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zen_'s avatar

9/11 is coming up - how does the date make you feel?

Asked by zen_ (6281points) September 2nd, 2010
47 responses
“Great Question” (9points)

I literally get very nervous come September 1 – knowing that in less than two weeks – it’s the anniversary of one of the most atrocious, unbelievably horrific events in modern history – period.

I get nervous, because we know them Taliban scum; they like anniversaries. I think it’s because they can’t count or tell time in their caves, but it’s easy to tell the seasons. They wait a full year from every atrocity they commit, globally, then try to re-enact it; furthering their terror on us, the West.

I sincerely hope they come up with a smart nuke bomb soon. Smart, as in pinpoint accuracy, like the ones used in all the wars since 1990 – but with nukes.

Okay, maybe not nukes. But a smart Bin Laden finding bomb, with no collateral damage. Semanticists and fools won’t be suffered gladly – you might want to find another thread.

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Answers

Adirondackwannabe's avatar

Maybe a little more observant, but I don’t really make any effort to do anything different. The day was bad enough, if I let the bastards do any more, they kind of have won a victory haven’t they?

Austinlad's avatar

Grateful there hasn’t been a repeat.

JilltheTooth's avatar

I’ll be more concerned next year on the 10th anniversary.

FireMadeFlesh's avatar

As with any significant anniversary in world affairs, I just take a moment out of my day to quietly remember the dead. I’m not worried about further attacks, because I cannot personally do anything to avert them, but I do think it is important to remember those taken from us too soon.

chyna's avatar

I do actually take a few minutes on that day every year to think about what happened and to reflect back.

amazonstorm's avatar

The date makes me feel sad and I allow myself to mourn for a moment or two before moving on with my life.

I am also happy there hasn’t been a repeat.

CaptainHarley's avatar

I just get very sad, yet at the same time with an echo of the relief I felt when my youngest daughter got home. She and some friends were in The Windows On the World reastaurant at the top of one of the towers on 9/10. As I had done in Vietnam, I clamped down on my feelings… HARD! I didn’t allow myself to feel much of anything until she walked in the front door of our little home. Then I lost it. I grabbed her and would not let go, crying with relief and joy. My younger son finally had to pry me loose. : )

jazmina88's avatar

i feel a patriotic loss and this year I will go to Crosby, Stills, Nash on 9–11.

nothing better than harmonious music singin about FREEDOM.

Adirondackwannabe's avatar

@jazmina88 Where is CSN playing on 9–11?

woodcutter's avatar

The anniversary thing. al-kada (sp) keeps me watching the news for something terrible.

Cruiser's avatar

Makes me nervous and nauseous. My family and I were up in a plane on a United long distance flight that morning and that experience of terror we all felt upon the rapid forced landing and ensuing pandemonium/panic upon entering the terminal will forever be etched in my skull and stomach.

ucme's avatar

It’s two fold with me. A combination of sad reflection on a truly remarkable, horrific day. Coupled with cautious optimism & not a little relief that an atrocity of that magnitude shall surely never be repeated. However I think it’s wrong to write the sick fuckers off as lacking in intelligence. However misguided & destructive as that undoubtedly manifests itself, they are a highly organised & determined foe. Still as I say, quiet reflection & sober remembrance the order of the day.

kevbo's avatar

I actually might end up taking a flight on the date itself (by coincidence).

I was thinking about floating a little “truther” link for the day on my fb and leaving it at that.

Other than that I’m kind of burnt already due to the whole mosque discussion.

@Cruiser, I can only imagine. My dad was FAA at the time and once they got the word, they had like four minutes to get every plane in their area out of the sky.

isuppose's avatar

It’s pretty sad, but I have to take the SAT that day, so I’m sure that’s what will be on my mind.
hopefully

cmomoCPA's avatar

Since that date I’ve been living near NYC on and off. The rest of the country doesn’t seem to care. It’s not personal for them.
Since being back in NYC…I’m not afraid of anything bad happening. You can’t be afraid…if something happens that would be terrible. But it’s best not to throttle you life by the what-ifs.

Personally, every 9/11 I look up into the night sky and I see the twin pillars of light and follow them up as far as I can. The same way I did in 2002 when they fist lit up and I was at ground zero with that smell everywhere.

I take a moment to assess my life and the annual progress I make. I remember standing on Eagle Rock overlook and seeing the entire lower Manhattan and the sky out to see engulfed in the smoke. I ask myself how far I’ve come and what people I’ve met, have I made a difference? The things said about the people that died that day makes me give thought to what they may say about me and my time here.

JilltheTooth's avatar

@cmomoCPA : GA to ya, and welcome.

Adirondackwannabe's avatar

@cmomoCPA One of my favorite things was standing at the base of the Towers, leaning flush against the base and looking straight up into the clouds. It felt like you were flying. I also remember sitting in the little park, watching a wino trying to steal a bottle of some kind of alcohol from a partially passed out executive laying on one of the benches, at lunch time.

jazmina88's avatar

CSN will be in Louisville, KY…....
My third time seeing all or part of the band.

Their harmonies are supreme. and celebrate music, freedom….....and 2 cats in the yard

winchester cathedral :):)

Please come visit

tinyfaery's avatar

It means absolutely nothing to me. Every single day of the year is an anniversary of something horrible happening. It’s a day like any other.

aprilsimnel's avatar

I feel wistful for the naivete I had before that date.

I feel sad that there are thousands of people mourning the loss of loved ones.

I also feel sad that there were people who were hurting so much that they felt crashing planes into buildings and killing themselves and other people was a viable solution to their troubles, and that there are other people out there who think that way.

mammal's avatar

i worry about the other 364 days of the Year knowing Americans and British forces are butchering poor people, that makes me much sadder :(

majorrich's avatar

I was fortunate enough to attend the opening of the Towers, and remember vividly the day they fell. My Brother was to be in a meeting in another building of the complex, but was stuck in traffic a mile away. I was running video cables on the college campus where I worked, so saw the whole thing on the feed. It is also my Sister-in-Law’s birthday, and crazily enough the date on my Eagle Scout certificate. Joy and Pain at once on the same day. And anger that people can’t seem to get along.

mammal's avatar

you’ve got a bit of a problem Zen at the moment, go and take a cold shower. calm down. practice some ZEN for goodness sake.

daytonamisticrip's avatar

9/11….september 11th. Oh i know what I’m doing. I’m getting on a plane with my mom her fiance and my brother. Where going on vacation and my mom’s getting married.
Oh and to add to that the flight costs 911 dollars.

zen_'s avatar

Not terribly surprised by your posts, @tinyfaery and @mammal – just glad we don’t have to actually meet in real life – I just have to ignore your posts on the internet.

Cruiser's avatar

@kevbo It felt like we fell out of the sky and looking out my window planes were landing insanely close together….controlled chaos and we were all parked on the taxi ways wing tip to wing tip and I remember looking over at the people in the other plane and we all had this look of horror as we soon realized terrorists were flying planes into buildings and HS we were still in a plane!!

CaptainHarley's avatar

@mammal

And where, pray tell, is all this “butchering” taking place? A place, time and date would be nice. : )

CaptainHarley's avatar

@mammal

Hello? Are you there?

lucillelucillelucille's avatar

Sad for everyone effected by it.A good friend of mine had lost a family member.

kevbo's avatar

@Cruiser, that must have been insane. Terror indeed.

chyna's avatar

Seriously, I would love to just sit and pick @Cruiser‘s brain on the subject. I would love to hear his entire story.

Espiritus_Corvus's avatar

I was working the ER. It was slow that morning so we kept going back to the TVs in the waiting area to get more info. I was standing there with one of my favorite docs, a former fighter pilot. This guy was the most calm, cool dude I’d ever met and I’d never seen him show anger even under the most justifiable circumstances. Now he was teared up and growling, “we’ll get them,” over and over to himself as we both realized that what we were watching were people jumping from the buildings into the street. We realized the choice these people were forced to make in the lsst act of their lives. That is burned into my psyche forever. I remember a bunch of firemen carrying their chaplain who was killed buy a falling body while giving extreme unction to a fellow fireman who had been hit previously by another falling body.

We all were in shock throughout the morning and afternoon. I vowed to myself that I wouldn’t change my lifestyle a bit based on fear, not to let these bastards get an inch of my life. I wouldn’t sell stock based on a fearful reaction to this—nothing, these motherfuckers wouldn’t get a thing out of me. I took this stance when some guy on TV said SEC or some Wall Street official said that they wouldn’t allow this to affect the market, that they would advocate calm and stoicism. I was very disappointed in the massive chicken-shit sell-offs when the market re-opened. What a bunch of cowardly scum, I thought. One hit and all these suits start running in panic like a bunch of screaming little schoolgirls. I went kind of “I don’t give a shit” crazy and started buying in a patriotic fervor and eventually made back all I’d lost in the internet stocks the previous year. I was all for the Afghanistan operation thinking it was to be focused, surgical, effective and justifiable. Totally against the Iraq invasion nearly three years later.

I’ll be at the helm of a sailboat from Pensacola to the drydock in St. Petersburg for it’s owner on 911. I’ll be somewhere off the pristine coast around Cedar Key. I will definitely be thinking of those people and how lucky I am to live my life this way and mourn the fact that they will never experience what I will be experiencing that day. I hope for serene waters and a pod of dolphins.

@Cruiser Did they tell the passengers what it was all about while you were still on the plane?

Cruiser's avatar

@Espiritus_Corvus Sort of and it was IMO worse! Someone thought it a better idea to announce to us this…

“This is your Captain….due to terrorist activities the entire eastern air traffic control system has been knocked out. We have been instructed by our parent company to land at the nearest airport. Please immediately prepare for landing!”

I was like HS!!! TERRORISTS!!! We are in eastern airspace and does that mean we are ALSO flying without radar?? I was looking out the window for other planes and then the plane goes into a steep nose dive into Indianapolis Airport and we were on the ground in less than 5 minutes. THEN we found out the agonizing truth!! The plane was stone silent when we stopped then erupted into cacophony of cell phones and collective gasps and OMG’S as each person found out the truth! People were sobbing….it was incredible!!

Espiritus_Corvus's avatar

Oh man. What an experience. Glad you made it home, bro.

Seaofclouds's avatar

September 11th makes me sad. I had a friend die that day, so that’s part of my sadness. The other part is because of how we act towards each other again. People pulled together and were nice to each other after the attacks. Now that’s gone again. I wish it would have lasted longer.

CaptainHarley's avatar

Why do we seem to need a common enemy in order to pull together as a people? I suspect it has to do with the vast descrepency in experience, education, and cultural norms. When we percieve a common threat, we can more easily recognize the commonality of situation.

wilma's avatar

@cmomoCPA , I have to disagree with you, the rest of the contry does care, most of us anyway. It was an attack on us too. I do agree with you though, that it hit closer to home for some.
@Cruiser and @CaptainHarley I can only imagine how you must have felt that day.

I will certainly think about the events of 9–11-01 on the anniversary, (as I am right now.)
I’m very grateful that there hasn’t been another attack of that magnitude and hope that there never will be.
We know that they ( Taliban) have tried and failed or been thwarted in the attempt. We have many fine, smart and brave people to thank for that fact.

CaptainHarley's avatar

@wilma Thank you. [ HUGS ]

JilltheTooth's avatar

Before, I answered the details, now for the Q itself. I think of our loved ones in the Armed Forces that are not home with us, and say a prayer for them. Especially my nephew, and also now, @Seaofclouds husband

Cruiser's avatar

@JilltheTooth Done deal!

JilltheTooth's avatar

@Seaofclouds : We also serve, who count the days…

Seaofclouds's avatar

@JilltheTooth Yes we do… and it’s day 235 for me and my husband.

YARNLADY's avatar

I’ll be celebrating my 35th anniversary one week late with family. The problem with being married on Labor Day is that all hotel rooms are filled or way too expensive for anniversary parties.

The attack and aftermath is never far from my mind, as with the Oklahoma Bombing and other similar atrocities, plus the ongoing situation in the Middle East and Africa. Because of my desire for peace, I often think I was born out of time.

Kraigmo's avatar

In the center of my heart, I still am sad for the victims both living and dead.
And surrounding that core in me is a giant mass of cynicism and disgust over how easily the American public and its institutions (media, religious, etc) quickly turned their confusion and disgust into total submission to the doctrines of The Project for a New American Century, and without even knowing it. Hell, they still don’t know it.

Because of the American Public’s bending over, and The PNAC/Bush Administration’s domination and framing of issues… 4 or 5 times as many innocent civilians were killed in our reaction to 9/11, than in the actual 9/11. We put our main focus on a country that has nothing to do with the Taliban or Afghanistan or Al Quaida (until now, after Bush merged the enemies’ interests).

And so I piss on the terrorists of both sides, both official and ragtag, and I piss on the mainstream American.

That’s how i feel.

Someday I’ll forgive the ones who are still in error. I’ve already forgiven the ones who finally figured it out.

kevbo's avatar

@Kraigmo, hear hear. Very well put.

Nicole8's avatar

September 11 always makes me feel really sad. I hate thinking about the horrible thing that happened.

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