OT: Perspective on this day

[MoLewisrocks]

Lots of NFL mediots were referring to yesterday as annual over reaction day in the NFL. How true.

Today is a different day. One that puts all of that and more in perspective.

Erik Scalavino‏@PFWErik

It's Tuesday, September 11, clear blue, cloudless skies, & it's Primary Election Day... Exactly like it was 11 years ago. How fitting.

 

[IllegalContact]

right about now I was staring at the sky from my office and I said to my partner 'hey Bill, look at those contrails, they are all making right hand turns' ..... and Bill says 'something is up with the wall st. pre-market.

we then saw online that a plane hit WTC and that a 2nd one did, so we went to a bar and watched what was going on.

when the buildings collapsed, Bill said golly.

mod edit.

 

[DaBruinz]

On September 11, 2009, one of our own (PatsfaninPhilly) posted this. I am reposting it for people because I believe it's appropriate.

6 years ago, on the 2nd anniversary of this tragedy, he went to "Ground Zero". Upon looking at the Towers of Light tht night, he was touched so deeply, he wrote the following and has since shared it with me. I now share it with you, my friends and family, as the 8th anniversary draws near......


Memories of 9/11
Six years ago on the second anniversary in 2003 , I was in NYC and saw the Towers of Light...and put pen to paper......

I refuse to live in fear.
I am an American.
I will travel whenever I want in this great land of ours
undeterred by the threats of others.
I will take my children to our treasured landmarks and historical sites.
I will not retreat from an adventuresome journey
because of others with a disdain for our way of life.
It is the legacy of our forefathers, who shed their blood
on battlefields throughout the world, to protect
our democratic institutions.
I will show my children this country in all its majesty,
from the beauty of a Pacific sunset to the bright lights of Broadway
to the beacon held high by Lady Liberty.
I will show them Ellis Island,
the gateway to a new world with the hopes and dreams of millions.
This nation was forged by an amalgam of spirited people
who believed in self-determination.
I will not bow to those who challenge that notion.
It dishonors the memory of those who have gone before me.
I refuse to let the actions of a few destroy my will.
I will show my children the monuments to our presidents
who persevered in times of crisis and triumphed over evil.
I will show them Arlington National Cemetery
and the graves of those who fell in the defense of freedom.
I will show them a field in the rolling hills of Western Pennsylvania
Where citizen soldiers fought back
and gave their lives in the latest struggle.
I have seen the horrors of that fateful day.
I have watched as flags ruffled in the breeze unbowed
as the smoke rose from the ashes.
Its pungent odor and acrid smell did not destroy our spirit.
I have heard the countless untold stories of heroism
that will stay with me forever.
To live timidly disgraces their honor.
I will keep that dream alive.
I refuse to live in fear.
I am an American.


MKK 9/11/03

Please take a moment to remember the thousands of innocent people who were murdered that day, the hundreds of first responders who gave their lives trying to help people escape from the towers, and the tens of thousands of people who have gotten sick and/or died from sickness caused by the collapse of the towers.

 

[NYCPatsFan]

right about now I was staring at the sky from my office and I said to my partner 'hey Bill, look at those contrails, they are all making right hand turns' ..... and Bill says 'something is up with the wall st. pre-market.

we then saw online that a plane hit WTC and that a 2nd one did, so we went to a bar and watched what was going on.

when the buildings collapsed, Bill said "golly"

Disappointing to read such 'perspectives' on this solemn day.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Great post, Mo.

I walked my kids to school along Second Avenue in mid-town Manhattan this morning and reflected that the weather is eerily similar to what it was 11 years ago; crystal clear blue sky and a late summer coolness in the air.

The difference was that when I looked down Second Avenue towards lower Manhattan this morning, the sky was still perfectly blue and not engulfed in black smoke. Second Avenue this morning was not full of fire trucks and other emergency vehicles with their sirens screaming as they made their way to what we now call Ground Zero. I have often reflected on how many of the brave men I saw hanging onto those fire trucks and in those police cars that morning were on their way to their deaths. It still gives me chills.

Later on that morning, Second Avenue was taken over by tens of thousands of people making their way on foot from Wall Street towards upper Manhattan and the Queensboro bridge a few blocks from here.

By the afternoon, as we watched the Air Force Fighter-jets flying cover over the city, the street was a venue for the sickening sight of refrigeration trucks heading for the site; it turned out that they were not needed, given the thoroughness of the destruction.

By late afternoon the air was tainted with the now unforgettable smell of the fire and smoke that slowly made its way north (the wind was blowing away from Manhattan that morning, towards the east and south as I recall), as my wife and I found pillows and blankets in our apartment for co-workers who couldn't get out of a shut-down Manhattan.

As you can see, the day is etched in my memory and we all thank you for calling our attention to it.

RIP.

We will never forget.

 

[TheBeers]

I remember that day.. really that whole week so vividly. I remember walking up to the front door of my work and a guy I worked with said on the radio he just heard a plane crashed into the WTC. We all rushed to the break room to see what was going on TV and saw the second plane hit.. I couldn't believe what was happening. I still get choked up every time I think of that day. The horrific images of the towers smoking and eventually falling.. all the lives lost, the impact it had on so many families, communities, and the country....

Thanks to all the heroes that emerged on that day. Over the weeks, months and years we have seen so many stories of those in the middle of it that put their lives on the line and did whatever they had to too save lives and help people who couldn't help themselves.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

right about now I was staring at the sky from my office and I said to my partner 'hey Bill, look at those contrails, they are all making right hand turns' ..... and Bill says 'something is up with the wall st. pre-market.

we then saw online that a plane hit WTC and that a 2nd one did, so we went to a bar and watched what was going on.

when the buildings collapsed, Bill said 'f-ing arabs'

I understand your feelings, but you might want to take the final sentence and move it to the Political Forum.

This is a day for memory and reflection and I say that as someone who worked for a firm that lost over 300 people that day.

One of my memories of that day is of a friend who was on the phone with his fiance who worked on the 93rd floor of the North Tower. He was speaking with her when the phone went dead. She was one of the "lucky" ones and probably never knew what had happened. My friend is still living with the moment.

 

[ivanvamp]

Here's my 9/11 story.

My wife's birthday is 9/11/66. On 9/9/01, our fourth, and last, child was born. We were obviously thrilled. My wife was in the hospital with our newborn daughter and we were scheduled to bring them home on the morning of 9/11. The night before, I was watching MNF - it was the Broncos and Giants, the day Ed McCaffrey broke his leg (gruesome...). I wrote her a birthday card, and, thinking of how cool it was going to be to bring our baby home on my wife's birthday, I wrote, "This will be a birthday you'll never forget."

I get up and start driving to the hospital around 8:30 am. It's a half-hour drive. At about 8:45 or 8:50 (can't remember the exact time), I turn the radio on to Imus on WFAN (living in CT, I could get WFAN but there was no WEEI station that could reach me). It was weird...they were joking (I thought) about ducking whenever planes would be flying overhead. Strange. Obviously it took just a couple of minutes for them to recap what had happened (planes striking the towers). By the time I got to the hospital, both towers had been hit and were burning, and we all knew it was an act of terrorism.

I get to the maternity ward and watch, along with the nurses, as the towers collapse. At that point, estimates were that possibly as many as 50,000 people could be dead. We were, like everyone else, in total shock. But then I turned around and there in the nursery is my newborn baby. Surreal doesn't even begin to describe it.

I walked into my wife's room and asked her if she had heard the news (the TV wasn't on). She said, what news? I said, well, that answers that question. And we spent the rest of the day in the hospital watching CNN with our new baby in our arms. We all went home around dinner time in tears for the world that our baby was brought into.

So I cannot experience a September 11 without all this being the backdrop.

Thanks for the thread.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Here's my 9/11 story.

My wife's birthday is 9/11/66. ...

I walked into my wife's room and asked her if she had heard the news (the TV wasn't on). She said, what news? I said, well, that answers that question. And we spent the rest of the day in the hospital watching CNN with our new baby in our arms. We all went home around dinner time in tears for the world that our baby was brought into.

So I cannot experience a September 11 without all this being the backdrop.

Thanks for the thread.

thank you for sharing a beautiful story, capturing the cycle of life and death. I hope your child is a vibrant 11 year old today.

 

[Ivan]

As sad as the recollection of these events is it is good to know that on this day there is one person who no longer gets to watch the footage fondly.

Adios @sshole. Hope there is a hell you get to burn in forever.

 

[ivanvamp]

thank you for sharing a beautiful story, capturing the cycle of life and death. I hope your child is a vibrant 11 year old today.

Thanks. She is great. A beautiful 6th grader.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

I was watching the memorial streaming online this AM, thanks to a link PFW Erik also posted, and one of the things that stuck me was the number of arabic names among the victims.

It's true what they say about the failure to learn from history. Pearl Harbor would have been instructive in this instance. Unfortunately in many lands intolerance and ignorance and fanaticism constitutes what little is taught.

There are seminal moments in our lives that will never be forgotten. For our parents and theirs it was December 7th although they did not see it live via sattelite. As a child I first experienced that on the Friday during last period when Kennedy was assinated. For all of us and our children it will forever be September 11th. I wasn't in NY nor did I personally know anyone lost. But I will never forget the surreal experience of actually watching the live feed of that second plane hitting the tower. Or the terror of knowing there were more planes unaccounted for.

What these surviving families will go through for the rest of their lives is heartwrenching. It happened before my time but I saw the effects of that level of tragedy on my family growing up. My 27 year old aunt was lost on her birthday celebrated at the Coconut Grove. My grandparents and her siblings were never the same. The youngest brother who was just a teenager she doted on and whose birthday was just a few days later always went into a funk in early November until the day he died, even as the memory of that tragedy eventually faded into history, and would never allow a party to commemorate the occasion.

I have a (jewish of all things) friend who is again in Afghanistan today of all days, a civilian veterinarian who has spent much of his adult life working with various aid agencies to better the lives of third world residents by improving herd health and production as a small ruminant (goat) specialist. For the last 20 years or so salvaging what was left of and rebuilding the vetrinary infrastructure in Afghanistan, which was pretty much decimated after the Russian conflict and rise of the Taliban, has been his passion. He's spending less time there recently after an Afghan collegue he sent to a conference was detained and MIA in Pakistan for months at one point recently, and when released they discovered it was because they were interested in and looking for information on the American doc. Believed he must be CIA. This will probably be his last visit as he is writing a memoir that names names. But he has come to love the Afghan people, just has a thorough and utter disdain for their ignorant, intolerant, fanatical and corrupt leaders who have frustrated even the his small mission by forcing every step forward to come at the expense of two steps backwards.

Backwards thinking is the root of most evil.

 

[PatsDeb]

I was at work at my small office and we had a little black and white tv that we put on to watch the coverage when the first tower was hit, thinking it was just a plane crash at the time. I remember the shock we all felt when the 2nd hit happened and we realized this was no accident. When the first tower fell we turned it off in tears as we couldn't watch any more, knowing there must have been people still in that building.

I have a friend who worked at the towers who escaped harm because she was late to work because of traffic. Some of her co-workers were not so lucky. Thoughts and prayers to their families and all of those who were affected by this horrible deed.

This summer we had several guests from Russia whom we took on a road trip to NY. They eagerly wanted to visit the 9/11 site. My husband and I did not want to go - just too sad. I was relieved when tickets were sold out on the day we were supposed to visit.

 

[Patstopia]

As a rather sad and possibly discusting memory to me, I was working at the time the 1st plane struck. My wife called and said a plane hit one of the towers. My First thought was a traffic helicopter had hit the building and really more or less dismissed it. Then she called back and said another plane had hit the other building, and it was like OMG.

As the day progressed and the news got worse and worse we asked the manager if we could hold a moment of silence for everything that was lost. He responded with a firm "NO, get back to work. This had nothing to do with us".

After all this time, I still boggle at that reponse.

 

[PatsFanSince74]

Fair comment and no doubt you will find many here who agree with you, but this thread is about personal remembrances of an awful day and, in some cases, of friends or loved ones lost. There is a vibrant political forum on this site, where you might want to repeat the comment or start a thread and have a good discussion in its regard.

Please, though, leave this thread to those of us who understand the concerns that many have along the lines you raise, but who today just want to remember and grieve.

 

[PATSNUTme]

Someone just had to get political on this thread. The post had to be deleted twice (becasue it was "quoted) and the member removed from coming back on this thread.

This thread is not about politics so keep your poltical views to yourself. If you have an uncontrollable desire to spout your political view- go to the Political Forum. This is the final warning - more than just deletions and removal will happen (hint: if you want to be around to post about Sunday's game, control your political impulses.)

 

[PATSNUTme]

I will never forget that day. My daugther was going to NYU grad school and working in a tall building very close to the WTC.

She watched the 2nd plane go into the tower. She saw the people jumping from the building.Had the 2nd plane missed the tower my dauthers buildign was next in its path.

Then her building was evacuated. But then she could not go back to her apartment on 14th street. All the cell phones went dead and I could not reach her for hours. She had to walk from lower Manhattan to her roommates sisters apartment at Columbia. We finally got in touch with her late in the afternoon. By that I was half crazy with worry.

I'll never forget that day- ever.

 

[patsfan13]

I live in NJ about 50 miles as the crow flies from Manhattan. The morning was perfect low humidity, mild temps, I had done some emails and worked on a proposal took the dogs for a walk. I usually went into the office ~9:30 to miss the traffic. As I was having breakfast I turned on the TV and saw the North Tower burning on a local NY Station, they were saying that a small plane had apparently crashed into the WTC, this was hard to imagine since the weather was so clear that day.

As I watched with my wife I saw the plane fly into the 2nd Tower, it was clearly NOT an accident. We watched as the Towers burned I wondered if the structural damage was enough to bring down the towers as the exo skeleton of the towers had been badly damaged in the crashes.

I decided to go into the office, wasn't real motivated to work that day.

When I got to the office my boss had set up a TV in the conference room. Everyone was watching the news feed. I found out that a number of co workers from the NYC office were supposed to be attending a Seminar being held at Windows on the World a Restaurant on the 107th floor of the North Tower. At the time we didn't know exactly how many people and whether they had escaped or not.

My boss sent us home at noon and closed the office. I later found that 8 co workers were in the North Tower and 6 escaped the other 2 were never found.

One of my neighbors was a Port Authority Cop, I saw him a couple of days later. I was at the Port Authority when word of the North Tower being hit cam in. He was going to go downtown with his boss to help out, his boss told him to stay there and that he was call him down later. He never heard from his boss again. He felt guilty about not going down to the Towers, and after attending many funerals of PA cops, NYPD and NYFD member he became very depressed for well over a year.

 

[PATRIOTSFANINPA]

On 9/11/01 I had a day off from my former job as a Chef and Fresh Fish preparer at Red Lobster and my wife was also off from her job and was at the hairdressers.

I actually was watching NBC Today before the airplane hit the tower and when it happened I watched the special report....I thought it was just some kind of publicity stunt as is the norm in NYC,but soon realized the smoke and flames were too real to be a stunt show.

As I said,my job at the time was at Red lobster and we had the biggest a-hole for a manager ..... she had set a date for our 13th restaurant anniversary months before which just happened to be on 9/11/01......to my shock,dismay and anger she did NOT postpone the party and many people went out that night to have the party right in the restaurant,after the restaurant closed to celebrate the anniversary.

I of course sat home and mourned while growing angrier each and every hour that I knew they were just overlooking american tragedy and partying.

Needless to say my 14 year stint there ended about a year later as I could never get over such heartless activity in a time of sorrow and pain for thousands of people.....I was just miserable and could no longer accept her authority nor could I ever forgive those who attended the party that night.

The manager has since moved on,but I hope when the day comes,she rots in hell where she belongs.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Everyone deals with loss, tragedy, even danger or terror and even it's aftermath differently. Wishing evil on those who process it differently is a pretty sad way to live life.

Andrew Brandt retweeted a link to this ESPN piece this AM. It's a worthwhile watch, not only today.

OTL: Man in the Red Bandana - YouTube