9/11: ten years
Ten years ago today.
That’s a long time. So long ago that there are now teenagers who were so young back then that they don’t remember it. To them, 9/11 is just a piece of history, not part of their life experience. It’s something that was always there, part of the background of the world as they know it.
For those of us who were grownups when 9/11 happened, it’s also been transmuted—not to something that was always there, but to something that’s been incorporated into our view of the world. We’ve all done that differently. But for us, the shock and surprise and horror reoccurs (to a somewhat diminished extent, of course; there’s no shock like the first shock) whenever we see the footage, or when we think—really really think, without the protective shield of familiarity—of what actually happened on that day.
Enormous passenger jets cleaving into skyscrapers at speeds of over 500 mph, bursting into orange flame fiery against the bluest of skies. Firefighters and police going up the WTC stairs while everyone else was coming down. The jumpers. Bereft relatives desperately searching for the lost, papering New York with notices that finally fluttered down from their posts, taking the last hopes for survival with them.
The temporary near-unity the country felt (and it was always illusory; there were those willing to blame us from the start) has dissipated as though it never happened. That’s not surprising, because the rifts were already deep. But they have only become deeper since.
Perhaps that’s a good thing. Things are clearer now. In general, people are more alert and interested in what’s going on. I know I am. I would not be a blogger but for a chain reaction of internal events that began for me on the day. That’s very small in the larger scheme of things, but for me it’s big.
What do I hope for the future? That we continue to remember. That we not have any sort of repeat. That the repercussions of that day will enhance the spread of liberty both in this country and around the world, so that none of the people who perished on 9/11 will have died in vain.
At times it may be difficult to understand, no one dies in vain, ever.
We become comfortable and complacent. Then, reality intervenes and we think something, our innocence, has been taken away. No, some enemy is always at the gate. Our innocence is, in reality, myopia and our own complacency insures that the enemy will intervene.
They say that “time heals all wounds,” but it doesn’t really. We simply adjust to a new normal. That’s why, ten years later, people cry as these memorials are dedicated. Even those who did not lose a loved one on 9/11 are moved to tears because a great national wound is revisited. For those of us who lived through it, it is still fresh and it will always be so.
We should treat our adversaries with respect, but to our enemies we must give no quarter. Most importantly, we must never forget to recognize the difference between the two.
About the new building arising on the site:
CALL it “The Freedom Tower” …
… Not that mind-numbing bureaucratese of “One World Trade Center”.
“Freedom Tower” is what it was originally meant to be called anyway, until somebody got their panties in a twist and thought that such a name would be a gigantic Foxtrot Yankee to those who tried to bring us down. (Sounds to me like an excellent reason to so name it.)
From the Wikipedia entry (for what that’s worth) …
In 2009, the Port Authority changed the name of the building from “Freedom Tower” to “One World Trade Center”, stating that this name is the “easiest for people to identify with”.
All I can say is (EXPLETIVE DELETED!!!).
I saw a NOVA special on TV a few nights ago, all about the design and construction of the 1 WTC Building (They’ve already forgotten the original name) and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
The Presence of Absence …
That’s what the architect of the memorial said it was to evoke; the sense of loss in the footprints of the original twin towers.
That’s not a bad description of what appears to be the attitude of Obama and many of his minions who will appear at the 10th anniversary on 11 Sep 2011. An attitude of “Let’s put this behind us and move on.” ; a good sentiment in some circumstances, but in this context almost like saying that the Holocaust Museum should never have been built.
In the Shadow of the Freedom Tower …
To add to the mix, we also have the Ground Zero Mosque, except we’re not supposed to call it that on account of it ain’t located directly on the former World Trade Center site, Ground Zero, nor is it primarily a mosque, (“A rose by any other name …”)
Although the City of New York refused to let a Greek Orthodox Church that was destroyed at Ground Zero be rebuilt, they appear to have no problem with this abomination.
Maybe some solace can come from the fact that its location, about two blocks northeast of the Freedom Tower suggests that in the fall (around Sep 11), each afternoon it will lie in the shadow of the tower.
Where was I on that fateful day? …
The same place most of you were; at work that Tuesday morning 11 Sep 2001. Being in IT, they tolerated my occasional surfing of the internet, but it was other workers who urged me to check out the CNN website that morning; something about an airplane crashing into one of the World Trade Center towers.
I immediately thought it was a horrible accident, with Murphy’s Law working at peak efficiency that it would be the tallest thing in Manhattan to be hit. Indeed, that even made sense as it would be a more likely thing to happen because of its height.
I had read, many times, about the July 1945 incident in which a USAAF B-25 Mitchell bomber tried to land in zero visibility (because of fog) at LaGuardia Airport and the pilot became disoriented and crashed into the Empire State Building between the 78th and 80th floors. At the moment, I felt that, because of the proliferation of tall buildings near landing approaches, such an accident was almost inevitable sooner or later.
Of course, that second plane hitting the other tower made it painfully clear what had really taken place.
The most horrific part was when the South Tower collapsed. Most of the people killed would have been those trapped on the upper floors. By that time, the ones below would have already been evacuated, with the only people still below being responders and others desperately trying to reach those still trapped.
What a horrible word is “only” when applied to people like that. The most merciful thing in their case was that when the rumbling started, they probably barely had time to wonder “What the Hell is that?” before it was over. It was half an hour later before the North Tower went, and I believe that rescue people were still trying their level best there, knowing all too well what could happen and being totally aware when it did.
A year later, I took a driving vacation and, among other places, visited the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
On display in one wing of the museum was a U-2 reconnaissance plane. On one wall, curving up from the floor, was a huge aerial photo, taken from that (or a similar) plane, of Manhattan Island. What you could see so clearly in that photo were the Twin Towers, and it literally took your breath away realizing what was now gone. I was trying very hard to hold back tears, and I don’t think I succeeded. (If any reading this have been to the museum recently, I’d love to know if that photo is still on display.)
I hope this will be read by bloggers with far greater readerships than my humble 3 or 4 hundred a month, because I beg you to launch a campaign to make “Freedom Tower” the official name of this magnificent structure, or failing that, at least make it the de-facto name.
If honoring the memory of those who fell there was the only reason, that would be more than enough.
–
We become comfortable and complacent. Then, reality intervenes and we think something, our innocence, has been taken away. No, some enemy is always at the gate.
of course learning the methodology is not important, like superheroes, or movie anti heroes, we will just be given the right answer when the critical moment arrives…
famous moments where the cavalry didnt arrive
Sept 11 2001
Challenger
Little Big Horn
Andrea Doria
Dresden
Donner Party
Daley Plaza
Pearl Harbor
Holocaust
Holodomar
Nanking
Bataan March
Babi Yar
Katyn
Batak
Sabra and Shatila
King David Hotel
Grand Mosque Seizure
Beirut barracks
Anuradhapura
Air India Flight 182
Pan Am Flight 103
Bombay
Oklahoma City
Bali
Beslan school
Mumbai train & Mumbai again
Lida
Cherche
Sudova Vishnia
Hankow
Gardelegen
Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Treblinka, Majdanek, Bełżec, Sobibé³r, and CheÅ‚mno
Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Mauthausen and Bergen-Belsen
Rumbula
Paneriai
Simferopol
Dnepropetrovsk
Izieu
Porajmos
Operation Tannenberg
Lwé³w professors
Novi Sad
Sarmasu
Treznea
Ip
Hegyeshalom
SankÅ
Katyń
Treuenbrietzen
We shall never forget rings so hollow if one has a memory just enough to recall even if not by name
i could create a list that would be so large as to make one gasp, with the majority of it the actions of governments of total administration
i would be a majority of people would not know most of the places or incidents above, and many would remember only when they see the list. that is, they forgot the long list of incidents that would show a trend, a pattern, a flow… they neither see far behind nor in front of themselves in time. but think they are superior captains of their destiny and moral champions and fix-its of the world not thinking where they got that idea…
people that act but dont think about why they act other than the reasons given to them to present when asked
At times it may be difficult to understand, no one dies in vain, ever.
given communisms existence, strength, and control/influence in the world.
what purpose did the 100 million tortured and starved and experimented to death serve other than to convince every weak person who would win
As that has not made a difference in the years after we claimed it was over and would never happen…
i guess socialists wouild say that was no in vain as it revealed a true nature of reality among equals.
Marx understood that, in the new order, the individual would play a minor part. Individualism implies differentiation; everything that is undifferentiated does not count.
when we are equal, we are nothing…
it was all in vain as we did not erase it, but embraced it
without absolutes the ability to justify makes never again, just a bed time story we tell children so they can go on with their lives till again… for one day, we will justify it again, and then, do it again, because once everything can be excepted, then anything can be allowed. All one needs is an argument and seeming logic validated falsely and repeated so that most look the other way..
do you realize that people go nutters over the deaths from the inquisition they believe number in the 100s of thousands (only about 300 people in actuality), but ignore completely the ideological source of more than 100 million
the 100 million number is only for last century and not even the whole of it…
most in the west cant even imagine the actuality correctly…
take a look at this list…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Gulag_camps
# 65 million in the People’s Republic of China
# 20 million in the Soviet Union
# 2 million in Cambodia
# 2 million in North Korea
# 1.7 million in Africa
# 1.5 million in Afghanistan
# 1 million in the Communist states of Eastern Europe
# 1 million in Vietnam
# 150,000 in Latin America
those are the LOW estimates
and even funnier… the left and everyone who is working so hard to remember, even wrote the “black book of capitalism”
kind of arguing like a serial killer who blames the fact that victims exist, for if they didnt, it would not be their fault…
notice how wwii is capitalism’s fault and not the attempt socialism of two types working together (at the beginning) to fulfill Engels prophecy about a conflagration (holocaust) that a world war would exterminate…
[not only that, but they also have to push forward the more primitive socieites of the past and their despotic rulers as representative of people, when they numbered less than 1% of any population.
ie.. the less modern and more primitive that act out are more evil in their ignorance than the product of the enlightenment/romantic era, modern knowlege, and philosophy who with all that awareness decided to march people into ovens thinking that the people wont mind… then when they did, do the same covertly with social engineering manipulation of outcomes over lifetimes (causing similar horrors and enabling even more of the same superior modern sociopathic state)
the scientist who kills is blameless, while the primitive who kills due to his lack of understanding is the real criminal. ]
but for some reason… 100 million in systematized extermination, most while having their labor/lives extracted by force and horrors – we really dont care about preventing a second time in any meaningful way (not even enough to avoid the same ideas that lead to the same end or to stop the same kind of games)
Curtis,
You mention those who are ready to put this behind us; to get over this, already. This is an insight into their psyche. They have never felt a mortal loss and to them this is an intellectual exercise. Even as an intellectual exercise, however, it profoundly reveals their tepid allegiance to the founding principles of this country. They have no pride of place.
Speaking for myself, I must admit that I never truly understood or appreciated Pearl Harbor or Gettysburg the way I should have until a profound personal loss and then 9/11 in close succession.
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Artfldgr,
To distill your thoughts in both posts above is to simply say that no civilized society can be tolerant of those whose purpose in life is the extermination of others.
To explain or justify such an enemy with a mea culpa is the worst kind of intellectual naivete and evinces a total disaregard for civilization.
I rest my case:
HE THINKS THIS IS SOMETHING TO BRAG ABOUT: Jimmy Carter: ‘We never dropped a bomb. We never fired a bullet. We never went to war.’ But, of course, his craven and inept example encouraged all our future problems in the region, where a firm response would have quashed them. If only he’d been as tough with hate-filled terrorists as with marauding cats.
Posted at 10:13 pm [9/10/11] by Glenn Reynolds
[H/T Instapundit]
Thanks for that, Artfldgr.
All of y’all read it too.
Can’t say as how much I agree with you Paul in Houston. Words don’t agree enough.
I have to say it.
Artfldgr is the best commenter on this blog.
Sometimes I read his posts in their entirety, sometimes I skip them, and sometimes I just skim them quickly.
But he provides a combination of knowledge and experience that is hard to find anywhere else, and is very valuable. We ignore him at our peril.
Thank, Paul and Artfldgr.
I’ve been disgusted by the recent attempts to strip the anger and the humanity from 9/11, such as Bloomberg shutting out clergy and first responders from the tribute, and the asinine National Day of Service promos that seem to be everywhere. So I watched the Flight 93 movie this morning, and as heartbreaking as it was, it was a excellent reminder of both the confusion and the clarity of that day. God bless all the victims of 9/11. I not only remember that day, I remember the resolve of our nation in the face of an evil enemy. An enemy that is still out there.
Neo writes:
“The temporary near-unity the country felt (and it was always illusory; there were those willing to blame us from the start) has dissipated as though it never happened. That’s not surprising, because the rifts were already deep. But they have only become deeper since.
Perhaps that’s a good thing. Things are clearer now.”
That our rifts are deeper now is a good thing? That’s not even a joke. Sorry, Neo. We couldn’t unify beyond briefly, ao we are in a deep and deepening hole, and are most unlikely to emerge the better for it.
We are like bugs in a jar; the jar may be clearer now, but we are still trapped in it, and we’re running out of food, water and oxygen.
Don Carlos: a good thing that the lines of division are more clear, and that people are paying more attention. I think the rifts may not have seemed as deep right before 9/11 not because the divisions weren’t deep, but because people were somewhat asleep.
So what are we to do with the people on the other sides of the deepening rifts, ten, count ’em, ten years later? When will they ever learn? What, if not 9/11, will it take?
Don Carlos makes a good point, even if that wasn’t the intended point.
For all their atrocity, their undeniably unprecedented devilishness, the 9/11 attacks shared the same thing with other terrorist attacks: Those who wished to ignore the role of Islam could easily explain them away using materialistic, economic and post-colonial hypotheses. The harsh truth is, even a nuclear attack (God forbid) could be given such explanations by the Leftist and Ron Paulite side of the aisle.
There are a lot of people who said, “Everything I needed to learn about Islam, I learned on 9/11.” I believe those people changed in their thought from regarding Islamic terrorism as a mere nuisance happening to other people to center stage of world perils; I do not believe they changed in thought from Left (blowback theorists) to Right (Islamic aggression theorists). People on each side explained 9/11 by their preconceived worldview.
I think, if there’s one event that really transformed people, changing their thought from blowback theory to Islamic aggression theory, it was the Danish Cartoons Affair. Though it was fairly localized (mainly in Western Europe), it was on a totally new order of events because blowback theory absolutely couldn’t explain it away. Yes, I know, there are plenty of blowback theorists despite the Danish Cartoons Affair; my thesis is that they managed to hold on to their way of thinking by ignoring, by not thinking too hard about the affair, while those who gave it just a little deep thought couldn’t but adopt Islamic aggression theory.
My thesis is by nature conjectural, but I have reason to believe it reflects reality.
ziontruth,
I read your post above and then happened on this (H/T Instpundit):
“. . . in the wall-to-wall coverage we’ll see today, we won’t see two things: the media have assiduously avoided showing the awful video of the people who jumped from the towers, and we won’t see any video of the throngs in the Arab world dancing wildly in the streets celebrating on 9/11.”
Link:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/09/ten-years-on.php
After 911 we discovered the volume of the fifth column in our camp. Leading the way were the pseudo-intellectuals of which Obama is one. Clamoring for second place are several: the debased portions of Protestantism; social justice Catholicism; crony corporations; indignant immigrants, illegal and otherwise; welfare recipients who hate the hand that feeds them; and, of course, CAIR and other taqiyya Muslim organizations.
We found these as well as the harmony between Islam and Democrats. We found an inordinate hatred which was confusing. Why hatred? And why so virulent? It was like a situation when two families get into a fight and to your astonishment you see a family member fighting on the other side. And we began to think in terms approaching good vs. evil.
The family member has not repented, but rather, increased his perfidy and become alienated without remedy. Now, this disowned brother proposes how we should remember when our enemy attacked us. We should either be silent or serve the government which is controlled by the disowned brother.
I think not. I use this day to dedicate myself to bringing remembrance to those who were murdered, to expose the perfidy of the lost brother, and to fight the lies, deception and purpose of Islam.
Curtis,
You are correct.
This day is not dedicated to those who (euphemistically) gave their lives . . . . This day is dedicated to those innocent people who had their lives abruptly ended by an evil enemy, and to those on Flight 93 who, as George W Bush correctly observed, mounted the first strike against this repulsive enemy.
Our ilk notes just a slight difference in tone.
I think 9/11 marked some sort of milestone in media news too. I coundn’t watch Peter Jennings or Tom Brokaw after it. I can’t really put my finger on exactly why. Something about how they wanted to shape my opinion i hadn’t noticed before.
9/11 Jumpers – World Trade Center
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d3K0QuXL24&feature=player_embedded&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fmoonbattery.com%2F
As i said in the fashion thread, most people will never see the photos taken that day. Since i was a photojournalist, i saw a lot of those shots that no one will see…
as bad as it looks them falling as they tried to climb down… or jumping… what it looked like when they hit the ground no one has seen other than us journalists…
today i pulled out some slides.. it was one week or so before the event… the fire department awards for bravery, and so on. I happened to be there and have so many pictured of the children, and the men, and others. that in a short while, my photos and others with family memories, was all that was left.
[thanks for the very kind words guys!!!]
some of them break my heart to see
kids wearing their dads hats, others looking pensive despite it being a positive event.
right now, on my shelf is a core sample from the towers when i worked for a company there. its concrete and pumice, and was what they would drill out of a floor to put electrical stuff… i had it for more than a decade before the event
i used to dance there twice a week… swing dancing… and sit at those tiny tables against the window with all the lights out before us
almost all thats left is that rock on my shelf
and if anyone wants to notice, i would expand on pauls comment by looking up the name of the mosque they want and what its sister of the same name in spain was for…
I also have one of the special packages given to the families at the sight that first year. that is, a list of names, and cards, and so on put together for the families and such who were present at the first memorial…
i guess they will go with the rest of my junk on the trash one day like all those tippy canoe and tyler too buttons… and i like ike… and who saves those tiny red poppies…
Neo, is it time to finish the change series?
I also have one of the special packages given to the families at the sight that first year. that is, a list of names, and cards, and so on put together for the families and such who were present at the first memorial…
i guess they will go with the rest of my junk on the trash one day like all those tippy canoe and tyler too buttons… and i like ike… and who saves those tiny red poppies…
Don’t you dare. Please tell me you were just being facetious.
It’s the tangible little mementos like those that help us teach future generations about events they never experienced first hand.
RandomThoughts:
I think Art meant that after he dies, someone will go through his things and throw them out. At least that’s how I read it.
I also hope that turns out to be true in the long run, but in the short run the government’s responses to 9/11 have curtailed our liberty. By any rational measurement we are less free today than we were on 9/10/2001. The hideous totalitarian bureaucratic monstrosity that is the TSA is only the most visible example. The size of the federal government nearly doubled during the Bush years, and for much of that time the Republicans controlled Congress. It has gotten far worse under the Democrats, but statists in both parties have not “let the crisis go to waste”.
There’s a good post up today at the Market Ticker, Rethinking 9/11 Ten Years On. It is not so much a remembrance of 9/11 as an assessment of where we are today. Denninger makes the point that our own government’s response to 9/11 has caused more damage to our society than the terrorists did. It’s a post worth reading, and there are lots of good comments, too. I’ve left a few there myself.
If I had my way the footage of the planes slamming into the WTC towers and the crumbling of those magnificent buildings would be shown on every TV network on the 11th of each month.
Bravo, Curtis.
“.. the name of the mosque they want and what its sister of the same name in spain was for…”
Cordoba was the capital of the caliphate during much of the middle ages. The choice is definitely intentional.
A while back i explained the nature of power.
if you use your power wisely and well, then people will not know you benefit, and the one wielding will not feel it.
for the sociopathic, power has to be felt
and doing something people dont want, and their being helpless to change that, is what such does to FEEL power… as for them power is not something silent to enjoy and feel good about the fruits of its proper use. for them its a form of real sadism.
rickl, you got it right
being a never been who was denied his life so others could occupy his space, what i have will just go the way of the dustbin.. no one believes in me enough to preserve it, save it, finish it, etc…
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim September 11, 2011, as National Grandparents Day.
This is connected to the subject of 9/11. George W. Bush + the Federal government, and the state governments under him + the town governments under him, did great work to create the homeland security system, which coordinated military and government people-to make the nation more protected and more powerful, against the attacks of terrorist groups and those groups’ terrorist attacks.
It really ticks me off to hear Mr. I’ll-only-stand-up-to-terrorists-and-criminals-if-it-doesn’t-hurt-me-politically-President-Obama, and to hear mister Obama get up, and pretend that none of the work done by President Bush, and the Government, and the civilians before Obama, was work that did nothing to stop terrorists.
It really makes me exceedingly mad to hear Obama get up and make a claim, on 9/11/2011, that HE THINKS THAT ONLY HE,OBAMA, made any big defeats against the Al Qaeda terrorist/and criminal group.
The U.S., under President Bush, Jr., made countless defeats of Al Qaeda and other terrorists, who tried to sneak guns bombs into the United States, when they captured these criminals. And this is all when: mister pipsqueak, lying and bullying-Mr. Obama, did close to nothing, to protect America, During the 2000 to 2008 years, those years when Al Qaeda was in a war to the death, against The United States. An unending war, that Obama chose to ignore, during the years of 2001-2008.
Mr. Obama, you are truly a man who deserves to hang his head in shame.
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