My thoughts are with those who were lost or those who sacrificed themselves on that day.

 

9/11 means to me the demonstration of self sacrifice, be it the firefighters and law enforcement, unsung office heroes who gathered together their coworkers and brought them out of the twin towers, or a group of passengers on a jet over Pennsylvania that fought back. Now when I see a firefighter or policeman, I think of the sacrifice their brothers made on that fateful day. People who pledged their lives to keep our world safe. Those who brought 9/11 upon us meant to hurt us, instead they surfaced the strength and moral fibre of our nation, not just our nation but the culture that binds us across the globe in the spirit of God. That is the great message of that day.

 

Regards,

 

John

I am posting this media article because I believe it has a lot of merit and it is a reminder of all that we have forgotten. My thoughts go out to anybody and everybody who was affected by 9/11. But I think we also need to remember events past and present and use them all (combined) to try and get a better future for our kids. Too much racism - not enough empathy.

 

 

Why 9/11 Memory Day ####### Me Off

 

 

Today is September 11^th in the States and of course the 11^th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on that day in 2001. Yet despite this event being a significant factor in modern western history, I feel pretty ###### every year when the media is expected to saturate our senses in reminders. Not because the lives lost should not be commemorated with love, but because there are so many other tragic atrocities in our recent history, and occurring every day, that are swept under the rug without a single boo-hoo.

Who are we to act as though one life is worth more than another? Is your life more valuable if you were born in the U.S. of A? Is your death more newsworthy? Or, like trying to wring the last drops of water from a wet towel, is the annual reminder of 9/11 a continued attempt to emotionally manipulate the public opinion on middle-eastern politics for as long as possible?

Unfortunately, the terror attacks on September 11, 2001, were not the peak and epitome of human evil or natural tragedy to wipe out innocent lives. We remember some events together, such as World War II – more than 60 million people were estimated at being killed, which was over 2.5% of the world’s population at the time. The Japanese Tsunami, a natural disaster – perhaps 20,000 people lost their lives. Both the Haiti earthquake and the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami took out about 230,000 people each.

Then there are more uncomfortable memories. The United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing maybe 225,000 people. And by the end of the Vietnam War, the United States had dropped MORE THAN TWICE AS MANY bombs on Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia than the TOTAL number of bombs dropped on the ENTIRETY of Europe and Asia during World War II. That is lots and lots and lots of bombs.

NBC’s Today show came under fire today for choosing to interview Kris Jenner of Kardashian ridiculousness, and talk about her fake old tits, as opposed to, I guess, very solemnly showing footage of the second plane slamming into the World Trade Centre. What extremely hypocritical criticism, considering on a daily basis, every other day of the year, News Reporters are free to present us with the exact same type of celebrity I TRIED TO USE A PROFANITY HERE - AREN'T I STUPID! trollop they call "news", as opposed to covering actual world and social concerns.

During the Vietnam War, the public protested against it, marched in the streets, and let their voices be heard. Why the awakening? T.V’s had just started to become common, and with that, the violence of the world was brought into peoples homes, for all to see, and families were confronted by the images of war every night in their living rooms. Today technology and communication is much more advanced, but with that, our sensitivity to violence and nativity has decreased. Nowadays kids can play Grand Theft Auto video games, where they learn to have sex with prostitutes and then kill them to get their money back for extra points. So we want news to make us feel warm and fuzzy and good at the end of the day.

A few days ago I read an extremely composed, professional, an eloquent letter written by women performing a hunger strike outside the Arab League Headquarters. Described as a "group of independent female Syrian personalities" they wrote of their demands to end bloodshed, based on the concerns that, "with a new school year approaching" their children are not only deprived of an education which will prevent them from building secure futures, but also, their children are in extreme danger and exposed to the risk of being arrested, tortured, raped, and killed, on a daily basis. "The situation of the Syrian people is more than any human can endure." They said. A shocking and disgusting situation yet seemingly another event that the main stream media sweeps under the rug, while more importantly, NBC Today is criticized for featuring Kris Jenner and her fake tits, as opposed to screening repeat footage of 11 year old news.

By all means, honor loved ones who have been taken from the world, either through manmade evil or a natural catastrophe. But I do not understand why we mourn mankind so selectively. It’s been eleven expensive and bloody years since George W. Bush declared “War on Terror” but what action has been taken to prevent more innocent people being slayed in violence, no matter where they are? Do we recognize other victims, do we seek to prevent their deaths, and then protect them? Surely this would be the lesson to be learned and the best way to honor the dead.

“No man is an island, entire of itself ... Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” - John Donne

9/11, 11th or 39th anniversary ?

9/11, 11th or 39th anniversary ?

 

Don't read into it.....That is why they propaganda the '911' in the first place, to play into your psyche.

All I know is I remember that day very very clearly. And I remember the end of the day, as the horror and dread turned to numbness and then a very hard, cold anger.

 

I remember thinking that if the government of the US ever found the culprit, and that culprit was a nation, then that nation would Cease. To. Exist.

 

Period.

My company lost 4 people that day, in the planes from Boston. Every year since, we've had a short memorial ceremony with a wreath-laying on the morning of 9/11.

 

Last night, at our weekly pick-up hockey game, we lined up and had a moment of silence.

 

Never forget.

I am posting this media article because I believe it has a lot of merit and it is a reminder of all that we have forgotten. My thoughts go out to anybody and everybody who was affected by 9/11. But I think we also need to remember events past and present and use them all (combined) to try and get a better future for our kids. Too much racism - not enough empathy.

 

I think it's fairly obvious why 9/11 is so big in the west, many of us lost a friend or a relative or more in it, and of those that didn't, they likely know a friend who did. The tSunami was big, it killed many and made many homeless, but we weren't as connected and emotionally linked to it, we didn't all know someone, or have a friend of a friend there. Furthermore, the tsunami was a natural disaster, it couldn't be helped, 9/11 was not, it was committed by one of our fellow human beings. 9/11 changed everything, the way we look on everything.

 

Look at aircraft hijackings now. In the past, if you were hijacked it was a case of, "Oh no, they're going to make us fuel up and bring them to some island off the coast of somewhere and hold us to ransom, looks like I'll have to cancel my dinner plans." Now hijacking, or even disturbances on an aircraft, and everyone thinks they're going to die, and be used as some part of a suicide mission. If someone tries to hijack an aircraft now, you can bet every passenger on board is thinking the same thing and will do everything in their power to stop the hijackers, in the past it was a case of not bothering them and not standing out from the crowd and sure we'll be grand...

 

9/11 caused everyone to stop and examine what they were doing, at least it did for me and many of those around me. It's changed airport security, its changed the mind set of practically everyone in the west, the tsunami didn't, there was nothing we could have done for that.

 

Just my €0.02...

 

Regards,

Ró.

 

Oh, and we still have a news piece on the tsunami every St. Stephens day in Ireland, I'm sure many other countries still do too, we havn't forgotten that...

I haven't understood his text as something questioning the thought on the 11th Sept. 2001 victims. I've read his posting as a question on why people recall this event and seem to forget about the rest.

 

It's not like the 'war on terror' came easy for example, so besides the undoubted tragic of natural events like a tsunami, there's more to it. That's what he was saying in my humble understanding.

 

Adding to that, I think the 'the media is expected to saturate our senses in reminders' quote has quite a point. I didn't see many treads on the victims of the IRA lately for example. No offence.

 

To explain the 'offence' some more. I have a fear that people relate two things to the word 'terrorism'. 9/11 and AQ. Asking folks about other sorts of terror, other names, locations, dates, I often receive silence. Or even worse, they suddenly relate anything to AQ and what they were told in the endless repeats of planes crashing into the WTC.

 

Look at aircraft hijackings now. In the past, if you were hijacked it was a case of, "Oh no, they're going to make us fuel up and bring them to some island off the coast of somewhere and hold us to ransom, looks like I'll have to cancel my dinner plans."

I beg to differ since I doubt that e.g. some 1970 and 1980 events with bombs on board and terrorists taking people hostage had anything to do with folks just changing their dinner plans. :mellow:

 

Aircraft hijackings certainly have a history going way back to the start of commercial services and it's not like the folks just kindly ask the crews to land somewhere else.

I beg to differ since I doubt that e.g. some 1970 and 1980 events with bombs on board and terrorists taking people hostage had anything to do with folks just changing their dinner plans. :mellow:

 

Hijackings certainly have a history going way back to the start of commercial services and it's not like the folks just kindly ask the crews to land somewhere else.

I may have used a bit of exaggeration, but I think my point is valid still, in the past, you were used as a trading object something to be bargained with in return for something else, yes people were killed, but it differs from 9/11. In 9/11 there was never any intent to try and keep the people alive to use as bargaining chips, they set out to murder them all, they never gave the people a chance, where as in the past, there wasn't that malice....

 

Regards,

Ró.

I agree with you that the role of the planes on 9/11 (dreaded phrase for me, bendead points out why) came in new when it comes to the quantities in use. However, you will find 1986 and 1988 aviation incidents for example where people just blew up the plane or planned to run it into Planalto Palace, Brasilia. So the idea itself isn't new at all. Same for the idea to not even ask for negotiations.

 

Suicide bombings aren't a new thing in the history of terror. There is no intended trade in those as terror aims for spreading fear in the first place. And the guy who kills himself and innocent people without even asking for anything does just that.

 

But, and this leads us back to the posted article, the media focus defines what people recall and relate to events. No question on mourning people you knew or where close(er) to knowing. But that strange ranking which is established with repeating that one event over and over and leaving out other tragic days of human (terror) history is the disturbing fact.

 

By this, the good part on 9/11 threads should not only be a moment of silence, but also one to think about the outcome and the justification.

Bombings are different though, I mean we had that Air India flight, the Lockerbie Bombings ect, they were different though, they were blown up to make a point. In the past, Hijackings were done to gain something, be it prisoners released, money, secrets of state released ect... I guess what I'm saying it that 9/11 showed us a new side to things and changed a lot of things in peoples lives. And as I also said, we still do hear about other past disasters, and about current tragedies taking place in countries such as Syria... We just remember this one because it changed so much and effected us individually and collectively so much...

 

Regards,

Ró.

Its a nonsense point. You might as well question why there are so many books, films and documentary's on WW2 and not so many on the Falklands conflict. The fact is that 911 (once again) changed the entire world. The wealthiest, most powerful nation on earth was attacked, the towers destroyed, the pentagon damaged and the cost enormous. The airline industry slowed to a crawl as people feared to fly, and an america that at the time was slumbering a bit at the end of the Cold War then sprung to life and mounted not one but two wars, dragging many of its allies into the conflict.

 

Whole portions of the world were involved, national economies strained, hundreds of thousands killed, not by nature but by deliberate violence. Dozens of countries were affected in various ways, and are still being affected, and the damage is not even close to an end years and years later, while on its anniversary yet more violence erupts......

 

And somebody wants to know why we talk about it so much?

Bombings are different though, I mean we had that Air India flight, the Lockerbie Bombings ect, they were different though, they were blown up to make a point.

I guess you are right. And asking about the point of the WTC attacks (the one with the planes) would open up a can of worms.

 

To be clear, I don't see anything bad in posting the thread and I also see the stories from the folks about what happened that day as some interesting read. I just fear the silence when it comes to other events.

 

And somebody wants to know why we talk about it so much?

Is that how you sum up my posts? I'd say that I've pointed out why people talk about it so much and I didn't question a single one for doing so. :mellow:

I just fear the silence when it comes to other events.

I could start a St. Stephens day topic if you like to remember the tSunami victims? But not many of us were effected by that. People post topics for rememberance day, independence day, thanks giving day, Christmas day, New years day and other big events that we still keep in mind every year. The world hasn't forgotten about them, their memories just aren't as raw as 9/11. I totally understand your point though, I just think that 9/11 really stands out as it effected so many of us, where as we weren't really as effected by WWII, the tsunami, Earthquakes here and there, African Genocides ect, we were effected by this... Like I said in the first post, the "Where were you when moment of our generation". The news reels and images that day meant we all lived through the event as it unfolded before our eyes, we bore witness to the death of 3000 people, that was not the case with WWII or the likes...

 

Regards,

Ró.

I guess you are right. And asking about the point of the WTC attacks (the one with the planes) would open up a can of worms.

 

To be clear, I don't see anything bad in posting the thread and I also see the stories from the folks about what happened that day as some interesting read. I just fear the silence when it comes to other events.

 

 

Is that how you sum up my posts? I'd say that I've pointed out why people talk about it so much and I didn't question a single one for doing so. :mellow:

 

I did not reply to your specific post.