My thoughts on September 11, 2011...

[JonnyFantastico]

Today will mark an anniversary; the tenth, exactly, of a day that will sadly forever live in infamy. On the morning of September 11th, 2001, fear entered our personal worlds with the attacks of terrorists that ended up stealing the lives of thousands of people. The nation truly found itself at a stand still and it felt like our world would never be the same. We didn't live the same way anymore after that. The attacks may have been substantial to America alone, but it was a pain the world felt with us.

Over time, we slowly found a way not necessarily to heal, but to move on. Buildings are being rebuilt, family ties got a little bit stronger and life eventually did the only thing it could do: move on.

I've read many stories since that fateful day. Living in New York, where much of the substantial wreckage took place, it was hard not to pay attention to it. Even if you reached a point where you didn't want to hear about it anymore, you still did. You still do 10 years after the fact and I'm more than certain that we all will for the rest of our lives. That day made history in truly the worst way.

There have been many specials aired regarding the events that took place that day. There are memorials and prayer services, shirts, thoughts, talk and feelings that will be expressed because of it and this is understandable. As I said, that day made history for all of the wrong reasons.

However, I will not be participating in any of them.

I know many of you are probably shocked regarding that statement. I am obviously sympathetic to what occurred on September 11, 2001. I have heard many stories and have a few of my own regarding that day... I truly thought I had lost some people in my family and inner circle on that morning. When everyone was accounted for on my end, I cried heavily and whole heartedly not only for the safety I knew they had, but for the lives lost.

There was one statement that seemed to be uttered in many different ways that day and in the days following, but it was always the same: life must go on. We will never forget what transpired on that fateful sunny morning before the world turned dark. But I honestly feel that if we continue to wallow in the pain that occurred that day, we truly have not healed from it; fear has won.

Obviously, there will always be so many feelings attached to that moment in time and they will never leave me. However, I keep my eyes forward to another day. It is truly the best way to celebrate life and that is something else we should never forget: life is extremely precious. There is nothing wrong with mourning and in my own way, I will do that as well.

But with that being said, I will do my best to go along with my life. There will be no other postings here from me regarding this day other than this note I'm sharing with you all; I feel that it's everything I personally need to say.

I said it before and I will say it again: September 11th is one of the most horrible days that many of us have been through. But we need to keep in mind that following it is September 12th... another day. I do everything in my life to see more days in this world. I truly believe that is the best way to honor those we have lost and exactly what we lost on that Tuesday morning.

We will never forget September 11th... but we must always keep in heart and mind that there must be a September 12th.

Thank you for listening.

From my heart to yours,
Jonny Fantastico

 

[etilit]

its a day in life..yes bad for me too but also my dads bday so i have many feelings about it..seems strange to celibrate..but life goes on happy 75th bday dad!!! :cheers:

 

[gb2000ie]

Listening to those names being read out for hour after hour it's impossible not to be moved. So many lives brutally cut short, and so many loved ones left behind to grieve and to mourn and to try pick up the pieces of their lives. You can't but be moved, and you can't but empathise, you just wouldn't be human otherwise.

But there is an extra tragedy in my eyes, a tragedy that multiplies hurt, and is on-going to this day, the tragedy of how loss was turned into bloody revenge and hate. Two nations are still utterly in ruins, millions are dead, thousands and thousands and thousands more than the names read out today, but those names go un-remembered in the western world because they're not westerners. Then you have rampant hate against all Muslims for the actions of a few extremist nuts. Somehow it's OK to blame all Muslims for 9-11, but not all Christians for Olso. It's somehow OK to parade in hate at NewYork Muslims trying to build a place of worship in their city. Somehow, American Muslims were spared the hurt on 9-11? I don't get it.

Bin Laden hated America and American freedoms and tolerance, how is giving up those freedoms and forging that tolerance not granting him victory? On 9-11 there was so much good will towards America, from all over the world, including Europe and the Arab nations, now, it's pretty much all gone.

I grieve for the senseless loss of life, the escalated loss of life through revenge, and the loss of the American dream of freedom for all. I grieve for the fate of Muslim Americans, now outcasts in their own land.

So much to be sad about today

B.

 

[ts885c]

thx for your kind word B ...

i'm ...... but now living in usa, i understand totally the pain of 9/11, we also suffered the same tragedy back home (bali bomb 02&05, jakarta bomb 03&04).

today, my heart and mind are with all the victims of 9/11.
someday, i would love to visit 9/11 memorial and put a rugby ball next to mark bingham name.

love not hate ..
ts

 

[777]

I just read a fantastic article about the subject , thought I'd share

Did 9/11 Make Peace Passé?
By John Feffer

 

[ritsuka]

The US government has used 9/11 as an excuse to murder millions of people, destroy thousands of buildings, communities, and lives in the past ten years. 9/11 is also used as propaganda for the ever-hungry pentagon war criminals, mercenary corporations, and weapons manufacturers to whip up new contracts, new wars, ever bigger budgets. 9/11 is a painful personal memory for me, but only because of the absolutely sickening, reactionary political climate that developed in it's aftermath, under which I was attacked by a lot of people for even suggesting that we don't all line up behind the president to launch as many wars, as much domestic repression and islamaphobia as possible; a policy of provoking more terrorism, not preventing it, not looking in the mirror at the history of state violence. I'm not interested in more of the personal tragedy of New Yorker's being pimped out in a dull patriotic glaze that doesn't recognize the other history, either of all the american's harmed in 9/11's name or the Iraqi's, Afganis, Pakistani's...

I think it really is time for a lot of people who weren't personally connected to the two towers to move on and look at what's happening in the rest of the world and try to make sure you're not complicit in pulling 9/11's on someone else.

 

[gb2000ie]

The US government has used 9/11 as an excuse to murder millions of people, destroy thousands of buildings, communities, and lives in the past ten years. 9/11 is also used as propaganda for the ever-hungry pentagon war criminals, mercenary corporations, and weapons manufacturers to whip up new contracts, new wars, ever bigger budgets. 9/11 is a painful personal memory for me, but only because of the absolutely sickening, reactionary political climate that developed in it's aftermath, under which I was attacked by a lot of people for even suggesting that we don't all line up behind the president to launch as many wars, as much domestic repression and islamaphobia as possible; a policy of provoking more terrorism, not preventing it, not looking in the mirror at the history of state violence. I'm not interested in more of the personal tragedy of New Yorker's being pimped out in a dull patriotic glaze that doesn't recognize the other history, either of all the american's harmed in 9/11's name or the Iraqi's, Afganis, Pakistani's...

I think it really is time for a lot of people who weren't personally connected to the two towers to move on and look at what's happening in the rest of the world and try to make sure you're not complicit in pulling 9/11's on someone else.

I agree with you that 9-11 was abused to strip away civil rights, spread hate, and start wars, but none of that takes away from the tragedy of the day, and none of that takes away from the need to commemorate. This was a very important day for the city of NewYork, and for anyone who lost family or friends where ever they are in the world. Those people standing up there reading out those names, and those musicians playing, they were not celebrating war or hate or the police state or the military industrial complex, they were remembering and honouring those they lost. The abuse of 9-11 also does not take away ONE JOT from the selfless sacrifice of the FDNY, the NYPD, or the paramedics who ran towards rather than away from those towers. They deserve to be remembered and honoured too, whether they survived or not.

You can both condemn the bastardisation of 9-11 into a weapon of war, while still commemorating the dead and honouring the heroes.

Today is not the day to condemn, every other day of the year is for that, today is for the victims.

B.

 

[Tom]

Thanks Ritsuka for slapping all of us very close to this situation right in
in the face!!!
Your comments don't belong here!!!!
I hope your proud of yourself.

 

[Behrluvr]

The US government has used 9/11 as an excuse to murder millions of people, destroy thousands of buildings, communities, and lives in the past ten years. 9/11 is also used as propaganda for the ever-hungry pentagon war criminals, mercenary corporations, and weapons manufacturers to whip up new contracts, new wars, ever bigger budgets.

Astounding the amount of hate filled propaganda that the left manufactures and spews out. This sentence filled with poison could have come directly from the mouths of any of the murderous imams currently stirring up trouble all over Europe, the middle east, and the world. Will the Euros come looking for help from America as one by one the European countries are islamicized over the next few years? As sharia law is instituted in the capital cities of Europe?

Will the Euros come looking for aid as gays are attacked in the islamic suburbs of London, Amsterdam, Malmo? As more and more women are forced to wear the terrible yoke of submission of the burqa on the streets of Paris? even non muslim women for their own safety as is happening today? As more and more Theo Van Gogh's are found headless in the streets?

The Euros grow weak, too feeble even to defend themselves from the onslaught underway today. Too filled with ennui, concerned only with their government pensions and how many days off vacation they get. Look at Greece, that is the future of Europe.

Meanwhile the muslim immigrants are on the move, growing powerful politically and in numbers. Eventually they will control the parliaments of most major European countries. When the vote comes for sharia, how will it go if the majority of the Parliament members are sunni, shia, or some other islamic flavor?

 

[ritsuka]

Tom, I thought I went out of my way to define my comments as being directed towards those who weren't close to the situation in my post, i.e. people who had nothing to do with it (no family, friends involved) other than living in a different part of the same country where it happened. Of course 9/11 victim's families are a different story, though many of them are fierce critics of the media/military reaction to 9/11 as well. Post 911 America is most definitely a "you don't belong here" sort of world, but I'd like to think we can include all voices in our shared history.

 

[topdog]

... Will the Euros come looking for help from America as one by one the European countries are islamicized over the next few years? As sharia law is instituted in the capital cities of Europe?

This is the fourth time today I have heard talk along these lines. It strikes me to the core. I have a very close friend who's mother (who I dearly love) and late father managed to survive the WWII concentration camps and make their way to America. After that holocaust the world vowed "never again".

Yet, here we are 75 years later, and every fearful accusation you just made about people who follow the Muslim faith echo's the warnings that spread about the Jews in the 1930s. I pray to God that we are not allowing ourselves to be pulled back into that cycle again.

 

[JonnyFantastico]

Yeah... this is not what I intended this thread to become. To the admins and mods, my total bad; just wanted to share my personal thoughts...

 

[XMan101]

Yeah... this is not what I intended this thread to become. To the admins and mods, my total bad; just wanted to share my personal thoughts...

You did nothing wrong Johnny.

This is not a political thread and certain individuals should be more sensitive to know when and where it's appropriate to spread their own particular brands of propoganda.

Upsetting or offensive posts will be removed from this thread. If you want politics start a new one please!

 

[gb2000ie]

Astounding the amount of hate filled propaganda that the left manufactures and spews out. This sentence filled with poison could have come directly from the mouths of any of the murderous imams currently stirring up trouble all over Europe, the middle east, and the world. Will the Euros come looking for help from America as one by one the European countries are islamicized over the next few years? As sharia law is instituted in the capital cities of Europe?

Will the Euros come looking for aid as gays are attacked in the islamic suburbs of London, Amsterdam, Malmo? As more and more women are forced to wear the terrible yoke of submission of the burqa on the streets of Paris? even non muslim women for their own safety as is happening today? As more and more Theo Van Gogh's are found headless in the streets?

The Euros grow weak, too feeble even to defend themselves from the onslaught underway today. Too filled with ennui, concerned only with their government pensions and how many days off vacation they get. Look at Greece, that is the future of Europe.

Meanwhile the muslim immigrants are on the move, growing powerful politically and in numbers. Eventually they will control the parliaments of most major European countries. When the vote comes for sharia, how will it go if the majority of the Parliament members are sunni, shia, or some other islamic flavor?

You seem to be under the impression that there is a religious war underway, and that Alqueda represent all Muslims. This is no more true than it is true that the loony right wing extremist preachers in the US represent all Christians. How would you feel if you were judged based on the Westbro baptist church?

Yes there are extremist Muslims, no, that does not mean all Muslims are extremist. Just like the extremist Christians do not make all Christians extremist. As for there being an imminent danger of Sharia law in Europe, that, frankly, is pathetic scaremongering. All the nations of Europe are democracies, minorities do not get to impose their wish on democracies, and the vast majority of European Muslims, just like the vast majority of American Muslims, have no interest in instigating Sharia law, they just want to live their lives, and freely go to their religious services.

I agree with you that ritsuka was out of line, but so are you, just in the opposite direction. You are both making dangerous sweeping generalisations.

B.

 

[gb2000ie]

This is the fourth time today I have heard talk along these lines. It strikes me to the core. I have a very close friend who's mother (who I dearly love) and late father managed to survive the WWII concentration camps and make their way to America. After that holocaust the world vowed "never again".

Yet, here we are 75 years later, and every fearful accusation you just made about people who follow the Muslim faith echo's the warnings that spread about the Jews in the 1930s. I pray to God that we are not allowing ourselves to be pulled back into that cycle again.

Well said!

B.

 

[Tjerk12]

This is the fourth time today I have heard talk along these lines. It strikes me to the core. I have a very close friend who's mother (who I dearly love) and late father managed to survive the WWII concentration camps and make their way to America. After that holocaust the world vowed "never again".

Yet, here we are 75 years later, and every fearful accusation you just made about people who follow the Muslim faith echo's the warnings that spread about the Jews in the 1930s. I pray to God that we are not allowing ourselves to be pulled back into that cycle again.

Wise words Topdog. It is a bit a pity that in the modern fast and furious world there is so little attention for the wisdom of age. Former prime minister of The Netherlands Dries van Agt discovered at age of 70 that he misunderstood the Palestinian situation completely during his active days. Totally amazing are the words of the wife of Freddy Heineken (one of the directors of the Heineken Brewery), the man who was kidnapped and murdered. She is in a committee that want to make it possible to free people, who are sentenced to 20 years of prison because of murder, earlier, so before 20 years. Her argument: people can change and when they do it makes no sense keeping them in prison.
Life can be complicated. My father in law survived several concentration camps during WW2. He never visited Germany again. But he had no problems with the fact that we made our holiday in Germany. Why not, he said, it is a beautiful country, I just can't.
There can only be peace when we understand each other. I understand the sorrow of the families and the friends from the victims of 9/11. I can understand their anger. It is their right to feel that. It is the duty of the politicians to do things properly.

 

[kidwiccan]

Wise words Topdog. It is a bit a pity that in the modern fast and furious world there is so little attention for the wisdom of age. Former prime minister of The Netherlands Dries van Agt discovered at age of 70 that he misunderstood the Palestinian situation completely during his active days. Totally amazing are the words of the wife of Freddy Heineken (one of the directors of the Heineken Brewery), the man who was kidnapped and murdered. She is in a committee that want to make it possible to free people, who are sentenced to 20 years of prison because of murder, earlier, so before 20 years. Her argument: people can change and when they do it makes no sense keeping them in prison.
Life can be complicated. My father in law survived several concentration camps during WW2. He never visited Germany again. But he had no problems with the fact that we made our holiday in Germany. Why not, he said, it is a beautiful country, I just can't.
There can only be peace when we understand each other. I understand the sorrow of the families and the friends from the victims of 9/11. I can understand their anger. It is their right to feel that. It is the duty of the politicians to do things properly.

I feel the same that you my friend, here and now, the only answer to the problems today is understand and not judge what others do; is not about religion or the way of expression, is about who we are.
I´m a latinamerican who think taht we can go forward in the search of peace, is the moment to think in the future, no in the past; just remember it and honor it.

 

[Tom]

Yeah... this is not what I intended this thread to become. To the admins and mods, my total bad; just wanted to share my personal thoughts...

That's what I was hoping to.
Like some of the Holiday posts where people wished each other
the best, and maybe shared a memory.

 

[chillyboi]

Very painful & disturbing

 

[777]

I feel that I need to say one thing about this, and I hope people don't see it as if I'm disrespecting anyone because that's certainly not my intention. I wish all the best for anyone who has lost someone in a terrorist attack, and hope that there will be a world where horrible things like this don't exist any longer.

I remember when the first plane crashed and we were watching probably CNN International because they didn't know at first what was happening, there was guessing that the plane's navigation system had failed and other things like that, but then when the second tower was hit it became certain that it was not an accident. We were horrified, couldn't believe something like that was really happening as we stood there. Television brings horrors very near, and I don't think there's many people who don't have any feelings about this.

I get that JonnyFantastico had good intentions, he might have not seen anything to discuss there, but we don't all have the same thoughts nor we live the same (political) reality. The post had its own brand of political views (I'm not going to use word propaganda here because it would be inaccurate) and I feel it's natural that others with different views will respond. About an issue like this, while everyone respects the victims, we do not share a common memory or common view. Saying that this is not a political thread, it means that there is only one brand of political thinking allowed.