Posted on 09/10/2011 1:42:48 PM PDT by NYer
People are discussing the geopolitical implications of 9/11 and how the tragedy changed our country, and most of what's been said has been worthy and serious. But my thoughts, as we hit the 10th anniversary, are more local and particular. I'm in a New York state of mind.
There were two targets, Washington and New York. Washington saw a great military institution attacked, and quickly rebuilt. In Washington people ran barefoot from the White House and the Capitol.
But New York saw a world end. New York saw the buildings come down.
That was the thing. It's not that the towers were hit—we could have taken that. It's not the fire, we could have taken that too. They bombed the World Trade Center in 1993 and took out five floors, and the next day we were back in business.
It's that the buildings came down, in front of our eyes. They were there and proud and strong, they were massive, two pillars at the end of the island. And then they groaned to the ground and there was a cloud and when people could finally see they looked back and the buildings weren't there breaking through the clouds anymore. The buildings were a cloud. The buildings were gone and that was too much to bear because they couldn't be gone, they couldn't have fallen. Because no one could knock down those buildings.
And it changed everything. It marked a psychic shift in our town between "safe" and "not safe." It marked the end of impregnable America and began an age of vulnerability. It marked the end of "we are protected" and the beginning of something else.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Forget? Maybe.
Forgive? NEVER!
Thank you for the pic....lest we forget. I know I never will. I still get angry.
An editorial in this past week’s Washington Post suggested we should forget 9-11.
Tragedy?
TRAGEDY?
Jamie Gorelick
“It marked the end of impregnable America and began an age of vulnerability.”
Maybe it was just me, or maybe not, but the America I remember before 2001 had been 10 years out of a long period of being targeted by Soviet missiles, and never invulnerable. Strong enough to go to the brink of nuclear war with the only other superpower at that....and now, after a decade, total incompetence and weakness in the form of Obama...
"The buildings were gone and that was too much to bear because they couldn't be gone, they couldn't have fallen. Because no one could knock down those buildings."
For months, maybe a year, I would look in the direction--no, stare intently--in the direction of lower Manhattan from the NJ Turnpike on my way to and from work. It was still inconceivable that those massive buildings were gone.
Whenever I watch a movie that takes place in NYC, I always look for the towers. We were at the top of the WTC in 1985, and it was glorious.
December 7, 1941, 60 years have past since Pearl Harbor and we who honor our country have not forgotten! Especially those of us who had parents fight in WW11. My dad fought in the Pacific under MacArthur.
Where were you when the world stopped turning?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW8puRqE4Sc
We were coming out of a Cracker Barrel just having had breakfast, heading home to Memphis, after working a week in Las Vegas for hubby’s company and his boss called. We stood there stunned for a while, then ran like crazy for home. What took 3.5 days to drive out took 2.5 to get home.
Listened to radio, and spotty TV on the little portable. And when we could drive no more lay with our eyes on the news until we passed out each night.
No, like Pearl Harbor the majority of us who love this country will NEVER FORGET!
Bill Clinton's other legacy.
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