I was in my mid fifties. I had been convinced for over a decade that all that was needed in this country for those who control western civilization to make their big crackdown and probable excuse to expand the military conquest of other areas on the globe was one big event, one huge Pearl Harbor sized shock to the national mentality to catalyze the desperate aspects of American society into one of unified patriotism. That is exactly what happened. Liberals and conservatives lined up in salute to the event. Media, left, right, large and small all were tuned to the same channel of patriotic ferver. Even far leftist radio was acting patriotic.

My words at work that morning when everyone was running around crying and getting mad and anxious to find someone to blame were simple. My friends at work knew I was into politics and international affairs came to me wanting my insight into what was going on. I said'' It dosen't matter who did it, it has happened. Maybe it was just terrorists and maybe it was subversive elements of the military industrial complex, it didn't matter. What mattered was WHO was going to take advantage of that horror. And we have seen.

We now have lived under that crackdown for 16 years. Our freedoms are still being dribbled away and surveillance is everywhere. Our privacy has been stripped and our worst paranoia's are manipulated to keep us living in fear.
Yes, that is the legacy of 9/11