posted
[I wrote this in response to Ryan's September 10th thread, but I waxed philosophical and decided to make a memorial thread instead.]
Two years ago today I too was on an LDS mission...in Brazil. I kind of feel left out of all the stories because I wasn't in the US that day. It's amazing how fast I heard about it down there too.
If I remember right, we were only an hour ahead of NYC time, so I did see some live footage of the Pentagon on fire. I still was having trouble figuring out exactly what had happened because we didn't have more than 5 minutes to watch the TV at a member's house. We just kept working.
My companion at the time was American and brand new so she didn't speak the launguage well...we were in a new area, so no one knew us. But everyone we passed would mention something to us about what had happened or give us an update.
I remember not fully understanding the extent of the lives lost and damage done and the terror felt by all of you and those involved. I was just working hard in a different place. Everyone would give me an update like "Your country is dropping bombs on Afghanistan..." or something like that. It wasn't until a month later, when I received the magazines and newspapers and tapes and letters from my family describing their reactions and feelings. The pictures were extensive and graphic. This is when I finally started to cry about it for the first time. (This was late October. I just had a delayed reaction.)
I was so grateful for September 11, 2002. I was glued to the TV, watching the replays and the memorial services. I was so grateful to see it almost in the way that you saw it that day, so that I could share in that feeling. In February of this year, I had the great privilege of visiting Ground Zero in person. What a humbling and moving experience. nearly one and a half years later, there were still throngs of people at that sight. We read the names of heroes on the plaques, we looked at the gaping hole. We took pictures of the new street sign next to the new construction that read "Liberty St." We stood with our faces pressed up against the fence to read a sign that said "Never Forget" and weep.
I hope we are reminded every year of how awful it was, how great the people were, and how deep of a wound those attacks made.
[edit to yank the link. It worked for me, but wasn't working for others.]
posted
And I pray that we can heal those wounds, and the ones made by all the purveyors of terror and death and torture around the world. I just pray that we can remake the world into a place where such things no longer happen, where people grow up feeling safe and immune from such disasters, at least those initiated by their fellow humans. Let us band together and spring into action to help each other to fight the natural type of disaster from now on. Earthquakes, fires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, those are quite enough. May our hearts be softened toward one another. May we learn to love one another as He loves us. May we learn to be civilized. Amen.
Posts: 2843 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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Narnia, your link doesn't work, I think that server doesn't except link redirects. When I copied the link and pasted it in my URL window it worked,
I had a fender bender on 9/11, a minor one on the way to work. I didn't care about my car (20+ years old, minor fender bumps), but the car I ran into had some expensive damage. The accident was my fault, so I told the lady to call me, maybe I could pay her some cash instead of both our insurance rates going up. I never heard from her, either it slipped her mind for a while or she just decided to give a fellow American a break.
Me and my foreman heard about it soon after the first plane hit, another survey crew called us. Then our morning Blues show interupted with a news break (they never do that.) The buildings seemed to collapse so fast, I was sure there were going to be 10,000 to 20,000 casualties in the WTC. After that, we listened to the radio all day while going from survey to survey.
The area of the city that we covered for our land survey company included Hartsfield In'l Airport, Atlanta's main airport. By some measures, the busiest in the world. There are always planes visible or at least in earshot. After the national fleet grounding of all civilian aircraft, it became so eerily quiet. This is when it really hit me, I was witnessing history, a tragedy that Americans would remember as long as Pearl Harbor, and as bitterly.
I'll never forget those days in the aftermath of 9/11, when the fleets stayed grounded (2 days? 3?) I am an aviation nut, and one of the things I liked abou working outside was watching all the planes fly around while working. Those days, the skies seemed so empty, silent, lifeless. As if the very heavens were holding their breath, in mourning. Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
At the time, I was working at a company that sold used buses, cleaning them. While I was up on a ladder scrubbing the top of a bus I could hear my coworkers talking beyond the wall that separated me from the next bay, something about a plane that had crashed. I figured it was another accident--I was sad, but it didn't sound like anything unusual. But they kept talking and talking and finally I got down from the ladder and went around. No one was sure what had happened. It wasn't until the radio mentioned the second plane that we realized it was an intentional attack.
My coworkers were all very opinionated people. Within a few days I was quietly squirming as they talked about how we should reduce Afghanistan to one huge graveyard and maybe not stop there. It was how I felt, sometimes--sometimes I still feel that way--but it's not something I would act on. Even one of the owners, a deacon at the church I attend, joined in the Arab-bashing. I was already miserable, and now I was ashamed too. Stupid terrorists!
quote:Within a few days I was quietly squirming as they talked about how we should reduce Afghanistan to one huge graveyard and maybe not stop there. It was how I felt, sometimes--sometimes I still feel that way--but it's not something I would act on. Even one of the owners, a deacon at the church I attend, joined in the Arab-bashing. I was already miserable, and now I was ashamed too. Stupid terrorists!
Um. Unless your co-workers are terrorists, I think you mean stupid Americans. And they are. Oh, they are.
What frustrates me most about 9-11-01 is that it was a tragedy. And yet, Bush has raped it to the extent that expressing remorse for the deaths of thousands is somehow expressing support for his disastrously violent foreign policy, tax cuts to the rich, and attacks on civil rights. Also, the media and Americans in general have so abused 9-11 for ratings or sympathy that I find it nearly impossible to take threads like this seriously; no doubt Narnia's regret is genuine, but god knows how many people I've come across who enjoy 9-11 as little more than an excuse for feeling tragically proud of themselves and (sob) this great country of ours, GOD BLESS. It's ridiculous.
What would have made such posturing unbearable is if I had actually lost someone. On that day, I was frantic, trying to contact a dear friend (possibly my dearest) who lived in the city. If he had died that day, I would never forgive the artificial, sympathetic head-nodding and eye-tearing by these jackass Americans who were and are looking for an excuse to feel, as I said, tragic.
Posts: 3293 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Lalo, you're rediculous. Of course none of these people could be as legit in their remorse over what happened as you. Posts: 879 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Hmm... I was just starting a 6-hour lab that morning, so I didn't find out about it until much later in the afternoon. Although, it's funny, primarily what I think of when I think of 9/11 was how sad I was that GWB decided to thank almost every country in the world except Canada for their assistance in the aftermath of the strikes. This makes me feel kind of guilty, that my first thoughts aren’t of sympathy for the families but irritation at a slight. Kind of pathetic of me, really.
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
I'm not sure to what extent I will ceremonialize this day. I think I will remember my feelings of horror and disbelief when the events occurred, and the terrible slow pain of the days that followed. I will feel grief for those who lost their lives that day or who lost loved ones.
I won't be watching the news all day. To me, that isn't remembrance but simply drudgery. I will try to attend the memorial service in the Provo Tabernacle, because I think this is a remembrance that needs to be shared by many people. But part of me wants to keep this day simply a day of quiet thoughts.
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
I was in a federal courthouse in downtown Detroit that morning. I was there, along with other disability activists, to sit in on the latest conviction appeal of Jack Kevorkian. We had our press releases ready, which stated we were happy to see him stay in jail.
The court started a little late. When the court did open, the justices made mention of a tragedy and asked for a moment of silence. I knew then that something major had happened. Moments of silence aren't done lightly in federal courtrooms.
As soon as the hearing was done, we were told to vacate the building. When I arrived downstairs in the lobby, I started to get fragmented accounts of what had happened. The only thing I figured I could do at that point was to head for the Greyhound station to bus back to Chicago (fits the typical activist budget).
When I arrived there, they told everyone to leave the bus station. And then they locked the doors.
So I was stranded - in downtown Detroit. No cell phone. The pay phones were all in the locked bus station. Not only that, as I was to find, malls and other public facilities were also closed.
I walked until I hit a very seedy bar. I called a Detroit disability organization and explained my dilemma. To make a long story short, I was able to take a cab there and they put me up in a hotel for the night.
Once at the hotel, I got to call my family in upstate NY to tell them I was OK. Getting ahold of my partner Diane was trickier, since she was also on the road. I left a voice mail on her office phone and she was able to call me at the hotel.
Finally, once I was settled in the room, I began to watch the TV and actually get the story of what had happened. None of it really hit me right then and there. I was still too personally stressed out and numb.
The next day, the bus station was open again, and I was able to travel back to Chicago. I don't recall ever feeling quite so grateful to get home.
Posts: 4344 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
I was in Boston on a conference trip when it happened. I heard about it when I got in the elevator to go downstairs, and the other ladies sypmathized with me for being late. "We couldn't tear ourselves away from the TV either." Wha???
Once in the conference, everyone was talking and they were wheeling in televisions so we could watch CNN. There was only one computer there, and thirty people stood in line to e-mail that they were all right. (The two WTC planes took off from Boston.) The room was watching CNN when the second plane hit the second tower.
People started doing anything to get home. The airport was, of course, closed, and people were taking busses and renting cars. One gentleman bought a car to drive home to Arizona to reach his family. About half the conference left. Those that remained held the conference anyway - heck, everyone was there = and we just went home on Sunday instead of Saturday. Sort of scary, though.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
You konw what's strange? I don't remember this day because of the World Trade Center attacks. It never really had that impact on me then, and it doesn't now. I remember the aftermath.
I remember the letters in the local newspaper slamming Arabs six ways to Sunday.
I remember people talking about how we were going to go out and kill the <insert favorite curse word here> that did it.
I remember flag fever and rampant patriotism. I remember being told to unite behind the President...like it or not.
I remember listening to the death tolls from Afghanistan and, now, Iraq.
If I remember anything on this day, it's...how fragile peace is. How easy it is to stir up a bloodlust and a patriotism craze in a country. How war affects not just the fighters, but civilian as well. In a way, it was the day that my nice, orderly world collapsed. But not because of the bombings. Because of what we did afterwards.
Posts: 3658 | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
If your world collapsed because of how we reacted, then how would you imagine the best way to react? The fact that there are people out there who hate America enough to attack its innocent civilians was enough for some people to realize how special the United States are, and how much they've taken for granted. What were Americans supposed to do?
Posts: 879 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Sorry, cyruseh...I'm not going into that argument again last year. Suffice it to say that I believed we could do SOMETHING other than bombing the offending country into the ground. Noone else did. Maybe I'm wrong...maybe it's NOT wrong to kill people. Posts: 3658 | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
Er, Lalo, I was complaining about the results of the attack as a whole. "Stupid terrorists" was not intended to apply to my coworkers.
Posts: 1041 | Registered: Feb 2002
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I'm kind of getting tired of people saying "we did the wrong thing," but never coming up with any suggestions of what the right thing might have been or might be right now.
I bet the Afghan girls and women who can go to the doctor/hospital and who can go to school are pretty happy for U.S. actions there. (Just a guess).
What other thing could we have done to make that change? Please be specific.
BTW, there is nothing wrong with patriotism. But true patriotism requirest that one be absolutely willing to look at one's country with open eyes, and actually MAKE SOME SUGGESTIONS. It also requires some of us to sacrifice to help make those suggestions work.
So tell me, dear Human (and others): What else? What would you have done?
Posts: 524 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
I don't know, William...maybe we could have just LEFT THEM THE HELL ALONE! Maybe we could have given them one less reason to hate us! Maybe we could have found another way to get what we wanted than storming in and bombing them and shooting them, then leaving them with almost nothing we promised them! What did we do for them? We promised money, education, reconstruction! Instead we moved on and bombed something else!
Maybe I don't know what the hell we could have done instead. But I know that what we did wasn't RIGHT. Killing isn't right, no matter what the reason! Or maybe I'm just the stupid one.
Posts: 3658 | Registered: Jan 2002
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quote:Thank you, Canada. Thanks for being our friend so often. I love Canada. Really.
I know it doesn't mean as much coming from me as it would have from GWB, but thanks.
Sweet William, it means something to me. Thank you. My husband is Canadian, and I never felt closer to our northern neighbor than I did in the wake of September 11, 2001.
Canada accepted the planes diverted from the US -- planes which were diverted from major airports because those planes might also hold terrorists.
When the planes landed in remote locations up North, they usually landed in towns with small populations and few to no hotels. What did the Canadians do?
They housed the Americans in their own homes, in their own beds. They cooked meals for them, clothed them, and comforted them.
I posted a medium-sized message arguing with Human. I'm not gonna do it. I think the reasons it was necessary to do as we did are obvious, and though for me it's always open season I'm not going to ruin other Hatrackers' remembrances by turning this thread into a debate.
If people such as myself and Sweet William really see the need, we can open another thread. Let's keep this one uncluttered.
CT, I didn't know all that good stuff about the Canadian valor of 9/11. I think that is so cool and I'm glad you shared it with us. Thanks! Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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posted
at the time, I did not have a job, though I had a resume in, and shortly after, I did get the job that I still have today. But since I had no job, I was still sleeping. My dad came in to my room, and said, John you have got to come and look at what is on the tv, one of the world trade towers is on fire. So I got up and walked in to his room where he had it on. The flames were big and just the one tower was on fire. Then they went back and showed a replay of what had just happened, where an airplane had struck the tower. I could not believe it. What kind of a freak accident was this? Then it went back to the live shot, the tower burning, and then out of the side of the camera comes an airplane striking the other building. I told my dad, and he said it was just a replay, but I said, no both towers are burning now, its not an accident, these were deliberate. Who would have done this? was my first thought. I remembered the attack back in 92, and immediately relized, not who, but what kind of person would have done this, I realized that it was another "islamic crazy". Then the pentagon was struck, and reports of a plane down in some field. I wondered, how many more were planned. I thought that many more were coming, fortunately, I was wrong. I prayed for those that were in the tower, and hoped that everyone was getting out. Then the towers came down, and I thought, this is insane. So many people, got up, went to work, and died.
The events that happened, though they are its own event, was also a wake up call. Many people accepted the call, others got bitter. I was always "patriotic" so not much changed in me personally in that respect but it was a welcome change to see flags flying. I dont care what other countries think about our freedom, about our philosophy, this is our country, and this is how we want it, and I am proud of it.
Posts: 879 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
September 2001 came shortly after August 2001, which was the month my life fell apart.
I was having trouble sleeping most nights, and had woken up early that morning. I turned on the TV to see the weather, and they were all talking about a plane that hit the WTC, and there was lots of confusion. I wasn't entirely clear what was going on (well, neither were the newscasters), and it was pretty early to call anyone out here. But I knew my dad woke up early, so I called him, and told him to turn on the TV or go online.
Just after I got off the phone with him, the second plane hit. I called back my dad, hysterical and panicky.
Somehow or other, I helped the kids get ready for school, fed them breakfast, made them lunches. On the drive to school, I listened to the radio. There was some discussion about there being more planes, I don't remember the details, I just remember being terrified.
At their school, I exchanged what I knew with what others knew. A whole cluster of worried parents, trying to figure out what was going on.
Then it was decided that the school was going to close for the day. (All the Jewish day schools in L.A. closed that day.)
So I was enlisted to make phone calls to parents to come get their kids. No, nothing has happened, it's just a precaution. Yes, there will be someone here until (sometime midmorning, I don't remember).
Then, home. To deal with kids who were confused, and really only old enough to know that something was wrong, and it had to do with planes.
Together with the Sbarro bombing in Israel weeks previously (where someone I knew had been killed), I kept feeling torn between my grief and pain, and the knowledge that things could be so much worse -- and were, for many people, including some that I knew personally. OTOH, I kept feeling that I could deal with all this tragedy so much better if I hadn't just had my life fragment.
posted
EDIT: I respect and mourn every single person killed in the horrible events of two years ago. I remember sitting in class, listening to the radio and crying on that day. This post is perhaps misplaced... but I feel like I need to say it, because of what came as a result of september eleventh. Please excuse my... views if they bother you.
This morning, before the national anthem, I was asked to stand for the twenty-four Canadians killed on september the eleventh. As stood it was all I could do was bite my tongue, and refrain from saying; What about the Americans, who were the target? What about the other nationalities who were killed? What about the terrible backlash against terrorism that september eleventh caused and the civilian death because of it? What about the hundreds of other wars going on around the world?
It is the same on Rememberance Day, when we remember the Canadians. Oh and the other millions that have lost their lives.
It makes me so angry. If you expect to be considered a globally aware and sensitive country you have to make your country stand in silence for the whole world, instead of selfishly standing only for yourself, and only for your select friends.
I remember all victims who died on that day, and all who died as a result of that day.
posted
Wow. I'm sorry, Morbo. I didn't mean to get on the bad side of anyone.
I know my knowledge is limited, but also I know there have been hundreds of wars in the past that Canada has not been involved in and at the ceremonies I attend, other deaths are never mentioned. I want people to recognise people other than their nation out loud and in general.
That's all.
EDIT: I remember everyone myself and I believe that any rememberance day is a thousand times better than none... I'm sorry that you misunderstood me.
posted
No problem, you're not on my bad side. Just a bad day, though not on the Epic Mini-series scale of Mac's bad day.
A tragedy like 9/11 affects people in different ways, and critisizing memorials just seemed a little whiny, that's all. Already deleted post where I jumped on you OK?
edit:Good point. I think people from 40 or more countries died in the attacks.
posted
Thanks for understanding, Morbo. I really don't want to whine... I've never actually been to a funeral, other than a Rememberance Day.
September Eleventh was a deliberate attack on America, and my school mentioned only Canadians. I felt bad about that.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
What I remeber: I was in eighth grade at the time, school had been on for a week.
It happened at the end of first period, we weren't told about it. My world studies teacher later said she found out only a few minutes after the bell rang.
Second period, one could here helicopters and fighter planes roaring overhead. The usual drone of small planes flying to the nearby Airpark.
Third period Health class, teacher comes in, whispers something to another teacher, some horrified looks exchanged.
Other students were being called down to the office to go home in -droves-. In my fifth period class (we were on block schedule: first, third, lunch, fifth, PREP, seventh), there were maybe seven people.
By now, we all figure that something is very wrong here and nobody wants us to know. So the usual thing happens. This is middle school, people, rumors spread like wildfire.
Lunch came after fourth period, when I did what I normally did; went down to the library, go on the internet, etc, etc.
Walk into the library. No adults, whatsoever, just the usual seven or eight of us kids that always come there.
And, we were forbidden to go on the internet. Didn't ponder over that, just grabbed a book to read.
The bell rang, I went back to my locker to put away my stuff, and amble into Fifth period French class, where our teacher tells us what happened.
We wonder why someone would take a Cessna and crash it into the World Trade Center.
She says it was a commercial airliner.
She doesn't say that the twin towers don't exist anymore. She doesn't say that the Pentagon was hit by an airplane. Next obvious question, why didn't they tell us earlier. There wasn't an answer to that.
Next class is the usual twenty minute sliver of time called PREP (Plan, Review, Evaluate, Prepare) usually gives a little time to do homework.
The principal gives an announcement, school will close early, no school tomorrow. Nobody cheered.
We go home, watch TV, watch the towers fall again and again, watch the pentagon burn, watch people dance in the streets chanting down with the USA in a nation halfway around the world...
The media isn't always a good thing, is it?
Posts: 3617 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
I remember waking up and the TV being on, with the apartment empty. The channel was ESPN and I sat down to watch... only the weren't talking about sports. I was drowsy fromijust waking up and so it took me until they said "The World Trade Center towers are gone" before I figured out what was up.
I remember my first reaction was a combination of disbelief and "something like this finally happened." Truthfully, I didn't know what to think. It seemed like something out of an action movie.
Most people said they felt a lot of grief on that day. I would have too if I had known people in the crashes or had been in those two cities at the time. But the truth is, I witnessed something else that in some sense cancelled out the grief. I was completely amazed at the fact that people all over the place were so concerned that they pulled everything to a halt. I live in a society where people don't seem to care that much about anything, unless it happens to themselves. But that day they all came together in a way that I had never witnessed before - probably because it was the sort of event I had never seen before. And truth be told, I was amazed by that show of solidarity.
Later on I finally began to realize what all this meant. It meant the world was going to be different. It meant a lot of lives were gone, and I was quite certain it was going to cost the lives of more than just those killed in the four attacks that day. (I was right.)
Looking back, it seems now like it all fits into a natural progression - that we should have seen 9/11 coming. In fact, I think we did see it coming. No, we didn't see planes hitting buildings, but time and time again we heard about the threat of terrorism and those possibilities that seemed so outragous at the time. The state of the world pointed straight towards 9/11 - the ever-rising conflict of Jihad and McWorld, the U.S. near-hegemony, the ridiculous degree of fanaticism taking hold in parts of the world, and the ever-advancing threat of technology that makes killing easier and easier. We should have seen 9/11 coming and I think we did - it just didn't become real to us until it actually happened. I suppose that's how it always is.
Equally predictable was the degree of insanity that would plague everyone after the events of that day. We were going to lash out. We did. And predictably it has solved little, killed many, and angered many more. It all follows a clear progression - but although hindsight may be 20/20, the question of the future still looms.
The threat still looms bigger than ever. The war continues. 9/11 was not the end, and nor was it the beginning. It was the point when our problems finally emerged from the clouds of the future and made themselves known. Now, two years later, we still don't have the solution to these problems, and the worst may even be yet to come. But, I think we are headed in the right direction. Whereever this progression is taking us (and it has already taken us placed I'd rather not have gone, but that we nevertheless had to go), I think it will lead ultimately to a solution. I think the world, including both Al Qaeda and U.S., needs to learn some lessons. I think we will have to do it the hard way, but it will get done.
This is what I look back at 9/11 as. It was terrible and likely inevitable, as much as some would like to blame Bush for failing to stop it. It was part of the path to whatever the next step for all of us is. And in a way, I think it was an amazing day. It was a day when terrorists would sacrifice their lives for the cause of fighting what they percieved as evil, and when we would decide to dedicate ourselves to the same (and yet strangely opposite) cause. And, most importantly, it was a day in which everybody came together in a way I would have never believed possible. I think that alone is enough to tell us that, despite whatever terrible things happened or will happen, there is a lot of good in the world. A whole lot.
Posts: 8120 | Registered: Jul 2000
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posted
I was born on September 11. It's always been my favorite day of the year. Not only is it my birthday, but the weather has been beautiful on that day as long as I can remember. I have a loving, affectionate family who will take me out to eat or give me presents and make an extra effort to see or call me on that day.
The terrorist day was beautiful, too. Clear blue sky, perfect weather. I was joyfully preparing to go out with my sister for lunch. My husband called and said something about people not forgetting my birthday. I was half-listening, for my mind was busy with birthday plans and my eyes were on my little girl, who was making mischief while Mommy was on the phone. Michael said, "You might want to turn on the t.v." And he had to return to his work.
I did. And I saw. Right as the second plane crashed into the towers live on t.v. And I sat on the floor and watched. And I knew it was an act of war immediately. And I knew we would go to war, and I feared that it would be a long bloody battle. For whomever could and would do such an act had the power and the will to strike our Mainland! And I could foresee the reactions of my fellow Americans. I knew there would be war.
After a time, I got up with my little girl and went to meet my sister at my mom's house. We did not go out to lunch. My mom and sister tried to maintain some sense of normalcy - playing a game with the kids. I could not. I was still dealing with shifting paradigms.
September 11, 2001 is the day I stopped believing in God. Staring up into the blue endless sky, and finding no comfort. Many people were retreating or advancing into deep religious faith. Religious faith was not there for me. Faith had not prevented this act. Faith justified the act. Faith saw it as "for the greater good". It was not good. If this act was for the good, then there was no definition of evil. Death, destruction, horror. Or, Faith's God merely overlooked it all. Was powerless and pointless.
The redeeming part of 9/11. The firefighters who died bravely trying to rescue people. The people of New York, acting so much more humanely than their reputation. Acts of selflessness, the outpouring of blood for the Red Cross. People uniting. My tears flowed, and my heart ached as I witnessed real heroes. I had never seen one before.
And then, to sour me, the false patriotism. I never felt so simultaneously my fierce love of country and embarrassment for her. I knew the red, white, and blue craze would come, as soon as manufacturers and shops could manage it. I tried to find patriotic ribbon that day to wear, but there was none. I should have waited a week. But by then, I realized that love of country is mocked by sporting our "team colors" when you do nothing else. Voting, volunteering, and participating in local government show love of country much more truly that sticking a flag cling on your car.
So I stubbornly turned away from the red, white, and blue. I wore black for a week. I mourned the dead. I mourned the choices made by our country and our enemies that led to such a scenario. I mourned the misunderstandings I knew were inevitable. Most of my fellow citizens would accept any explanation given them by the media, and be ready to attack. Sometimes I hate the mob. I wanted to understand. I wrote an article in which I tried to step into the other side's shoes. And I understood some. It is not an easy issue. And now, many will die to resolve it. I mourn all that. Still.
Yet. Life persists. On September 11, although I lost all hope of Heaven, I lay on the good green Earth. I have dealt with my mortality before. I am happy knowing that my body will rot and nourish other living things, be they naught but soil organisms. My soul, whatever that may be, will find its own path I suppose. But there is no Heaven. Nor Hell. We create them ourselves.
I discovered Heaven when I was a child. It was my family reunions. I discovered Hell when I turned 28 years old. I renounce both. I choose Life.
Posts: 3141 | Registered: Apr 2000
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quote:I remember being in Hatrack Chat all day. That feeling of unity, of family, of support, is something I will never forget.
Mm. I don't remember reading that. Thanks for the bump Noemon.
It's really interesting to read responses in a thread like this almost two years later. I've gotten to know some of you better in the interim and your thoughts mean that much more to me.
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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