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September 11, 2009 03:54 PM UTC

September 11th, 2009 Open Thread

  • 29 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom, not a guide by which to live.”

–Robert F. Kennedy

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29 thoughts on “September 11th, 2009 Open Thread”

  1. …on September 11th, 2001, I was on a flight from Detroit to Los Angeles (I was working at Fox Family Channel at the time.) I had just finished a weekend with my best friend, drinking a near-poisonous amount of beer and watching football(college & pro) until my eyes bled.  

    When I checked in, they said the flight was full, so no exit row seat for me. Funny thing was, the boarding area was deserted, and when we finally straggled onto the plane, there was maybe 40 people on the flight. At the time, I said Meh and tried to get some sleep on the flight. Call it weird, but something kept me up – I kept getting that itchy feeling that something was up.

    Halfway thru the flight, I noticed al the flight attendants we gone. Then the plane dove like a video game, and we landed a few minutes later in the Springs. On the way down, I used the in-flight phone to call my wife and ask WTF was going on. She turned on CNN, and told me.

    A few months later the FBI gave me a call, and nicely interrogated me about everyone I remember on the plane. I ask why, but they politely ducked the question, and kept grilling me.

    Fast forward a few years, and stuff starts to get declassified. The one item that gets me is the speculative 5th plane, and that it’s target was the Sear Tower in Chicago. And that a “terrorist cell” in Detroit was supposed to hijack a plane departing from there and fly it into the building. I don’t claim to know if I was on that plane, but the MO seems the same as the other 4.

    We can argue, swear, accuse and even seek solace from our personal God when we talk about what happened, and why.  

    But I will NEVER forget this day. I hope no one does.

    1. I was in the shadow of the Sears Tower at that time working on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade. We were getting ready for trading that morning, and suddenly on the big screen over the exchange floor many of our co-workers in New York were dying. For me, it was all surreal, but near my desk were a lot of Canter-Fitzgerald guys who had worked in the New York office for years before coming to the CBOT. I can’t imagine what it was like for them.

      As it became a little more clear about what was going on, they shuffled us out of the building, and we all met up in the local bars and cafe’s scattered around the block; anywhere with a television.

      Apparently, in emergencies Bush and Cheney disappear and Peter Jennings takes over. While the country was scrambling for information, solace, and leadership, a Canadian born newsman was all we had.

      One broker I know, needed to use the men’s room, and he slammed his way through the door shouting, “If there are any towel heads in here, they’re going to die!” It was an ugly day.

      After a bit downtown started clearing out. I walked past “Women’s Workout World” and saw the sign on the door saying that they would be closed for the next week, “due to recent events.” As if the terrorists were to strike their aerobic classes next.

      But, it did give me pause to know that I now worked in the world’s largest trade center, across the street from a Federal building and INS office, next door to a Federal Reserve Bank, and within the toppling range of what was once again America’s tallest building.

      I am glad that I met SSG_Dan here, instead of in some other circumstance that day.

    1. This 9/11, more than those previous, brings into focus opportunities lost. Opportunities on an individual, community, and national level.

      Where we are as Americans today, IMHO, has to do with our responses after 9/11. I am sad that on this day eight years ago we, as a country, weren’t able to adjust the paths taken by our fathers. Instead we solidified our arrogance and mistrust.

      If men were to realize what fools we are, we could change the world.

  3. By Leonard Pitts – The Miami Herald

    It’s my job to have something to say.

    They pay me to tease shades of meaning from social and cultural issues, to provide words that help make sense of that which troubles the American soul. But in this moment of airless shock when hot tears sting disbelieving eyes, the only thing I can find to say, the only words that seem to fit, must be addressed to the unknown author of this suffering.

    You monster. You beast. You unspeakable bastard.

    What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward’s attack on our World Trade Center, our Pentagon, us? What was it you hoped we would learn? Whatever it was, please know that you failed.

    Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned your cause.

    Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled our resolve.

    Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together.

    Let me tell you about my people. We are a vast and quarrelsome family, a family rent by racial, cultural, political and class division, but a family nonetheless. We’re frivolous, yes, capable of expending tremendous emotional energy on pop cultural minutiae: a singer’s revealing dress, a ball team’s misfortune, a cartoon mouse.

    We’re wealthy, too, spoiled by the ready availability of trinkets and material goods; and maybe because of that, we walk through life with a certain sense of blithe entitlement. We are fundamentally decent, though — peace-loving and compassionate. We struggle to know the right thing and to do it. And we are — the overwhelming majority of us — people of faith, believers in a just and loving God.

    Some people — you, perhaps — think that any or all of this makes us weak. You’re mistaken. We are not weak. Indeed, we are strong in ways that cannot be measured by arsenals.

    Yes, we’re in pain now. We are in mourning, and we are in shock. We’re still grappling with the unreality of the awful thing you did, still working to make ourselves understand that this isn’t a special effect from some Hollywood blockbuster, isn’t the plot development from a Tom Clancy novel.

    Both in terms of the awful scope of its ambition and the probable final death toll, your attacks are likely to go down as the worst acts of terrorism in the history of the United States and, indeed, the history of the world. You’ve bloodied us as we have never been bloodied before.

    But there’s a gulf of difference between making us bloody and making us fall. This is the lesson that Japan was taught to its bitter sorrow the last time anyone hit us this hard, the last time anyone brought us such abrupt and monumental pain. When roused, we are righteous in our outrage, terrible in our force. When provoked by this level of barbarism, we will bear any suffering, pay any cost, go to any length in the pursuit of justice.

    I tell you this without fear of contradiction. I know my people as you, I think, do not. What I know reassures me. It also causes me to tremble with dread of the future.

    In days to come, there will be recrimination and accusation, fingers pointing to determine whose failure allowed this to happen and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. There will be heightened security, misguided talk of revoking basic freedoms. We’ll go forward from this moment sobered, chastened, sad. But determined, too. Unimaginably determined.

    You see, there is steel beneath this velvet. That aspect of our character is seldom understood by people who don’t know us well. On this day, the family’s bickering is put on hold. As Americans, we will weep; as Americans, we will mourn; and as Americans, we will rise in defense of all that we cherish.

    Still, I keep wondering what it was you hoped to teach us. It occurs to me that maybe you just wanted us to know the depths of your hatred.

    If that’s the case, consider the message received. And take this message in exchange: You don’t know my people. You don’t know what we’re about. You don’t know what you just started.

    But you’re about to learn.

    Not available on the Herald website or I would have linked to it.

    1. .

      As Karl Rove read this column on 12 Sept 2001, he drooled onto his newspaper.  

      “Boy, what I could do with this.  I’ve got to talk to the President this very minute!”

      .

  4. I can only remember one persons face clearly anymore.  Though I knew many people at the cantor and Eurobrokers, Kit Faragher worked at the same company as I and was at the WTC for a conference.  I barely knew her and had only socialized with her twice outside of work, but I liked her and liked her work

    It bothers me that I can barely remember the others, but I cling to my small memories of her.

    I became a lawyer because of 9-11.  I signed up to take that LSAT that week, I thought I’d try to get a job at Treasury going after terror funding.  Sometimes I cling to my law degree as a reminder when I can’t remember the people.  

    I have a photo of the fire fighters raising the flag over the ruble given to me by a NYC firefighter who is a family friend a few weeks later at a party in NY for my 1st wedding anniversary.  A weird gift, but one of my favorites.  Another reminder of that day.

    People say you’ll never forget, but I am ashamed to say I do, even though I have surrounded myself with talismans of 9-11.

    I will try to remember, I will try to honor those who died, I will try to make my life meaningful.  

  7. The memories of the tragedy, the hurt it caused, and the incredible ways in which this country can rally and react in a difficult situation is so evident throughout this city.  Even in my meeting, there is a sense of the profundity of this tragic day.

  8. I was driving the wrecker, listening to the radio as I went between calls when the first report of a plane hitting the WTC, no other details.  I originally thought it was a small private plane that accidentally hit a tower.  Then came the report of a second plane striking the other tower and then it bacame obvious that this was no accident.  It was an attack.  

    I can’t really describe the cold empty feeling that hit me then, but I don’t have to, because we all felt it then.  One of my calls was a jump start, and the client was a woman whose brother worked in the North Tower, she wasn’t sure how high up.  She couldn’t get through on the phone, so all she could do is watch the TV helplessly.  And that’s all that any of us could do here, watch, or listen, and hope for the best.

    We can’t forget those who died helplessly at the hands of religious fanatics, nor those who fought back against them that day.

    “Are you guys ready?  Let’s roll.” Tod Beamer

  9. It is a day for serious reflection. But it is also a day to continue our lives. So here’s an email sent by a support person at an un-named Colorado software company.

    I am going to set up an Emotional Support Desk for frustrated people.  I can give sage advice such as;

    Maybe if you hadn’t dropped out of the 3rd grade, you would know how to install the program.

    Maybe the problem your experiencing is that your chewing gum while trying to download and you have overloaded your brain!

    Did you get hired due to your looks?

    I bet you call Support for your back problems.

    Well the reason your download didn’t work is because you’re on the Free version of Net Zero, you cheap bastard.

    Maybe you need a hug, I suggest the bears at the zoo.  Maybe a hungry one.

    I take it they don’t do drug testing at your work either.  Just so you know, there is no correlation between a download and downers.

    Does your mother walk you to work each day, or just the ones that end in Y?

    Let me get this straight, you lost your laptop, while getting a lap-dance? You can get a virus doing that.

  10. When NYPD shut it down.  Watched the huge cloud of dust and smoke from some high overlook in Rockland County.  The next day I got into the city the only way I could: Metro North on the Hudson line.  I went in with some Canadians who had tried to drive down to NYC from Toronto as soon as they heard, but like everybody else they couldn’t make it into the city on the night of the 11th because of the lockdown.

    I made my way to Chelsea Piers where people who wanted to volunteer to do search and rescue at the WTC site were being staged (hundreds of people were there to volunteer — maybe over 1000).  I was in a line to get on a bus to be shuttled down to the site, was next to go, when they stopped sending buses and told everybody to go home.  They told us there were enough National Guard to do the job, and just a day or two later it became clear that there was nobody to rescue anyway.

    I decided to walk downtown, maybe make it through and just start doing something.  Like everybody I felt this frustrated sense of helplessness.  I don’t remember how far south I made it — maybe to Houston St or Christopher St. when I was turned around by National Guard.  All I remember is that it was really dark because I was under the cloud of smoke.

    The people of NYC were really different (nicer, more patient, actually looked at strangers) for about two weeks. I was wondering if it was going to be a permanent change.  Then we all reverted back to our normal rude selves.  That was fascinating to watch.  It was also bizarre to see how family and friends back in the west reacted so differently — almost like they were more enraged and took it more personally than the people in NYC.  Not that those in NYC didn’t…maybe we were still too shocked.

  11. could be an even worse catastrophe:

    The Obama administration opened a new front in its effort to impose $31.5 billion in taxes on oil and gas companies, saying that the nation puts too much emphasis on oil and gas at the expense of other industries.

    The chief economist in the Obama administration’s Treasury Department testified before a Senate panel that current subsidies “lead to overinvestment” in the oil and gas industry. That went beyond previous statements about the need to protect taxpayers and was the clearest signal yet that the federal government hopes to end its role in nurturing domestic oil and gas production.

    “To the extent that current subsidies for the oil and gas industry encourage the overproduction of oil and natural gas, they divert resources from other, potentially more efficient investments, and they are inconsistent with the Obama administration’s goals to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and build a new, clean energy economy,” Alan Krueger, the Treasury’s chief economist, told the panel.

    Ironically, this looming catastrophe has ties to the 9/11 catastrophe.

  12. http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/…

    A suspect, identified only as a 33-year-old Owosso man, has been taken into custody, Owosso Police Chief Michael Compeau said.

    Jim Pouillon, 63, an anti-abortion activist well-known in the area, was protesting across the street from Owosso High School about 7:20 a.m. when several shots were fired from a passing vehicle, killing him, Compeau said.

    This is awful. No motive given yet. The suspect also allegedly shot the owner of a local business who wasn’t involved in abortion activism, so it’s not clear whether this was politically motivated.

    1. CNN the suspect was offended by the pro-life signs.  There is no motive for the second murder, but apparently the suspect was looking for, but didn’t find a third person.  

      At least right now this is looking more like a spree killing with at least one of the targets chosen over his stance on abortion.  But there is still a lot to find out on this.

      1. CNN isn’t having a good day today, having earlier gone with a bogus story of a terrorist attack on the Potomac, about which it later aired a retraction.

        CNN really, really wants the next scoop. So much so it’s willing to air crap.  Is it sweeps week?

        Other sources say it was a “spree killing” that had nothing to do with the politics of its victims.

        I guess the shooter hated anti-choicers and gravel-pit operators at the same time.  The only thing the two shootings had in common is that the victims are dead.

        I mourn the death of anyone.  This particular killing looks like “there’s no there there.”

        If you want to try to make it political, do so at your own risk.

                1. years ago.  There isn’t a single “news” channel out there anymore that is worth my time.  I listen to the radio a lot because it’s rather hard to read newsfeeds when I’m driving at work(not to mention dangerous).  I try to tune into 760 when I can get decent reception because, unlike some people, I don’t want to live in an echo chamber.

  13. Looks like the U.K. chose today to make this announcement:

    http://www.google.com/hostedne…

    LONDON – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown offered a posthumous apology Friday for the “inhumane” treatment of Alan Turing, the World War II codebreaker who committed suicide in 1954 after being prosecuted for homosexuality and forcibly treated with female hormones.

    The mathematician helped crack Nazi Germany’s Enigma encryption machine – a turning point in the war – and is considered a father of modern computing.

    In 1952, however, Turing was convicted of gross indecency for having sex with a man and offered a choice between prison and “chemical castration” – the injection of female hormones to suppress his libido. His security clearance was revoked and he was no longer allowed to work for the government.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_…

    According to Winston Churchill, Turing made the single biggest contribution to Allied victory in the war against Nazi Germany.

    1. and a genius on top of that. He figured out a lot of very difficult and very abstract things before many of his contemporaries could even begin to grasp them. And unlike many mathematically-minded people, his practical contributions were profound as well. Without him, the construction of programmable computers that could be used for more than one thing would have taken much longer to happen. Life today would have been very different without his contributions.

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