Never Forget

Never forget 9/11, but just as importantly, never forget what life was like before that dreadful day.

The world before was a much better place. No one will ever convince me otherwise. So much has been taken from us since.

f v c k islam

URGatorBait said:

In talking with some people, it is amazing what kids today, born after 9/11, AREN'T being taught about it.
We should never forget what happened that day, nor should future generations.

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That is very sad. It is probably out of fear of a backlash against Muslims.

My child came home yesterday and her history teacher in 7th grade did his lesson on 9-11 and showed them a video. She said he told them they could never really understand what happened that day unless they saw it happening live.

g8tr72 said:

There are my thoughts I posted back in 2014.

I will never forget the horror of that morning, watching a live TV feed as the second plane hit the second tower. Suddenly, all at once, I felt an complex emotion of great grief and sorrow with an intense sense of anger and the clear mission to protect my family from an uncertain and unseen enemy.

I will never forget the admiration I felt for the firefighters, who were running into what everyone else was running from. A sense of appreciation came over me with a tremendous burden to pray for them.

I will never forget the utter shock seen in the faces of the people in the streets of NYC, realizing that what they were witnessing was even worse than it appears on my TV screen.

I will never forget looking into the face of my dad, the eyes that I looked to my whole life for protection and confidence, and seeing initial uncertainty in this unprecedented moment. I remember thinking that this is probably what my kids are seeing in my eyes too. I will never forget talking with him through this moment, saying so much to each other in a very few but well chosen words that gave me confidence and resolve to stay strong.

I will never forget the feeling of hopelessness as I watched that first tower collapse, realizing that hundreds of people who were clinging to hope of a rescue, were now gone, in addition to the heroes who had responded to their aid.

I will never forget the realization as that day developed that our lives, and the lives of future generations would never be the same, changed forever by this infamous attack on our homeland.

I will never forget gathering around the TV that afternoon, holding my wife's hand and with little arms around my neck - both a little tighter than normal - as we watched the news develop before our eyes, realizing that I have so much to be thankful for and most of it was in the room with me at that moment.

I will never forget my 5 year old, looking curiously in my face at something he'd rarely seen, as tears of sadness flowed freely down my checks as I reflected on the thousands of lives and families forever altered in that instant of terrorist insanity.

I will never forget seeing the President a few days later, standing in the Oval Office fighting back tears, chin quivering with emotion as he spoke briefly to reporters, realizing how much of a burden he must feel at this moment. Seeing his emotion reminded my that he was a father before he was a president, and he had some of the same emotions I had about my family, and many more. I will never forget praying for him for strength and wisdom to guide our country, no matter my disagreements with his politics.

I will never forget tucking my sons into bed that night, lingering a little longer than normal, reflecting that hundreds of kids would never get have that experience ever again.

I will never forget September 11, 2001.

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Bravo and amen.

My ship left homeport the day before, heading for a drug ops patrol. We were turned around to head back and secure homeport (Honolulu... yep, tough duty). When we got back within TV antenna range, we saw the towers before they collapsed. It was surreal.

Never forget.

Yes never forget, but also never forget that our enemies want us to suffer, so please remember to put the attack in perspective. They enjoy when the media says it changed us and our country, that was their intent. Now this might be unpopular but the impact on our total country was not that great, surely less than say Pearl Harbor. We unfortunately have terrorist attacks frequently, having freedom means evil and mentally unstable people can do harm, sometimes a lot of harm.

ChiefGator said:

Now this might be unpopular but the impact on our total country was not that great, surely less than say Pearl Harbor.

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By what measurement do you base this opinion? Monetarily? Total American lives lost? Freedoms "lost?"

ufgator812 said:

f v c k islam

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My sentiments exactly. Never forget.

ChiefGator said:

Yes never forget, but also never forget that our enemies want us to suffer, so please remember to put the attack in perspective. They enjoy when the media says it changed us and our country, that was their intent. Now this might be unpopular but the impact on our total country was not that great, surely less than say Pearl Harbor. We unfortunately have terrorist attacks frequently, having freedom means evil and mentally unstable people can do harm, sometimes a lot of harm.

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That's just absurd.

Remember, remember the 11th of September
Suicide demons' dark plot
We see no reasons
Why suicide demons'
Evil should ever be forgot

Remember, remember the 11th of September
Murderous monsters in flight
Reject their dark game
And let Liberty's flame
Burn prouder and ever more bright

Remember, remember the 11th of September
When madness and malice took wing
Face darkness and fear
With this memory clear
And everywhere let Freedom ring!

g8tr72 said:

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I have that picture and treasure it

BMF said:

It's always interesting to me to read others thoughts/comments on this subject.

For those that don't know, I'm a retired firefighter and was in the reserves at the time. I got off work that morning, went home to take a nap and woke up to a friend calling telling me to turn the tv on. In 2005 I got another phone call telling me to pack my sh*t and I ended up in the Middle East for almost a year doing port security mission (mostly in Kuwait, thankfully). I can honestly say, in my 'line of work', 9/11 had a huge impact on my life; 343 FDNY brothers & sisters died that day, and I got deployed as a reservist. I have 9 months left on active duty military until I retire. It will be a bittersweet day, but I know I did my part. This is a great country and I hope all of us would rise up again if it's ever attacked like it was that day in 2001.

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Thank you for your service!

stephenPE said:

My child came home yesterday and her history teacher in 7th grade did his lesson on 9-11 and showed them a video. She said he told them they could never really understand what happened that day unless they saw it happening live.

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My wife is teaching this with the videos today and tomorrow to her 7th grade class. The emotional days of the year for her as a teacher, but they need to understand how it affected the country as a whole and why all of us still remember what we were doing at that exact moment.

soflagator said:

Wow.

I hadn't seen it from the air until about a year later, flying into LGA. Having come to know that skyline from when I was a kid, it seemed so strange. All these lights and construction, and no towers--just a giant pit. Couldn't wrap my head around it.

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We were in NYC in November that year and went downtown to Ground Zero. That’s a smell that I will never forget.

Something else I’ll never forget is how EVERYONE in this country came together. Black, white, brown, gay, straight, trans, Democrat, Republican...it didn’t matter. I miss that.

It changed everything. The very definition of an existential threat. Unlike Pearl Harbor this wasn't an attack on a military target over a trade disagreement. It was an attack on civilians against our way of life by an enemy who doesn't care whose children die, ours OR theirs. An enemy who wouldn't think twice about using WMDs if they had them.
That day we watched the towers get hit huddled around a TV at work. I called the wife, we collected the children and met at home wondering where we would go if they went after targets closer to home. Nothing drove home the point more that many in the world outside the west do not think like we do and will do anything to destroy us. They have no desire to hold hands and sing kumbaya.

ThreatMatrix said:

Nothing drove home the point more that many in the world outside the west do not think like we do and will do anything to destroy us. They have no desire to hold hands and sing kumbaya.

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Great post and my apologies for only quoting the short part above, but it was to me the most important part. As we get further and further away from 9/11, fewer and fewer of our fellow citizens truly grasp the truth of your words.
In the early to mid 90s, I lived in Cyprus and traveled extensively throughout Jordan, Syria, Israel, and to a lesser extent Lebanon. And while I certainly never imagined such an attack, I had no illusions about how many Muslims in that part of the world felt about the west. Any hopes of living together in peace and harmony are ridiculously naive. Too many of them hate us & believe we must convert or die. And MANY of them, including some in this country, celebrated that day.

I remember being in my freshman english class, the teacher was a woman I had known my whole life. The school had an all call to turn on the tv's, no explanation, but it was after the first plane hit. We got the TV on only a few minutes before the second plane hit. A detail of that classroom I will never forget is the girl next to me crying hysterically. Most of us thought it was because of typical teenage girl emotions and being somewhat overdramatic. We would learn the next day that her brother worked in one of the towers, but luckily was not inside the building when it was hit and fell.

In my initial college experience I had to watch one of I think 5 or 6 videos for my history class and one was on 9/11, which I watched. There were some things that I didn't know before the video that have always stuck with me since. Call it providence, call it God, call it design, or call it ridiculous happenstance, but the death toll on 9/11 was a lot less than it could of been and I'm not saying that to minimize the tragedy. I'm talking pure numbers. Many people know that the section of the Pentagon that was hit was very minimally occupied because it had just gone through a renovation project. What many outside of New York, and possibly inside don't remember or know is that September 11 was near the beginning of the school year, between either the first or fourth day of school. In the first few days of school many parents take extra care to take their kids to school. This causes extra traffic and crowding delaying people on their way to work (sure would delay me when I was working in Orlando). Also, there was a major primary that day. Obviously, people would be out voting and would hear the news as the first plane hit before 9 a.m. If I remember right, the towers accommodated over 50,000 workers daily, not including tourists and others. The fact that the total death toll of that day was only around 3,000 is a miracle. Again, I'm not trying to minimize the horror of 9/11, but to show something was looking over America that day. Could you imagine if the flights hijacked were midday flights?

Both Mark Wahlberg and Seth McFarlane were supposed to be on hijacked flights. I think a sprained ankle saved Jackie Chan from a shoot that had he not been injured was scheduled previous to be done at the towers for 9/11. It's just interesting some of the things with 9/11.

Side Note: in my wife's first teaching experience a little boy in the class she was long term subbing for came up to her and said "Mrs. ______, my name is Vito and I was born in New York City on September 11, 2001." Happy 18th birthday Vito, wherever you are.

Oh, and F "9/11 Truthers".

Sorry about the length.

I was in Turlington Hall sitting in one of the classrooms listening to an assistant professor lecture. At some point at the beginning of class one of the other students made reference to hearing about a plane crashing in NYC. When class ended the 20 or so of us in the room walked out into the Turlington courtyard to find campus completely deserted. I called my girlfriend from my cell phone and asked what was going on, there’s no one on campus. She just said campus is closed, you need to come home. I asked her what was going on, and she wouldn’t tell me, just said please come home.

Walking through campus and back to our apartment was about the most lonely feeling I have ever had. It was like being in a ghost town. When I got home my girlfriend and two of her friends were on her bed watching the TV and crying hysterically. I asked what’s wrong, what’s going on. She just pointed to the TV. I turned and looked, and saw for the first time what all of us will always remember.

My life was not directly impacted that day. I didn’t lose any loved ones, and I never served, but I will forever mourn for those that did suffer loss and be grateful for those who took a stand. God bless.

Was on my way to national security policy when a friend walked by saying we were under attack. Our teacher was supposedly formerly in the CIA and the week before said don’t be surprised if we are attacked in the near future. Said we know they are planning but not sure how or where.

It was a little school in the middle of Georgia and all the local papers were there to interview him as we watched. Later all of our group huddled around the old TV to listen to the address.

Most were in lines for hours to give blood or drive to other towns to donate. This one while not directly affected got me as just one week prior one of my best friends had taken their own life.

The aftermath of Americans coming together was something to see. I still can’t watch the Bud add without tearing up.

On a side note the same teacher said don’t be surprised if where at war when you come to class next week right before we started bombing.