9/11/01 as the media doesn't want you to see it (WARNING: Very graphic; not antiseptic)

Goodspeedupdate.com & Sohoblues.com ^ | 9/11/03

[Wolfstar]

Link to Goodspeedupdate.com

Link to Sohoblues.com

[Wolfstar]

So, so powerful and disturbing. I read his entire account — am honored that you linked it here.

He said: "The loss of so many great people has left us with a huge responsibility to tell their story and preserve their history." Oh yes, yes, yes. As painful as it is, we absolutely MUST bring these attacks down to human scale. What are buildings and vehicles, after all, but things that can be replaced. The impact of over 3000 dead, and the ripples of tens of thousands of individual human tragedies that flowed out from their murder, can never be measured. What have we as a society lost? What music? What art? What medical advance? What endeavor? What child unborn who might have grown to greatness?

What child will never again be cradled by that hand? Whose hair or face will never again be lovingly touched by that hand? What friendship will never begin by shaking that hand? Whose tears will never again be dried by that hand? What creativity will the owner of that hand never be able to express with it again? That's the human scale of these atrocities.

He also wrote: "The lessons they taught us from their selfless acts that took their lives, will impact...most every other New Yorker for generations."

Sadly, of that I'm not so sure. We are a society that is in a hurry to "move on." We have a media and popular culture that encourages us to do so very quickly. Only two years on from that horrible day, the media almost seems embarrassed and reluctant to remind us. And a teacher in Denver is told by his administrators not to teach his class about 9/11/01.

[Wolfstar]

I was born and raised in the New York City metro area. My father's family lived in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, when they first emigrated from Italy in the early part of the last century. I lived in Jersey City throughout my childhood and took those old Path trains almost every weekend with my dad to go visit his brothers and sisters still living in NY — even before they were called Path and were still called the Hudson Tubes. I lived in Flushing the last five years before moving out here. Walked the streets of lower Manhattan countless times and used to enjoy stopping in at St. Paul's Chapel. I have not missed New York these years I've lived in California. But on 9/11 I desperately wished I was there to try to help in whatever way possible.

[ChemistCat]

Remember people all over the country hurriedly knitting and sending in booties for the cadaver-sniffing dogs, to keep them from burning and cutting their feet quite so much as they were?

[Calpernia]

I grew up right near you! Belleville!

I'm third generation from Italian immigrants!

I remember and traveled the tubes/path!

Small world.

[Calpernia]

Here is one, look close at the bottom center.

[ChemistCat]

That is one of the more poignant things about 9/11 to me. Those brave dogs, getting burned and cut, but crying and getting depressed when they weren't finding anyone alive. People hiding in the wreckage so that the dogs could FIND SOMEONE ALIVE, and cheer up.

[mommybain]

Here is my 13-year-old son's perception of 9-11. I'm pretty sure it was influenced by the many stories of people who were able to call their families before they died. He wrote it in English class last Thursday, 9/11/03.

The Calm One

A trickle of silence runs down the neck
signifiying the bloodshed and screams
some suicidal, not willing to live on
others wouldn't, couldn't let go of life
But one spirit stayed calm
in the flame and smoke
The dead and dying surrounded him
He continued to live and breathe
A call he left to his unknowing wife
Words of wisdom, enlightenment, and the truth
struck his love with everlasting pain
The time of judgement draws nearer
and everything's falling apart
Divinity shines its Holy light
upon the calm one's soul
The calm one sees his existence
It is the only one holding its ground
Purity dwells underneath his skin
Yet his vision now shrouded in dust
No...this can't be happening
Why must the calm one die?
He accepts his destiny
Embraces his death
And now the corpse falls down

[mommybain]

Someone on this thread asked about how our children respond to events in their lives like 9-11. Post 207 is an example. Please read it.

[StriperSniper]

This man is very familiar to me.

He's a real nice guy. I used to run into him from time to time myself. Just small chit chat, but he has a great sense of humor. And as for Roselle, you didn't have to be there that day or know the story to appreciate the devotion of that dog, just meeting them on a bus or train would make it obvious.

[OldFriend]

This is a child to be cherished and nurtured.

Help him tho to see the beauty in the world too, lest he see only the sadness.

[mommybain]

Believe me, he does. He's also a very gifted artist. I know that I've been blessed to have been given the gift of being allowed to serve as his mom.

[OldFriend]

He's so lucky to have you in his life. Give him a freeper mom hug from me!!!!

[giotto]

Did you ever locate the Flash video you were looking for? If you meant the one with the Enya song "Only Time," I found a copy on my computer which I had saved, and I uploaded it to my SBC user page. Here's the link:

911 Tribute

Once downloaded, the file can be saved as an .swf file. It's long, but the file size is relatively small (~7 mg).

[jern]

Never forget.

[longfellow]

You can even see the tragedy in this dogs face.

[longfellow]

Mrs. Clooney put your arms down, the B.O. is killing us.

[longfellow]

David Letterman's remarks on September 17, 2001...

cold opening and applause

Thank you very much.

Welcome to the Late Show. This is our first show on the air since New York and Washington were attacked, and I need to ask your patience and indulgence here because I want to say a few things, and believe me, sadly, I'm not going to be saying anything new, and in the past week others have said what I will be saying here tonight far more eloquently than I'm equipped to do.

But, if we are going to continue to do shows, I just need to hear myself talk for a couple of minutes, and so that's what I'm going to do here.

It's terribly sad here in New York City. We've lost five thousand fellow New Yorkers, and you can feel it. You can feel it. You can see it. It's terribly sad. Terribly, terribly sad. And watching all of this, I wasn't sure that I should be doing a television show, because for twenty years we've been in the city, making fun of everything, making fun of the city, making fun of my hair, making fun of Paul... well...

So, to come to this circumstance that is so desperately sad, I don't trust my judgment in matters like this, but I'll tell you the reason that I am doing a show and the reason I am back to work is because of Mayor Giuliani.

Very early on, after the attack, and how strange does it sound to invoke that phrase, "after the attack?", Mayor Giuliani encouraged us -- and here lately implored us -- to go back to our lives, go on living, continue trying to make New York City the place that it should be. And because of him, I'm here tonight.

And I just want to say one other thing about Mayor Giuliani: As this began, and if you were like me, and in many respects, God, I hope you're not. But in this one small measure, if you're like me, and you're watching and you're confused and depressed and irritated and angry and full of grief, and you don't know how to behave and you're not sure what to do and you don't really... because we've never been through this before... all you had to do at any moment was watch the Mayor. Watch how this guy behaved. Watch how this guy conducted himself. Watch what this guy did. Listen to what this guy said. Rudolph Giuliani is the personification of courage.

applause

And it's very simple... there is only one requirement for any of us, and that is to be courageous, because courage, as you might know, defines all other human behavior. And I believe, because I've done a little of this myself, pretending to be courageous is just as good as the real thing. He's an amazing man, and far, far better than we could have hoped for. To run the city in the midst of this obscene chaos and attack, and also demonstrate human dignity... my God... who can do that? That's a pretty short list. The twenty years we've been here in New York City, we've worked closely with police officers and the fire fighters and...

applause

...and fortunately, most of us don't really have to think too much about what these men and women do on a daily basis, and the phrase New York's finest and New York's bravest, you know, did it mean anything to us personally, firsthand? Well, maybe, hopefully, but probably not. But boy, it means something now, doesn't it? They put themselves in harm's way to protect people like us, and the men and women, the fire fighters and the police department who are lost are going to be missed by this city for a very, very long time. And I, and my hope for myself and everybody else, not only in New York but everywhere, is that we never, ever take these people for granted... absolutely never take them for granted.

applause

I just want to go through this, and again, forgive me if this is more for me than it is for people watching, I'm sorry, but uh, I just, I have to go through this, I'm...

The reason we were attacked, the reason these people are dead, these people are missing and dead, and they weren't doing anything wrong, they were living their lives, they were going to work, they were traveling, they were doing what they normally do. As I understand it (and my understanding of this is vague at best), another smaller group of people stole some airplanes and crashed them into buildings. And we're told that they were zealots, fueled by religious fervor... religious fervor. And if you live to be a thousand years old, will that make any sense to you? Will that make any Goddamned sense? Whew.

I'll tell you about a thing that happened last night. There's a town in Montana by the name of Choteau. It's about a hundred miles south of the Canadian border. And I know a little something about this town. It's 1,600 people. 1,600 people. And it's an ag-business community, which means farming and ranching. And Montana's been in the middle of a drought for... I don't know... three years? And if you've got no rain, you can't grow anything. And if you can't grow anything, you can't farm, and if you can't grow anything, you can't ranch, because the cattle don't have anything to eat, and that's the way life is in a small town. 1,600 people.
Last night at the high school auditorium in Choteau, Montana, they had a rally, home of the Bulldogs, by the way... they had a rally for New York City. And not just a rally for New York City, but a rally to raise money... to raise money for New York City. And if that doesn't tell you everything you need to know about the... the spirit of the United States, then I can't help you. I'm sorry.

applause

And I have one more thing to say, and then, thank God, Regis is here, so we have something to make fun of.

If you didn't believe it before, and it's easy to understand how you might have been skeptical on this point, if you didn't believe it before, you can absolutely believe it now... New York City is the greatest city in the world.

lengthy applause

We're going to try and feel our way through this, and we'll just see how it goes... take it a day at a time. We're lucky enough tonight to have two fantastic representatives of this town, Dan Rather and Regis Philbin, and we'll be right back.

to commercial

[DanTheAdmin]

Odd this thread was resurrected. Yesterday I visited another site and on it was a tin-foil-hat thread blaming the horrors of 9/11 on GWB and the government; claiming it was all staged and choreographed. It made me sick. The hatred and vitriol haunted me all evening. I really don’t have a point to this, I just needed to vent…

[Jonathan]

Bttt with a bullet.

[albee]

My prayers go out to all of these innocent kids and their parents.