Author Topic: Seven years later...  (Read 19495 times)

Shrain

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Seven years later...
« on: September 11, 2008, 10:48:51 PM »
Seven years later, even writing down the date "9/11" triggers a ripple of sadness in me. :(

This past July, I was in NY for an interview. I stayed at a hotel right across from Ground Zero. Yep, the construction was loud. But it kind of made me glad to hear evidence of rebuilding. I peered down at the site from the fourteenth floor of my room. Hard to capture how I felt. I have no idea how I would have reacted to the horrific events that day if I had been there.

Anyhow, I just wanted to say that I have not forgotten nor ever will.

« Last Edit: September 11, 2008, 11:02:46 PM by Shrain »
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GreenMonsta

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Re: Seven years later...
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2008, 11:07:47 PM »
Well done. That was a driving factor in why I joined the armed forces and I'm still proud of it today. My heart goes out to all of those who lost family and friends on this day seven years ago and to all of those who are supporting a service man or woman over seas. Stay strong, in my eyes we still stand united even though its less evident as time passes.
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Miyabi

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Re: Seven years later...
« Reply #2 on: September 12, 2008, 06:44:11 AM »
Seven years later . . .

Something should have already been built and we should move on.  I may seem like a jerk to some people, but the United States has caused much worse travesties and yet we don't morn those.  It's been seven years, we need to stop living off the past.
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darxbane

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Re: Seven years later...
« Reply #3 on: September 12, 2008, 03:02:02 PM »
Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.  I'm sorry Miyabi, but this mentality drives me insane.  3,000 people died, including hundreds of firefighters and police who willingly entered those buildings despite knowing they would very likely not come back out.  This type of self-sacrifice and should never, ever be forgotten.  I have many more reasons to remember that day, but to prevent this from degenerating into a political battle, I'll leave it alone for now.
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Miyabi

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Re: Seven years later...
« Reply #4 on: September 12, 2008, 04:36:27 PM »
Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.  I'm sorry Miyabi, but this mentality drives me insane.  3,000 people died, including hundreds of firefighters and police who willingly entered those buildings despite knowing they would very likely not come back out.  This type of self-sacrifice and should never, ever be forgotten.  I have many more reasons to remember that day, but to prevent this from degenerating into a political battle, I'll leave it alone for now.
I didn't say we should 'forget' the past.  I said we should move on and stop living in it.  If we live in it we will never move on and learn from it.  We will hold ourselves within a state of non-moving and we will be stuck, never advancing or learning.  I admire all those who sacrificed themselves to save others, I mourned those who died, but it's time to move on.
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Shrain

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Re: Seven years later...
« Reply #5 on: September 12, 2008, 05:06:24 PM »
The question is, then, what exactly you mean by "moving on" or "not living it," Miyabi. It's not like we've all stopped working and living since 9/11/01. I see nothing at all wrong with everyone sparing at least ONE day out of 365 to focus on remembering and honoring the victims and those whom they left behind. On the contrary, it would be very, very wrong not to do so.

We *have* moved on. But we will never forget and I pray that we don't get so apathetic as to *not* hold a remembrance ceremony on that day. Sure, I admit that I expected the memorial to be completed a few years ago. Yet with an event so unprecedented and horrid, it was bound to prove a difficult memorial to plan. Heck, I remember when there was talk of rebuilding the towers themselves.

Consider this: the world at large has "moved on" from WWII and the Holocaust. But most of us have not forgotten and I rue the day when that is not the case. Perhaps even more saddening are all those tragedies in other countries (Darfur, etc.) which are *not* quite as widely known and therefore never enter our consciousnesses at all.

Lastly, technically speaking, there is no way for us to "live" in these historical moments. Yet imo, re-living them (i.e., remembering them) and thus renewing our dedication to the future, is a necessary step in affirming ourselves ethical beings. So, really, I think maybe you might want to consider what would happen or what it would mean if no one ever said anything ever again about 9/11 and those who died or lost loved ones. I don't want to live in that kind of America.
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Loud_G

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Re: Seven years later...
« Reply #6 on: September 12, 2008, 06:35:06 PM »
I was just in NY again a few weeks ago and we walked down to the site (My second time since it happened). It truly is frightful. The hole in the sky where it used to be is mind boggling. I remember as a kid my parents walked us down there between the two buildings and we just looked up and up and up.

The saddest part is not the loss of the buildings, but the enormous loss of life that those two towers represent. It is staggering. I felt the blow from 3000+ miles away as I was serving as a missionary in Mexico at the time.

I agree, we cannot forget. But I also agree we need to work and make sure we learn from it.
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Miyabi

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Re: Seven years later...
« Reply #7 on: September 12, 2008, 07:02:34 PM »
The thing that bothers me is that we get extremely angry when we get attacked and three thousand people die.  Why do we apparently not care when WE KILL 94,000 people.  WHO HAD a perfect right to retaliate against us completely cutting them off from the rest of the world.
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Comfortable Madness

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Re: Seven years later...
« Reply #8 on: September 12, 2008, 07:18:17 PM »
The thing that bothers me is that we get extremely angry when we get attacked and three thousand people die.  Why do we apparently not care when WE KILL 94,000 people.  WHO HAD a perfect right to retaliate against us completely cutting them off from the rest of the world.



Hmmmm....I'll just assume those 94,000 you mention are casualties in a WAR America is in. That's the key word there, WAR. Killing enemy combatants is a whole gigantic world of difference. I do realize that in a war that sometimes innocent civilians are tragically killed. However, don't compare the COWARDS who attacked a non-military target on purpose to the American military. The American military goes to great lengths to ensure minimal civilian casualties.
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darxbane

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Re: Seven years later...
« Reply #9 on: September 12, 2008, 07:40:01 PM »
Who are you referring to?  What 94,000 people?  Do you mean Al Qaeda?  The Taliban (who we actually helped when the Soviets invaded - what a way to say thanks)?  Also, were these 94,000 people soldiers in a nation we were at war with?  Please be specific.  I can't believe people who are so adamantly opposed to any type of restriction of civil liberties somehow end up justifying the actions of a group whose lack of respect for life and  civil rights beliefs are beyond horrific.  It is totally mystifying to me.  When Rosie O'Donnell made her "hug a terrorist" rant I couldn't help but laugh at the irony of an openly gay women asking to show love to a group of people who firmly believe homosexuality is a crime punishable by death, and women in general are little more than the property of their husbands.  I guess civil rights only apply to Americans, unless of course your an illegal immigrant or a captured terrorist.  
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Miyabi

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Re: Seven years later...
« Reply #10 on: September 12, 2008, 10:44:24 PM »
See, you are all focused on this ONE incident and this ONE fight.  That is part of what I mean.  We are SO into this one thing currently that we don't see other things that are MORE important on a globular scale.  I am referring to the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
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Comfortable Madness

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Re: Seven years later...
« Reply #11 on: September 12, 2008, 11:02:05 PM »
See, you are all focused on this ONE incident and this ONE fight.  That is part of what I mean.  We are SO into this one thing currently that we don't see other things that are MORE important on a globular scale.  I am referring to the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.


I read once that the US contemplated not using the atomic bombs and drew up a plan for a full scale invasion. They estimated that  just Alliance casualties would be at over 1million. Besides that once again this was during a war. Also, the WAR with Japan has absolutely nothing to do with 9/11.
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Miyabi

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Re: Seven years later...
« Reply #12 on: September 12, 2008, 11:05:00 PM »
See, you are all focused on this ONE incident and this ONE fight.  That is part of what I mean.  We are SO into this one thing currently that we don't see other things that are MORE important on a globular scale.  I am referring to the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.


I read once that the US contemplated not using the atomic bombs and drew up a plan for a full scale invasion. They estimated that over just Alliance casualties at over 1million. Besides that once again this was during a war. Also, the WAR with Japan has absolutely nothing to do with 9/11.
I've read that same report.  Do you know WHY we were fighting them in the first place?  That seems to get lost in U.S. history, or is only vaguely referenced too, but seems to be talked about in many other countries.

I know it has nothing to do with 9/11 BUT I'm explaining that we have done SO much worse and yet we act like it's some kind of utterly inhuman atrocity that something "bad" happened to us.  Now I will agree it was probably sad, but do you know WHY THEY attacked us?

People should REALLY do research on these things, they'd find out a lot.
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Necroben

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Re: Seven years later...
« Reply #13 on: September 13, 2008, 01:23:10 AM »
I'm sorry, are you referring to Pearl Harbor?  Or maybe it was the U.S. blockade imposed upon Japan?  After, they had massacred --30 million-- Chinese.  No hears about that either.  Most don't know that the Japanese had reintroduced the Bubonic Plague, and through experiments "on human subjects" making it air-borne.  This is not the "Normal" Black Death, this was something new, and kept quiet so as to not cause panic, even now.

The thing is, if you really do your research, you find all sorts of things.  Many things have been done in the past, and by people, we hold in high regard now.  However, when everything has a first cause, how long can anyone hold a grudge?  If we judge by history, well, forever.  Nevertheless, to assume that most of us don't know, hmmm, well I cannot speak for anyone else but...  I am proud to be an American.
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Shrain

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Re: Seven years later...
« Reply #14 on: September 13, 2008, 01:50:00 AM »
Miyabi, I think part of the problem is that you're reading things in to my post that weren't ever there. First of all, I wasn't saying that 9/11 is somehow *more* important than any other tragedy. I wasn't claiming that 9/11 is the only reason why we're in a war with Iraq. NOWHERE did I say or imply, "I'm feeling kinda bummed out because it's been seven years since the terrorist attacks on 9/11, which of course were waaaay more important and outrageous than the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki." Nope. Not at all. All I was trying to convey was that this event is closer to some of us simply because it happened *here* within *my* lifetime.

That is not to diminish the importance--or impact--of  the bomb-dropping on Japan in WWII. Personally, I believe that the decision to bomb those cities was fundamentally wrong. It was evil. Just as the attack on Pearl Harbor was; just as the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon were. BUT, again, yesterday wasn't the anniversary of those attacks now, was it?

What's more, I really don't think there is no easy answer to *why* those men planned and executed the 9/11 attacks. But here's the difficulty I have with caring WHY they did it. The WHY, whatever it may be, really cannot justify the WHAT, in my opinion.

...on a globular scale.  I am referring to the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

Um, "globular scale"? You mean "global," right?
« Last Edit: September 13, 2008, 02:05:24 AM by Shrain »
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