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Let us remember.


unclevlad

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I'd completely forgotten the significance of the date, tbh. I suppose being Canadian means it's less imprinted on my mind than it is for most Americans. But I recall that as much as the event saddened me, it didn't really surprise me. I can't recall ever having much of an, "It can't happen here" mentality. Americans had gone so long without a foreign attack on their soil, most had forgotten the possibility was always there.

 

I think what saddens me even more than the loss of life is the degree to which 9/11 traumatized American society. Fear and hatred became open and common, mostly directed at people of Middle Eastern ethnicity and/or Muslim faith. Freedom and legal protection was willingly surrendered in the name of security. The attackers wanted to destroy what America purported to stand for, and they didn't entirely fail.

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I have never really known a world that didn't have 9/11. I was only five at the time. But... It has shaped the cultural mindset in a lot of curious ways. As a people, were are taught and shown, and indoctrinated really to fight Terror. Not a foe you can hit with a sword or a gun or beat up as superheros can. But... The intangible ineffable concept of there being those out there who wish you harm. Real or imagined.

Some of my friends latched onto that hard, and now will staunchly defend every militant action and every dubious prospect in the name of stomping out Terror. Some have fallen away from it, falling into disuse and disrepair as they know their every effort is going to fight a foe made of dust and words, ideas and ideals. Many more have wound up dispassionate and disinterested, because they see this futility and just shrug and go what even is the point? It's left marks. As much as 9/11 impacted the world, so too did the response. 

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3 hours ago, death tribble said:

I'm more concerned for next year and 2026. Somebody might want to celebrate the 20th and 25th anniversaries.

 

That's a worry each time.

 

My opinion, back in the day, was that they should have used the WTC site to build a parking garage or something else mundane and not have a physical memorial of the attack to be a potential target.

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The poignancy for me was the way the morning played out.  At the time, I was a civilian contractor working at White Sands, at the Navy's missile test firing site.  So there I was, about ready to drive out, when NPR is talking about some plane smashing into a building in New York.  Say...what???  WTF!!!! is going on.....  So I didn't start out immediately.  The news unfolded, and of course the shock started.

 

At that point, I knew without doubt I didn't need to go out there.  Test sites aren't needed at that moment.  Thought about not going out...but I felt I needed to.  So I did.

It was almost completely quiet...maybe 10 of us all told, civilians and sailors.  And absolutely nothing going on there.  The sailors, other than a couple tasked to open up our site, were in their barracks, I presume, watching and potentially awaiting orders.  We mostly were watching...so, yeah, I saw the 2nd collapse as it happened.

 

That's what makes 9/11 different from, let's say, the Oklahoma City bombing.  I wasn't following news much at all at that point, so I actually didn't know the bombing had happened for a couple days.  The first time I saw the extent of the damage...THAT was a shock.  But the videos...the 2nd plane in particular flying *straight into* the tower, and then the 2nd tower collapse...raised the emotional impact.  I remember perfectly well that I was just reeling, stunned, and my brain pretty much had shut down as I drove back.  (The bosses up at Navy HQ got confirmation to close it for the rest of the week.)  Mind, I was VERY careful driving back because I knew that.  (Not like it mattered;  no traffic to speak of at all.)  And while shopping.  I remember talking to the check-out people...they knew nothing.

 

And mentally and emotionally, I was mostly numb until at least Thursday night.  

 

Had I not been following everything live, or nearly so, I don't think it would've been the same reaction as, say, learning it at lunch at work (and probably getting little or nothing done the rest of the day).  Or if I found out that night from the news...shock and tears from the massive death toll, anger for the &@#$s that did the attacks...but I doubt it would have lasted as long.  

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