On the seventh anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in US history

[thatcrazycajun]

Seven years ago today, I watched as what was then my city had its heart ripped out of it and nearly 3,000 people were killed there and elsewhere by a handful of angry, fanatical Middle Eastern men. Today, I sit in what has become my new city, several hundred miles to the south, and contemplate that day and what has happened—and what has not—in the intervening time.

A part of me will always remain in New York, NY, in no small measure because of all the friends I have there...and because of what happened there on a clear early-autumn morning while I watched in shock and horror. I still remember the frantic messages back and forth on the Net and phones that day, trying to verify that all whom we cared about were safe. I also still feel a frisson of chill down my spine knowing that, but for the vagaries of fate and temporary employment, I might well have been in that square mile working that morning. As it was, I sat in my apartment in Queens, just across the river, and whispered, "Jesus Christ, NO!!!" as first the north, then the south tower fell. And I remember how God-awful hard it was to come to terms with the realization that what I was watching was utterly, terrifyingly real—not some special-effects-laden movie or TV series, with a miniature World Trade Center being toppled as a Panavision camera filmed it in slow motion. This was emphatically not fiction.

Today, our ports and nuclear plants are no safer than they were then, and our airlines only marginally so. The man who organized and headed the group that plotted and carried out this obscenity remains at large, and his group has new bases in the mountains of Iraq and Afghanistan. And the only reason we have gone so long without another such assault, despite what conservatives and Republicans will insist, is not because our supposedly stalwart leaders have taken steps, but rather because we have enjoyed a stupendously good run of luck. And the area known as Ground Zero, where I used to labor sometimes, has had minimal progress in rebuilding at best.

Today, religious ceremonies are being held. Bells are being rung, and names are being read. And this is as it should be. The two major political parties' presidential candidates, while restraining themselves admirably as they visit the site itself, have not let pass the opportunity to speak elsewhere and attempt to turn the solemn occasion to their advantage. Nor do I have a problem with that, as crass and tacky as it may seem; robust political debate is at the heart of what America the nation is, and of who we Americans are. And today is a very good day to remember what it means to be an American.

I am not going to tell you how you should observe this day...except perhaps, to spare a moment of thought and silence for the dead. (And to say "thank you" to the families of those lost on United Airlines Flight 93, for their loved ones having saved the lives of still more—including some more of my friends—in the DC area.) And I suspect that is not something you need to be noodged into doing anyhow. But after today, let us remove whatever roadblocks remain to finishing the rebuilding...and then, let us come together as one people and choose leaders who will help us to rebuild the part of our country and ourselves that is not made of bricks and steel and concrete, that still remains torn and broken from this atrocity.

Comments

Yes....

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

You write really well, and although nobody but you would have written it exactly like this, I still believe you spoke for a lot of us. Thanks for posting.

Nate

Re: Yes....

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for your kind words. I am glad what I wrote was appreciated, though I wrote it as much for myself as anyone else who might read.

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

I woke up that morning and turned the TV on for the Weather Channel just in time to see the second plane hit its target. I immediately became very concerned for all my NYC friends -- but especially you, since I remembered you telling me not long before that you were working in that part of the city. I hope the email I sent (if you ever got it) wasn't too incoherent.

Peace and light to all those we lost that day, and to their families and friends.

I Was Disappointed in Myself.

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

Because the first thing I thought was:
Well, it took long enough.
And the second was: Hey, the Empire State Building is the tallest building in New York again.

Re: I Was Disappointed in Myself.

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

Me too. Because one of my first thoughts (hey, I was in shock, right--right?) was, thinking strictly as an architecture geek, At least it wasn't the Chrysler Building.

But my actual first thought was, So it's finally happened. I always expected a repeat at some point of the 1993 attack and, as far as I could tell, next to nothing had been done to prevent a recurrence. I'd really hoped I was wrong about that.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

It's not the leaders that will do the rebuilding. It's us. You and me and a hopefully-growing number of folks like us who lift our heads and say, "No, it doesn't have to be like this" and do whatever it takes to make it stick.

Safe is an illusion. Freedom is reality... and the best remembrance.

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

Point taken, and two points to you. You made me edit this thing again! Stipulated that we, the people will have to do the heavy lifting. But we do need leaders to set the tone, make the right policies for the government agencies that are involved, and motivate enough people to get it done.

[singingpatient.livejournal.com]

yes and to STOP using 9/11 as a divisive opportunistic topic!

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Very well thought and written.

My own anniversary post is here.

But I didn't remember this until reading your post.

[singingpatient.livejournal.com]

i did not know you were living in NY city in 01.
i think i met you at gafilk that year and have seen you in the georgia area ever since. so i figured you for an atlanta (or louisiana) guy through and through. well maybe just through. you are after all a sensitive computer jock, not a redneck.

i was asleep, in california, at 9am on sept. 11, 2001. i spent the next... who knows how long trying to actually grasp it as reality.

i'll never understand it.

i was proud of our country for coming together. but now i am ashamed of our leaders for exploiting this... event.

i was living not far from atlanta then, and returned (by plane) to clemson (via atlanta) about 5 days later.

one additional travesty perpetrated on our own has been the lies and neglect of those who worked in the middle of ground zero immediately following, for which I am also ashamed of our leaders. I'm in NJ now, so i still see the stories in the paper of workers dying of lung disease after 7 years of having their disability claims ignored.

tuesday i travel to england, and i don't know whether to apologize on behalf of the part of america who knows how wrong we have been about so many things, or ... to pretend i'm from canada! eh?

[thatcrazycajun.livejournal.com]

I lived in the wormy Big Apple from 1996 to 2002, in three of the five boroughs at one time or another; in Philly after that for about 10 months before moving here; and before NYC, in the DC area from 1989-2006 and New Orleans from 1985-88 after graduating from LSU in Baton Rouge. I spent more than a decade working my way up the East Coast from Louisiana, only to wind up back down South in the end. Oh, the irony...

And don't be ashamed to admit you're American. Let people know that not all of us are behind the Bush/GOP Regime's idiocy.