NEVER FORGET

[Bizzle McDizzle]

 

[Bizzle McDizzle]

 

[Bizzle McDizzle]

 

[Bizzle McDizzle]

 

[Bizzle McDizzle]

 

[Bizzle McDizzle]

 

[Bizzle McDizzle]

 

[Bizzle McDizzle]

 

[Automattic]

I'm glad this was the first post I saw today. I have so many awesome things to do today, and this helped me slow down and take a minute to think about all the men and women who risk their lives to make all those things possible. Thanks Bizz.

 

[Automattic]

Hey Mods, can we stick this to the top for the weekend?

 

[flyersfan4706]

I was gonna make a thread, but as long as no one forgets it doesnt matter.​

 

[Automattic]

Hey Mods, can we stick this to the top for the weekend?

Tyvm. (Dasher?)

 

[TOX1]

Excellent homage Biz.

Thank you very much.

 

[dash]

Tyvm. (Dasher?)

No problem, Matt...I was working in Seattle on that fateful day. Being three hours behind New York, I awoke to hearing some weird stuff on the radio. I went into work, but they sent us all home (nobody was focused on work, obviously).

 

[Automattic]

I did some roofing jobs for NASA shortly after at the Cape. It took around 3 hours to check in with security and another 3 to check out. It was insane. Made good money for the little time we had to work, though. My wife and I had only been in Florida for about 5 months and we we're wondering if maybe we should move back to the center of the country. Back to our home state, where it's nice and peaceful.

 

[filosofy29]

No problem, Matt...I was working in Seattle on that fateful day. Being three hours behind New York, I awoke to hearing some weird stuff on the radio. I went into work, but they sent us all home (nobody was focused on work, obviously).

I love Canadians. Our brothers to the North.

Great posts/thread Bizz.

 

[Eddie_Shack]

It's shocking to me how the tenor of the country has changed since that fateful day. I guess I have too.

I was about a week out of jail, actually clean and sober for the first time in a while when it happened. I had my alarm set to some random radio station, and I woke up to Howard Stern talking about the first plane hitting. I thought it was some sort of prank, so I shut it off and went back to sleep (I was working second shift so it was tough to wake up before 9:00 or 10:00 AM). My dad ended up calling me, waking me up, and telling me to turn on the news. I turned it on just before the second plane hit. At first people were just thinking it was some sort of horrible accident, then we saw the other plane hit and it sunk in... this was actually an attack on our country.

I was only 18, but I remember feeling amazed at the way we reacted as a people. I didn't have a lot of faith in humanity, and I was kind of expecting the worst out of people. It was a horrible event of course, but I think in the immediate aftermath, the country handled it pretty well. What disappoints me is the way we have been acting as a nation (people and politicians, for while they may be scumbags we're the ones who keep eating their lines of bullshit and voting them back in) AFTER our original reaction.

I know the political battle lines and the division of our country had been going on for a long time before September 11, but it seems that over the last nine years our country has been splitting and polarizing rapidly. Obviously George W. Bush and the hawk sentiment in America had a lot to do with that, and while I disagree with all kinds of different things that he did and said, I will admit that he was put in a very unenviable position.

To have to choose what to do in that situation was not an easy task, and no matter what he chose (go to an all out war, go to covert ops, turn the other cheek, try and "follow the rules" in hunting down men who didn't abide by any national or wartime laws) he was going to be lambasted. Bush had a nasty decision to make, between a rock, a hard place, and whizzing on an electric fence, and I don't believe he was "playing cowboy" as many suspect.

But in those eight years of his presidency, the nine years following September 11, and the year and a half of Obama's term, it really feels like the country is turning on itself. I'm not seeing a lot of compromise, understanding, or attempts to meet halfway on anything.

I understand that no one is ever going to completely agree on any single issue (health care, bailouts, war, government spending, etc) but you would think that with this incident still so fresh in our nation's minds we could be a little more civil about the laws and policies we enact. Instead the news media has been reduced to a kindergarten playground of name calling, fallacious arguments, and extreme hard line view points.

Our two parties refuse to do anything remotely close to a compromise, and the vast majority of our population is duped into believing that "if we just throw these clowns out of office and bring in those other guys, everything will be OK".

Today is a day for us to remember the fallen, to pay respects to those who ran into the disaster area to help while others were running away for their dear lives, and pray for those who lost loved ones.

But it would really make my day if we as a country could somehow remember the unity we had nine years ago and get even halfway back to that point, and realize that just because you don't agree with your neighbor or opposing political party's views doesn't mean that "Party 1" or "Party 2" is trying to flush our country down the toilet. This political polarization in our country is way more dangerous than cheap Chinese labor, illegal immigrants, dependence on foreign oil, or billion dollar bailouts.

If anything good is to come out of this horrible memory, it should be working together to build our country, not fighting for control of it by opposing internal forces.


tl;dr: Quit acting like fucking five year olds, and get along goddammit.

 

[Comeds]

Great post Eddie.

Nice thread Bizzle.

 

[pixburgher66]

thanks for this. too many people have already forgotten. i don't care how many years it has been...we can never forget. i still remember when i first heard the news...it's eerie to think about now. that day was just so heartwrenching...and although my 10 year old self certainly didn't fully understand it, i knew it was a horrible thing happening.

 

[Nasty_Magician]

Aside from the humanity shown with everyone helping one another and risking their lives for one another, how about the fact that there was no looting or anything like that. The city was in chaos, every emergency service was occupied, things could have gotten out of control real easily, but people remained civil. That to me is truly amazing.