5 years...

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

I can't believe it has been that long already.

I still remember everything about that day five years ago including where I was when I heard the news as well as the silent, solemn, and frightened period that followed. The school assemblies and the jammed cell lines. The strange sense of utter confusion and bewilderment.

This thread prompted me to flip back in my journal to the entry I wrote on September 11, 2001. I don't mind sharing this. You'll just have to excuse my lazy lack of capitalization :smile: That's what I was like when I was 16.

My Journal Entry from September 11, 2001 said:
right off the bat, i'm fine, and so is everyone in my family. i hope you and your family are fine too.

the first news of today's tragedy came from a friend of mine, who was making light of it. the news spread quickly across campus, but we really didnt know anything about it. there were just murmers about the world trade center. when i got to chem at 10 am Mr. Berghoff told us that two planes had crashed into the two towers of the world trade center. we then went to an impromptu school meeting. the headmaster delivered the news to a stunned and quiet student body. when he told us that the buildings had collapsed, we all gasped. people began crying. at first i really didnt understand the severity of the situation. it still hasnt completely hit me. at choate, you feel disconnected from the world, as if you were in a small private bubble.

after the meeting i called my mom, to find out more information. then she told me that my uncle (her brother) works on the 79th floor of the world trade center. thats the exact floor where one of the planes crashed. i didnt even know my uncle worked at the world trade center. i knew he worked for some foreign bank, but i didnt think he worked there. up until this point i had only been worried that my friends who had family in NYC, along with my friends who live there. But now my mom just told me that my uncle worked on the 79 floor. my world practically crashed right there.

but by some twist of fate, be it karma or whatever, my uncle is still alive.

you see, recently we have been worried about the health of my mom's father, who might have cancer. today, my grandfather was scheduled to have a biopsy. my mom wanted my grandfather to just go with my grandmother, but my uncle wanted to take him instead. so he did. and he was with my grandfather at the doctors, instead of his office, when the tragedy occured. so my grandfather's illness is really a blessing in disguise. my uncle is still alive.

i am glad to know he is safe, but i cant get rid of this heavy feeling in my chest, the knife in my guts, knowing that those loved ones that my friends have lost, and those thousands of other people who are now gone. i feel almost guilty, sharing this miraculous event, knowing that maybe, someone who might read this will not have been so lucky.

my uncle is distraught, all his friends worked with him, and he recently hired a very young man to work for him. it was his first day of work.

i dont understand how anyone could do this.

our entire school is praying for everyone involved.

I remember the surreality of that day. I was online at the time talking to friends in my old clan. My wife tells me "Jon.... A plane just hit a building in New York"

My first thought is that she is watching a movie, being distracted.

I finally am coaxed into watching the TV when the second plane hits. My thinking then, being an Engineer, albeit a military version of one is "That building cannot deal with that level of stress. It'll fall soon"

That was one the very few times in my life that I wish I was wrong.

Sadly, since that day, I do not feel that this world has learned much.

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

I can remember quite a lot that day.

I was in fifth grade, 11 years old (still hadn't played Half-Life yet :o ), eating lunch -- grapes was the food stuff that I was eating at the time, and I remember exactly what room I was in and where I was sitting.
The PA system in the school kept buzzing every 3 minutes or so, saying that so-and-so's parents were there to pick them up. My class eventually began to wonder what all the hubbub was about. Eventually, my dad came and got me, and I found out all about 9/11 15 minutes later, when I got home.

I distinctly remember how pleasant that day felt, up until that point. The weather was nice, the day was going well, and... well, I needn't say more :sad:

It doesn't seem like it's been that long.

I just can't beleive that someone can HATE someone else that much... I barely even dislike anyone, much less hate them. I just... How much of a JERK do you have to be to do something like that? Weird.

---

I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

I genuinely hate a number of people. I'd even contribute to their demise if it weren't for the whole getting caught thing.

I however would never cause the harm of another, just to gain my goal of hurting someone I hated.

Bringing those buildings down, harmed a bunch of people. I find it rather difficult to imagine someone disliking each of them in turn.

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

The thing that made me even madder was the surprising number of pop stars and other celebrities that said they were glad that the terrorists did that.

---

I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

3000 people dead more later on in the wars that spawned from it. :sad: Sad day.

---

''Everyone wades in s**t until they're competent enough to walk on it. Jesus style.''
Dystopia - Empires

I remember the day pretty clearly.. sixth grade, eleven years old. I walked into my first period classroom - Language Arts - and the teacher had the TV on and was watching it.. and a few students were in the room. Everything seemed normal thus far, everybody wandering around the halls chatting..

The teacher mentioned something about a plane crashed into a building which I didn't have much of a reaction to. I knew people must have been hurt and that made it a little sad but I just really had absolutely no idea what on earth had actually happened. I wonder how I'd react if it had happened today instead of five years ago when I had no idea what to think...

On the day of the attacks I was browsing the TV channels when I caught
a glimpse of one of the burning towers. My first reaction was "meh,
another s**tty movie", and without giving it much thought I moved on
only to be greeted by the exact same images on the next channel...and
on the next one...and on the one after that. When my puny brain finally
comprehended what had happened I just sat silently in front of the TV
not knowing what to make of what I was seeing. And then the second
plane hit...

Evil is usually a word I do not use. But it is the word that best describs what I feel when I see the picture of the planes hitting the WTC towers. How evil did these hijackers have to be to plan such an attack? A human atom bomb.

Like most I remember the day very clearly. It was about 3 pm here. Since that day I never forget the 6 hours time difference between middle Europe and New York. I was coming home from the supermarket seeing my family sit in front of the TV, watching the burning towers. It felt very surreal. Like it cannot really be happening because things like that only happen in movies. Then came the things that were too terrible to be a movie.

I remember how angry I was when I heared Bush's statements after the events. How he helped to glorify the events as a political statement, an act of war while in reality they were just the acts of a small group of fanatic lunatics that live in an ideology, a sect not a country or government. It was him who turned them into martyrs and the civilians who died into soldiers. I knew this can only be the beginning of more hate, more ignorance and fanatism.

The day after our class flew to London for 2 weeks. One girl didn't fly because she was too afraid and we all felt very uncomfortable. In London I lived with a host family for the time. The father worked for a bigger company and lost colleagues in the attacks.

I've never understood why people makes such a big deal out of this. 3,000 people, 0.001% of the American population... about 16 times that number die every year in traffic accidents. It was somewhat surreal given that I'd recently read Debt of Honor (in which a crazed pilot crashes a 747 into the capitol dome), but aside from that, I wasn't really surprised. It was only a matter of time before a terrorist group managed to find it's own ass. Mostly they seem ridiculously stupid.

People say the world is different now, that 9/11 changed everything. That's s**t. Nothing has changed, it's merely that the American people are now slightly more aware of what the world is really like... and we as a nation have over reacted horribly. Terrorism is not really such a big deal, and it's been around for a long, long time.

---

Some people are like slinkys...

They aren?t really good for anything, but you can't help but laugh when one tumbles down the stairs.

Tracer Bullet said:
Mostly they seem ridiculously stupid.

You too huh?

I am not a terrorist but I could do so much damage to this country with a minimal of effort.

These guys remind me of suicides that fail. People who want to die by their own hand succeed. Suicides that fail are because they are cowards who want to be found.

Terrorist who take an inordinate amount of time planning to hijack jet airliners, want to either fail, or want to seem like it.

Yeah, I could hurt this country bad with hardly any effort at all.

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

That damn happening caused two wars and you call it 'not a big deal'... The thing itself wasn't that big, but TWO f*cking WARS!

---

''Everyone wades in s**t until they're competent enough to walk on it. Jesus style.''
Dystopia - Empires

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Tracer Bullet</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>and we as a nation have over reacted horribly.</DIV></DIV>
Yeah, they're definetly dumb.

I've thought for ages that it was incredibly stupid for airlines to allow you though security with a full water bottle... how did it take terrorists so long to figure that loophole out, and how is it they faild? What s**t.

---

Some people are like slinkys...

They aren?t really good for anything, but you can't help but laugh when one tumbles down the stairs.

Breathe Scythe.. just breathe.

Tracer is one of the good guys... Remember?

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

Breathe Scythe.. just breathe.
Tracer is one of the good guys... Remember?

Okay, I'm calm... Calm as a clam... :razz:

---

''Everyone wades in s**t until they're competent enough to walk on it. Jesus style.''
Dystopia - Empires

Tracer Bullet said:
I've never understood why people makes such a big deal out of this.

Maybe its because people thought:

A) Foreigners wouldn't hate us enough to attack and kill thousands of civilians on American soil
B) Our government was powerful and capable enough to keep us safe from harm

That's just a guess.

I was younger at the time, and while I was aware we as a country weren't well liked, I didn't imagine someone would want to fly a plane into my uncle's office with hopes of killing him.

Hate us that much? Hell yes! We forced Israel on them in 1948, we flaunt a lifestyle that is utterly at odds with their religion... how could the not hate us? The extremist portion of the Arab world has cast America as "the devil" for longer than any of us have been alive.

The government capable of keeping us safe? From a standing army, yes, but nothing else. Our parents lived their whole lives in the knowledge that all that stood between the world and complete immolation was the rationality of the politburo. It's different for us, we are MUCH safer than any of the last two generations... which I suppose is why something as insignificant as 9/11 can send us into such an unreasonable emotional fit.

I guess I was alone in being unimpressed and unsurprised by the events five years ago.

---

Some people are like slinkys...

They aren?t really good for anything, but you can't help but laugh when one tumbles down the stairs.

I was just hazarding a guess at why some people were so shocked, although I'm sure there were others who expected something far worse to happen sooner than it did.

Tracer Bullet said:
I guess I was alone in being unimpressed and unsurprised by the events five years ago.

Be unsurprised but I'd hope still saddened... No Tracer, you weren't alone but considering that the majority here was truly children at the time its no wonder that they view this in a totally different light.

I remember the Cuban missile crisis.. I think. But the point is, no one here except possibly Brasso would have any idea how scary that time was.

I view life very differently than part near everyone here. So, you aren't alone.

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

I feel no need to reiterate the many posts I've made over this subject, but I'd like to add this sentiment that I've said many times over.

Move on.

Everyone knows my opinion on the attacks and the consequating war. Seriously, move on.

Move on.

suck a dick, frenchy.

if people want to look back, reflect, and even grieve about the events of five years ago.. that's their decision, and their right. don't like the topic? keep your nose out of the thread.

that is all.

I wanted to say something similar to what Tim said, but thought better of it. I just cannot see how someone can be so callous to innocent people dying in a building, but show so much compassion to the taboo people.

I was and am very confused about that point. Confused enough to not say what Tim did.

Breathe Tim, breathe bud.

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

Addicted to Morphine said:
I was just hazarding a guess at why some people were so shocked, although I'm sure there were others who expected something far worse to happen sooner than it did.

I know, Man. I'm just being overly abrasive, as usual. Sorry.

---

Some people are like slinkys...

They aren?t really good for anything, but you can't help but laugh when one tumbles down the stairs.

I stand by every word of my post, and now leave the thread.

French Toast said:
I stand by every word of my post, and now leave the thread.

Speaking as someone who is constantly on the wrong side of things, I hope you brought plenty of paint and enjoy being on your own cause you are burning bridges and/or painting yourself into a corner faster than anyone I have ever seen here.

I may be on the wrong side of things somehow but you seem to want to be there. I cannot even accuse you of your faulty Canadian views because we have Canadians here whom are respected and they don't talk like you.

/2 cents

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The best things in life, aren't things.

All this callousness seems canned.

"oh, it's all been done."

"I don't care about the fate of others and the harm that thier families went because I know WHY the people who caused the harm did it."

What the heck, dude.

---

I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

Tracer Bullet said:
I know, Man. I'm just being overly abrasive, as usual. Sorry.

It's cool. I actually agreed with your last post, but I wanted to try and think about what other people may have been feeling right after 9/11.

I usually define era's of my life by the music that I listened to, and two songs that I distinctly remember playing over and over again regarding 9/11 (written about 9/11 and released shortly thereafter) were "Mest - The Innocent" and "Mr. Lif - Home of the Brave"

Home of the Brave is a rap song but it's amazing, and at the time I honestly really agreed with the message it sent. It's a little too controversial for me to quote here, but if you ever get a chance and happen to like that type of music you should check it out. He opens the song with a quote from JFK that I love and have memorized:

JFK said:
Whenever we stand against the flow of opinion on strongly contested issues... a man does what he must. In spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures. And that is the basis of all human morality.

Not saying that I necessarily agree with what Frenchy is saying, but it seems like this quote applies, in a way.

I think why its such a big deal because a lot of people were "suker punched" to the event. Yes a majority of people didn't realize America is painted as demons, and that its near impossible for americans to think that there are people who hate out "Land of the free"

But I tell you the events that the CIA did in 1940s (Reagan administration) in the middle east (A long with a lot of hanus acts) is the root of all this agression twards america.

No matter how you look at it the events that transpired 5 years ago were tragic for the people who lost their loved ones in senseless violence. I can feel sorrow to that extent for them. If people wish to reflect back on the events thats fine by my book, they have every right to do so.

Tracer I agree with a lot of things you say. However things have to changed to a certain extent. The bush adminstration is pushing to add more epower to the patriot act (a blaintant infringment on out civil liberties), so to say that nothings changed due to the events of 9/11 isn't 100% correct.

Reguardless its a time to reflect (I like that word) for the loss of human lives, reguardless of whether its so and so's fault.

A bit of a side-point:
The movies that recently came out, Flight 93 and the one with Nicholas Cage, make me sick. I think it's trivializing the position America is in right now, not to mention there are a lot of people who don't believe they've been told the truth about 9/11. I don't think 5 years is long enough tbqh, especially since we're still in the midst of the conflicts the event caused. Did anyone make a movie about Pearl Harbor during WW2? No? Not until 1970, almost 30 years later?! I wonder why...

Is mainstream America really this f**king stupid/out of touch?

In closing:
Smash your TV.

---

o

It will sell, and it will sell very well. People just love a movie about a taboo subject (like the passion).

I already boycotted the TV.

Baron von Snickers said:
Is mainstream America really this f**king stupid/out of touch?

Yes.

Baron von Snickers said:
In closing:
Smash your TV.

I never owned one in the first place.

---

Some people are like slinkys...

They aren?t really good for anything, but you can't help but laugh when one tumbles down the stairs.

Mr. Lif said:
Here's what your history books won't show: You're a dead man for f**king with American dough. They're killing several birds with one stone, while you're at home with anti-terrorism up in your dome. But my eyes are wide open and my TV is off. Great, because I save on my electricity cost. And you can wave that piece of s**t flag if you dare, but they killed us because we've been killing them for years.

Baron von Snickers said:
Smash your TV.

Done. TV sucks. Internet's not much better. Islam is the worst of all three.

---

I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

Baron von Snickers said:
Smash your TV.

Done. TV sucks. Internet's not much better. Islam is the worst of all three.

What three? TV, Internet, Islam? Yeah, I much rather spend my time with internet than with Islam or TV.

---

''Everyone wades in s**t until they're competent enough to walk on it. Jesus style.''
Dystopia - Empires

Nickelplate said:
<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Baron von Snickers</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>Smash your TV.

Done. TV sucks. Internet's not much better. Islam is the worst of all three.</div></div>

fairly ignorant and closed minded, especially coming from someone that's usually promoting religion, and has made previous claims to be the snarkpits 'most spiritual member'.

---

i eat paint

I pick war, fanatism and the atom bomb.

He's made claims to be the snarkpits most spiritual member?

---

Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/

five years!?

holy Freeman!

i was only 13 years old! wow.
i got home from school and my mother was like "watch the tv! they're filming a movie, a plane crashing on the WTC (what the crap? world trade center)"
of course she was joking.....

ooh five years!
i feel so old.. not really.

I just remember having the oddest moment the night before it happened. I literally had a premonition when I was walking down the stairs in my house, it was the only time I've ever stopped, too. I just had this weird feeling that something bad was going to happen, granted I thought something more local, like maybe something was going to happen to the house when I was out the next day.

I woke up to hearing about the first plane on the radio, stumbled up and watched the later portions on TV and at school (my school had TVs in all classrooms w/news channels and other such stuff.) Everyone mostly just watched the events unfold.

I have mixed feelings about the whole of the US its governmental policies. I guess the best way to put it is that I understand, but don't see it the same way as an American would. I don't see these issues going away either with the way that the media + government there spins and fearmongers. You've got a vicious beast to tame.

Nickelplate said:
<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Baron von Snickers</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>Smash your TV.

Done. TV sucks. Internet's not much better. Islam is the worst of all three.</div></div>I'd take Islam, personally. Also, I'm Snarkpit's most spiritual member.

..i'm the snarkpit's most spiritual member.. =(

..eats live chicken

---

the players tried to take the field
the marching band refused to yield

/me starts speaking Latin... backwards... as things levitate around the room and slam into walls... which start bleeding.

---

o

/me starts speaking Latin... backwards... as things levitate
around the room and slam into walls... which start bleeding.

/me too

---

''Everyone wades in s**t until they're competent enough to walk on it. Jesus style.''
Dystopia - Empires

I've never understood why people makes such a big deal out of this. 3,000 people, 0.001% of the American population... about 16 times that number die every year in traffic accidents. It was somewhat surreal given that I'd recently read Debt of Honor (in which a crazed pilot crashes a 747 into the capitol dome), but aside from that, I wasn't really surprised. It was only a matter of time before a terrorist group managed to find it's own ass. Mostly they seem ridiculously stupid.
People say the world is different now, that 9/11 changed everything. That's s**t. Nothing has changed, it's merely that the American people are now slightly more aware of what the world is really like... and we as a nation have over reacted horribly. Terrorism is not really such a big deal, and it's been around for a long, long time.

i agree wholely with what you said, but on that fact, if the terrorists were acting on their own, they were not after lives most likely, they were after the symbol of the trade centers

fishy said:
<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Nickelplate</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>
<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Baron von Snickers</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>Smash your TV.

Done. TV sucks. Internet's not much better. Islam is the worst of all three.

</DIV></DIV>

fairly ignorant and closed minded, especially coming from someone that's usually promoting religion, and has made previous claims to be the snarkpits 'most spiritual member'.</div></div>

Since when did Islam and Spritual and Christianity become the same thing? I haven't ever claimed to be the most spiritual member. I may be the most Christian-oriented in the snarkpit, but there is no real way to find it out, and there is no real need to have such a designation.

TBH, I put the Islam comment in there to get people stirred up. To see how many would stick up for Islamic terrorists instead of expressing ANY emotion for dead, innocent Americans.

The problem with most people is not that they try to be open-minded, because that is a good thing. The problem lies in the fact that so many think being "open-minded" means that you have to disagree with the first thing that is said. I'll give you an example:
The fact of the matter is that terrorists who were Islamic and from the middle-east hijacked airplanes full of people who had done nothing to them, then proceeded to fly them into buildings full of innocent people who had done nothing to them.

Then someone comes up and says some bullcrap about "Well in 1948, America took thier land and split it up and gave a lot of it to the Jews to make Israel. and in such-and-such a year, the USA supported the Taliban!" I don't dispute these facts in the least, but when you justify something done in 2001 with something done 50 or even 10 years before that was done by the government and NOT the people in those airplanes/buildings, that's pretty far-fetched.

The thing is, if you want to take it that far, then Americans have a license to hate ALL muslims for 60 years (not just the small, long-dead, isolated group who actually was responsible.)

There's no excuse for those terrorists, and there's no excuse for your extreme close-mindedness hiding under a guise of intellectual arguments.

---

I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

I think I see what you're saying, but Islam and terrorism shouldn't be synonymous.

You can't see it via the power of the internet, but right now my eyes are rolling at speeds immeasurable.

Addicted to Morphine said:
I think I see what you're saying, but Islam and terrorism shouldn't be synonymous.

That is very good, and part of my point. Just as Islam should not be synonymous with terrorism because a FEW Muslims chose to be terrorists, the USA should not be automatically identified with the acts of a president a few decades in the past (not to mention that other countries were involved, not just USA). The thing is that every time something happens to an islamic country, they demand we apologize and they burn our flags and our embassies and whatnot. But when they do something to us like the 9/11 attacks, they say, "too bad," and even US citizens stick up for them with this crap!

Gwil: what you rolling your eyes about?

---

I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com