DEBATES: Life Since Sept. 11 (very revealing comments)

New York Times ^ | June 1 2002 | NYT readers

[abner]

Ya. You betcha'.

Sorry about the double post. The laptop is super sensitive.

[abner]

My dad lives here on the Mississippi river. He mentioned to me as we were boating down the river today that he is very disappointed that there aren't more flags out. Here on his stretch of river, there are maybe three out on the river. Including his. But hey, he hands out 8x10 glossies of my balloon to perfect strangers. When he hands them out, the reception is great. I think Minnesotans are just a little quieter in their patriotic fervor.

[terilyn]

I'm curious to know where you were in Minnesota. There is a vast difference if you are in the "Heart of Darkness, (evil)" aka Minneapolis, vs rural & suburban Minnesota. The day after 9-11 the custodians in my daughters' high school made sure there was a flag flying in every classroom and on every school bus.

My daughters, (17 & 18), both went and purchased flag stickers for their cars as did most of their friends. Two people in our neighborhood had huge American flags painted on their garage doors and most of the rest still fly their flags every day. We still have American flags on a lot of the bridge overpasses and out of the 70 people in my office, at least half have a flag at their desk. Several still wear their flag lapel pins every day.

Maybe we just live in a great part of the state? I haven't traveled much of it since 9-11. But, if you were in Minneapolis itself, I'm not surprised.

[abner]

I'm in Champlin. Right next to Anoka.

[terilyn]

I'm in Mound. The school buses are still flying the flags. It is strange out here though. During the winter choir concert they performed the Alleluia Choir, Silent Night, and The Little Drummer Boy. During graduation last year the valedictorian and saluditorian both thanked God for their accomplishments. The choir performed a rendition from Sister Act, "You've got to have G-O-D". Nobody complains, nobody files a lawsuit, everybody enjoys it.

Please don't turn us in LOL! It's a nice little place to live.

[abner]

Please don't turn us in LOL! It's a nice little place to live.

I promise I won't.

[terilyn]

Whew! ;)

[Valin]

Yesterday, I'm in a bookstore and there sits a coffeetable book of photographs on 9/11. I started to look through it...I had to put it down as I started to get angry all over again and it was to nice of a day to be getting pissed off all over again. Put my rage back in its box and save it for another day.

[Our man in washington]

I certainly feel badly for all the people who lost loved ones.

But I wish a few more people had said something along the lines of "I'm angry what these people did to us. And I'm going to help fight back!" If people are too old or can't join the military for some other reason, there are many ways they can still help the country fight back. They can encourage young people to join the military. They can write letters of support to members of the military fighting overseas.

September 11th wasn't a tragedy like an earthquake or a tornado. It was an act of war, and people need to remember that.