9/11...20 years later

[Brumerican]

Just now, Seat68 said:

Last I will say on this thread as they tend to bring out conspiracy theorists. 

I was here before you posted that . I haven't even got to the good tin hatty stuff like Neo's driving license or the speech that Magog gave on the 11th September 1990 which was 11 years before 9/11  ( 11 is a very significant number in occultism)  

I don't expect many, if any on here to agree with me as esoteric philosophy and occultism probably isn't common knowledge but the tin hat pics and "conspiracy theorist"  stuff can get in the bin.  

[Genie]

I remember after the first one hit the first impression was it was a terrible accident. Then the second one and the realisation it was no accident. 

Watching the planes strike the building still shocks me today.

[Big Salad]

If you believe in conspiracy theories it would be much appreciated for you to post in this thread instead cheers:

 

[Xela]

I was working down at Fort Dunlop in Erdington that week and someone in the office shouted over that a plane had crashed into the twin towers. I think they'd got a text. There was no TV or internet enabled computers in the office at that point so someone went out and got a radio from elsewhere and plugged it in! Few people were trying to get the news on their phones... very early days of WAP back then. We didn't really grasp the scope of it at that point. 

I drove home after work and they were talking about it on the radio. It wasn't until I actually saw it on TV when I got home that I realised how massive it was. I was transfixed to the news channels for weeks afterwards. I watch the scenes back now and still can't believe it. 

As someone else said, the death total compared to the devastation caused seems low, if that makes sense? I dread to think how many more people would have died if the planes hit a few hours later. The early news reports suggested that over 50,000 people worked there. 

[Brumerican]

Just now, Big Salad said:

If you believe in conspiracy theories it would be much appreciated for you to post in this thread instead cheers:

 

That is for general conspiracies so I wouldn't want to derail that thread with specific ones. 

 

[OutByEaster?]

It's strange how much the world has changed since this happened - not just in the big ways that the political landscape of the planet was affected, but in the personal ways in which we relate to news and deal with the world. 

I was at work on the day of the attacks and one of our more senior people came across and told us that a plane had hit the WTC, then later told us another one had, at that point, I didn't have a phone that I could check stuff on and we weren't sure if we believed him as he was a bit of a character with a strange sense of humour, as the afternoon wore on there were people who said they'd seen news reports and then rumours of lots of planes and multiple attacks and a strange feeling that the world wasn't quite right.

I got the bus home and picked up the Evening Mail - it was the earlier edition and there was a picture on the front of the WTC with smoke coming out of a plane strike - I remember looking at the picture and thinking that it was extraordinary, but not as bad as people had been making out - that there seemed to be some exaggeration going on. 

I got in, turned on the TV and was immediately met by the sight of the tower collapses on the news. It was extraordinary, terrifying, sad and almost unreal - a huge emotive hit and I remember sitting in silence staring at the TV for what must have been an hour. 

It seems odd now that events would unfold on a personal level in that way - nowadays my watch would beep immediately , i'd have my phone out of my pocket and I'd have been following it live from wherever I was - it was the last of a certain type of disaster from a news perspective.

It still seems to me almost miraculous that whilst almost three thousand people were killed, those numbers weren't significantly higher - I remember in the first days after the event reports of up to 20,000 being killed. Yet in the end, less people were killed on September 11th than in the Bhopal gas leak.

It remains the biggest news event of my lifetime and its influence on the planet we live on has been enormous and tragic, the anniversary is an opportunity to remember those that were killed, and perhaps a chance to reflect on its causes, those responsible and those that have been killed in its name over the last twenty years.

 

[regular_john]

I remember getting home from school, switching on my mobile and receiving a text from a friend who had been sent home with a stomach bug.

 

'Switch on the news. There's been bombs dropped in d US' (sic)

 

Turned out not to be bombs, of course, but what unfolded over the next few hours would be amongst the most terrifying and saddest things that any of us have ever witnessed.

 

I switched on around the time the second plane hit, although I can't remember if it was just before or just after. Either way, I watched the rest of it live, including the collapse of the towers.

 

I think that, for me, it was kind of the end of innocence. All of a sudden I was aware of a threat that I had never even considered - the Islamic ideology of jihad. I remember going into school the next day and seeing some of the Muslim kids laughing and joking, celebrating during the moments of silence. My eyes had been opened to what a strange, mixed up world we really live in - a feeling that has only been heightened by the multitude of atrocities committed by Islamists in the years since.

 

What a horrible, tragic, awful day it was. Hopefully never to be repeated. RIP to the 2996 lost in New York and those who were killed at The Pentagon and on United 93.

 

Never forgive, never forget.

[Follyfoot]

[Genie]

I was watching a documentary last night and wondered if either plane hadn’t hit the building so “true”, if they hit the side and the bounced into a bunch of other buildings and caused a fireball on the ground. 

[Davkaus]

The main image that haunts me when I think of this isn't the impact, or the collapse, it's the footage of the people on the higher floors above the impact realising they have no chance of escaping and choosing to jump. I've seen it a few times over the years and it brings me to tears every time. How bizarre that the withdrawal from Afghanistan had such an echo of where this started.

[Follyfoot]

One of my managers came to my office and advised that there was something going on at the World Trade Centre. We nipped down to the staff room and put the telly on about five minutes before the 2nd plane hit, can remember it like it was yesterday. Once that had sunk in I told all the staff to go home for the day as there was no chance of any work being done. Got home open the bottle of brandy and watched waiting further attacks or news of 

[OutByEaster?]

16 minutes ago, regular_john said:

Never forgive, never forget.

It's "never forgive; never forget" that got us into this position - isn't it about time we tried something else?

[mjmooney]

19 minutes ago, regular_john said:

I think that, for me, it was kind of the end of innocence. All of a sudden I was aware of a threat that I had never even considered - the Islamic ideology of jihad. I remember going into school the next day and seeing some of the Muslim kids laughing and joking, celebrating during the moments of silence.

It certainly added a bit of tension working in Bradford the following day. I didn't see any 'celebration', but one of my Muslim colleagues' first reactions was "Oh no, now we're going to get a backlash", which did rather make me snap at him "Is that all you can think of?" (Although I totally understood where he was coming from). 

[theboyangel]

I was on a rare day off so took myself to Birmingham for a browse around the shops and on my drive home as I was on the Spaghetti Junction, Mark and Lard broke the news to me on the radio. 

I remember them talking about how utterly futile it felt playing music with the events unfolding in New York. 

 

 

[theboyangel]

Just now, mjmooney said:

It certainly added a bit of tension working in Bradford the following day. I didn't see any 'celebration', but one of my Muslim colleagues' first reactions was "Oh no, now we're going to get a backlash", which did rather make me snap at him "Is that all you can think of?" (Although I totally understood where he was coming from). 

I don't to recall that much in Birmingham either but one incident does stick in my mind - I was at Magistrates Court a few weeks later and a young female Asian solicitor was stood in my vicinity and was taking great joy in showing her clients an animated  'gif' of a plane crashing into a building on her phone (it was a very rudimental image but in no doubt what it was meant to represent). I was a little bit shocked to be honest and did comment to her, if it were appropriate. She just laughed and said it was funny..

 

[OutByEaster?]

It's weird, I remember thinking at the time, at least this will make America question itself, it'll maybe lead to a time of reflection where the policies of the previous decade in the Middle East might be reviewed and re-framed.

I'd thought this final awful attack would have America look at its place in the global community and think about how they'd allowed this much hate to fester, how they'd become this overbearing behemoth and why for so many across the Middle East, Asia and elsewhere, this was being reacted to like the blowing up of the death star, a blow struck for the resistance. I remember in the days afterward thinking, we now live in a world of consequence and the American people will have the opportunity to react to the point where we can make the world better and change the policies of endless oil wars in the Middle East and of support for evil regimes with money, I remember hoping that Americans would use the moment to say 'no more'. I wondered if America would ask itself - did we have this coming?

Instead we got "They hate our freedom" and everything that came after.

 

[choffer]

33 minutes ago, regular_john said:

RIP to the 2996 lost in New York and those who were killed at The Pentagon and on United 93.

And to the countless thousands who lost their lives as a result of America's reaction.

[Xela]

The world seemed a much more innocent and friendlier place before the attack. Whether that was just youthful ignorance on my part, or the fact it wasn't such a globally connected world at that point, I don't know

The last 20 years, people just seem to have got a lot more divided, a lot more tribal, and it's sad to see. 

[mjmooney]

2 minutes ago, choffer said:

And to the countless thousands who lost their lives as a result of America's reaction.

Definitely this. Nobody wins. Except, arguably, the jihadis who actively relish the escalation of death, as part of their deranged theology. And there are more than a few fundie Christian nutters who also want to bring about Armageddon. 

[Brumerican]

Just now, choffer said:

And to the countless thousands who lost their lives as a result of America's reaction.