OT: Perspective on this day
 

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.

Re: OT: Perspective on this day
 

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.

Re: OT: Perspective on this day
 

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


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.

Re: OT: Perspective on this day
 

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

Re: OT: Perspective on this day
 

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.

Re: OT: Perspective on this day
 

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.

Re: OT: Perspective on this day
 

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.

Re: OT: Perspective on this day
 

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.

Re: OT: Perspective on this day
 

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.

Re: OT: Perspective on this day
 

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.