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I didn't lose any friends on 9/11, but a friend of mine was there(in NYC)and sheltered a lot of people when it went down. I have lost friends in the subsequent wars.
I will not make any political commentary of any kind here, and I would ask yawl to please follow suit, but I would like to ask one thing, that we all take a moment to remember our honored dead.
That, I think, is only proper.
Thank you.
Comments
Thanking those who died.
I am sure that none of those who died expected it.
When it happened, I don't think that anyone understood the magnitude of it. I still think that many of the federalies took advantage of it to gain access to our lives that is prevented in the constitution. This is no longer the country I once served. There are things that happened at that time that the general public will never know about. I don't think we will ever know who really did it. I know people who are very convinced that Bush did it, but who really knows. It is well documented that Bush lied 26 times to justify going to Iraq. It was spoken of on National News and a congressional investigator announced it. I think that he has not been prosecuted because some think that a President needs special immunity to allow him to do his job with a clear head and I am not certain that I disagree.
I was working as a City Electrician at the time. Those who are not familiar with what maintenance people did prior to the incident; I did the work for over 30 years and we typically had keys to everything, and knew about everyone in the building, including the top brass. We'd fix, rebuild, install and redesign almost everything in the building. Most companies out west here had private maintenance people and the union did not control every toilet flush. It was a congenial atmosphere. After the incident of 911, there were security freaks running amok everywhere, and they typically had a very high need for order and sought special powers over those around them. At one point every city employee had even their private emails and home phones monitored. Fortunately, the slime balls were in a minority, and good decent people quickly put those freaks in order or fired them.
I am a very laid back person and depend heavily upon good relationships with others. It is a major part of my well being. In the new atmosphere, I began to crumble and was quickly on lots of Psych drugs that made it technically illegal for me to even work.
AT any rate, the people who occupied that building that day, and the subsequent rescuers who all died, had no idea that they would soon die. I do hope that it has led to the redesign of building evacuation systems. It would have been much better if undamaged evac systems had not been shut down.
A dismal fact about the incident is that sales of Prescription psychotropic drugs trippled afterward. We have also figured out that the continuous airing of the story and the constant viewing of the planes hitting the building caused a great deal of indirect traumatization. I don't watch the news any more, and limit my exposure to it.
Khadija
The fact
the fact that people of so many faiths and nationalities died in such a manner should indicate to us that there is no honour in the perpetrators of this atrocity.
Even though I live thousands of miles away, I was horrified that so-called humanity had stooped so low.
Having been welcomed so warmly to New York just 10 months previously, I felt for the loss, not only of that great city but also the other citizens of the US. I was also humbled and uplifted by the acts of selfless heroism shown by those who responded to this emergency.
They say that we can all remember where we were when President Kennedy was shot, or when Princess Diana died. I know that I will never forget where I was, or how I heard the news about this disaster.
Susie
Susan -- That's a Rather Odd Conclusion to Draw
Your writing exposes your humanity and intelligence. I can only conclude in your remarks about "honour" that you have succumbed to the media blitza ragarding 9/11.
Personally I don't know what to think.
The perps were all Saudis and the U.S. retaliated by attacking Afghanistan and Iraq. Uhmm, I understand giving succor to the terrorist, but wasn't Pakistan also a huge problem in that regard? Did our choice of target have to do with oil or nuclear weapons (Pakistan's and the phantom WMD)?
We condemn the attackers because they killed innocent civilians -- much like Hitler's cowardly rocket attacks on England. But what does such a condemnation say about our troops who bombed Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki? By some counts over a 350,000 innocent civilians died in those three attacks. Does that make the Allied forces to be a hundred times worse than the Saudis?
We say the Saudis were cowardly, although when we leveled Dresden, not really a military target, but a target to destroy the war morale of the German citizens, they were practically defenseless to air attack -- and were entirely defenseless for much of the bombing.
I do not sympathize with Osama's gang but then I can't comprehend a Jihad. When I was small and attending a Catholic grade school I can remember praying for a martyr's death, so I suppose I have some knowledge of fanatical religious teachings.
It has been suggested that we need to set aside our wonderment about what happened to honor the dead. I believe we honor that dead by wanting to get to the bottom of what actually happened. This past week we were rudely reminded that all politicians are liars. Much of what we "know" about 9/11 has been passed through a political filter.
Perspective bows to morale imperative, but then we have the Lockerbie bomber treated like a hero and the shoe throwing journalist given a house. I know that one does not rise to the level of the other, but in a world of black and white's such as "honour" would suggest it is just as wrong to steal a candy bar as it is to rape your mother.
I prefer not to think about it too much. I might agree that we might best honor the dead by NOT thinking about anything for a while.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Ok, once again, I must ask that yawl please refrain
from turning this into a political thing.
I myself have very strong feeling on these subjects. This is not the place for that sort of thing. There are places for that, and rest assured I have made my feelings known in those places. The primary among those feelings would be rage.
All I asked was that we please remember the dead and honor them.
I have friends who have been left "on Afghanistan's plains".
However unjust the war, I insist that you honor the fallen.