9 Years after 9/11

Brian37
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9 Years after 9/11

I was asleep that morning and woke up 30 mins after the last plane hit. Turned on the news and well, all the thoughts others were having I was too. Terrorists, and would this spark a war.

Some days after I ran into a woman who had left NYC and she was telling  me what she had witnessed in person and the fear and look of horror on her face will be burned into my memory.

Later that week I ran into a Muslim woman walking across a parking lot. She was understandably scared when I approached her. The fear in her eyes, was again, something I will never forget. I told her that most Americans did not blame all Muslims for the actions of those of 9/11.

I can't imagine what the people who witnessed it in person went through and the pain of the survivors of the victims. But it certainly was an event that affected all of the world.

I was an atheist before the event, although not very educated as far as what I know now that atheists should know. This event was what caused me to seek out other atheists.

It was a Chicago nurse who had her opinion spread throughout newspapers across the nation through a wire service. This nurse was an atheist and was upset with all the god speak and exclusion of atheists in the mourning process.

This article and the repetition of "freedom" constantly got me motivated to seek out other atheists.

It had frustrated me the days after that people were acting like only Christians had died in those towers. The reality was that all the world's major religions and over 80 nationalities had dead represented in the victims including Muslims and Jews.

It is hard to see good in coming out of such a horrible event. But what I have seen is the much needed dialogue about religion and it's role globally and how it affects humanity.

I have also seen a growing healthy skepticism towards blindly following a political party and or religion. I have also seen pluralism stand up to monochromatic thinking.

We should never forget the human cruelty our species can afflict on each other. But 9/11 should not be seen as something to be remembered as a American or Christian event. Like all the other horrors of mass murder in human history, it should be a reminder to all of humanity what we need to seek to avoid to survive collectively as a species.

We cannot look at one event in human history and use it to play victim forever. Human suffering is the event, not one nation, not one race or religion. It is an event that should remind us what humans should not do to each other.

The date and location of 9/11 being the focus as being special misses the point that humans throughout history are capable of extreme cruelty but are also capable of compassion. 9/11 is ONE of many human horrors and unless we see ourselves as individuals and not labels, more horrors will follow, somewhere in the world.

"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog


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What is unfortunate.....

There are similar 911s occurring across the globe. There is the sentiment that this was indeed an American tragedy that drowns out all others. I recall that Indians held prayer ceremonies to mourn for the victims of 911. However, Americans never did the same when the Bombay terrorist bombings occurred. And oddly enough, most Indians don't seem to hyperinflate their 911 the same way Americans do. Maybe they should? I don't know. All the 911s were terrible events and I agree that there needs to be some critical introspection among theists (muslims in particular) that faith can lead to hate.

Unfortunately the sequelae of the American 911 has IMO has polarized religions and intensified hatred. Would it not be better to leave the event behind in the shadows and people just move on?


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I was working on a military

I was working on a military ship in Mobile, Al. The first plane hit and calls from families trickled in to co-workers. With in minutes we evacuated the vessel. I drove strait home and saw the collapse live. Many have said that it took longer to determine that it was terrorist, however or military jumped the gun early.
It is important to remember what happened that day. I agree that it has been turned into a Christian issue, it's a world wide issue not American. Remember the name of the building "World trade center" not Christian trade center. Employee in that building represented nation across the world.
Brian this is a great post for today.

Throughout human history as our species has faced the frighten terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are and where we are going; it has been the authority (the political, the religious, and the educational authorities) who have attempted to comfort us. By giving us order, rules, and regulation. Informing or forming in our minds their view of reality. To think for yourself you must question these authorities. THINK FOR YOURSELF…


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My wife and I were both

My wife and I were both working downtown that day...

 

All I'll say is that 9 years later, there is still a giant hole in the ground, and most of America can tell you more about Snookie than they could about the events of 9/11.


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......

The most overlooked fact in this whole thing is that it wasn't the first attack on the WTC, neither was it the first molsem attack on non-moslem interests.

 

Of all the religions/cults, islam is by far the most insidious and harmful.

 

The more people talk about islam the more likely we are to see a 'waking up' of the general populace.

How can not believing in something that is backed up with no empirical evidence be less scientific than believing in something that not only has no empirical evidence but actually goes against the laws of the universe and in many cases actually contradicts itself? - Ricky Gervais


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Abu Lahab wrote:The most

Abu Lahab wrote:

The most overlooked fact in this whole thing is that it wasn't the first attack on the WTC, neither was it the first molsem attack on non-moslem interests.

 

Of all the religions/cults, islam is by far the most insidious and harmful.

 

The more people talk about islam the more likely we are to see a 'waking up' of the general populace.

It is as much time in history as it is a particular religion. You are not going to wipe out the beliefs of billions of people anymore than Islam can wipe out the west, short of a nuclear war, which most humans do not want.

You can blast Islam as you rightfully should, but Islam has not had it's own age of enlightenment like the west has had for the past 200 years.  They need their own Jefferson and Paine. But I don't think it does any good for any human to imply force to make change. I think the only rational thing the west can do is debate, blaspheme and ridicule. But pluralism will exist and is the only pragmatic way to lead.

 

"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog


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Brian37 wrote:Abu Lahab

Brian37 wrote:

Abu Lahab wrote:

The most overlooked fact in this whole thing is that it wasn't the first attack on the WTC, neither was it the first molsem attack on non-moslem interests.

 

Of all the religions/cults, islam is by far the most insidious and harmful.

 

The more people talk about islam the more likely we are to see a 'waking up' of the general populace.

It is as much time in history as it is a particular religion. You are not going to wipe out the beliefs of billions of people anymore than Islam can wipe out the west, short of a nuclear war, which most humans do not want.

You can blast Islam as you rightfully should, but Islam has not had it's own age of enlightenment like the west has had for the past 200 years.  They need their own Jefferson and Paine. But I don't think it does any good for any human to imply force to make change. I think the only rational thing the west can do is debate, blaspheme and ridicule. But pluralism will exist and is the only pragmatic way to lead.

 

 

Agreed Brian, but before you can get to Jefferson or Paine, Islam needs a Martin Luther to introduce the concept of methaphoric scripture... I was hoping that it would have been Imam Rauf... yet another dissapointment...


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 And I was on my way to

 

And I was on my way to work that morning. As usual, I stopped at my favorite deli (two guys from Manhattan who retired from there and moved to SW CT to run a lower key Italian deli) to get my usual breakfast. Two eggs over easy, thick slices of grilled Virginia ham and provolone on a hard roll. Don't bother asking me why I can remember what I had for breakfast nine years ago today. It just works like that.

 

When I got there, they had the radio on and they said that an airplane had just hit the WTC. I remember commenting that a bomber had hit the Empire State building back in WW2.

 

Anyway, ten minutes later, I was at work and the normal morning meeting had been canceled so that everyone could gather around the very large TV to watch the news. I got there shortly before the second plane hit. Normally, I don't get into woo stuff like telepathy but at that moment, it felt as if the whole room had the exact same thought. My version was “Shit! We know what this means!”.

 

I had recently turned my previous post over to a new co-worker but she had an uncle who was employed as a janitor, so she was pretty useless. I jumped back in to do what had to happen. Then I heard about the Pentagon. At the time, my father lived as close to there as is possible to live. I spent the next few hours trying to call him to see if he was safe. Of course, since the phone lines from here to there ran through the WTC, I could not get a circuit.

 

I finally remembered that he also had a satellite phone, so I called that even though I was sure that he was not traveling that week. That got through. He told me that he had felt the impact but that he thought it was a truck hitting a bridge nearby. Apparently, truck hit that bridge fairly oten and at highway speeds.

 

Once I was able to close my office down for the day, I went outside to sit with the coworker who I had subbed for. While we were there, a whole fleet of buses ran down the street at about twice the normal speed limit, which did not matter because as it turned out, the police knew they were making the run to the train station and they had the whole route blocked. They did that because we have the closest huge trauma center apart from the ones actually in the city proper.

 

A couple of days later, while the no fly rule was still in effect, I was outdoors when a pair of some type of fighter passed overhead at not more than a couple hundred feet above the ground. Man, that is fucking a sight to see. If someone lives where there is a real war, they must have to deal with that many times a day. Forget speaking to anyone for a few seconds because that sound is louder than any bar band.

 

Then, because we are so close to Manhattan, it took a few months for the local newspaper to run the obits.

 

When my maternal grandmother was alive, she used to tell me that she remembered the full course of Pearl Harbor day and that I should thank my lucky stars that I would never have to live through a day like that. She was 44 then and I was 38 for my day of infamy. Wow! Only six years difference.

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heh there are no days of

heh there are no days of infamy over here. Supose thats a good thing. Then again Pretty much every day is a day of infamy over here with aids.

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Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
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No animal shall drink alcohol.
No animal shall kill any other animal.
All animals are equal.


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First of all, fantastic post

First of all, fantastic post Brian.

The day it happened I was pulling into my work parking lot. I was listening to the Mancow radio show (think Howard Stern or Bubba the love sponge) and I thought the first plane hitting one of the towers was a joke ~ The station was often pulling pranks with mixed tomfoolery ~ I smiled, shook my head and headed into my office.

I was getting settled and many of my office mates came in looking terrified and talking about a plane crashing into one of the twin towers. By the time each of them took their seat, we got word that a second plane crashed into the other tower ~ then came the day long TV coverage in our bosses office that many stayed glued to the entire day.

Many of my distributors were from the East Coast so I spent the morning calling them to find out what was going on ~ many of their offices closed within the hour ~ people were scared.

I felt confused , I kept thinking to myself...If a person wanted to "destroy the US economy" why crash a plane into a couple of buildings, what was that going to do?? Do these people think that the whole of America centered around these buildings? Of course we all now know the buildings collapsed killing so many ~

What a sad event leaving 3,000 people dead. The loss felt by those families, the fear placed in the minds of so many across the world~  Not to be forgotten but hopefully learned from.

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Brian37
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Renee Obsidianwords

Renee Obsidianwords wrote:

First of all, fantastic post Brian.

The day it happened I was pulling into my work parking lot. I was listening to the Mancow radio show (think Howard Stern or Bubba the love sponge) and I thought the first plane hitting one of the towers was a joke ~ The station was often pulling pranks with mixed tomfoolery ~ I smiled, shook my head and headed into my office.

I was getting settled and many of my office mates came in looking terrified and talking about a plane crashing into one of the twin towers. By the time each of them took their seat, we got word that a second plane crashed into the other tower ~ then came the day long TV coverage in our bosses office that many stayed glued to the entire day.

Many of my distributors were from the East Coast so I spent the morning calling them to find out what was going on ~ many of their offices closed within the hour ~ people were scared.

I felt confused , I kept thinking to myself...If a person wanted to "destroy the US economy" why crash a plane into a couple of buildings, what was that going to do?? Do these people think that the whole of America centered around these buildings? Of course we all now know the buildings collapsed killing so many ~

What a sad event leaving 3,000 people dead. The loss felt by those families, the fear placed in the minds of so many across the world~  Not to be forgotten but hopefully learned from.

It didn't destroy our economy, I think big business is doing a good job by itself. But the kneejerk reaction to it gave Bush card blanch to screw up our economy worse by spreading ourselves too thin, by not taking in account the topography that the Russians had in that same country, and by using it as an excuse to finish what his dad should have and could have finish the first time.

It hurt our economy because the emotional reaction to it caused our leaders to lack pragmatism in dealing with it. The easiest way to drive a car off the cliff is to sell a utopia.

"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog