Vanity: Do You Still Get Emotional on 9-11?

Self | 9/9/11 | Self

[usconservative]

Wondering if anyone else still gets emotional on Sept. 11th.

I do.

The emotions for me are still pretty raw.

I'm not a New Yorker, I didn't lose friends or family on that day. I didn't lose a wife, daughter, son or father. I can't imagine the pain of those who did.

I'm not a first responder, I didn't dig through the rubble of the fallen towers looking for survivors. I don't know what it's like to be a first responder who's dealing with life threatening illness today as a result of being there, or working on the piles of rubble. I can't imagine the pain they or their families are going through.

I haven't been to Ground Zero since the 9-11 terrorist attack, but I've been to New York and seen the Twin Towers first hand. There was nothing else like them in all the world, they left an impression. I've stood in the plaza where the towers ultimately fell.

I don't know what it's like to walk past the site where the towers stood on a daily basis on my way to work like countless thousands or millions of New Yorkers do on a weekly basis.

I'll never know the pain of those who managed to get out alive, only to question "why did I survive?" when learning of friends and co-workers who perished in the attacks.

What I do know and feel, is that on that day our country fundamentally changed in ways I couldn't begin to imagine on that day, but have experienced since. Like many of you, I watched in stunned horror as the second plane hit the Twin Towers. As we watched the towers burn, we learned of the attack at the Pentagon, and the crash in a Pennsylvania field where a bunch of brave passengers upon learning of their impending fate, took action to prevent another attack, surrendering their own lives in the process. Then, about an hour later we watched the first, then second of the Twin Towers fell to the ground.

I stood there in front of my television that day shaking and crying first in fear, then in sympathy for those who lost loved ones on that day, then rage set in upon realization of what had happened and knowing my young children (5 and 3 at the time) would grow up and live in a world very different from the one I grew up in.

Every year since then on the anniversary of 9-11 I've felt all these same emotions. I still cry and pray for those lost on that day. I still get angry at the muslim terrorists that attacked us, and I still mourn the fact that my (and your) children aren't growing up in the world that we grew up in prior to that day.

Now that the tenth anniversary is coming up, I've been watching and noting the events that will commemorate that day in New York City, and I'm angry that the brave first responders who rushed to the scene, and families who lost loved ones on that day are not invited.

It makes me ask the question "why are they trying to erase the memory and emotions felt on that fateful day, September 11th, 2001?"

And then I just get angry all over again. How dare the Mayor of New York City and the current America-hating President slap the faces of the brave souls who braved conditions they couldn't have known would later impact their lives in devastating ways, and the families of those who lost fathers, mothers, sons and daughters by not including them in the memorial ceremony.

This Sunday, are we all New Yorkers again? Do you still feel the emotion?

I do, and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

[barker]

The other night I turned on one of the programs about 9-11 just as they showed, at full speed, the second plane slamming into the tower. It was absolute shock. Like I was seeing it for the first time. Images of 9-11 will bring the tears when nothing else will. I will never and do not ever want to forget.

[dupree]

Thanks for the tip. I stayed up until 3:00 am on Friday night reading all of the articles. So many ‘what ifs?’ throughout this story.

[rabidralph]

Incredible, right? Of all the losses at WTC, I never thought of the out-of-staters who were in town for meetings that awful morning. Similar to Mark Bingham, racing to catch his flight and others who, for various reasons, changed itineraries and ended up those four planes.