I started to post these thoughts in the random thought thread but then I realized it's too important for that. I just received two back-to-back alerts on my iPhone. I don't know if you've ever heard that particular alarm but it's loud loud loud. It's the same alert used for Amber Alerts & tornado warnings. It works! The first one was to remind me that September is disaster alert month & to be prepared for the next disaster. The second one was a link to click for instructions on how to prepare for a disaster kit. This is the first year I've experienced this. I don't know what to say (or feel) except WOW !!
I hope me posting this wasn't a downer for anyone. Maybe it is. But I think it's worth mentioning no matter what. We should always honor & remember the victims of 9-11 & their families. Maybe we should pray. But not everyone believes in prayer! So we find a way, our own way, to remember them. I believe in this very strongly.
15 years ago... There are only two clear memories of that day that still haunt my brain: (1) Goku and Vegeta, my action figures, posed on the table in a fighting pose. By coincidence, Goku's head was turned toward the TV. (2) A photo shown on the news of a woman jumping from one of the towers.
I was in Cairo the day the Twin Towers came down. My company's resident Imam came to see me just after the first tower collapsed, while the second one burned and people could be seen leaping to their deaths. Our Imam was in tears, "This is a black, black day for Islam. The people who did this are not true Muslims," he then left, apologising and sobbing. What struck me was, at that time, blame had not been apportioned. In all my years in Egypt I never met a single Muslim who lauded bin Laden or the events of that terrible day.
I felt the same way that day. I could already sense that people would be blaming all of Islam for this.
I'm confused. Why would he say that it was a black day for Islam if those that were responsible for the attack were not true Muslims?
Because he knew they'd inevitably be blamed for it and tarnish the religion as a whole in the mind of many in the world.
So his first reaction was to think about himself and his fellow Muslims instead of the people trapped in a burning building?
Are you being deliberately obtuse? His JOB was to think about his fellow Muslims. He knew in his heart where the finger of blame would be pointed and it shook him to the core. I can assure you he was as appalled at the loss of life as we all were.
I had the same reaction the Imam had: horror and the realization that all of Islam would be blamed for this. Granted I was twelve at the time, does that mean I didn't care what was happening?
So you're saying you cared about a group of people other than your own? That's commendable, Link. If everyone else thought like that, the world would likely be a better place.
Oh gee, thanks for twisting my words into something I didn't even say. I'm beginning to think you have an agenda here. Of course I felt for my own people. I felt for both. But I was TWELVE-YEARS-OLD at the time. I had absolutely no context of what the hell was going on besides that two towers were burning and collapsing. Then I heard the words Muslim and Islam and I slowly began to connect the dots. If anything, I had a dull realization that this was going to suck for everyone. In case it escapes your notice, let me put it in bold red so a blind child could see it: I FELT FOR BOTH GROUPS -- THE INNOCENTS DYING, AND THE INNOCENT MUSLIMS WHO WOULD BE BLAMED FOR THIS. But please, continue to believe that I didn't give two shits about the innocent men and women who died in 9/11, that I only cared about Muslims. It's obvious you have an agenda and nothing I (or anyone else here, frankly) say will change it.
Well that went south quickly For what its worth I remember my boss at the time ( a white christian woman) having the imediate reaction that "we were all fucked because 'the palestinians' had just started the third world war" - that is that her first thought was not for the victims but the impact it would have on her and her friends. The other thing I remember is that in the UK , where we've a history of terror attacks courtsey of the IRA it didnt imediately have the same gravity and a lot of us sort of shrugged and got on with our daily lives (especially as the first reports were that it was a light plane , and not everyone knew what the WTC was anyway) The thing that stuck with me later , probably due to my ex forces background , was the sheer bravery of the NYPD and NYFD officers running into the towers while everyone else was running out. I really hope their families were looked after propperly later , in the Uk we have a terrible record on looking after the families of those that die for their country, and i just hope that the Us is different.
9/11 in this thread! pardon me but I think it's a little crappy to take a thread about tragedy & loss & turn it into a place to excise your personal boils & carbuncles but what the heck, let freedom ring! Sorry, having a bad couple of days. Mother Teresa will soon become a saint. Just watching on the news. That's worth talking about too, imo - the way they determine who a 'saint' is. Very interesting! Involves real miracles which I think is very cool. I believe in miracles.
I was thirteen at the time, and our school told us nothing about it. A fellow classmate ran into our science class and said, "New York just got bombed!" Our teacher quickly quashed the idea, saying that wasn't true, but he didn't elaborate. I went the entire school day having no idea what had happened. It was just like any other day. But then I got on the school bus and knew something was wrong. All I remember was the gas stations. Every pump had a line of cars, waiting to fill up. All I could do was stare and wonder. Why were so many people there? What had happened? I got home and turned on the TV. Every station was covering the collapse. I sat on the couch and watched. My mom came home, said something I don't remember, and went to a different room. I stayed there all night, watching the coverage. Eventually it got dark, but I didn't even get up to turn on a light. I just sat there. I don't think I'll ever forget that day.
Going back to @cydney's OP, how many of you have read this? http://thefederalist.com/2016/08/26/german-government-recommends-stockpiling-prepare-terrorist-attacks/
I remember that day vividly too. What I remember vividly as well is what a friend of mine told me a few years later. He lived in New York at the time. He said he couldn't forget climbing on a train covered in ash.
Something else that really bothers me is when any attempt to have sympathy for the terrorists & how that gets all mixed up with Muslims & Islam. What is the answer to that? I have no idea. Ongoing issues ....
Well when you have a fanatic that has an agenda, this is when things get really troubling. Just because you simply believe that a culture is bad (mainly any that don't believe exactly what you believe) then they must die. Now I know that not all of that faith believe that part of their religion, but there are others that do. Is it right to take a faith and use it as a weapon? No. It was wrong when the Crusades happened, it was wrong during the Inquisition, and now it is wrong when the extremist element of Islam did it. Seems there is no major religion that cannot in some fashion stop itself from going through a very dark phase of 'Convert or Kill'. Faith based on a deity of love and compassion, or one of peace, does not require such malicious things. But here is the catch, all deities are based off of human design. And so no matter how 'perfect' they are writ to be, will always be flawed. Which brings us up to speed on the current which is now simply put, opposing ideologies trying to snuff the other out. Though it was a tragic event when the planes hit the towers, that was only the catalyst to lure us into a war. And to be one of a crippling nature to our country, so that once sufficiently crippled would be much easier to conquer. Very old world thinking using modern means. The single terrifying fact is that the fanatic followers don't have any sense of self or others, and that is what makes them so effective at keeping this retaliatory/religious war going. In effect causing somewhat of a stalemate as neither side can actually win. I hate to end on a negative note on the anniversary of yet another dark moment in humanities history, but it bares saying that there will be no peace as long as their are those that take their gospel for fact and then use it to great devastating effect. It is an act of childish petty need to appease something that was made up as guidelines to be a decent human being, not run around slaughtering people with impunity with a thinly veiled excuse.
I always wonder if something awful will happen again on Sept. 11 when it arrives - that in itself is a form or outcome of terrorism. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that way. It goes on and on.
