9/11/01 United We Stand - Still (1 Viewer)

[Dave Hahn]

I have no words of comfort, no sage remarks to alleviate the grief and remorse. The events of September 11, 2001 still haunt me. All I have is the hope that someday the hate will be replaced by harmony. For now, it is enough to remember.

 

[BrettB]

 

[Holadem]

HTF:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/arch...=&threadid=507

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/arch...pagenumber=286

--
H

 

[Rob Gardiner]

--Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Paradise Lost

I hope that we can rebuild what we've destroyed.

 

[Dave Hahn]

MSNBC.com

Relatives gather at Ground Zero to mark 9/11
Pentagon, Shanksville events held as well; park used for NYC ceremony

NEW YORK - Relatives of World Trade Center victims bowed their heads in silence at a small park Tuesday to mark the moment exactly six years earlier when the first hijacked plane struck the towers. The dreary, gray skies created a grim backdrop, and a sharp contrast to the clear blue of that morning in 2001.

“That day we felt isolated, but not for long and not from each other,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said as the ceremony began. “Six years have passed, and our place is still by your side.”

Construction equipment now fills the vast city block where the World Trade Center once stood, and work is under way for four new towers, forcing the ceremony to be moved away from the twin towers’ footprints for the first time.

Kathleen Mullen, whose niece Kathleen Casey died in the attacks, said the park across the street was close enough.

“Just so long as we continue to do something special every year, so you don’t wake up and say, ‘Oh, it’s 9/11,’” she said.

Presidential politics and the health of ground zero workers loomed over the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attacks this year, perhaps more than any other Sept. 11.

The firefighters and first responders who helped rescue thousands that day in 2001 and later recovered the dead read the victims’ names for the first time. Many of those rescuers are now ill with respiratory problems and cancers themselves, and they blame the illnesses on exposure to the fallen towers’ toxic dust.

Lung disease victim added
Also for the first time, the name of a victim who survived that towers’ collapse but died five months later of lung disease blamed on the dust she inhaled was added to the official roll.

Felicia Dunn-Jones, an attorney, was working a block from the World Trade Center. She became the 2,974th victim linked to the four attack sites where hijacked airliners hit the two towers, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pa., where federal investigators say the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 fought the hijackers on the rallying cry “Let’s roll!”

A memorial honoring Flight 93’s 40 passengers and crew began at 9:45 a.m. ET, shortly before the time the airliner nosedived into the empty field.

“As American citizens we’re all looking at our heroes,” said Kay Roy, whose sister Colleen Fraser, of Elizabeth, N.J., died when the plane went down.

Bells tolled, and the names of the passengers and crew were read at the site of a temporary memorial at the crash site.

In Boston, where two of the hijacked airplanes took off that morning, church bells rang to the tunes of Amazing Grace and America the Beautiful.

In New York, firefighters shared the stage with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who many victims’ families and firefighters said should not speak because he is running for president.

Giuliani, who is running for president, has made his performance after the 2001 terrorist attacks the cornerstone of his campaign, but he has said his desire to be there Tuesday was entirely personal.

“It was a day with no answers, but with an unending line of people who came forward to help one another,” he told those gathered.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, seeking the Democratic Party presidential nomination, also attended the ceremonies.

Republican Mitt Romney, another presidential contender and former Massachusetts governor, spoke at the memorial service in Boston. He described the attacks as the day “radical Islamists brought terror to our shores,” and paid tribute to U.S. troops sent to Afghanistan and Iraq in the aftermath.

‘Safer but we’re not safe’
President Bush, with the first lady at his side, earlier held a moment of silence on the South Lawn of the White House.

At the main U.S. base at Afghanistan, a memorial ceremony was also held.

At the Pentagon, Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke at the wall where the plane crashed and told the victims’ families that their loved ones will be remembered.

“I do not know the proper words to tell you what’s in my heart, what is in our hearts, what your fellow citizens are thinking today. We certainly hope that somehow these observances will help lessen your pain,” he said.

Pace also spoke of the military, calling the anniversary “a day of recommitment.”

National intelligence director Mike McConnell said Tuesday that U.S. authorities remain vigilant and concerned about “sleeper cells” of would-be terrorists inside the United States.

“We’re safer but we’re not safe,” McConnell said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

As in past years, moments of silence marked each crash and the collapse of each tower in New York.

In addition to the firefighters and first responders reading victims’ names during the ceremony, city workers who participated in the cleanup, construction workers, volunteers, and medical examiner’s officials who recovered remains were involved.

Even though the World Trade Center ceremony gathering was in the park, thousands of family members were still allowed to descend briefly below street level to lay flowers at a spot near the twin towers’ footprints. Family members upset that they might not be allowed in at all pressured the city to at least allow the short visits to the dusty bedrock.

Among the first family members down the ramp was Marjorie Miller, whose late husband Joel worked at Marsh & McLennan. She said the rain was almost welcome after five consecutive years of Sept. 11 sunshine.

“A lot of tears coming down from up there,” she said, gesturing toward the sky, “and a lot of tears down here.”

In all, 2,974 victims were killed by the Sept. 11 attacks: 2,750 at the World Trade Center, 40 in Pennsylvania and 184 at the Pentagon. Those numbers do not include the 19 hijackers.

Complete Story HERE

 

[Chuck Mayer]

My thoughts go out to friends, families, citizens, and brothers and sisters across the globe. They go out most strongly to those still in harm's way, regardless of their country of origin.


There were a few weeks there in 2001 where almost the entire world was united, and I will always remember how absolutely beautiful and reaffirming that felt.

Thanks to all,
Chuck

 

[Dave Mack]

I used to live in NYC, (grew up there) and on 9/11 I had jury duty. I got out of the 2 train station at Chambers st. 4-5 blocks north of the WTC and the first plane had already hit. Everybody coming out of the train froze and stared, a few people ventured onwards to work etc. I just stood there, asking people who had been on the street what had happened. While we stood there discussing it (and we met a guy who looked pale as a ghost as he pointed to where the fire and smoke was and said "that's where my office is... I was late for work today becaue my wife wanted to make love..." We all said to him, "Wow. Your wife probably saved your life today...") the 2nd plane came in and the fireball was immense and we could literally feel the heat from it even though we were down on the ground.

At that point, people were panicking, starting to run a bit but most just stood frozen as I did. Eventually we saw shapes falling from the towers and with horror we realized that it was people. At one point a cop screamed at us to run, (rumor was going around that yet another plane was heading in) and then a stampede started. A woman with a stroller was getting bashed around and virtually trampled and I stepped off the sidewalk and in a big voice shouted, "HEY! SLOW DOWN!" (it actually worked) and helped her up and got her into the corner Starbuck's.

Part of me wanted to help as people were injured and I am a big, pretty strong guy but another voice in my head kept saying, "Get out of here, it's not safe" and I walked north, (I was actually in one of the documentaries, the A and E one, I believe which when aired the next year on the anniversary caused my sister to scream aloud in her apt. at 4am when she spotted me while watching it...) I passed Giuilani heading downtown and kept going. Stopped in the Moondance diner (now gone, I believe) and had 2 beers. The manager was freaking because his son worked in one of the buildings and he couldn't contact him. I left, continued north in shock when I saw a huge crowd running east from the west side highway. Wondering what was going on now, I asked the people running by and they said, "One of the Towers fell!" I couldn't believe that that could happen so I ran back to 8th avenue but couldn't see anything because of the smoke. A few minutes later when it cleared a bit, yep, unbelieavably one was gone. That might have been the strangest and saddest image I saw that day. Just the one Tower standing.

At this point people were crying, walking around dazed, some covered in dust, some in blood. The traffic was stopped with everyone listening to car radios, or watching TVs in stores. I milled about talking nervously with some people and then just like that, the 2nd tower went. I remember grabbing this giant guy, bigger than me and we held each other and just shouted "Jesus!" etc...

I tried to find a payphone (as I didn't yet own a cell back then) to tell my mother who knew I was downtown for jury duty that I was alright. I went into a garage and asked to use a phone, called my mom, said "MOM! I'M down here! I'm ok but I saw most of it happen!" and she said "Your sister is on an American Airlines plane out of Boston and we don't know if it was her plane yet!!!!" My heart sank but somehow I just felt that it wasn't her plane. Turns out she took off 20 minutes after to go to Seattle I believe, but she actually did saw all the people getting on the AA plane that hit the tower as they were at the gate across from hers. Her plane made an emergency landing in Rochester and all aboard thought a bomb was on the plane as the flight attendants were clearly shaken from the news they had heard in the cockpit. She landed and was then allowed to use her phone and find out what was going on. We then knew she was ok but that hour or so was horribly nerve-wracking. They wound up going back to Boston by bus and she arrived home that evening.

Back where I was, the subways were shut down so I walked up to 34th st, grabbed a 6 pack and hung out with my friends who lived there and for the first time got to see some of the TV coverage. It was more surreal and I was still in shock. I finally went home about 5pm when the trains were running again, wound up not sleeping and pretty much staying glued to the TV for days. I wound up being out of work for a few months as I was a backstage theater employee on Broadway and the show we had that was scheduled to come to our thetare, "Assasins" wherein I believe a plane is planned to get hijacked and aimed at the white house!" was cancelled for obvious reasons. Eventually I had some Post traumatic stress disorder, some panic attacks and went to a therapist for several months.

Well, for better of worse, that's my 9/11 story. Ironically it was one of the most beautiful days ever. Perfect weather with the bluest skies imaginable. To this day when I see a similar colored sky, I am a bit uncomfortable and actually prefer an overcast or cloudy day.

I hope this isn't out of place here. Sometimes I feel the need to tell the story of that day that I experienced. I currently live in California but miss NYC and want to move back. It's still my hometown and I love it.


dave

 

[cafink]

Dave, that is a horrible story but you tell it beautifully. Thanks for sharing.