Sep 11 20099/11: The World Trade Center From Space

WOW

happy 9/11 :p

I'd love to know what they were thinking looking down on that.

@2
Are you f*cking serious?!
Happy 9/11?

I know 9/11 was bad and all, but seriously people, get over it. Like the man said, eight years.

GW, your posts have been pretty disappointing lately. Step it up a bit, pls?

Really is hard to believe it's been eight years. I was sitting in math class in middle school when it happened. Funnily enough, my teacher was such a hardass that she almost completely ignored the announcement, not even bothering to turn on the TV so we could see.

NEVAR FORGETS.

@5
Get over it?
It is one of, if not THE, worst tragedy to occur on our America (in our short history).

NEVER forget it!!!

:-(

maan! that is sooo visible! crazy.

oh whaaat. i forgot this happened. stop living in the past, you native americans.

*
Sadly I remember this picture 2 days after it all happened. Despite my youth I feel old when saying it seems like yesterday

@5 this post is completely appropriate for today, shut your stupid mouth

I don't expect many of you to answer this, but I love to ask this question to people close to me because it always yields an interesting story worth hearing.....

Where were you and what were you doing on Tuesday morning, Sept 11 2001 when you heard what just happened...?
*

Remember and honor the innocent victims and brave heroes that fell on September 11, 2001.

Don't let the politicians reduce 9/11 to nothing more than a campaign slogan.

ooooold!

If you're 11 yrs old or younger (give or take the date from remembering) you'll never know what the 'old world' we once lived in was like. VERY different than the one we live in today, you can only experience this through dated cinema today

Yea that's fu*king right @12 Lets make it just not a campaigh slogan for those stupid ass dumbfu*k politicians!!!!!??????!!!!!!!!!!

@naas

heh.. i was teachin' this muslim fella to use his new canon hv20, and making a few script changes.

@16 was it because of this -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peZoF9tOAjs

You usually go out of your way to be a "funny" jerk about the things you report. I was rather shocked that you resisted the urge to say something mean about 9/11. I was going to assume you would have at least said something about the terrorists... Well played though. I commend you on your maturity on this one.

@ 2, 5, 10

9/11 changed America. We who lived there, had family there, who volunteered to help will NEVER forget this day. It is a day of sorrow and a day of pride for Americans, for those that lost their lives and those that gave their lives. You don't have to feel sorry for us Americans because this happened. Heck, you don't even have to like us. But DON'T EVER SAY FORGET IT.

@19 you're talking to monkeys with people masks on their furry little faces, don't feed them any attn - sadly they thrive on it

@11

i was sleeping when the first hit, my mom woke me up and we watched the 2nd hit on tv. pretty damn crazy. @5, get over it? something wrong with you. gov't conspiracy, bush an idiot/hero, whatever your take it was nuts. nuts then, now and will be forever. imagine going to work and you get killed for someone else's politics and insanity. minding your own business being a good person and BLAMO...gone. that's nuts. i remember before all this you could have fun and get away with stuff. now everything is security and metal detectors. buncha crap.

anyway...later in the day we went to the bar and got hammered because we could.

USA!

i'm also all for any other people from countries that wanna act like humans and wanna help and not kill eveything (except brutefags, they can die)

@18 While GW may be a (lovable) jackass, he is an educated human being (unlike the firstards) when it comes to shit like this. Don't belittle him to anything below that because you're screaming 'I don't know' if you do

@21 if I ever cross paths with you (better be at the fućkin bar) the 1st few rounds are on me. Yes, the 1st few, I'm that kind of guy

I was a freshman in HS when it all happened, and I vowed to take the fight right back to them. When I turned 18 I enlisted as an Infantryman with the US Army and did just that. I wonder how things would be different for me, for all of us, now if the attack hadn't happened.

My career in the Capitol building now, flight school, the army, its weird to think how different thing could be.

On a personal aside, I attended a great memorial service today in Juneau, Alaska. Police, Firemen, first responders, army, coastguard, civilians all gathered and saluted the flag as it was raised. Very moving rememberance ceremony.

@21 ted & @24 Nick - respect and thank you

@18, I totally agree. Couldn't have said it better myself.

Listen up folks, I really hate to get political in these kind of things. That's where the fun stops and people start trying to hurt each other by stepping on their personal beliefs. Some people just try to make fun of it because they're too empty headed to give a shit anything important.

@nass, you're the man.

*ahem....ABOUT anything important.

This picture really got me. The trail of smoke can be followed right to the ground and then you realize 3,000 innocent people lost their lives at that very dot on the map.

Kinda sucks, that we have no control over our country and no one with the slightest bit of power gives a damn about doing anything good for the people.
We are now questionably in the top contenders for the most powerful nation, but if we cut out the corruption, we could totally take it to the hoop, nawmsayin' guys?

Regardless of how you feel about America, or 9/11 (believing it was a conspiracy or whatever) people died. Our countrymen and women died from senseless acts of violence. It's our job as human beings to decry hate and violence, not only in our country but also through out the world. If you want to forget and down play the suffering of others be my guest but do it on your own time not in a public forum. That just makes you look like an ignorant cad and i can't help but feel sorry for you.

To all the loved ones of those who lost someone on 9/11 and the resulting war my heart goes out to you. Remember, even though we may not agree in matters of politics or religion but we are all Americans. You are loved.

@ naas,
It was my senior year in high school and I had just woken up to go to zero period when my mom called me into our living room to watch the TV. At that point I had thought it was just a tragic accident until I saw the second plane smash into the other building, live as it actually happened. I was speechless. I remember that whole day in all my classes, my teachers had their TVs turned on and we did no actual school work. When the buildings fell, there wasn't a dry eye in my classroom. I still get chills thinking about it. I will never forget what happend that day and the loss we all suffered.
Also, ignore all the douche bags that will post stupid stuff just to get everyone angry. They don't even deserve the air they breathe, so don't justify their feeble existance with a response.

Wheres the posts mourning the 100s of thousand of dead iraqis? wheres their 2 minutes of silence? they lost more civilians in the first days of bombing iraq then in 9/11.

Americans believe their lives have more value then any others, they may as well be a master race with the way they put American blood so highly on a pedestal, 9/11? take your own medicine, GET OVER IT.

Also the picture looks like a alien taking a big toke of weed lol.

9/11 is a day to remember though http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_Chilean_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat

You know, Mario is always hating on Thwomp for jumping down and squishing him. But do you think Mario ever steps back and thinks "Hey, what makes me so different I 'thwomp' like 50 guys a day? Am I more right? Am I really so just? Is this really for the greater good?"

a brave man once said "swimmin' in tears like a dolphin, i can't believe that my homies in a coffin, i bet jesus' ass even sad." and you know what? i bet jesus' ass IS sad.

All i'm sayin guys is sure george bush or al queida or both of them together can take away our security and lives. but we should never let them take away the sense of humor (even of our jews).

peace.

@exz

you're a dumby dumb.
wiki me up some more knowledge.

Oh jesus christ. You guys don't care. 3000 people, people you don't care about. These were random people. This was no worse than a natural disaster. And to whoever said that this was the worst tragedy on american soil, well duh. World War II was not fought here, but plenty of americans died in europe. I can't believe we have some shitty 9/11 post, but a memorial day post isn't here? Fck that, who cares about 300 civillians, I care about WWII, and the 400,000 americans who died.

@ohjesuschrist

different because victims in world war 2 were servicemen.
this is on civilians.. if you were just talking about americans in general we would say the civil war.

you are also a dumby dumb i see, maybe with a little fartbreath to boot.

My Lai Massacre around 1/4th of the civilians of 9/11 killed by US soldiers, wheres their day?

I don't see how for pulling up sources of a different 9/11 (the Chilean coup) where the US government helped murder a democratically elected leader.

Its not something you could just Google 9/11 and pull up, you would be swamped with information about the American "tragedy" I am afraid I am intelligent and highly neurotic and half American and Half English, full blooded white (well as far as I know) I want to establish this just so you cant portray me as being some brown person who has a jaded view cause you destroyed their country.

OhJesusChrist is right though, Blood is Blood regardless of the war or civilians or what not, but Americans have had a history of killing civilians or so called "collateral damage" the type of soulless words you here to keep the Americans absent minded and with all this in mind all I can say is cry me a river.

Yeah, anyone who disagrees with your point of view MUST only be doing it to get everyone angry. But even if that were true, no need because GUESS WHAT? You're ALREADY angry! There's a difference between remembering and wallowing. There's a difference between mourning loss of life and self-righteous vindictiveness. @32 may not be tactful, but s/he makes a good point - the attitude that American lives are somehow more important than other lives is exactly the kind of crap that lends fuel to those who spread hatred against the US.
@21 & @30: you made the most sense. It was tragic because of the randomness and how messed up it was. And if some of you want to claim that it changed YOUR life forever, fine, that's your call. But don't think you're the voice of history (especially those of you who were in HS) - there have been plenty of horrific events in US history (and the history of the world).

@37

so is your point that you don't care about when people die?

or just chileans?

I didn't know about that. it sucks people die anywhere for gov't crap or die when they don't want to. i was quite upset when my grandfather passed when i was in second grade. nobody outside the "teddersons" really care about that. but like you said google 9/11 and you get the 9/11/01 swamp. that's what americans really care about...americans. i bet in chile they have a different 9/11 memorial becuase well...they're chileans and that's what they care about.

people die, that's a fact, but there are mostly americans on this site, it's 9/11 so you're going to hear about 9/11/01

(thanks for the education though about chile)

My American side also wishes we didn't build that freedom tower, id love to just stick the twin towers right back up exactly as they were that would be the biggest f**k you to the self righteous terrorists that knocked them down.

That's pretty much what we did when the IRA kept bombing us in the UK it didnt disrupt our lives, or in 7/7 people were back on the trains, you can't live in fear or they really do win.

And that's pretty much all I got to say about that.

@40

yes!

2nd grade, in school, I live in mid LI just East of the city, can't believe its been this long, now half way through high school

@ExZ

You can't bullshit a bullshitter.

You know, ass someone who OBVIOUSLY uses wikipedia that you can type in a date and it will give you a list of significant events for that day..

Say! Did you know September 11th was also the day of the Mountain Meadow massacre in the Utah territory? Or how about that it's the day the Egyptian constitution became official?

If you are so afraid you are intelligent. Why weren't you smart enough to figure this out.. because I'm a dumb hick American and I have you pretty much figured out.. and come one you knew you could look that up with just the date, you just needed a chance to make a snide remark: "swamped with information about the American 'tragedy'." By the way putting the words tragedy in quotients makes you look like a real prick. Are you saying it wasn't a tragedy or it just wasn't your favorite tragedy to compare and complain about because you're a foolish bore?

We are more concerned about 9/11 because it marks a tragedy and a change for us, no matter what country this happened in people would act the same, and you'd still look like a dumba**.

What is funny about people like exz is that no one comes on and says it's the most tragic, people don't downplay other tragedies.. but still people like s/he (exz) come and complain about other tragic events being overshadowed though they are just using them to base an argument off of, they don't really give a sh*t about the Chilean coup or the Lockerbie bombings or anything. ExZ take a look at yourself, you are really obnoxious and have no reason to fight. You have nothing to stand up for. Think about what you are trying to do here, it's really lame and not the calling card of the neurotic intelligent person you claim to be, just the calling card of someone who uses wikipedia to convince strangers they are smart while inadvertently exposing themselves as wiki loving imbeciles.

Does anyone else think that the map looks like a persons head ?

Wow... Even daisy has the taste not to be a dick on this one.

I'm not a yank, and as Much as I'm not surprised America WAS attacked by terrorists, a lot of innocent people died on this day, and deserve remembrance, as do their families. And thanks go out to the heroes risked their lives to curb the terrible disaster that befell those poor people.

No I didn't in fact, I actually read stuff called books, Latin American politics of the Cuban socialist era is one of my areas of expertise.....do you have those? books I mean.

Clearly you miss the points I was attempting to make, this tragedy which I believe it is in some regards, is on equal footing with the numerous tragedy's caused alongside it the many a time perpetrator has become the victim, all I have been trying to draw attention to, you seem to miss this as you string along a wide variety of character attacks.

I don't have a favorite tragedy, people civilian or military killing each other is a tragedy but its all on equal footing so why should one get more attention then another, and this 9/11 stuff is far from confined within the states as one could say while marking national tragedy's.

I would like to know where the change came from with your foreign policy of the 7 years that followed?.

google earth has some layer that you can see all planes in US airspace. shows a little icon of the plane. somewheres on the interwebz they have a time lapse video of it from 911. it's crazy. usually the US is covered in white blobs that are all the planes in the sky. all the sudden everything disappears.

now i'm going to the bar to get loaded....because i can

TAKE THAT FACTBOY! you know who you are!

Inside job.

@ExZ

If it's an equal tragedy as you're previous statements prove that you obviously don't believe.. then why my friend did you say: swamped with information about the American "tragedy"

why the quote marks?
you can try to make yourself sound reasonable in the latest post..
but answer that question (it's really hypothetical your prior statements make your answer clear)

guys, 8 years ago. its over and done with-
the only ppl still really allowed to have serious mournings are ppl that were directly affected by it. If you were in California on that day, and no relatives of yours died, then wtf. Its not your problem, get over it. There are days just as memorable in US history that dont get anywhere near as much attention.

And to be honest, i dont know what i was doing that day, i think i saw it on the news and decided to watch scrubs instead.

Pearl Harbor was worse. 9/11 was a tragedy, but not the worst, not by far. Look at any major battle in the Civil War, the war of 1812, both costlier in terms of lives and economic impact. In 1812 the British burned the white house, in 1939-1940 the Germans sank ships in the waters pictured above and shelled New Jersey (yeah, I don't have a problem with that either) and Long Island. Our oceans don't protect us any more than they protected the indigenous peoples. Just because you watched it on TV doesn't make it any more significant.

oh lawl, 9:11 pm, thats gotta be some kind of get-

@gogoVicMorrow

Because I was quoting as they are not my own words, the way I see it tragedy in the present is over, its just a spectacle now, a perverse form of entertainment a pedestal that politicians have leaned on for leverage for far too long the tragedy has outgrown itself its just become monumental, I find it cheapens what really happened at this point.

I want some 9/11 on toast :)

If daisy doesn't comment....Then the terrorist have won.

So many post and only a few think to joke.

Is a sense of humor is not allowed today?

Lets laugh you fascist.

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Thanks for posting, I really enjoyed your most recent post. I think you should post more often, you obviously have natural ability for blogging!

@56 Today, we really aren't supposed to laugh. I mean, it's not wrong, but today is about remebering what happend. Thats doesn't mean just moping around, but it's to remember all of the people that died. Daisy at least has the respect not to make a foolish comment on a post about a tragic event. Unless she's just sleeping now...
@21 and 24, God Bless

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Good blog, very good article. I have book mark the site.I will come again.

Am I the only person that sees that part of a map as a "guy wearing sunglasses and smoking a cigarette?"

@19: Forget it. It happened, it's done with.

It surely changed America, but for the better? I think not.

Airport security.

That's all I have to say.

I bookmarked this site, Thank you for good job! Thank you! I would now go on this blog every day!

@28 Really brought it home for me, again. We really shouldn't forget this.

I'm not a republican cow or anything, but really, I think it's such bullshit that the place where the World Trade Centers stood is still just a hole in the ground. I took a trip to NYC last year, and it doesn't look good.

I was in sixth grade, talking to my friends, and the principal came into our classroom and told the teacher to turn on the TV. Everyone assumed it was nothing at first, because they were whispering (and teachers do that in front of kids), but after people started noticing their faces, the room just got quiet, and everyone knew something serious had happened. I still remember it on TV.

Never forget.

FAKE!!!!

This is a complete photoshop job. You can tell its a fake because the shadow's are all wrong.

This is exactly like that scene in the movie Never Back Down where Max was disposing of a dead body in a wood chipper, and when the cops came he ran across the lake and got shot in the back.

@ExZ

Que what?

Dont be a pompous azz. This is a tragedy - and a tragedy it indeed is - that hits close to home both with the GW and with many Americans. His blog, his posts. Is it that difficult to understand?

You decry American foreign policyand other tragedies caused by America, yet, at the same time, you tout your British ancestry. Que hypocritical. No nation in history has been as responsible for the massacre of entire native societies and cultures as the British. In fact, the after effects of British colonialism are still quite obvious, even today. Africa, for instance, is a cesspool of failure, strife, and misery. The blame partially lies on other European 'powers', but the majority of blame lies in the hands of the British. Your forefathers took what natural resources they could, then packed up and left the natives with nothing. The problems in the Middle East, India, Pakistan, southeast Asia, etc. are products, or at the very least compounded, by British foriegn policy and colonialism. The only places that your forefathers left with stability are those in which the native cultures were almost entirely slaughtered - Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and...wait for it...the United States - to be replaced with western, British traditions. But I guess the people whose way of life was completely *bleep*ed up should just get over it already.

The point is: Different people hold different things, different events, as important. Who the *bleep* are you to tell them to get over it?

This isnt a competition of degrees of tragedy. No one downplayed any event you mentioned; no one downplayed any other 'mistake' of American foreign policy; and no one spouted any blind American nationalism. The only things that have been posted are rememberance of ONE SPECIFIC EVENT.

So you have read some books on Latin America...big *bleep*ing deal. Next time try to read one that doesnt focus on a mere blink in the 8,000 years of written, human history. Next time, don't try to tell other people the memories that they hold dear, the things they remember, and the things that help them define their brief existence dont hold any meaning. You get over yourself.

[/wall of text]

OMG. Yes it was awful. But it's in the past. Just move on.

Gurantee that in 50 years from now no one will care. Two paragraphs in a single chapter of a middle school history book will be about it, and that's it. Maybe the kids will huff that they have to remember the date for a Friday quiz. That is the right idea. Let's just get on with our lives.

OMG. WATERGATE!!!! NEVER FORGET!!!!!!

LUSITANIA!!!! NEVER FORGET!!!!!

JOHN LENNON! NEVER FORGET!!!!!

AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! THE MURDER OF A CRACKHEAD LAST WEEKEND IN SOME RANDOM CHICAGO ALLEY! NEVER FORGET!!!!!

@65. I read your wall of text. You have my respect.

I JUST got out of college and worked as a consultant (I'm in IT) setting up network for a new startup firm in the high floors. I was working in WT2 passed midnight into 9/11 before I got home ... next day, my mom woke me by phone and said the tower has been hit (she was traveling at Asia at the time) and she wanted to make sure I weren’t at work and my girlfriend at the time (she worked in WT2 too) were OK … So, I turned the TV on, NOTHING, and I was so convinced that she was watching a CG film. Of course, 15 minutes later, breaking new ... I supposed the TV station in NYC didn't know what to do, it was too shocking for them to air it on TV I suppose … I will always remember this … people from half away around the world new about the tower before even most of us did, and I live in NYC!

My GF at the time as it turns out got our of the train station, saw the tower was on fire, panic, composed herself, then jump the train back home cause she knew she can’t go up to the office anyway. She happened to have caught the LAST working train and spared an 8 hour walk back home like everyone else did.

I still remember … on lunch, I went down to the Sephora and got her a bottle of perfume as a random gift … it was a pink bottle of “mademoiselle”. My sis is/was an ER doctor in midtown … she worked the ER for 36 hours straight.

I was a 20 yr old network guy then, and I’m now a 28 year old CTO. Tempest fugit … one can’t say just forget it … it’s like losing a love one in the worse possible way… For the one that had lost dear friends - that funny old guy that cleans the bathroom, that cute coffee girl in the café. To some of us, we know tens of hundreds of people that perished within a short time.

I woke up today, went to the US open games, got rained out, went back to the office to work a little, then went out and got trashed. You see, I don’t run around and cry like some people did, and I agree, it has been a long time already. True, you get numbed after a while and the pain just goes quietly into the night, but I suspect it will always there.

My condolences to the one that lost love ones that is reading this thread. I hope time has been as kind to your scar as it has to mine.

@69
Goodness, your account of that day gave me the chills. I'm glad you have found a way to move on and still hold the respect for those who are still coping.

I just remember the day being so frantic. I was a freshman in h.s. and my dad was in the air force. No one knew what was going on and our phone was ringing off the hook because he had to get to the base before they closed it off (they ended up stacking those big concrete slabs that are used on freeways around the base). It took me a couple years to not cry on this day and now, here I sit, a senior in college and crying after my boyfriend in Iraq called this morning to wish me a happy Patriot Day. THAT broke my heart.

Ok all you guys that think you should forget are idiots, and I hope you will lose a reletive in a terrorist attack[not that i wish there would be one but if there will be then... well you get the point]

Lots of self-righteous pompous assholes who think they can win people over with their self-perceived wit and inappropriate comments can ruin anything, for anyone, including what should be a day where a person reflects quietly for a moment on how much has changed in eight years.
The self-righteous pompous assholes don't get to me. To everyone who's offended by their moronic attempt at intellectualism: don't let them get to you, either. They have their own problems, of which they certainly understand, but of which we may never know. You can be certain that none of them lost a loved one that day.
Time passes. Wounds heal. But no one, NO ONE, who truly lost something that day would EVER use this as an excuse for showing their a**. Let them be a**holes. They only make fools of themselves.

Just in case that was too dreary, let me put it another way:
Fu** off. To anyone who takes this lightly, fu** off. Until you've lost someone to senseless violence and can empathize, fu** the fu** off.

The number of Afghan civilians killed by US bombs has surpassed the death toll of the 11 September attacks, according to a study by an American academic.

Nearly 3,800 Afghans died between October 7 2001 and December 7 2001, University of New Hampshire Professor Marc Herold said in a research report.
The figure is well in excess of the estimated 2,998 people killed in the 11 September attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.

then for the first 6 months of this year (2009)The UNAMA report contrasted the number of officially recorded civilian deaths From January 1 to June 30, it registered 1,013 civilian fatalities,

Theres always so much propaganda that the usa shoves down your throat, i think everyone here should watch the movie "suicide killers"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0830968/

Its a documentary that follows around suicide bombers, watching it made me realize there side and why they do the things they do.
This year they claimed to have killed more than 2,310 Taliban.

What an awesome ratio they have for Taliban to Civilian deaths.

According to wikipedia the direct and indirect (starvation resulting from bombing and things) is as high as 31,357 civilian deaths. from 2001 to present.

Now i dont support either side i live in Canada myself but if Afghanistan had a holiday for every few thousand innocent civilians killed, every freaking day would be a holiday.

Notwithstanding the above i still think its horrible what happened sept 11. It was a tragedy. Im only saying there are a lot of tragedy's that the usa inflicts on other country's that we dont really ever hear about or care to hear about.

I bookmarked this site, Thank you for good job! Thank you! I would now go on this blog every day!

hehehe..suckers ! happy 9/11 ! and hey douche bags ...and I hope they do it again and again and again !

I bookmarked this site, Thank you for good job! Thank you! I would now go on this blog every day

big trouble in little china freeeeeeee

http://www.ustream.tv/broadcaster/1126002

Today is the anniversary of the day used to justify warrantless searches, citizen scrutiny, expanded wiretaps, and legalized torture.

We call it Freedom Day.

Im constantly fighting to suppress anger and bitterness at many acts that are carried out in this world, this one whilst I agree is utterly tragic isn't at the top of my list. One of the top horrific acts was the attack by America against Nicaragua in the 1980's, for the reason that they were a successful leftist (and peaceful) example for other Latin American countries, so America launched an attack. This matter went to court and America was found to be at fault, yet nothing else was done about it. Anyway, 9/11 is just another incident that I, and we will have to deal with emotionally, actions taken for events totally out of our control, often due to the actions of the powers above, in our own country and others.

Final words that come bitterly out of my mouth, American people reap what the American government sows, death.

I have lived ten blocks away from the twin towers all my life. I grew up with them. I went to prom there (pedestrian but true).
The first plane woke me up. Startled, I ran to my balcony with my mom and tried to see what happened. Another building blocked our view. We could only see the shattered glass glinting in the sun as it fell from the building. So I went downstairs to see what happened.
I ran across a acquaintance and he described the planes approach: Low enough to see the planes markings, it seemed to buzz lower Manhattan before slamming into the north tower.
I walked down to the tower, got within 4 blocks when the second plane arrived. It would be impossible to describe the sound f those engines, the feeling of fear everyone felt, frozen in that horrific moment, not knowing where that sound was going to land. A second later we found out as a billowing cloud of fire burst above our heads. Everyone screamed and started to run. I tried to calm them down but it was pointless.
Numb, I walked over to church street. I crossed paths with the documentary film maker who captured this event (you can here me getting yelled at for touching one of the airplane engines that had shot from the tower and landed on the street below) I got within 3 blocks before taking rescuers advice and heading back home.
On my corner I watched with dozens of people as tiny pieces of debris began to fall from the tower. At first I thought it was debris but then I looked closer. I was wrong: It was people. The entire crowd was mesmerized. Some cried. One guy laughed excitedly: "I've seen twelve. That was number twelve!"
I went upstairs, cried with my mom and then listened to the sound of the towers collapsing. It was a strange moment. The people on the street gasped in unison then were silent. As I watched the towers crumble on television I could here the twisting cries of the metal as its massive bulk finally collapsed. We left shortly afterward. My home was never the same.
The next few nights I stayed with a friend. I've never seen NYC like that: silent as a tomb. Not a car on the street. It was a bunker more than a home.
A few days later I managed to tour ground Zero. My friend scored some fake passes so we decided to go that night. The passes came from a masseur hired to care for the rescue workers. He made copies and so we just went through the main entrance on chambers and Greenwich (right where I was when the second plane hit). The army had set up supply stations all over. They gave us masks and ponchos. As we walked around childlike solders would demand I.D. I showed them my state I.D. They seem satisfied with that though I cant say why.
Slowly we began to circuit ground Zero. The only way to circle it though was to cut though an existing building. A walkway that used to Cross west street had collapsed, blocking the street. the firemen had knocked out a window in an adjacent building to get around it. The top of the other tower had fallen into the street as well, slamming into the winter garden at the world financial center (across west street).
The workers had just finished clearing the south side of the zone so we were able to loop around. Eventually we reached the main entrance, what was left of it. We walked up the shallow steps that led into the what was once the plaza and stood for a moment. I can remember crossing the Plaza to go to prom. Seeing the bronze orb and the twinkling lights and the flat expanse of concrete. It's all gone now. Where the plaza once was, there now was a twenty foot drop. Rescue workers probed the carnage with dogs. Plane wreckage poked out from the concrete slabs.
We finished up by watching a crane devour what was left of tower seven, dropping twisted beams onto massive flatbeds.
To those how say we should never forget: If only I could.

That photograph from outer space really puts things into a God perception of the destruction of the World Trade Towers. It just doesn't seem earth shattering from outer space like it did to those living in the vicinity of the towers who had to run for their lives with billowing smoke chasing them. My teacher on Life is hid dot come has a take on the disaster that will be an eye opener for some. Check it out. It pays to know what is really going on.

FAKE!!!!

This is a complete photoshop job. You can tell its a fake because the shadow's are all wrong.

This is exactly like that scene in the movie Never Back Down where Max was putting on new turbo shoes when he got shot in the back of the head when the cops found crack in his bag.

@65: Who are you to tell us to get over ourselves? Sounds like you're just as douchey as the rest of us, only you're clinging to the past, and to something that probably didn't even affect you. You know, like 99% of other Americans.

You guys all just sound like that episode of Family Guy where Peter got swept up in all the American BS. "9/11 changed everything... it changed EVERYTHING..."

Moo

This is probably, the only (important) event in the american history, so be proud of it!

lol 9/11 is a government planned attack to increse fear of terrorist to control their people easier and increase security you guys complain over this there has been much worse things to happen in the past

@all - thanks for your input, I read every comment up to this point & only paid attn to the serious ones.
@65 I didn't know you knew how to say anything more than 'what' in spanish, well written
@69 damn, that was chilling

@anyone who thinks we should 'get over it' or 'to move one' - not even worth a response

omg, there isnt a week that passes without me remembering.. i was stuck in the country cuz all of the air planes were restricted to fly. i remember listening to the news where everyone was all bloody and screaming..nvr forget

wow naas you've truelly demonstrated you have no life once more on this post, jeez its caturday allready (You can leave the house by the way)

@90 I don't go outside on caturdays or dogerdays because of the pet dander

I really love people who still believe 9/11 was a terrorist attack you guys are right up there with people who think Oswald killed Kennedy. And for those of you who are going to come along and say something like that's a bullshit conspiracy theory, we all know you love to flame, maybe you should look up Operation Northwoods. Granted this was in the 1960's and was targeted at invading Cuba, but if they thought it up once they'd think it up again.

er... I heard tht 9/11 footage on Cbc and all that otehr stuff was fake and altered..

Fun Fact

Who gives a shit it happened get over it?

@ Fact guy- Seriously, are you an idiot? go kill yourself, and your family. They raised you poorly.

I won't remember, thank you. There are thousands of people that die every single day, except they don't all die at once, in some horrific tragedy, so nobody gives a damn.

Yet we're all shunned and looked down upon if we don't keep remembering every freaking year these people that were killed. GET OVER IT!

I realize it was traumatic, yes, but these people didn't die for some greater cause, they didn't die to make the world a better place, they were killed. The only reason poeple remember is because americans don't ever freaking shut up about it. I wasn't surprised you guys got attacked, I really wasn't!! The states have such bad relations with pretty much every single country out there, because you're all so god damn egotistical and think you're the center of the world.

I feel sad that this constantly keeps getting more attention and memory, then the people who actually give their lives in order to make our world a better place.

And at whoever said this event drastically changed the world.....are you f****ing kidding me??? The only thing this changed was that americans got ridiculously uptight with airport security and started rounding up every possible immigrant they could to accuse them of terrorism, and then pissed off even more allies, by accusing them of harboring terrorists!! In short....it just made you guys even worse!!! The rest of the world is exactly the same as it was before that day, albeit we have increased airport waiting times. WOW. Big change.

@91

el oh el

makes me wonder what kind of unfortunate upbringing people have where it's just "oh well, whatever". i've only been around for about 29 years but as i've gotten older i've been learning it's a lot easier to do things the right way. maybe it takes a little effor/work to do what's right but at the end of the day you can sleep better. maybe that's selfish- but hopefully someone else gets something out of it too or at the very least nobody is put out at all.

i have a feeling the "get over it" people are the ones that empty the holloween "take one" bowl and no other trick or treaters get any...
lie on the resume...buy personal things with the corporate credit card...leave the grocery cart in the middle of a parking spot...crap all over the portapotty...send out computer viruses...throw trash out the car window...forge...turn in homework stolen from the interwebz...etc

all of the above will still keep happening, if it happens to me and you screw me over then just fine....i'm glad i could help you feel good for a minute.

like bernie madoff- sure he had al this luxurious "stuff" probably felt nice to have all that crap. but in the back of his mind he knew that he wasn't the genious everyone thought he was. he was a fake...COMPLETE PHOTOSHOP JOB. most of the reward is knowing it truly is yours. even if he never got caught the jagoff knew he sucked the whole time.

your character is defined by what you do when people aren't looking or you can be anonymous.

so keep being dicks...just fine with me...

Sleep tight!

@96

The united states sucks...you're right. BUT, the US sucks the least of them all. and the us IS the center of the world...why is everything expressed in US $?

and what country is SOOOOO nice to other countries?

lots of opportuinity here. is there somewhere else that's more true?

@97

*genius

appearantly i'm not the "genious" i think i am either

That doesn't look real at all ...

9/11 was an inside job.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-594683847743189197#

Yeah, never forget. Crazy. We'll be 99 with Alzheimer's and still remember this. The trick is to learn something new to avoid the situation in the future. If someone can find a way to help me remember where I parked my car when I duck in to the store for a full 5 minutes, that'd be helpful.
Never forget:
12/7/41
1066 and all that

I am in a job where I am directly working to protect America from this happening again, but it feels inevitable so be prepared... I hope I'm wrong...

911 rhetoric sounds more like a war drum than a memorial.

I hope America doesn't end up like Israel, I mean using past tragedies as an excuse to vindicate their hatred of the rest of the world and therefore justify them committing horrible acts of violence on any nation they chose.

OPPS too late.

@everyone who thinks they deserve everything they have, like it's their right, who never had to fight for anything the believed in, who don't even hold true enough to their beliefs to fight if a chance came...

off yourself.

@105
"who don't even hold true enough to their beliefs to fight if a chance came..."
Wow, that is enlightening.
Who wouldn't fight at the first opportunity, so uncivilised, oh so utterly stupid.

Ill be honest,..

what is there to remember? the past is the past seriously screw this garbage. Conspiracy theories, blah blah blah GET OVER IT. No wonder why people think Americans are so dumb.. jesus

i forgot what happened :( 8 years is a long time

Ok I get it. I REMEMBER. Doesn't mean I should dwell on it. I rmember what happened. Ok.

What are we afraid of? That all of the dead people are watching us making sure we think about it each day? What's the point? If you lsot someone, you probably just can't get over it. To the rest, get real. Life is a tragedy. No need to force this stuff into people's faces just for the sake of "remembering"

To all,are you remembering right now? Why not? I'm going to check on you everyday at noon and make sure you're thikning about it.

Why are any of you haivng fun EVER. No movies, no toys, nothing. 9/11 changed everything guys. Stop doing what you're doing and devote your life to it. Let's start up a religion and worship it.

Where was I on september 11, 2001? The wierd thing is that I was watching the news right before I left for school ( I was a junior in high school). It didn't even seem real to me. It looked like a movie trailer. The television was already on the news when I turned it on. So, I really wasn't sure if it was the news channel or just a trailer, like I said. Reality soon set in and then fear, like everyone else, I'm sure. But as many of you have already said, we must never forget, but also, we should not live in the past. We should look to the future when, hopefully, we catch that SOB responsible, torture him, and stick his head on a post for all the world to see. Many may not agree with this, but these are the same people who would have let Hitler take over europe. I will never forget.

I'm a Brit who was stuck in a lab in Germany installing a robot (I've seen the errors of my ways and now disassemble them). I remember our german customer coming in and saying a plane had been flown into a building in America. He had a stupid assed smile on and he disappeared. He came back a few minutes later and said a second plane had been crashed too and took us through to see it in the interweb. It then came through that all flights into the uk were either re routed or cancelled. Right there and then a thousand miles from my loved ones I realied that flying twice a week myself, that could have been me on a plane flying into London. My wife kept the newspapers and I watched the documentarys.
Don't get me wrong. I visited America (Boston) a few years ago and was abused in the street just for walking along the street so you're not my favourite people but 9/11 affected me because it could have been me. My kids will be shown everything I've collected so hopefully the next generation can learn from our mistakes.

Must See!!!

http://alturl.com/obg7
________________

kids today are so uneducated, sad

@6
i was in college, taking a math course too, and my teacher did the same thing except, she put it on for 2 mins then shut it off and got right to work.

F! MATH!

i know im only 15. so i was young when it happened (elementary school) but i remember CLEARLY coming home from school. learning a plane hit the trade centers. running inside and turning on the tv and watched the news the WHOLE day. once again, i know i was young, but 9/11 really did change alot. everything was better before. no one was on edge. people were more trustworthy, and i use to beleive people were good. now..to say the least, i do not.

I knew there were a lot of f*cktards out there but when you see such a concentrated mass of them in one thread it's kind of depressing.

This was NOT a 'tragedy', and those people didn't 'die'. It was a terrorist attack and they were murdered. Not something that just happened, a one-time thing. It was the culmination of a decades-long series of attacks and was only the last on US soil. Gitmo, enhanced interrogation, rendition, wiretaps, NSA intercepts - they've all worked to prevent another attack and are all still in effect under the new boss. KSM spilled the beans on the entire inner structure of al qaeda after 3 minutes of waterboarding. I would have pulled his teeth and fingernails out to get that information, which proved to be a goldmine.

Now the new gov't caves to N Korea, Iran, Syria, Libya, Venezuela and anyone else with an open hatred of the US. The only countries that have been slapped down are Israel and Honduras. It's an absolute disgrace.

Is there anyone here who thought on 9/11 that there wouldn't be more attacks in the US? This post was perfectly appropriate for the day. You don't like it? Shut the F*ck up.

@11: It’s a little late to be commenting on this, and no one will probably read this but what the hell. I was in the VT campus gym, running on a treadmill when the first tower got hit. I saw the images on one of the TVs mounted on the gym wall. But with all the noise from the machines I couldn’t hear what was going on and I couldn’t see the subtitles from my position. At the time I though it was some bombing in some other country… I would not have guessed in 1000 years that anything like that could happen on US soil. So naive was I. After my little run, I got my things and headed back to the lab. And it was only after I got to Price Hall that people told me what was really going on. I was shocked, grabbed my things, walked across campus to the Red Cross to give blood. The line was already out the door by the time I got there. At that time I actually thought that giving blood would help, as if there were going to be that many survivors. At that time, I was pretty naïve. What a horrible horrible day.

Anyway, as for the forget vs. never forget debate, I believe that as a country we should move on, we should move forward, but not forget. Major events like this one get woven into the fabric of our history and must never be forgotten so that we may teach future generations the f*cked things that have happened as to avoid repeating them in the future.

Never forget... the nano-thermite found in the dust of all THREE buildings that fell that day. CAN YOU SMELL IT? IT SMELLS LIKE INSIDE JOB.

http://www.bentham-open.org/pages/content.php?TOCPJ/2009/00000002/00000001/7TOCPJ.SGM

"Wheres the posts mourning the 100s of thousand of dead iraqis? wheres their 2 minutes of silence? they lost more civilians in the first days of bombing iraq then in 9/11."

You're welcome to start your own web site to that effect, if you wish. This isn't a professional news organization that must remain balanced and neutral (that's the theory for them, anyway), it's whatever the person running the site considers important.

"Americans believe their lives have more value then any others,"

Actually...yes. A government (ANY government) that doesn't put the safety of its *own* citizens first, is not a government worthy of support. (we can argue over what *is* the best way to do that, but it doesn't change the point)

" they may as well be a master race with the way they put American blood so highly on a pedestal, 9/11? take your own medicine, GET OVER IT."

Right. These attacks originated from a region of the world where they remember historical and cultural wrongs for (LITERALLY) a thousand freaking years, and *we* should get over it in just...eight?

If anything, Americans have a pretty *short* historical attention span. When was the last time you heard anyone rail against the British over the Revolution, or the War of 1812?

We remember Pearl Harbor, but no one's itching to go to war with Japan (or Germany) again.

We remember The Alamo, but no one's itching to go to war with Mexico again.

Hell, people do business with (and some even do tourism in) Vietnam. I easily remember when that was unthinkable.

Get some real historical perspective, charlie...

@97 - Finally, some rationalism.
To anyone else who's decided to get up at the podium and rant about either, "it was an inside job" or "Americans don't care about other tragedies":
Do you actually care that little about other human beings? Or is it just easier to anonymously spew forth vitriol at everyone so that they can feel bad that they care more than you? Try using that line at someone who lost a family member that day -- they'll punch you in the mouth without blinking.
The point is that all of us here are anonymous. That doesn't make you inhuman, unfeeling, callous, or otherwise. It just makes you transparent when someone who is hurt by your comments reads them. While it may sometimes feel as if the 9/11 attacks have been used by politicians as a power grab or to strike fear into those who disagree with bloated military budgets, stop and think about the 3,000 people who were murdered that day. None of them used this for gain. None of them would have, given the chance. They will never be able to change the world that spawned the people who killed them.
You have that chance.
Listen, ask questions, accept the truth (or don't), and by all means have an opinion. This is America. But the right to swing your fist ends at another man's nose. When you feel yourself about to be an a**hole, posting a dumb, rude, cruel, hateful, or otherwise unnecessary comment, stop and consider it for a moment. Consider someone other than yourself. Consider the fact that your opinion just may be something vile, something that you expect to gain you either notoriety or hatred from fellow human beings, and ask yourself why you would post it.
If you go ahead and post it, then your opinion is as good as unheard, anyway. No one listens to people who only listen to themselves.

hey @Bubbowrap! very touching, I do not know what experiencing such a tragedy feels like, but I side with you totally!

ITS A CONSPIRACY!
But i do feel sorry for all the people killed by their own country :(