So.....

[embiggen]

this morning, a girl I work with was having a conversation with another girl regarding all of the 9/11 stuff on the news, at least here locally. her words were, "why can't everyone just forget about it?"

my assistant, who sits behind them, and had friends that died in the Trade Center that day, said, "you guys need to take this conversation elsewhere because it is upsetting me."

 

what are your opinions about 9/11? should we forget? personally, I think not. it was an attack on our soil, which has only happened one other time. to me, it's like saying "let's forget Pearl Harbor and WWII."

[owl]

My thoughts:

 

clicky

 

(Sorry, took down the link because it didn't work.)

[Atticus]

I personally would like to be able to reflect on the event and what it felt like at the time--going through all the craziness, reactions and emotions--and not have to have it and all the political aftermath slanted, packaged and rammed down my throat by both sides of the political aisle.

 

but then again I might as well wish for a late night jam session tonight with Jeff and Co. in my living room...

[embiggen]

the main headlines locally about it here are with regards to people who have become extremely ill after working down there for week after week in the horribly polluted air. people who worked at the site are getting cancer and other horrible things at an advanced rate.

[austrya]

I think it's impossible to forget it. I still remember the conversations I had with people that day. I still remember talking to my dad on the phone when the second plane hit. He was watching it on tv at the time.

 

It's kind of like when you ask people what they were doing when they found out Kennedy was killed. They just remember.

[bjorn_skurj]

There was a great poem by that Romanian poet guy that he read on the one-year anniversary of 9/11 that really hit me hard. I will attempt to shag it down and post.

 

9/11 (with Allen Ginsberg in mind)

by Andrei Codrescu

 

9/11, I can barely remember you, they’ve buried you in so much hype!

 

9/11 I wept when you were first on television! I wept for New York, for the dead, for all of us, for myself, for the world!

 

9/11, I was sure that the world had changed forever because bad guys wanted America dead and hated us because we listen to rock 'n' roll and wear no miniskirts on our naked faces!

 

9/11, I cheered when our warplanes ripped through the skies of Afghanistan scorching the caves where our enemies burrowed and I marveled at our precision-guided bombs -- trying to ignore their occasionally murderous imprecision!

 

9/11, I sat mesmerized in front of Fox News and CNN as the gargoyled faces of the Cold War began crawling out of the musty cellars of history and, eyes unaccustomed to light, blinking, began to spout the doctrines of Total War!

 

9/11, I started to feel sorry for you when retired generals, admirals, spies, loonies and fakes brushed off their swords and rushed to your defense! So many double-chins! So many watering eyes! So many dentured grins and brush haircuts! So many double-bottom suitcases clutched in so many pimp-ringed hands! They even brought Ollie North from felonious disgrace to stand up for you with his Constitution-overthrowing boyish old looks!

 

9/11, I felt bad for you when the Lefties crowded you from the other side with their guilt-filled jaws of "I told you so," and their eternal excuses for the wretched exotics of the world whose suffering they experience in their marble-topped kitchens between arguments about what wine to serve with the wild rice! And I wept for you again, when soured professors who missed the collapse of commie fascism in 1989 descended on you like rabid wolverines led by Noam Chomsky, whose teeth marks are all over the zero ground of American academia!

 

9/11, you saved the paranoids from self-cannibalism!

 

9/11, you were a boon to advertisers and publicists and flag manufacturers, and they sold you with cars and pizzas and they drained you of your raw primal power even as they pretended to grieve for you! Zero down payment until Doomsday!

 

9/11, you were a godsend to poetasters who were out of the gate lamenting and whining before your towers even gave out!

 

9/11, your dead and your heroes are covered by thick layers of ash and greed and the Republic owes you an apology...

 

9/11, I close my eyes and recall you in all your gory glory and I still hate those who did this to us and to our greatest city.

 

9/11, I can barely remember you and I'm sorry.

[owl]

Not bad.

[Lammycat]

It's impossible to forget it (at least for me). It changed the way we view our country. We were essentially invulnerable up until 9/11. We became a fallible nation thereafter and it forced me to re-think how I view being a citizen and how I view our country's "message" to other nations.

 

Also, two of my younger brothers were directly impacted. One was a firefighter working out of a Brooklyn firehouse at the time and lost several members from his company and other companys he was familiar with. He witnessed bodies hitting the ground, etc. and other things he chooses not to mention. He survived and now works for Rescue One in Manhattan.

 

My other brother was a cop in Brooklyn at the time and was put on duty to assist folks over the bridge and try to retain a semblance of order. He has some unsettling stories to tell, as well.

 

Though both brothers made it through unscathed, the pit in my stomach as I watched on t.v. that day while teaching a room of fifth graders as I wondered if my brothers were o.k., watching the buildings collapse, etc. is forever etched in my body, mind, psyche.

[Edie]

My husband and I took our son to his 4th day of preschool that morning and afterwards, listened horrified to the radio as they announced that the second tower was hit. That's when it was no longer an "accident", but an unprecedented attack.

 

Jake will be 9, and he still does not know about it. We are going to talk about it this weekend since the TV coverage will be intense (though he doesn't watch during the week) and I want him to hear about it from us and not the media.

 

While I think that somber reflection and remembering is appropriate, I heard that CNN is going to replay their coverage in real-time from that morning. I think that it is more than a little morbid and does not honor those that died.

 

If I can stomach it, I'll try to watch the Naudet brothers' film on CBS -- as long as the swearing is not edited out.

[bjorn_skurj]

If I can stomach it, I'll try to watch the Naudet brothers' film on CBS -- as long as the swearing is not edited out.

That was a very powerful film. Personally, I'll never forget how I felt in the about three minutes in between me first hearing about it and finding out my sister was OK. She had flown out of D.C. the night before.

[Finna]

I don't think we can or should forget. However, how terrible it must be for the people, particularly those in NYC, to watch the footage again and again and again and again.

 

It has to be torture to know that you're watching a loved one die.

 

Just because you HAVE footage, doesn't mean you have to show it. Hopefully the keepers of the Steve Irwin tape will realize that too.

[owl]

I suggest that on September 11, we all try to focus on positive things, like this.

[SlowBurn68]

I think Ani said it best:

 

yes,

us people are just poems

we're 90% metaphor

with a leanness of meaning

approaching hyper-distillation

and once upon a time

we were moonshine

rushing down the throat of a giraffe

yes, rushing down the long hallway

despite what the p.a. announcement says

yes, rushing down the long stairs

with the whiskey of eternity

fermented and distilled

to eighteen minutes

burning down our throats

down the hall

down the stairs

in a building so tall

that it will always be there

yes, it's part of a pair

there on the bow of Noah's ark

the most prestigious couple

just kickin back parked

against a perfectly blue sky

on a morning beatific

in its Indian summer breeze

on the day that America

fell to its knees

after strutting around for a century

without saying thank you

or please

 

and the shock was subsonic

and the smoke was deafening

between the setup and the punch line

cuz we were all on time for work that day

we all boarded that plane for to fly

and then while the fires were raging

we all climbed up on the windowsill

and then we all held hands

and jumped into the sky

 

and every borough looked up when it heard the first blast

and then every dumb action movie was summarily surpassed

and the exodus uptown by foot and motorcar

looked more like war than anything I've seen so far

so far

so far

so fierce and ingenious

a poetic specter so far gone

that every jackass newscaster was struck dumb and stumbling

over 'oh my god' and 'this is unbelievable' and on and on

and I'll tell you what, while we're at it

you can keep the pentagon

keep the propaganda

keep each and every TV

that's been trying to convince me

to participate

in some prep school punk's plan to perpetuate retribution

perpetuate retribution

even as the blue toxic smoke of our lesson in retribution

is still hanging in the air

and there's ash on our shoes

and there's ash in our hair

and there's a fine silt on every mantle

from hell's kitchen to Brooklyn

and the streets are full of stories

sudden twists and near misses

and soon every open bar is crammed to the rafters

with tales of narrowly averted disasters

and the whiskey is flowin

like never before

as all over the country

folks just shake their heads

and pour

 

so here's a toast to all the folks who live in Palestine

Afghanistan

Iraq

 

El Salvador

 

here's a toast to the folks living on the pine ridge reservation

under the stone cold gaze of mt. Rushmore

 

here's a toast to all those nurses and doctors

who daily provide women with a choice

who stand down a threat the size of Oklahoma City

just to listen to a young woman's voice

 

here's a toast to all the folks on death row right now

awaiting the executioner's guillotine

who are shackled there with dread and can only escape into their heads

to find peace in the form of a dream

 

cuz take away our playstations

and we are a third world nation

under the thumb of some blue blood royal son

who stole the oval office and that phony election

I mean

it don't take a weatherman

to look around and see the weather

Jeb said he'd deliver Florida, folks

and boy did he ever

 

and we hold these truths to be self evident:

#1 George W. Bush is not president

#2 America is not a true democracy

#3 the media is not fooling me

cuz I am a poem heeding hyper-distillation

I've got no room for a lie so verbose

I'm looking out over my whole human family

and I'm raising my glass in a toast

 

here's to our last drink of fossil fuels

let us vow to get off of this sauce

shoo away the swarms of commuter planes

and find that train ticket we lost

cuz once upon a time the line followed the river

and peeked into all the backyards

and the laundry was waving

the graffiti was teasing us

from brick walls and bridges

we were rolling over ridges

through valleys

under stars

I dream of touring like Duke Ellington

in my own railroad car

I dream of waiting on the tall blonde wooden benches

in a grand station aglow with grace

and then standing out on the platform

and feeling the air on my face

 

give back the night its distant whistle

give the darkness back its soul

give the big oil companies the finger finally

and relearn how to rock-n-roll

yes, the lessons are all around us and a change is waiting there

so it's time to pick through the rubble, clean the streets

and clear the air

get our government to pull its big dick out of the sand

of someone else's desert

put it back in its pants

and quit the hypocritical chants of

freedom forever

 

cuz when one lone phone rang

in two thousand and one

at ten after nine

on nine one one

which is the number we all called

when that lone phone rang right off the wall

right off our desk and down the long hall

down the long stairs

in a building so tall

that the whole world turned

just to watch it fall

 

and while we're at it

remember the first time around?

the bomb?

the Ryder truck?

the parking garage?

the princess that didn't even feel the pea?

remember joking around in our apartment on avenue D?

 

can you imagine how many paper coffee cups would have to change their design

following a fantastical reversal of the New York skyline?!

 

it was a joke, of course

it was a joke

at the time

and that was just a few years ago

so let the record show

that the FBI was all over that case

that the plot was obvious and in everybody's face

and scoping that scene

religiously

the CIA

or is it KGB?

committing countless crimes against humanity

with this kind of eventuality

as its excuse

for abuse after expensive abuse

and it didn't have a clue

look, another window to see through

way up here

on the 104th floor

look

another key

another door

10% literal

90% metaphor

3000 some poems disguised as people

on an almost too perfect day

must be more than poems

in some asshole's passion play

so now it's your job

and it's my job

to make it that way

to make sure they didn't die in vain

sshhhhhh....

baby listen

hear the train?

[cryptique]

I think Ani said it best:

Huh. I saw Episodes I - III, and I never remember him saying anything like that.

[embiggen]

If I can stomach it, I'll try to watch the Naudet brothers' film on CBS -- as long as the swearing is not edited out.

 

I have watched that. it's very powerful and I think I cried during the entire film.

[Sir Stewart]

I've been kind of numb to 9/11 for the past couple of years, but this year seems like it's gonna be a rough one. Like the first anniversary.

[embiggen]

I always cry when I hear them read the names. how can you not?

[Sir Stewart]

I had moved to San Diego by the time the first anniversary came around, and on that day, at work, I mentioned it, and my co-worker said "Oh, is that today?" No one else at work mentioned it. I realized then how far away California is from the East Coast.

[embiggen]

how odd. I was in TN when it happened. even so, I could never forget the date, no matter where I lived.

[Sir Stewart]

For the record, he was kind of a dummy.

[embiggen]

well, that explains it.

[Atticus]

I'm curious what your most overriding emotion tends to be when reflecting on 9/11...

 

I definitely get sad/emotional/teary when thinking about all the senseless loss of it all, but by and large I find myself plain angry.

 

Anyone else get this way?

[plasticeyeball]

I always cry when I hear them read the names. how can you not?

 

 

jess,

 

did you live up here at the time and work in the city?

 

my biggest memory, aside from the melted plastic smell, was thinking about the cars at the ferry lot down the hill from my house that didn't get picked up and that we were happy that our older kids were only 2 at the time so they hadn't started school yet.

 

I think there were 37 victims from my town so we figured if they had started school, it was inevitable that we would have personnally know many more who died. (rather than only knowing of them or knowing them by which house the family lived in, ect...

 

edit: sorry, i just saw your post about being in TN at the time

[Edie]

I'm curious what your most overriding emotion tends to be when reflecting on 9/11...

 

I definitely get sad/emotional/teary when thinking about all the senseless loss of it all, but by and large I find myself plain angry.

 

Anyone else get this way?

 

I get angry at the why it happened -- what could we have possibly done to make people hate us/our lifestyle so much that they relentlessly plan for years to make something like that happen. What could we have done to prevent it -- not from a law-enforcement standpoint, but rather from a human standpoint. Give more? Spend less? Be less sanctimonious in our approach to Palestinian rights? Something?

 

Then I get angry at our response -- using a fist and not an open hand. This approach has never solved anything permanently (see Bosnia/Serbia/Croatia for reference) -- only temporarily. As is being borne out RIGHT NOW in Afghanistan and Iraq.

[Atticus]

letter from Senate Democratic Leadership to ABC:

 

Letter

 

At least they're fair--I remember them sending a similar letter to Michael Moore before he unleashed Fahrenheit 9/11