9-11

Never forgive, never forget. 

I remember the images of people leaping to certain death to escape the flames.  The swan dive of one woman.  Another women pushing her hands against a building wall as she fell to avoid having her skin ripped off by contact.  I remember the buildings falling in seeming slow motion.

I remember seeing the 2nd one start to fall and my co-workers thinking at first that it was a news repeat of the 1st and me shouting that it was the 2nd too.

I remember the "thud" under my feet when the plane hit the Pentagon.

I remember everyone crowding the street with their cars to get away and thinking the last place I wanted to be was in a traffic jam like a sitting duck.

I remember standing on the roof of the building, a block away from the White House, watching the skies for the 4th plane.  And relieved to hear the passengers had attacked and overpowered the hijackers over Pennsylvannia.  And then so sad to learn they had all died forcing the plane out of control of the hijackers to save others.

I will not forget this event just as my parents did not ever forget Pearl Harbor.  I will not forgive this event just as others will never forgive WWII atrocities. 

And I expect that history will reveal that some of our Middle East "allies" knew about this.

9-11

Forever and always, never forgive and never forget...

I didn't see the 1st WTC  tower fall.  I saw the 2nd.  I FELT the Pentagon explosion right up through the floor where I worked in Washington DC.  I didn't know the cause of the THUD at the time, but I learned soon enough.

Everyone was evacuated.  I saw the traffic jams outside, so I stood on the roof of the building while there were rumors of another suicide plane.   It crashed in Pennsylvania due to the bravery of the passengers.  I won't forget that either.

When the traffic vanished, I drove home.

"Embedded in the memories of everyone who lived through it, this was the day four jet planes were hijacked and crashed into the New York World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, causing the deaths of 2,977 people. The fourth plane (United Airlines Flight 93) was directed at Washington DC, but its passengers bravely attempted to take back control and it crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania."



Never forgive, never forget...

9/11

Never Forgive, Never Forget...

9-11-13

 

I have such a hard time with this day every year.  The anger won't go away.  I try to write something thoughtful and it veers off into bitterness and hatred.  Most years I just post some picture I find to mark the date because I don't want to post the bitter angry words I write.


I choose not to post the bitter words for the benefit of you who kindly read this blog, though I am fine with those thoughts myself.  And once again, I have written and deleted a dozen angry posts about 911 this past week.

But this time, there is something I will post.

I wish...

That I could have bin Laden, his top lieutenants, and the individuals who carried out the 9-11 attack alive again today in one place.  That place would be a large office-sized metal mesh frame.  That frame would be covered in hot-burning wood with one open window.  The whole thing would be dangling from a helicopter 110 stories high.


The wood frame will be lit at the opposite side from the window.  The occupants can choose to stay inside and burn, or they can jump.  I grant them the same choice most of their victims had.

I would light the box.

And then I wish they could return to life to experience it again and again, once for every person who died in the attack (minus their own number).   Let them see they have not gone to Paradise.  Let them experience the horrible choice again and again.  And for those who simply jump each time, there will sometimes be no window. 

But let there be mercy of a sort.  Let those who truly come to understand and abjure the horror they created not return to life to suffer the same deaths again.  Let only those who do not understand, repeat the experience to the last number of victims and let them finally die too, for if they do not understand after that many personal death-experiences, they are beyond all hope.

And I tell you again, I WOULD light that box as many times as there were victims, with grim resolve...

Cavebear

This Day

No terrible act is remembered forever in history.  But I will remember THIS day 11 years ago all MY life.

December 7, 1941 is etched in my memory, though I was not alive them.  I know it from history, but what was recent history to me when I aged enough.

November 22, 1963 is part of my childhood memory as a day of great sadness.  I remember looking up at the public address system of the school when it was announced that the President had been killed.  The PA box was blonde wood, rounded square shaped,  slightly wider at the top than the bottom, with brown cloth covering the speaker.  You remember the strangest things sometimes.

I was older of course on 9-11.  The day started with an announcement on the radio about a small plane crashing into a World Trade Center Building.  I mentioned it in passing to my supervisor.  The next few reports made it seem worse.

Then I felt a THUMP under my feet at 9:37.  I didn't know that the Pentagon had been struck.  But I realized after that, that I had felt the strike. I happened to look at my watch.  Seared in memory.

My govt office had some Emergency Management functions, so there was a special TV in a conference room.  Most of us ended up in there.  I was out on the roof at the time the first Tower went down, so I didn't see it in real time.

I saw the 2nd Tower go down though.  Most thought it a replay of the 1st Tower, but I saw the difference and called attention to it.  We all stared in horror.

There are evil vicious cruel acts occurring all over the world on a daily basis.  Victims have their lives shattered every day.  No one is free of them.  I will not make guesses on "worst".

There are reasons given for all destructive killing acts.  Most of them are pathetically weak.  But some are more unsensible and evil than others.

I have a background in history.  Phenomenally and nearly innumerable horrible acts abound through the ages.  Pol Pot, Nazis, Colonialism, Inquisitions, Witch-Burnings, European Christian Crusades, Islamist invasions, Mongol and Hun attacks, Viking slaughters, and back on through the lost times of history.  No age is free of vicious and pointless deaths.

But I will remember 9-11 all my life with a line I read in the book 'Dune'.  "Never forgive, never forget".

But I should.  When I read about some cultural group angry about something that happened 500 years ago, I have to wonder about the "never forgetting" part.  There was the December 7th attack, but we think of Japan as an ally now.  As Germany is a democracy now, as is Italy.  Forgiveness is possible.

There may be a day when I will forgive the Islamists for the 9-11 attack.

But today is not that day.  

9-11-2011

On 9-11-2001, I was quietly doing my regular job.  An odd news announcement caught my ear at 9 a.m.  A plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.  Strange accident, but one hit the empire State Building many decades before in heavy fog.  But I mentioned it to a supervisor (his office included FEMA responses for our agency).

Then there was a 2nd.

Later, I felt a "thump" through my feet.  A few moments afterwards, I learned the Pentagon had been struck by "something".  I worked a couple miles away from the Pentagon, and 2 blocks from the White House.  It was a really bad day after that.  We all watched the terrible events.  I won't go into that further.

When I got home, I bought and set out a flag from my back deck vowing to leave it there until the perpetrators were caught and punished for such a horrific act.  I have decided to leave it up (4th one actually, they do wear out).

In past years, I have said many things about the events.  This time, I think it best to display a couple of images.  I searched 1,000s of pictures.  Most I found were far too graphic, or xenographic, or bloody, or boastful.

I hope these 2 wordless graphics will strike the right balance on this 10th year commemoration of 9/11...