September 11 bekons

[reisen55]

As a member of our community who was a personal representative on the 101st floor of the South Tower, it is time to again remember that time, that day and the lost colleagues I knew at Aon Consulting. Just a note.

[jack c]

I work at a steel mill in Coatesville, PA, where the foundation columns (three-pronged forks) for the WTC were manufacutured. In the photos, these forks were the only thing standing when the towers collapsed. We, in May, brought 17 of these columns back to Coatesville for a local historic society. They are going to display on 9/11 this year in a small ceremony. It was eerie to see 28 trucks convoy these artifacts from JFK airport (where they are stored) down to PA, with flags on the trucks, etc. - some of the drivers did it for just fuel cost. I feel proud to work at the facility who manufactured the only part of WTC that remained standing. I did business with an insurance adjuster on the 101st floor of the north tower. He went to work early, because he wanted to leave early for his daughter's soccer practice (he was a coach) out on Long Island. So he was at his desk early - and died because of it. If you survived, God bless you.

We have the foundation column forks stored for eventual erection as a memorial in Coatesville (recreation of the southwest corner of the south tower). May take a few years, but it will be a worthwhile memorial.

[reisen55]

I was at work in the South tower, 101st floor, early too that morning as I had agreed to assist a homeless woman in the Hoboken train station that morning. She is very sane and needed foot surgery that morning. I felt she could use the trunk of my car to hold her belongings and return it to her later in the day. So down the good samaritan goes, only she decides against the surgery THANK YOU VERY MUCH so there I am, at work, early too. No good deed goes unpunished of course. And this lady, from Hoboken, is watching the towers (where she knows I work) collapse into nothing.

As it was, I walked down immed after North tower was hit and assisted a lady off onto the 78th skylobby - decided against elevators, too crowded there anyway, walked down to 74 where took a break. And there I was, four floors below the impact of the second aircraft (floors 82 to 78, lower wing through 77) that day. As close as I care to be.

Condolences and warm thoughts.

[Mynock]

Holy shit dude. Glad you didn't get tired two floors up.

[bbjohn]

I remember exactly what I was doing when I first learned of the attacks. i was coming off the graveyard shift as a custodian at an elementary school in Arizona. The head custodian saw me and asked if I had seen anything on television that morning. I said I hadn't. He said I should turn on the TV as soon as I got home, as two planes had hit the World Trade Center in New York.

When I turned on the TV and saw the live scenes from New York, I thought, "There's one tower. What happened to the other one?" Then it hit me. When I saw the second tower collapse, it felt like a punch in the gut.

I draw political cartoons for my local paper. My cartoon for the next edition showed a police officer's helmet and a firefighter's helmet lying on the rubble. The caption read, "The True Martyrs."

Once Osama Bin Laden was identified as the culprit, I decided I was going to make him look as ridiculous as possible, and make him an object of ridicule. If you're ever seen the comedies and cartoons from World War II, you know there is a strong American tradition of making our enemies the objects of laughter.

I put a silly propeller on top of Osama's turban. When there was speculation of how he and Mullah Omar, the head of the Taliban, were trying to sneak out of Afghanistan around Christmas 2001, I depicted their efforts. Osama is in a sleigh, wearing a Santa Claus suit. Mullah Omar is hitched up to the front of the sleigh, with antlers attached to his head and a flashing red light bulb attached to his nose. Some American troops are looking at them as if they can't believe those two would actually try this.

"They're no buying it, Osama," Mullah Omar says.

"Ho-ho-ho!" Osama answers. "Shut up and blink your nose, Omar! Ho-ho-ho!"

Don't get me wrong. I would never make light of the events of 9-11. This was a traumatic day in American history, a day that changed all our lives. It needs to be remembered as such, just like Dec. 7, 1941 or Nov. 22, 1963. Our nation was not the same after any of these events. We could never be the same.

I could've become bitter, but I chose not to. I decided to channel my anger into laughing at Bin Laden and his ilk. Laughing at someone helps diminish fear of that person, and gets people to start thinking clearly and realizing he can be beaten. Think about it: what greater insult can you give to a bully like Bin Laden than to laugh at him? As an example, The Three Stooges, who were all sons of Jewish immigrants, regularly made fun of Adolf Hitler during World War II. It was their way of fighting him and the evil he represented.

We need to track Bin Laden and his co-conspirators to the ends of the earth. Until he's caught, however, I'll keep making him an object of ridicule and laughter.

It's my patriotic duty.

Big Bad John

[tempman]

I was at school in the UK at the time. it happened during the bus ride home I believe, and this was before the time that everyone had mobile phones or whatever. Walked home oblivious and saw my family crowded around a TV watching it all unfold. I don't think the 2nd tower had fallen just yet. But that's all I remember. And that the next day my then-girlfriend had a red, white and blue hairband in.
Doesn't really affect me that much since I'm not american so I don't remember everything about it like others do.

Oh and the problem ^ with humour regarding Bin Laden is that it's mostly incorrect and aimed at insulting the Mulsim faith rather than Bin Laden himself. Hitler was easy, most media hyped villains are. However it's a great technique to make something appear scary - make it mysterious. Take away the human form and you have a new type of villain.

[julie]

I was in 6th grade. I remember shortly after that my dad left for Afghanistan, he came back alive and well, with only a couple of hole sin him,he doesn't sleep very good any more, my mom says its just the way he is now, but sometimes he scares me.
And no I ain't scared of everything either, I may be a girl, but I'm a country girl, theres something about my dad that just isn't the same anymore.

[MuddyEddie]

I was in 6th grade. I remember shortly after that my dad left for Afghanistan, he came back alive and well, with only a couple of hole sin him,he doesn't sleep very good any more, my mom says its just the way he is now, but sometimes he scares me.
And no I ain't scared of everything either, I may be a girl, but I'm a country girl, theres something about my dad that just isn't the same anymore.

I feel for you. It sucks that your dad had to go fight for something that he should not have had to fight for in the first place. But to come back a different person is something that no one should have to go through.

Eddie

[water_bug_62208]

Let us ALWAYS remember those we lost that day, and let us ALWAYS remember those who've given their lives since then to protect our freedom!

[LordMuck]

September 11th, 2001:
The thing that I remember is the feeling of total unreality:
This can't be happening; this isn't real.
For a while, it felt like a film adapation of something by Dean Ing or Frederick Forsyth. fiction that is a safe fear because it's unthinkable.
After a while, I realised that it wasn't: Those were real people being murdered; this was a real assault on every human value since the Enlightenment (or the Stone Age).
The deaths, the bereavements, the agonies were real, and for those affected, will never go away.
It was- And is- irrelevant what flag the victims' passports carried, what belief they carried in their hearts. It was more than just an assault on the United States Of America, it was a murder attempt on civilisation itself.
This is no place to discuss the events that followed; we should not judge, cheer, jeer or condemn.
It was an attack on all of us; those who died paid the ultimate price for being members of a civilisation hated by savages.
Remember them. Not with anger or vengeance; there's enough of that rubbish going around.
Just remember them. I do.