Ten Years Later

DJ Eebs

I'm actually having a hard time starting this thread, because it seems incredibly difficult to be sincere about anything anymore, especially on the internet, and especially here. Maybe that shouldn't be the case. Maybe it shouldn't take the anniversary of a national tragedy to shake off all the ironic, detached bullshit that seems to come with being on the internet.

But today's the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. And I know news sites are flooded with stories about the attacks, the aftermath, survivors, victims and everything that's changed since. And I know that it's become kind of a cliche to yell out things like "never forget!" or what have you. But even with all of that, it's amazing how many memories of that day come flooding back at the slightest provocation. Where I was when I heard, how surreal everything felt, how little anyone seemed to know.

So let's talk about 9/11.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaVYdg9BoNI&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP5uIPyYDlQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/user/aaroman01#p/u/5/1lKZqqSI9-s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYg2krLsPB8&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Orikaeshigitae

if you troll this thread you will end up banned for a length of time dependent upon the banning mod's whims.

Sars_Boy

9/11 is weird for me, mostly because I was 10 when it happened and my birthday was the following day.

So at the time I didn't really grasp the gravity of the situation and was more like "oh man i get presents tomorrow!"

This has made me feel like a terrible person more than once but at the same time I was 10 so hey

neville

I remember being woken up twice by a friend from Canada calling to tell me the US was under attack.
I had only been in Seattle a month and it was like 6 am, so I was like "mhm" and hung up.

Tonkka

Oh god I remember that morning.

Waking up to my mother calling me, frantically asking me if I am okay.

My sister gets on the phone and tells me to turn on the news.

Uriel

I was like 13 or so. I remember being home from school sick.

Except at the time I actually had tonsillitis I wasn't actually faking like usual.

Anyway I remember turning on the TV and seeing the second plane hit after a bit of talk about a "small plane" hitting the first tower.

My mom said "That's not a small plane that is a 747."

Shorty

my opinions about 9/11 are considered untenable by nearly everyone

so I will keep my mouth shut

but I will say that it seems silly to keep bringing it up every year in the media since the main desire expressed by survivors and the families of victims is that they want to forget about it and move on

which kind of means everyone else needs to shut the fuck up about it

Doobh

I woke at 5am for my zero period english class

radio turns on

"...and it appears a tower has gone down..."

I yawn and do my morning routine, and when I get to school the entire class is watching the television

"Oh. OH."

Shorty

oh uh and when I heard I was getting into my stepmom's truck to go to school and she turned on the radio

and I heard what was happening and said, "Huh. That sucks."

then we went and got coffee

mensch-o-matic

Orikaeshigitae wrote:

if you troll this thread you will end up banned for a length of time dependent upon the banning mod's whims.

actually really glad about this rule-even if you dont care about 9/11 and think its overhyped i always like having a really sincere, sober thread once a year

pooka

my roommate and i were having our usual tea-and-NPR in the morning, her ancient receiver blaring in the living room, hearing the first inklings from the kitchen; i was late to Brit Lit II because of the reports. i cried because i was absolutely certain it would bring another war in the desert; being an Army brat for the first one, i just had a weird sense of deja vu overlaying the sadness.

bowtiedseal

I was 13, a freshman in high school, and in algebra class. the principal made an announcement over the speaker system and we were all confused about whether it was an accident or not, but we said an our father because it was catholic school. we were sent home early. I watched the news with my mom and brother, and wrote about it in my big loopy barely-a-teenager handwriting in my journal.

TheStig

I joined the army like 2 weeks before 9/11, whoops.

Pharezon

I do not like the fact that the response to this event has caused a decade of shitty, unwinnable wars and extrajudicial assassinations around the globe.

DontShootToasters

I remember being in 5th grade during lunch time when I got told my mom was here to have lunch with me and she brought mcdonalds

so we sit on the park benches outside and I asked her about the surprise visit, and she says something about how she was supposed to fly that day but a plane hit a building so all the airports were closed

I realized that was a pretty sad thing but I was just a kid who was happy to be eating mcdonalds with his mom

A duck!

TheStig wrote:

I joined the army like 2 weeks before 9/11, whoops.

Ouch

dougyfresh

I remember finding out about it at the bus stop. Pretty sure both my parents had already went to work so I didn't hear the morning news or anything, but another kid was talking about an airplane hitting a building that I had never heard of. Then I got to school and ya every TV was on and I think we all just hung out in homeroom for the first half of the day. I do think the initial gravity of it didn't hit me until later that day cause I was still pretty young.

It is weird to think of how much time has passed though. It kinda feels like in the last 10 years we have done both so much and so little at the same time if that makes any sense.

Shorty

I joined the navy three years later, whoops

I can't even claim I didn't see it coming, I was just an idiot

crwth

i remember getting really really angry that univision kept showing clips of people jumping from the towers

it was really crazy to see people just

leaping

cause it was all they could do

cause it was the best decision given the circumstances

TheStig

A duck! wrote:

TheStig wrote:

I joined the army like 2 weeks before 9/11, whoops.

Ouch

Fortunately I was 18, incredibly stupid, and kinda excited.

TheySlashThem

I was 16 when the attacks happened and oddly enough the biggest effect they had on me was that it caused me to start paying attention to politics.

Shorty

TheStig wrote:

A duck! wrote:

TheStig wrote:

I joined the army like 2 weeks before 9/11, whoops.

Ouch

Fortunately I was 18, incredibly stupid, and kinda excited.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeyP4veC4oU

TheStig

basically.

YaYa

I was 10, and believe it or not I found out about it here

I woke up early, about 6 AM, to check out Penny Arcade, this great new comic about video games that I'd become a fan of, and saw that they'd pulled the site down and the only link they had was to CNN

I read it, ran up the stairs yelling for my parents and saw them watching the TV already

school that day was the quietest I have ever seen a primary school

Antimatter

third grade

tv pulled out into the classroom

just

fuck

BYToady

I was 20, working in McDonald's wondering why it was such a slow day before someone told us to turn on the news.

No Great Name

My high school was 7 miles from the pentagon. We could see the smoke.

My best friend's dad worked there.



I don't care for the "9/11? Don't care." attitude.

lostwords

I was a freshman in college, like the 3rd week of school, tasting independence for the first time, and when it happened, i vividly remember trying to get a hold of my dad, who worked in dc, spent hours trying to get in touch with family. Was in chem class when a kid in class tells us a plane crashed into one of the towers, and we all thought it was a sick joke, but he was insistent and one kid's dad worked there so he rushed out teacher cancelled class and everyone was kinda walking around campus in a daze, or on the phone trying to contact family. My new roomie and a lot of other kids in our dorm had family in nyc and dc, so when we got back to the dorm, we sat around the lounge just watching tv and hugging, kinda terrifying time.

Sars_Boy

my school didn't say shit

the principal came by and pulled the teacher out of the classroom and then we resumed the day

i remember talking with my classmates about what could have happened, and the rumor spread that someone was kidnapping kids from schools

so when i got home and my mom was watching the news that's what i thought was happening

nope

Shorty

I just realized there are functioning human beings who have no recollection of 9/11

ugh

Sars_Boy

Shorty wrote:

I just realized there are functioning human beings who have no recollection of 9/11

ugh

how dare they?

TheySlashThem

are you talking like young children or

Shorty

Sars_Boy wrote:

Shorty wrote:

I just realized there are functioning human beings who have no recollection of 9/11

ugh

how dare they?

yeah, fuck them!

JetFalcon

I remember the exact spongebob episode I was watching that day. It was the pizza delivery episode where Spongebob delivers a pizza made out of krabby patties.

animal companion

I saw this story on the onion today, and I got really sad about the state of news networks covering this anniversary

http://www.theonion.com/articles/responsible-cable-news-outlets-to-devote-sensible,21284/

A duck!

ThatDudeOverThere wrote:

are you talking like young children or

Republicans

No Great Name

Shorty wrote:

I just realized there are functioning human beings who have no recollection of 9/11

ugh

I was helping my little cousins(10, 9, and 7) with their homework. By that I mean bothering them while they tried to do it. Found a picture of the NYC skyline pre 9/11 and showed it to them.

They had no idea what the towers or 9/11 was.

I frowned at my aunt and uncle as hard as I could. But to be fair they were frownin pretty hard at their kids.

crwth

i remember the principal came over the intercom during the end of english class

this was 11th grade, i think

and he says something like "as you all probably know, a plane has flown into the wtc"

and i'm just like well no i actually did not know that holy shit

and we spent the rest of the day watching the tv

and this one kid in my web design class says "this is osama! osama did this!"
and i'm just thinkin' "who???"

like tdot, i started paying a lot more attention to politics after that

nuka

I remember waking up to watch the weather report that day before school. They were talking about something in the Southeast when they mentioned that all flights were grounded. I wasn't very awake but I knew instinctively that something was wrong. I'm usually just that stupid in the morning to buy almost anything. I flipped to CNN and I just stood there stunned in disbelief, and it didn't really hit me until several days later that this actually happened and that over 3 thousand people are now just dead and gone. That for someone, this could be totally okay. Right now I'm pretty mad at my neighbors for lighting off some fireworks earlier this evening. You do that when you're celebrating something, what is to celebrate here?

For a while it was hard, because living on the other side of the country it can be difficult to put your feelings into events like this because they are so far away and the numbers are just so unimaginably high. Obviously this is just so wrong on so many levels but, I guess it's like when the Christmas Tsunami happened. Today though, when NPR was talking about it I almost got upset. I'm glad I grew up like this because I was worried I was becoming so desensitized.

I started paying attention to politics too after this, and now I want to hide under a rock and wait for it to be all over.

Artreus

Pharezon wrote:

I do not like the fact that the response to this event has caused a decade of shitty, unwinnable wars and extrajudicial assassinations around the globe.

Yarp. Unprecedented United States unilateralism that everybody got behind .. could have been handled better.

Tox

Honestly it will be just another day for me. I have a homework assignment due tomorrow I have to work on. And I'll be watching a lot of football, though I may keep an eye on the news just to see if anybody stupid tries anything stupid.