Remembering 9/11 ----- 22 Years Later

[danikerhino]

I remember our teacher had us listen to the radio in class so we can know the gravity of the situation. I appreciate her for that. I also remember everyone being quiet everywhere.

 

[PRIME]

I was in 7th or 8th grade. I remember everyone started being called to the office to get picked up by their parents and I had no idea what was going on.

My parents both worked in DC and my mom worked AT the pentagon. Luckily she was offsite at a meeting somewhere else in DC at the time when everything went down .

Pops picked me up from school, me and my little sister were confused while the news was playing, and he told us what was going on.

Crazy. Feels so long ago now

 

[fluid hips]

I watched the towers burn across the water. I had started the 7th grade

 

[Bend_The_Knee]

I remember our teacher had us listen to the radio in class so we can know the gravity of the situation. I appreciate her for that. I also remember everyone being quiet everywhere.

I live in NY and the streets were a ghost town.

Then I remember fighter jets flying by all day.

People later came out with candles.

 

[Bend_The_Knee]

Damn

 

[cosmiccoffee9]

went back and forth between posting this here and not since I don't want to look like I'm promoting my writing on this topic, settled on a spoiler.

tl;dr- I was 12...that day changed society from the bottom up and we still haven't seen the full impact. here's to a brighter future.

Spoiler: 13 to 30

I am 30 years old and September 11, 2001 was my absolute formative experience in life. I was a 13 year old 9th grade student when the events that permanently altered the way our modern society works unfolded to the shock and horror of a global audience.

The psychological scar will never fade, and I run my fingers over it almost every day. The first 12 or so years were fairly unremarkable...a mosaic of little league games, Dragon Ball Z, and Stone Cold Steve Austin. McDonald’s fries. Nerf guns. ****in’ Pokemon.

9/11 was my first real indication that life was unfair on a very basic level...about 4,000 human beings set out on some idle Tuesday, having no earthly idea they had savored their final cup of coffee, seen their last Monday Night Football matchup, would never kiss the ones they loved again.

Good people, bad people, and folks just hoping to get through the day all lost their lives together that morning...their deeds in life had no bearing on the manner of its’ end. It was unexpected, it was unimaginable, it was undeniable.

It was the first time I questioned what it meant to be an American, a German, a Saudi Arabian. Began to consider the circumstances of my birth and pondered whether if I had been born to another set of parents elsewhere on the planet, would I be cheering a well-earned comeuppance instead of reeling from a national tragedy.

Demonstrated that the world was so much bigger than my everyday teenage life.

Obviously it was the day we all lost a bit of our humanity, the latitude to act that has defined and driven The Species.

The Monday before, I could have arrived at an airport half an hour before a flight, got a tour of the cockpit to stoke my youthful pilot fantasies, and flown anywhere in our small world unfettered by the weight of paranoia. By Wednesday, we were well on the way to cameras in every corner, three-hour security processing, and a nauseating fear of our fellow man.

It taught me that you can’t just sweep ill will under the rug...every unhappy human being is one that just might spray hundreds of strangers with bullets from a five-star hotel room, release poison powder into a subway system, or use a commercial jetliner as a missile.

I was fortunate enough not to lose anyone I knew personally that day, but the psychic trauma has impacted many of the decisions I have made over the past two decades or so.

It’s a reason why I force myself to consider an issue from every angle, value the experiences of every possible type of person. It’s a part of why I insist that the needs of every party must be met in order to work toward the sustainable utopia we dream of. It’s the catalyst for my belief in human beings as both monkey and God, with a handful of Sapes fundamentally altering the course of history during the planning and execution of a single horrific initiative.

For better or worse, 9/11 was very likely the most important day of my life because it illustrated indelibly that we as a species can do so much better...and so much worse.

 

[danikerhino]

I live in NY and the streets were a ghost town.

Then I remember fighter jets flying by all day.

People later came out with candles.

That's crazy man. If San Francisco/Oakland was quiet, than I know NYC and DC was silent. It was an eerie feeling, everyone was either in shock or pissed.

 

[fluid hips]

I remember seeing all the white dust on the news thinking it was snow.

 

[getback]

There's a good doc on "the falling man" on Netflix or Amazon Prime. Still one of the most vivid memories I have from 9/11 footage.

 

[wballz]

I remember waking up to this in the west coast.

I was starting my second yr of University. The school had the televisions out all over campus showing the the news coverage. I would hear the brown students ( east indian / punjabi ) saying right away how it's the muslims. You can tell the worry in their faces because they could be profiled as middle eastern as well. They just want to be dissassociated with public enemy # 1 of the 21st century.

My dad was saying right away .... we just entered WW3 and how it may be Sadam behind this.

Then again, my dad worked in the middle east for a decade during the late 80s and early 90s and is well to aware of western and middle eastern conflict.

 

[hand2handking]

 

[nawghtyhare]

For better or worse, 9/11 was very likely the most important day of my life because it illustrated indelibly that we as a species can do so much better...and so much worse.

took 9/11 for u to realize that
the slave trade
didnt give u any indication of that???
hmmm crazy how folk normalize slavery

 

[wayniac211]

 

[cosmiccoffee9]

took 9/11 for u to realize that
the slave trade
didnt give u any indication of that???
hmmm crazy how folk normalize slavery

I accept your callout in the interest of a productive discussion, and will place my reply in another spoiler to keep this thread on topic.

Spoiler: let's speak on it, transplant this post elsewhere if more appropriate

I'll just organize my thoughts real quick so sorry if I ramble.

of course, I knew human beings have the potential to be terrible.

our species has burned libraries on purpose. they used to nail mfs to pieces of wood until they died. once we nuked a goddamn city. wait, twice.

****ed up as our shared history is, at some point in my development I truly believed that we were at least beginning to move past these things.

for reasons I can make really obvious, slavery will never be normalized to me. or trial by ordeal. or ritualistic human sacrifice. or...

I just, at 12 years old, thought that We The Species in 2001 were better than that. I was wrong. I admitted that.

to be completely honest with you, I didn't really perceive racism at full strength in the modern day until Trayvon. I truly realized we had a problem.

the systemic conditions are what they are, but far as I understand it these are all ripple effects from when England took over the world a couple hunnit back.

believe me, I know here and now typing this post that we Sapes have a long way to go.

 

[nawghtyhare]

I accept your callout in the interest of a productive discussion, and will place my reply in another spoiler to keep this thread on topic.

Spoiler: let's speak on it, transplant this post elsewhere if more appropriate

I'll just organize my thoughts real quick so sorry if I ramble.

of course, I knew human beings have the potential to be terrible.

our species has burned libraries on purpose. they used to nail mfs to pieces of wood until they died. once we nuked a goddamn city. wait, twice.

****ed up as our shared history is, at some point in my development I truly believed that we were at least beginning to move past these things.

for reasons I can make really obvious, slavery will never be normalized to me. or trial by ordeal. or ritualistic human sacrifice. or...

I just, at 12 years old, thought that We The Species in 2001 were better than that. I was wrong. I admitted that.

to be completely honest with you, I didn't really perceive racism at full strength in the modern day until Trayvon. I truly realized we had a problem.

the systemic conditions are what they are, but far as I understand it these are all ripple effects from when England took over the world a couple hunnit back.

believe me, I know here and now typing this post that we Sapes have a long way to go.

i get it and understand repped
repped

 

[Bend_The_Knee]

There's a good doc on "the falling man" on Netflix or Amazon Prime. Still one of the most vivid memories I have from 9/11 footage.

They have yet to identify him, right?

 

[Bend_The_Knee]

 

[Bend_The_Knee]

 

[hand2handking]

Swipe left

 

[nawghtyhare]

Swipe left

you've seen the documentary loose change right???

 

[hand2handking]

nah i havent

it talks about conspiracies??

 

[nawghtyhare]

nah i havent

it talks about conspiracies??

it basically put together EVERYTHING
think i first watched it in like 05 or 06
it used to be on youtube and was on netflix i believe
watch it do a quick google search
look for the legit version
and just watch man
puts together EVERYTHING
or at least for sure makes u question EVERYTHING
u thought u knew
or was told

 

[sooperhooper]

I was a freshman in college. I remember everyone thinking gas was gonna go to astronomical prices so the stations were packed. I'm not fully bought into the conspiracies, But I'm 100% certain that the government is hiding something. They probably could've stopped it. We the people basically play the role of pawns.

 

[DB Cooper]

One of the more bone chilling things I remember about this event @ 04:37

 

[nawghtyhare]

One of the more bone chilling things I remember about this event @ 04:37

even how it collapses
it collapses like a planned demolition