Where Were You and What Does Today Mean to You? \ stacker news ~mostly

Where Were You and What Does Today Mean to You?

1444 sats \ 48 comments \ @Cje95 11 Sep mostly_harmless

Today is the 23rd Anniversary of the deadliest attacks on US soil since World War II. So as the title states where were you and what does today mean to you? For almost all of us, there was an enormous impact in some way shape or form. From the War on Terror to TSA transforming air travel.

For me, I was in first grade and I was one of the few that were not taken out of school that day. I remember going home and seeing the coverage and seeing towers fall but not really having a grasp on it. The next day at school we were asked by our teacher what had happened and I answered that some really bad guys had flown planes into buildings and hurt people.

The only connection I have personally to this tragic event is my best friend in Pre-K's parents had worked in the North Tower and were there when the 1993 bombing attack happened and suffered health effects from it. They still had tons of friends back in New York who worked at the World Trade Center and my mom spent the next few days helping the wife out.

As I now work on Capitol Hill and I see the world in such chaos it gives me pause when this day come around. What about you?

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428 sats \ 2 replies \ @Undisciplined 11 Sep

To me 9/11 symbolizes how innocent people will ultimately pay the price for the ruling class's imperial bullshit and tragedies will be cynically exploited to continue pursuing that same bullshit.

59 sats \ 1 reply \ @Cje95 OP 11 Sep

Never forget the Taliban was given the opportunity to turn over bin Ladan and they set unrealistic requirements like not turning him over to the US. The US told them if you do not give him over we will invade and remove you from power and go after him ourselves. We can see the choice Mullah Omar made and the countless deaths on his hands for being detached from reality.

200 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 11 Sep

And the Taliban's weapons and training came from America.

Afghanistan isn't the cynical exploitation I'm talking about, though (although, it definitely fits into the imperial bullshit category). Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11, but the regime had been wanting to reinvade since the late 90's, so they exploited the opportunity 9/11 offered.

45 sats \ 1 reply \ @justin_shocknet 11 Sep

Was a senior in high school, was running late that day which as was a habbit and so my parking pass had been revoked, so my dad (ex-Navy) was was with me... just before getting there we heard it on AM radio... He immediately hunched at terrorism even though at that time it just sounded like a small plane.

I got up to a PC, the internet was getting crushed of course... I think it was shortly after the pentagon got hit the word (and shock) set in. The military recruiters in the cafeteria were busy that day. Eventually lost some classmates to Afghanistan (or drugs when they got back) after.

This was in the suburbs of Boston, so several classmates had parents flying out of Logan that day or worked for the airline, a few dozen were called into the administrative offices waiting for updates that they were ok.

I had co-worker was actually booked on one of those flights for their honeymoon but changed it last minute.

I had psychology as an elective that year and the follow up from that event is all I remember about it, definitely tore people up.

Then I think it was a year or 3 later the Loose Change documentary came out, can be argued it was created to discredit conspiracy theorists but if so it backfired because it got the wheels turning. By 2008 I was holding Ron Paul signs in New Hampshire and now here I am building software to defund the pieces of shit that did it.

42 sats \ 0 replies \ @justin_shocknet 11 Sep

Literally me, colorized.

71 sats \ 1 reply \ @OT 11 Sep

I remember where I was working when it happened and my manager came over saying something like "this is going to change the world". I was like what is? And then went over to listen to the radio. I think I was pretty consumed by the news cycle for a few days.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Cje95 OP 11 Sep

Esp. back in 2001 when there wasnt any sort of social media. You couldn't get your info from just anywhere it was all from pretty specific places

74 sats \ 1 reply \ @flat24 11 Sep

September 11, 2001 by some coincidence that I don't remember well, I didn't go to school that day, I was just watching television 📺 and suddenly all the channels were live broadcasting what happened, they were talking about a terrorist attack, smoke and fire were coming out of the first tower, the scene was totally desperate and when suddenly the second plane appeared ✈️ and exploded in the second tower. It was a totally strong thing, I had certainly never seen something so extreme, my mind was collapsing I didn't know if it was reality or a fiction movie what my eyes were seeing, I was in front of the TV watching just when the other plane appeared on the scene and crashed directly into the other tower. Being totally honest, it is one of those things that I remember from my childhood, and that the memory is totally vivid and clear despite the years that have passed. 😔 A quite unfortunate event for all the victims of that day.

64 sats \ 0 replies \ @Cje95 OP 11 Sep

Agreed. A big thing I feel is the emotions that not only I felt but that I sensed at my house. I was only 7 so I didn't have a great understanding but I remember the TV just being on and the buildings going down and the shock and sadness that was everywhere.

144 sats \ 2 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 11 Sep

America had told the Teleban they would be removed for refusing to allow the Unocal pipeline through their territory.

How many times in the last 70 years has America imposed its will over and above the sovereignty of other nations?

If you are not sure what I am talking about search for example 'Allende September 11'

How many innocent people have died as a result of US imperialism?

31 sats \ 1 reply \ @Cje95 OP 11 Sep

Uh... whatever you are trying to say or push misses the point entirely. When Iraq invaded Kuwait the Saudis turned down Osama bin Laden's help and chose the US to help. Once that happened al-Qaeda declared jihad against the Saudi Royal Family and the US and began numerous attacks including the 1992 Yemen hotel bombing, the 1993 World Trade Center Bombings, the 1998 bombings on the US's embassy's in Kenya and Tanzania, plus the suicide bombing on the USS Cole in 2000, and 9/11.

Until 1996 al-Qaeda was based in Sudan and only after they were expelled in 1996 went to Afghanistan. The US gave the Taliban leader Mullah Omar a chance to surrender bin Laden and his top associates however he put constraints or requirements on turning him over including he would only be sent to a third neutral country. That was not realistic and Mullah Omar was warned the US would invade if he refused to compile and well we know what choice he made because the US invaded.

So respectfully. Get your bull shirt not even remotely connected to the 9/11 attacks out of here.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 11 Sep

You asked what 9/11 means to readers and to me it was where the US experienced some of the brutal violence and terror that it has aimed at other nations and peoples for decades. An estimated million people were killed in the CIA backed regime change in Indonesia, many thousands more died in Chile after Allende was removed by CIA. From wikipedia- 'Significant operations included the United States and United Kingdom–planned 1953 Iranian coup d'état, the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion targeting Cuba, and support for the overthrow of Sukarno by General Suharto in Indonesia. In addition, the U.S. has interfered in the national elections of countries, including Italy in 1948,[1] the Philippines in 1953, Japan in the 1950s and 1960s[2][3] Lebanon in 1957,[4] and Russia in 1996.[5] According to one study, the U.S. performed at least 81 overt and covert known interventions in foreign elections from 1946 to 2000.[6] According to another study, the U.S. engaged in 64 covert and six overt attempts at regime change during the Cold War.[7]

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the United States has led or supported wars to determine the governance of a number of countries. Stated U.S. aims in these conflicts have included fighting the War on terror, as in the Afghan War, or removing alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), as in the Iraq War. ' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @hasherstacker 11 Sep

It's sad that innocent people are always victimized by the corporations.

41 sats \ 3 replies \ @Coinsreporter 11 Sep

I wasn't there but those were the times when India used to get hit by terrorists every year in major cities. I was in High school when this sad incident happened and looking at the visuals and all channels on TV were showing the catastrophic visions left me with so much about 9/11 that I found myself in a confirmation bias for the exact time for years. When I see 9/11 on the clock, I got like terrified. Then, a bombing in Jaipur happened in 2008 and I was hardly 50 metres from one sight of bombing. I just remember that while I was 20+ but still crying with unstoppable tears for I thought I lost my cousin but more because I had never seen so many people lying on the road, some are dead and some are about to and some eyes were open but body still and then my cousin who was slapping his cheek because he couldn't listen anything.

That was not as big a bomb but was done at a crowded area outside a temple. Because, I witnessed 9/11 on TV and also witnessed terrorism after 7 years of 9/11 live before my eyes. I only feel that those who do it aren't humans at all.

10 sats \ 2 replies \ @Cje95 OP 11 Sep

Now that you mention it I remember growing up and it seemed at the time that India was under almost constant terror attacks from extremists. I just remember seeing on the news announcements of bombings and the 2008 Mumbai attacks I can clearly remember because of the hotel. Something about that hotel really stuck with me.

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @Coinsreporter 11 Sep

Were you in India in 2008?

Yes, one of the grandest hotels in India, The Taj Hotel was attacked in November 2008, the same year when, I can see the most of the terror attacks were done. It was because the 2010 Commonwealth Games were scheduled in New Delhi and they wanted to create an atmosphere of fear among the foreign countries.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Cje95 OP 11 Sep

No I would have been in 8th grade. I haven't been to India before but my great uncle who lived next door to us had his PhD in philosophy and went to India with students countless times and would tell me all sorts of stories!

33 sats \ 1 reply \ @mdominicorobin24 11 Sep

I guess too much shock journalism turned me into someone whom is totally disconnected to the event that happened 23 years ago. Dozens upon dozens of so called "Conspiracy Theories" were able to stir a lot of dormant emotions but this event, I must say that we are the same when it happened. I really could not connect. My world is I think too detached to feel any thing about it. Life goes on whether we like it or not. It is just another statistic in someone elses computer or bounded pieces of legal document. I just couldn't describe it with any sort of emotion.

28 sats \ 0 replies \ @Cje95 OP 11 Sep

Yeah the clickbait and the shock news has really affected us. Social media made it to where these attacks are now everywhere immediately where as in 2001 that wasn't as much of the case you needed your news stations, radio stations, etc. to give you the updates which I feel like just hit people differently than say if they saw the news on Twitter or Instagram.

31 sats \ 2 replies \ @siggy47 11 Sep

I can't believe how much time has passed. I have so many personal stories from family and friends. Only one person I hardly knew sadly lost his life. The weekend before we had a christening party for my daughter. We had a caterer serve sandwiches. The worker who made the sandwiches for the party was working at the WTC restaurant Windows On The World serving breakfast that morning. I still think about him and his family. My cousin's husband and her two sons were NYPD and NYFD, but luckily they were not working that morning. They spent months at ground zero during the cleanup, though, and one has suffered health issues.

64 sats \ 1 reply \ @Cje95 OP 11 Sep

God bless your family... I couldnt imagine being in or around the city at that time.

The first responders are so often forgotten about now. Tens of thousands of them have health issues esp. cancer issues and people just don't put two and two together. They would rather slam their fist in the ground and yell about the wars and everything else while they forget about the event and the fallout of the event.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @siggy47 11 Sep

I spent a lot of time in the twin towers. There was actually a civil court annex with a few courtrooms in there for a while. There were also many law offices. My father's cousin was a steel worker who worked building the towers for years. I remember talking to him about how scary it must have been working on buildings that tall. He said that when you go to work every day, the increase in height was so gradual that you don't notice it. I doubt that would be the case for me. I have a fear of heights.

31 sats \ 5 replies \ @cascdr 11 Sep

I was 7 and I was told football practice was off. I was pissed. I had a thirst for tuddies that could not be quenched.

Then I came home to my dad yelling at my sister while pointing at a globe and my mom upstairs sobbing violently while looking at the TV. Might as well have been straight out of South Park.

Pretty wtf moment looking back but I was just in my own world focused on playing football so I just took it in stride. That probably says a lot about me as an autist/person. It also says a lot about my crazy family lol.

10 sats \ 3 replies \ @Bell_curve 11 Sep

You played football at age 7?

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @cascdr 11 Sep

only if you're not soft.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 11 Sep

That’s what she said

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Cje95 OP 11 Sep

In TX some leagues start even younger at 6 lol

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Cje95 OP 11 Sep

Yeah I remember asking my dad who was running around the house while my mom helped with our family friends why the buildings were falling and what was going on. Just on of those things that while I cannot clearly remember everything that happened that day I can feel the emotions I felt that day still.

23 sats \ 0 replies \ @synergymatrix 11 Sep

If you are going to ask me. It really meant nothing to me. Stacker News is my witness right now. It does not mean a thing to me. I just could not relate. The numbness is at the highest level. I could not even be bothered to react to it until now.

23 sats \ 1 reply \ @leonidastouch 11 Sep

I am not suppose to offend anyone but being overdramatic about something that happened more than two decades ago is just silly since if we are looking for justice then justice has been served after the execution of Saddam Hussein. The endless wars that stemmed from this catastrophe is more likely to stir high level emotions than this.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Cje95 OP 11 Sep

If you want to go down the justice path then no it hasn't been settled. They still have one of the masterminds at Gitmo and just last month one of the prosecutors reached an agreement to have him serve life in prison before the outrage hit the families of the victims and the Secretary stepped in fired the person and rescinded the offer.

Till they finally try and convict the last person justice is still out there.

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b 11 Sep

I was at home alone getting ready. Most days I would walk through a farm to school. My mom called me from work and told me to turn on the news. School was closed and I mostly sat watching the news all day.

Today mostly reminds me that when people feel something strongly they'll discharge their feelings in arbitrary ways.

10 sats \ 2 replies \ @Car 11 Sep

I was at Blockbuster that morning picking up my paycheck I left behind the previous Friday before heading to school, and I remember seeing everyone gathered around the DirectTV display by the front counter just kinda stunned watching the news, later that week we were told we had to pull some dvds, vhs because their was a spiderman trailer with the twin towers in it.

Later that evening my friends and I headed to the USS Lexington and talked about having to be drafted to go to war as that was already being discussed in our families, it was definitely a weird day.

Great post @Cje95

5 sats \ 1 reply \ @Cje95 OP 11 Sep

I didnt even think about Spider Man but yeah I imagine there were a ton of movies that had to be pulled or re-edited after the attack.

Also the USS Lexington... like the one in Corpus? When I was a Cub Scout I used to go there and do the whole spend the night! The last time I went on our way back home was when the Colombia Space Shuttle disaster happened and I later learned from my dad you could see the streaks in the sky since it disintegrated over East Texas

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Car 11 Sep

Ya that one. Supposedly its haunted or they call it the blue ghost, its lit up at night.

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @grayruby 11 Sep

I was in college. I was still living at home and I was about to head out for a class I had at 11am and I saw my mom watching CNN. I watched for a bit and then headed to class. After I grabbed lunch with a few friends and it was a very somber day. Everyone around campus seemed to be walking around like zombies not really sure what happened and what was about to happen. Even though we were in Canada we felt the gravity of it immensely.

Years later while visiting NY I visited the ground zero site and it was one of the most haunting experiences of my life. The only other time I felt like that was when I toured the grounds of a former concentration camp in Austria.

40 sats \ 0 replies \ @Cje95 OP 11 Sep

While not the same but in the same vein after Jan 6th happened in DC walking around the district was the same with it being somber and most people operating like zombies. Everyone had an idea it would be bad protest but I don't think anyone thought we would see what we saw that day.

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @cryotosensei 11 Sep

I was into poetry then and wrote this rictameter prayer for you and other Americans:

I pray the fragile heart be bestowed quiet strength Not be devoured by bitterness The mind rid of torturing images Free to react decisively Aided by tender peace Earnest wishes I pray

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Cje95 OP 11 Sep

Thank you sensei. It is still wild to me to see people even on this post ignore the reason I wrote it. Roughly 3k people went to work that day and never came home. Of those who did tens of thousands have suffered from cancer directly linked to the building collapses.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @abhishandy 12 Sep

I was in India. I watched it on TV. I didn't care much as I was too young. Later on, India was attacked (26/11) and we watched the whole counter terrorist operation for 2-3 days.

Only after a few years, I could grasp the politics behind 9/11 and the engineering effort of Osama Bin Laden to plan such an attack.

I didn't know 911 emergency number was conceived before 9/11 attack.

I didn't know the flights were so vulnerable to hijacks and they had to hit the towers at a particular altitude to take it down like a pack of cards.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @travis 11 Sep

I was in high school and I remember hearing about it while riding the bus to school. I remember thinking I was close to the age where I would be drafted for war. Everyone was shocked and we watched the news at school in the cafeteria, can't remember if I left early.

I didn't get drafted obviously, but years later I did volunteer for the Army and went to Afghanistan. In hindsight, I don't think we should have been there.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Msd0457890 11 Sep

It was certainly a regrettable event. Today is the 25th birthday of two of my friends and I remember it because of this historic event that marked history.

0 sats \ 2 replies \ @Carresan 11 Sep

Just arrived my parents’ home from work at 3pm and my father was watching the news. All channels were giving the news of the first tower, when suddenly the second was hit. Hard feelings and thinking about people who were there and their families. Also thinking a lot about first responders and how they cope with it.

Will never understand terror attacks. We had a lot for many years in Spain. Lot of lives wasted.

21 sats \ 1 reply \ @Cje95 OP 11 Sep

In the US with 9/11 in particular it unified the nation like nothing else. George W. Bush who had won the Presidental Election even while losing the popular vote had a 92% approval rating after his first year. That is the highest ever recorded.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 11 Sep

Republicans lose the popular vote because there is massive fraud in urban areas. Urban results cannot be trusted without an audit or forensic examination

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Satoshi__Nakamoto 11 Sep

I am just doing my work as usual

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @nostrman 11 Sep

I was not paying attention when I saw a building with black smoke as if there is fire. Just like the rest of my friends and relatives we were just gazing in front of the television and that is it. I think news readers are just too professional to be able to illicit any form of human level emotion from their audience the world is just full of zombies like me. Not a care in the world.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @beerussama 11 Sep

I felt the same. I wasn't aware as to what is the ramification of that internationally televised event. I saw Maria Bartiromo in her usual routine and that's it. The buildings collapsed and nothing. I was numb. That is all that I can say.