Ten years ago... does that mean we can move on & stop bombing the Middle East, groping children in airports and detaining human beings indefinitely in off-shore prisons?

Last edited by dirufacade (09-08-2011 04:45:56 AM)

dirufacade wrote:

Ten years ago... does that mean we can move on & stop bombing the Middle East, groping children in airports and detaining human beings indefinitely in off-shore prisons?

Of course not.  Even after ten years, we must remember the lessons of 9/11, which unfortunately seem to include a seminar on how national security requires unitary executive power, a lecture series about the necessity of treating everyone in an airport (and sometimes out of an airport) as a potential terrorist until proven otherwise, and a workshop on occupying hostile foreign nations.

But with that said, and in the spirit of the original post, I think it's kinder -- on the tenth anniversary of a national tragedy -- to focus on the silver linings.  The mishandling of 9/11's aftermath does not diminish the heroism of the first responders, nor the courage of the folks on Flight 93.  Personally, I remember my high school teachers.  I was a senior waiting for my civics class to start when I got called across the hall to watch the newscast.  The teachers were all as amazed and stunned as the students, of course.  As it became clear that we were watching a terrorist attack in progress, instructions came from the principal's office instructing us to shut off the TVs and get on with the school day.  The teachers quietly did the right thing: the TVs stayed on, and the grown-ups and the kids experienced side-by-side the incoming news reports on the events that, however unfortunately, would define the next decade of American history.  I don't know whether our teachers were wondering to themselves whether we were mature enough to handle what we were seeing.  I suspect some of them may have been wondering whether they themselves were mature enough to handle it.  Some of them, I expect, wanted to go home and be with their loved ones -- though I think for that first day, most of us were more fascinated than afraid.  The fear mostly came later.  But our teachers all did their professional duties: they gave their students the opportunity to learn, while doing what they could to help us feel safe.  I wonder how it was at other schools.

I mean, remember bin Laden's stated goal: 

""We are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great for Allah," bin Laden said in the transcript.

He said the mujahedeen fighters did the same thing to the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s, "using guerrilla warfare and the war of attrition to fight tyrannical superpowers."

"We, alongside the mujahedeen, bled Russia for 10 years until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat," bin Laden said.

He also said al Qaeda has found it "easy for us to provoke and bait this administration."

"All that we have to do is to send two mujahedeen to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al Qaeda, in order to make generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic and political losses without their achieving anything of note other than some benefits for their private corporations," bin Laden said.

(Source:  http://articles.cnn.com/2004-11-01/worl … sM:WORLD )

This horrible tragedy changed the world forever by marking the beginning of War Against Terrorism and taking everyday fear to a new level.

Terrorists wanted to make the USA weaker. It's beyond madness that the USA has now made herself weak by spending billions of dollars in pointless wars, causing only more suffering to her own people and also to the people of Afghanistan (where many citizens have never even heard about 9/11) and in Iraq (CIA has confirmed that no WMD was found there).

I just hope that the troops shall come home soon and the whole truth about 9/11 shall be revealed. Americans, your government owes you that. You have suffered unduly. Remember this when you vote next year.

satyreyes wrote:

I wonder how it was at other schools.

I was a sophomore, and was actually late to class. I was wandering the hallways and wondering why it was so damned quiet. That class was one of the most unruly that I had that year, and I couldn't hear them outside the door, which was unusual. When I walked in, everyone was in their desks, rigid and quiet -never happened for that woman ever again- and staring at the screen. I had to turn, and it was just in time to watch the second plane hit. Eerie.

I never noticed the reactions of my teachers, satyr, but what did register with me at the time was that my school had a LOT of transplanted New Yorkers. And that my uncle and his son worked in an office building about six blocks away (they were, quite thankfully, in Chicago at the time). What I remember most vividly was sitting in my debate class, watching the coverage, and that about every ten minutes, our principle would get on the intercom and read out the list of students whose parents came to pick them up. There were so many people leaving that they didn't bother with direct to class, and just did an all call. I was in the halls again during a class period and one of those all-calls came across, and I could just hear names echoing off empty lockers and walls. My school had never been -and would never be- so quiet again. I think more than anything that's what registers with me about that day -how much silence there was.





And for those who spend the day with mockery -no ill will, and make sure you check out Regretsy. They've had some great posts about terrible memorial crafts.

Last edited by MissMocha (09-11-2011 08:58:17 AM)

OnlyInThisLight wrote:

Later in college we watched a memorial in my Police In American Society class, and I actaully saw the footage of the planes making impact, saw people leap from the building and hit the ground stories below, saw the dust and ash clouds sweep through the streets and force people back inside, saw strangers crying in sympathy, saw people break down because someone they knew worked in the Trade Center.  I was not personally affected by 9/11 in that I lost someone I loved or have had to watch someone I know or care about deal with loss resulting from the attacks, but after watching that I could never find solace in humor over it, even though for many I know it's a legitimate way to deal with shock or pain and it's more taking the mickey out on the uber-patriotic and self-righteous morons that unintentionally help further whatever agenda was behind the attacks than it is laughing at real people's pain and suffering.

For me, moving on doesn't mean forgetting or no longer feeling sadness, it's about letting go of the anger associated with those attacks, being able to deal with those emotions in a way that does not blind me and cause me to lash out or hurt other people or groups of people, as an individual and as a society.  I think as long as people are not trolling victim's or their families or memorials with lolzy images, mocking their genuine suffering or just generally being inconsiderate then the jokes and stuff are helping do just that.

I think I feel the same, OITL; I didn't know anyone who'd been affected by by 9/11 but I couldn't joke about what happened, in any way, some other people could. I use morbid humor to deal with some of the problems I experience, but with 9/11, I was so completely shocked and horrified every time I saw footage of the towers falling...and somehow, my sense of humor as a coping mechanism, or my sarcasm, didn't apply. When the attack happened I was 13. I was in middle school, in shop class, and my teacher turned on the TV and we saw the news...and I saw the footage of the attack for the first time. Everyone was really quiet, we all stopped working and went back to our seats and just -stared- at the TV. I don't remember changing classes or walking through the hallway or seeing the reactions of my teachers, but I remember feeling like I was frozen in my seat, like that moment was frozen in time, and for a minute, I couldn't believe what was happening. It didn't feel real until I got home and learned about Flight 93--that the plane had crashed in my state--and I became terrified that my dad was going to die, because he worked in Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh was a city with tall buildings and lots of people and oh god, what if they attack Pittsburgh and my dad dies? I called him, begging him to come home early, to get out of the city as soon as he could, but he told me everything was okay and he'd be okay; when he did get home, I ran to him, crying hysterically. My family spent a long time watching nothing but CNN, seeing that attack footage over and over as New York was consumed in smoke and ash, people running for their lives, people plummeting from the Twin Towers onto the pavement below--we watched what we felt was the destruction of a whole city. And even though I was young and had no personal connection to the tragedy, I felt terrified, like there was absolutely nowhere on earth I could really be safe, for maybe the first time. It wasn't until I got older that I understood the significance and the sacrifice of the passengers on Flight 93 and why they were considered heroes. And I'm thankful for the sacrifices those passengers made. I can't imagine the kind of bravery and compassion it would take to willingly lay down one's life for the sake of others, or for one's country--for people you don't know personally, but you want to try to save anyway. I don't know if I know anyone who could have done what the passengers on Flight 93 did. It's sad that, since 9/11, all kinds of prejudices have emerged and that individuals who had nothing to do with the tragedy are being discriminated against. It's sad that fear has taken over the hearts and minds of so many people. But I think that what happened on flight 93 proved that individuals have the capacity for great amounts of selflessness and bravery too, and that fear can't completely control a person. That in the midst of the darkest, most horrible things a person can ever experience, one still has the ability to choose--even though someone may be terrified, that fear doesn't have to break them.

satyreyes wrote:

I see Flight 93 differently, I guess, from how most people see it.  Rushing the cockpit must have taken a hell of a lot of bravery.  But above and beyond that, I don't see it as an act of selflessness, but as one of optimism.  Those passengers had gotten the news of the other planes through their cell phones; they knew they were dead if they did nothing.  Fighting back wasn't an act of sacrifice -- they had nothing left to lose! -- but one of hope.  Maybe if they could take the cockpit, they could beat the odds and land the plane.  If nothing else, they would foil whatever plot the plane was a part of.  They chose the tough option that might get them killed over the easy way out that would certainly get them killed. 

America makes difficult choices based on the spirit of optimism, in the belief that we have agency over our own fate and that the best of all possible worlds is attainable if we act right.  Sometimes this is a character flaw; other times it leads us to great things.  The passengers of Flight 93 are heroes, not because of a "sacrifice" that didn't really cost them anything compared to the alternative, but because they embodied that optimism at its best.

I didn't know that the people on Flight 93 knew about the other planes, and I get your point, Satyr, but I still consider what the passengers of flight 93 did as sacrificial. I'm saying that they were magical jesus-like beings, but, as you point out the could have done nothing and died anyway. They could have let that plane fly to D.C. and crash. If this had happened, if they didn't fight back, I wouldn't consider them brave; I wouldn't think that they made sacrifices. When I say that the passengers made sacrifice, I don't just mean that they gave up their lives--even though I said that in my previous post--I mean that they gave up their selfishness, as far as I understand, and they exchanged that for bravery. They could have cried and yelled and screamed and begged the terrorists for their lives, offered the lives of others in trade for their own (to make a reference to The Dark Knight, they could have "blown up the other boat" so to speak). None of this would have helped--and I think the passengers knew that--so they made a decision. They decided to stay as calm as they could and fight back. They decided to overpower their captors. Maybe "sacrifice" isn't the best word for it, but what I think they gave up was their selfishness--their own desires to try to protect themselves over protecting others. They pushed past their fears. They pushed past very strong emotions and chose to act in a way that would ensure them going out in the best possible way that they could, that their deaths would mean something. I don't know if I'd be able to hold it together, if I was in such a situation, and -not- let my captors win. They did have something to lose; maybe it wasn't their own lives, but they had a country, one that the evidently loved enough to protect with their lives, which would very likely have been even more devastated if they didn't choose to fight back. So maybe I mean "sacrifice" in a positive sense? Letting go or pushing past emotions like fear seem like a loss of something to me...but in a positive sense; it's a difficult, but healthy kind of losing or pushing past, they gained bravery. And that bravery spared our country of what could have been more tragedy, and made those passengers heroes. (I am in a rarely positive mood today. It's strange.) I think that -every- emotion one pushed past or lets go of creates a kind of loss in that person; it creates a void that can be filled with other emotions, "positive" or "negative". Sometimes the losses can be negative (like losing your self-confidence or independence) and cause negative actions, but sometimes the losses can be positive (like losing or letting go of fear or anger and therefore being able to move on). But it's still an absence of an emotion, or at the very least, a change.