My post for the day
Sep. 11th, 2002 12:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hkellickI've been waffling about this post. It's a post I've considered posting a couple of time and thrown out.
Let me start by saying that I don't really know WHERE this post is going, so if it sounds disjointed or confusing, it's probably due to massive editting.
I guess I'll start with the 9/11 Survey that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nissacrosseyed and kareila have posted and probably tack on a few questions about things I've been thinking about.
1. Where were you when you heard about the attacks on the WTC and Pentagon?
This is actually, in retrospect, rather amusing. I was actually sitting alone in an office in Ketter Hall in the middle of office hours. (for those who don't recall or know, I was a TA for Numerical Methods) when one of the kids I TA for walked past and told me that the World Trade Centers were gone. I ran across the hall to the computer lab (I was actually afraid of totally abandoning my post in case someone DID come looking for assistance) and sat listening in horror as I simulaneously logged into Chaotic to find out what's going on, tried to get to CNN.com and listened to Howard Stern as he said that the Pentagon had been hit, the WTC was gone and that there were still planes missing.
2. What country/group did you suspect immediately
I knew it was terrorists. I wasn't sure who, but when someone mentioned Al Qaeda, the ones who had attacked The Cole and the two embassies a couple years earlier, it made sense. Then everyone said it was Al Qaeda and I beleived them.
3. Who were you with? How did you react?
Like I said, I was sitting alone during office hours. When I first heard it, I was filled with anger. Pure, white, burning anger. I couldn't believe that anyone had the AUDACITY to use a passenger jet as a missile to destroy thousand of innocent lives. I wanted the fuckers responsible to DIE. Not simply burn in hell, but to DIE a terrible horrible death something akin to the thousands of innocents had.
4. Who did you call first?
I don't think I called anyone. I never needed to. I did most of my business over email. I sent my Cousin Freddie in NYC an email making sure he was OK and sat on Chaotic waiting for people to log in and say they were OK. Especiallylawchicky and childoflove.
5. How did you spend the rest of the day?
I spent most of the morning on ChaoticMUX, waiting for loved ones to check in. I remember talking with a guy, long gone, from Chaotic, named Deve, who said he hated America but didn't hate Americans. I remember I warned him then and there to cool it for a while, but he couldn't and people yelled at him and left. In the end, I think Deve was mostly right. In some way, what we got was justice for our terrible foreign policy overseas. (I'm NOT saying we deserved it, but given our foreign policy in the middle east, it was probably only a matter of time.)
I then went home and, to no surprise, mom was home already. We talked and we watched the news.
6. Do you have any friends or family killed in the attacks?
Thank goddess, no.
7. Do you think 9-11 should be a holiday?
No. Firstly, I suspect time would dull the reason for the holiday. It would only be a matter of time before we forgot why we had 9/11 off and what it meant. I think that 9/11 should just be another day in history, like Kristalnacht and Pearl Harbor. I honestly believe 9/11 should be a day of introspection and prayer, not a massive world-wide televised holiday.
Do you think even a % of the money donated really made it to the families?
Yes, I know that some of the money donated in the name of the attacks were given to the families, but when I last heard, most of it hadn't. This bugs me a great deal. I'm so bothered by it, in fact, that I'll never donate to the Red Cross again. Especially when I saw, on 60 Minutes, that the Red Cross has a history of collecting money FOR something but not giving the money to that something. I can understand if some of the money needed to be skimmed off the top to cover costs, but I donated money to the victims of 9/11, not for whatever Red Cross is doing with it.
Did you feel an increase in patriotism? Did it last?
I did feel a strong increase in patriotism. I got a "Proud to be American" shirt and we hung our american flag and stuff.
That patriotism waned about the time I realized that we'd let Osama Bin Laden slip past and the war in Afghanistan was at a point where we were killing more innocents than terrorists. It was pronounced dead when, despite the fact that the economy is in rough shape and we have no allies if we attack, Bush decided he wanted to attack Iraq, hell or high water.
Attacking Iraq is bloody stupid and I don't think we're ready for the fallout if we do it.
Have you flown since the attacks? How soon did you fly again?
Yeah, I took a flight in... January? February? to New York City for a NYWEA meeting and I'll be flying again at the end of this month to Chicago. I wasn't any more worried than I was before 9/11.
Have you been to ground zero?
If I'd had time when I was in New York, I might have tried to go and see it. I think I'd like to see it now after the memorial is up.
At what point did it really sink in?
Immediately. I understand not only what had happened immediately, but the little nuances (such as, if there WAS a hijacked plane still up in the air like the rumours I'd heard that morning said, that we'd have to shoot it down, since the passengers were dead already, or at least were about to be.) as well.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And now.. some other questions of my own
Do you think America has changed?
The media seems to think we have. That EVERYTHING'S changed and that if we can bicker over things like baseball players salary and business scandals, it's because we're moving on and surviving.
Maybe some of us are just barely surviving, and putting on a happy face for the rest of society, but I think, by and large, we've moved on and can deal with other issues such as church and business scandals.
I think, by and large, though, we missed out on the lessons of 9/11. If we can still seriously consider invading Iraq while our borders and planes and nuclear power stations are still inadequetly protected, we've missed the point entierly.
So I buy that, individually, we each changed to some degree... maybe we became more aware of the rest of the world around us or a little more cautious or a little more scared, but by and large, American Society has changed no more due to 9/11 alone than to the business scandals.
Do you think America's War on Terrorism is progressing well?
No. Negative. Nyet.
I think we're off in the wrong direction.
Likekareila said, you could turn the entire Middle East into a giant glass crater and not only would it not be right, but I don't think that would solve the problem. It would simply turn the rest of the world against us and rightly so.
I think the War on Terrorism should be a police and intelligence action. Give the CIA the ability and contacts to keep track of terrorists abroad and get them to talk to the other intelligence networks around the world. Give the FBI the ability and power to track down and detain the terrorists within our borders. Have them SHARE INTELLIGENCE.
Give Immigration and Border Patrol the ability to keep terrorists out of our country.
Where should the military come in? I think they should come in to quietly buzz over known (and verified) Al Qaeda training camps and weapon depots and blow them up. Or let the specialists come in for leader assassinations. Otherwise, wait in the pentagon like a bunch of good boys.
THAT is how the War on Terrorism should be fought, not by waging war in every country across the Middle East and Western Asia and hoping we manage to get the bastards.
I just hope we can clean up the appropriate agencies (ESPECIALLY Immigration) and empower them before next time.
That's all I can think of to post at the moment and I suspect I'm out of steam, so...
**Edit 2:00 9/11/2002**
One more thought. This one public.
I once heard that the end of the world will not be televised.
This is blatantly false. The end of the world WILL Be televised on live-feed cable TV.
That, I think, is what makes the World Trade Centers stand out in our minds when we think of violence and 9/11. Not that any of the other planes were less important. Not that Oklahome City or Columbine were less important but, thanks to cable TV, the plane striking the second tower and the crumbling of the towers are etched upon everyone's minds, probably forever. And with those etchings, all the emotions that came with it: the horror, the anger, the fear.
This is what makes 9/11 so important, so strong an image, because we all saw it over and over time after time.
Who knows where the events of that day last year will lead. If we teeter towards World War III and eventual human destruction or if we actually can root out the seeds of terror.
I guess that's a question for the historians to answer in 30 or 50 years, when times have changed again and we can all look back and remember. Not live it still.. but remember.
Let me start by saying that I don't really know WHERE this post is going, so if it sounds disjointed or confusing, it's probably due to massive editting.
I guess I'll start with the 9/11 Survey that
nissacrosseyed and kareila have posted and probably tack on a few questions about things I've been thinking about.1. Where were you when you heard about the attacks on the WTC and Pentagon?
This is actually, in retrospect, rather amusing. I was actually sitting alone in an office in Ketter Hall in the middle of office hours. (for those who don't recall or know, I was a TA for Numerical Methods) when one of the kids I TA for walked past and told me that the World Trade Centers were gone. I ran across the hall to the computer lab (I was actually afraid of totally abandoning my post in case someone DID come looking for assistance) and sat listening in horror as I simulaneously logged into Chaotic to find out what's going on, tried to get to CNN.com and listened to Howard Stern as he said that the Pentagon had been hit, the WTC was gone and that there were still planes missing.
2. What country/group did you suspect immediately
I knew it was terrorists. I wasn't sure who, but when someone mentioned Al Qaeda, the ones who had attacked The Cole and the two embassies a couple years earlier, it made sense. Then everyone said it was Al Qaeda and I beleived them.
3. Who were you with? How did you react?
Like I said, I was sitting alone during office hours. When I first heard it, I was filled with anger. Pure, white, burning anger. I couldn't believe that anyone had the AUDACITY to use a passenger jet as a missile to destroy thousand of innocent lives. I wanted the fuckers responsible to DIE. Not simply burn in hell, but to DIE a terrible horrible death something akin to the thousands of innocents had.
4. Who did you call first?
I don't think I called anyone. I never needed to. I did most of my business over email. I sent my Cousin Freddie in NYC an email making sure he was OK and sat on Chaotic waiting for people to log in and say they were OK. Especially
lawchicky and childoflove.5. How did you spend the rest of the day?
I spent most of the morning on ChaoticMUX, waiting for loved ones to check in. I remember talking with a guy, long gone, from Chaotic, named Deve, who said he hated America but didn't hate Americans. I remember I warned him then and there to cool it for a while, but he couldn't and people yelled at him and left. In the end, I think Deve was mostly right. In some way, what we got was justice for our terrible foreign policy overseas. (I'm NOT saying we deserved it, but given our foreign policy in the middle east, it was probably only a matter of time.)
I then went home and, to no surprise, mom was home already. We talked and we watched the news.
6. Do you have any friends or family killed in the attacks?
Thank goddess, no.
7. Do you think 9-11 should be a holiday?
No. Firstly, I suspect time would dull the reason for the holiday. It would only be a matter of time before we forgot why we had 9/11 off and what it meant. I think that 9/11 should just be another day in history, like Kristalnacht and Pearl Harbor. I honestly believe 9/11 should be a day of introspection and prayer, not a massive world-wide televised holiday.
Do you think even a % of the money donated really made it to the families?
Yes, I know that some of the money donated in the name of the attacks were given to the families, but when I last heard, most of it hadn't. This bugs me a great deal. I'm so bothered by it, in fact, that I'll never donate to the Red Cross again. Especially when I saw, on 60 Minutes, that the Red Cross has a history of collecting money FOR something but not giving the money to that something. I can understand if some of the money needed to be skimmed off the top to cover costs, but I donated money to the victims of 9/11, not for whatever Red Cross is doing with it.
Did you feel an increase in patriotism? Did it last?
I did feel a strong increase in patriotism. I got a "Proud to be American" shirt and we hung our american flag and stuff.
That patriotism waned about the time I realized that we'd let Osama Bin Laden slip past and the war in Afghanistan was at a point where we were killing more innocents than terrorists. It was pronounced dead when, despite the fact that the economy is in rough shape and we have no allies if we attack, Bush decided he wanted to attack Iraq, hell or high water.
Attacking Iraq is bloody stupid and I don't think we're ready for the fallout if we do it.
Have you flown since the attacks? How soon did you fly again?
Yeah, I took a flight in... January? February? to New York City for a NYWEA meeting and I'll be flying again at the end of this month to Chicago. I wasn't any more worried than I was before 9/11.
Have you been to ground zero?
If I'd had time when I was in New York, I might have tried to go and see it. I think I'd like to see it now after the memorial is up.
At what point did it really sink in?
Immediately. I understand not only what had happened immediately, but the little nuances (such as, if there WAS a hijacked plane still up in the air like the rumours I'd heard that morning said, that we'd have to shoot it down, since the passengers were dead already, or at least were about to be.) as well.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And now.. some other questions of my own
Do you think America has changed?
The media seems to think we have. That EVERYTHING'S changed and that if we can bicker over things like baseball players salary and business scandals, it's because we're moving on and surviving.
Maybe some of us are just barely surviving, and putting on a happy face for the rest of society, but I think, by and large, we've moved on and can deal with other issues such as church and business scandals.
I think, by and large, though, we missed out on the lessons of 9/11. If we can still seriously consider invading Iraq while our borders and planes and nuclear power stations are still inadequetly protected, we've missed the point entierly.
So I buy that, individually, we each changed to some degree... maybe we became more aware of the rest of the world around us or a little more cautious or a little more scared, but by and large, American Society has changed no more due to 9/11 alone than to the business scandals.
Do you think America's War on Terrorism is progressing well?
No. Negative. Nyet.
I think we're off in the wrong direction.
Like
kareila said, you could turn the entire Middle East into a giant glass crater and not only would it not be right, but I don't think that would solve the problem. It would simply turn the rest of the world against us and rightly so.I think the War on Terrorism should be a police and intelligence action. Give the CIA the ability and contacts to keep track of terrorists abroad and get them to talk to the other intelligence networks around the world. Give the FBI the ability and power to track down and detain the terrorists within our borders. Have them SHARE INTELLIGENCE.
Give Immigration and Border Patrol the ability to keep terrorists out of our country.
Where should the military come in? I think they should come in to quietly buzz over known (and verified) Al Qaeda training camps and weapon depots and blow them up. Or let the specialists come in for leader assassinations. Otherwise, wait in the pentagon like a bunch of good boys.
THAT is how the War on Terrorism should be fought, not by waging war in every country across the Middle East and Western Asia and hoping we manage to get the bastards.
I just hope we can clean up the appropriate agencies (ESPECIALLY Immigration) and empower them before next time.
That's all I can think of to post at the moment and I suspect I'm out of steam, so...
**Edit 2:00 9/11/2002**
One more thought. This one public.
I once heard that the end of the world will not be televised.
This is blatantly false. The end of the world WILL Be televised on live-feed cable TV.
That, I think, is what makes the World Trade Centers stand out in our minds when we think of violence and 9/11. Not that any of the other planes were less important. Not that Oklahome City or Columbine were less important but, thanks to cable TV, the plane striking the second tower and the crumbling of the towers are etched upon everyone's minds, probably forever. And with those etchings, all the emotions that came with it: the horror, the anger, the fear.
This is what makes 9/11 so important, so strong an image, because we all saw it over and over time after time.
Who knows where the events of that day last year will lead. If we teeter towards World War III and eventual human destruction or if we actually can root out the seeds of terror.
I guess that's a question for the historians to answer in 30 or 50 years, when times have changed again and we can all look back and remember. Not live it still.. but remember.
(no subject)
Date: 2002-09-11 05:18 pm (UTC)