The last frame of the last second of the last min. of the Old World order

[mogster]

Prior to this moment, I lived in a normal world.

At the time when this frame froze in some photographer's cam, we didn't know this was an attack - it was an accident up and until the second plane crashed.

On the 11th of September 2001, I was in a meeting with a customer, presenting their new website for the marketing director. It was just after luch, European time.

We had almost finished the walkthrough of the publishing system when the CEO came running in, telling us that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. These guys are computer security people, and more or less constant online with the US, so he got the news the minute it happened.

We tried to hit the CNN website, but it was impossible to load - everybody did the same, I guess. In my mind I had a picture of a small Cessna accidentally crashing, so I was more interested in finishing my presentation, to tell you the truth. So we kept on going.

Then the second plane came, and we understood that something out of the ordinary had happened. I don't remember now how I felt, but it surely was a feeling of the Old Order; whatever hit us, we would manage.

I packed down my laptop and biked home in the clear September sunlight, hungry for news. When I came home, I switched on the TV looking for CNN - and found BBC World.
The horror unfolded and with it the fear came; we didn't know at that point where it all would end. What would be next? Nukes? How many planes were there?
Some people never got past this moment, and are still stuck in September 2001...

My first thought, in addition to horror and fear, was that this was the most successful terrorist attack ever. Not only because of the magnitude, but also because of the timing. The first plane brought us to the TV, so that the second plane could send us all over the edge.

Back then, my Bush-o-meter was at defcon 3, I didn't know him too well and thought him just another American president. Sure, he'd come to power in an extraordinary fashion, but then the Americans had seemingly accepted this, so why would I question it?
My heart went out to all of you, and to him as well, and I stayed up most of the night watching the developments on BBC.

The next day, reactions became pouring in; every person in every country put the political bickering aside and reached out to the US.

As a French paper wrote; today we are all Americans.
I even saw a makeshift support demo in Teheran; a woman with a hijab (but also lipstick and mascara) with a homemade US flag and some candles.

In our country, we'd held elections the day before, and I remember a photo of our national politicians watching the news, their faces sombre, but determined.

And then Bush kicked into action, and everything changed.

Today it's impossible to grieve properly for the people who died on this day, I can only see Bush. And the event that cemented his coup 'd etat, moulding it into our way of being by extracting every ounce of political juice from it.

He, for sure, doesn't grieve for the victims.

But I can think of them as ordinary people, working or standing by the coffe machine or flirting with the girl at the reception desk - an ordinary day at the office. I can identify with that ;-)
Did they have plans for lunch? Something extra nice to eat, perhaps? What was their plans for the evening, the weekend or next summer?

This is how I think of them; as innocents. They didn't know what happened, only that it was devastating and horrifying.

They were the last innocent people to die, and they were spared seeing how their names was used for political purposes by the people that has destroyed America.

A big :hug: on each cheek from me to every American today. :-)

[kid a]

1. "Today it's impossible to grieve properly for the people who died on 9/11"

"Today it's impossible to grieve properly for the people who died on this day, I can only see Bush"

He has put his face on the sides of those buildings, and it is smirking.

Great post - nominated

[SuniSurf]

2. Mogster - You brought tears!

And a big hug back to YOU.

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. He, for sure, doesn't grieve for the victims.

That is certainly true and after Katrina hit, the mask really came off. That is when everyone got to see for themselves the evil and corruption within him and it is ugly.

I just hope we can stop him before we have another disaster because he just loves death and destruction and will only be satisfied when most of us our gone.

[Dudley_DUright]

4. Thanks for sharing your remembrance and reactions to 9/11 mogster

I remember getting a frantic call at work from my wife telling me what happened and that she could not contact her sister in NY, who worked in the financial district. We did not hear from her until she had walked all the way to Queens across the bridge (happily, no local sheriff was trying to keep her from crossing the bridge). BushCo are still using the dead of 9/11 for political purposes, as evidenced by the Orwellian named "Freedom March" today from the pentagon to the DC Mall. Country Star Clint Black will lead the "three minutes of hate" session this year. Thanks for understanding the true nature of BushCo. As you know, many of us here in the states are working to rebuild the America that BushCo has destroyed. A big hug right back at ya' :hug:, and to all my DU friends. :grouphug:

[left is right]

14. "I remember getting a frantic call at work from my wife ..."

That exactly contrasts with the very first thing I noticed about Bush and 911. All over the country, people were trying to reach loved ones. They needed to share this horrible eperience or they needed to locate them. In any case, they were frantic. But not Bush, not once during the day did he need to reach out to pickles or the spawns from hell. I wondered then what was wrong with him/them?

[Hekate]

5. That brings tears to my eyes

Especially the part about how those who died four years ago did not live to see Bush use them for his political gain...

It has been a hideously painful four years (oh god, now you've done it and I'm really crying) as we have lived through what may be -- we can't tell yet -- the utter destruction of the institutions that made America. Little things like the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Trust in our government. So much else.

I live on the West Coast and because I am a night-owl and my husband works late, we were still sleeping when our daughter phoned from work and commanded me to turn on CNN. I staggered to the kitchen in a sleepy fog, then spent I-don't-know-how-long leaning against the kitchen counter, staring at the small tv, saying "Jesus God" over and over as the Towers came down, over and over. Jesus God.

Mogster, I kiss you on both cheeks in return. I so appreciated the international outpouring of love -- we all did. Even those of us who never liked George Bush, even those who always detested him, could not have imagined on that day how deeply he and his cohorts would betray us. Before Bush, I could never in my life have imagined a circumstance where I could think of leaving my own country.

In the weeks after that terrible day, both my son and my daughter weighed whether to join the military to defend our country. Had they done so in the heat of the moment, they could be the ones stuck in Iraq for an ignoble cause, through no fault of their own.

We don't know yet how this awful chapter in our nation's history will end, we really don't. But tell your friends, wherever it is you live, that at least half of America never voted for Bush (and most of the other half voted for who they thought he was, not who he really is). We're trying our best to get rid of the lot of them -- wish us luck, as we need it desperately.

Thanks for the friendship. I'm still crying.

Hekate

[Clintmax]

6. My Gods...

:cry:
I was on I-44 in Missouri on my way to St. Louis for a Manager Meeting when Greekspeak called me on my cell to tell me a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Center. He said: "Something weird is going on, Clint."

When I pulled into the hotel where the meeting was going to be held, everyone was crammed into the bar watching TV. We were ALL shocked and the feeling was intense in that small room! People were hugging each other. There were pilots wandering around the entire airport (all flights had been grounded by that point). I was thunderstruck and all I could think about was all those people who must have been killed when the airliners struck. :cry:

[WearyOne]

7. great post : I can't believe it's 4 years already. Why these people

had to perish in this castrophe is something I can't fathom.

[awoke_in_2003]

8. Mogster

you summed it up pretty good. I remember my feelings that day. A coworkers wife called and said a plane crashed into the WTC. We rushed to the TV in the customer lounge to catch the news. About then, the second plane was coming in. I remember thinking, "Oh, someone caught footage of the crash and now we get to see the playback". I guess it was so unbelievable that this was planned that I couldn't see the obvious- this is not a replay, the building in the rear is burning, this is a second plane. Took a good 30 seconds before I fully realized this.

I remember thinking how strong the president seemed- I never really had cared much for him (voted McCain in the primaries). But he seemed so resolute, like he was just what we needed at that time. Thinking about that now makes me want to puke.

I agree with your assessment about the last frame from the last sec, etc. I used to see these pictures and they always brought fear. After the Iraq debacle I finally realized what these pictures really signify, a reason to be used so that absolute power could be established. Fear not the terrorist, fear the government.

[unhappycamper]

9. Yes, everything did change.

I went down to Arlington, VA on September 10 for a two day business trip. Tuesday morning I called a friend of mine in NYC and he told me a plane had crashed into one of the towers. We rushed off to find a place to watch TV news and saw the second plane crash into the second tower. At that moment I knew we were under attack.

After going back to the office (about 1.5 miles from the pentagon) we both heard and felt the explosion at the pentagon. Chaos reigned.

I remember later that afternoon seeing a single military jet in the sky where there should be airliners all over the sky. It was most erie and unsettling.

I was fortunate enough to catch a train back to Boston on the 12th. There's a stretch of (Amtrak) rail just north of Newark with a view of Manhattan - it was a cloud of dust and smoke. The view exiting the tunnel was even worse. The Battery Park area was almost invisible.

Yes, everything did change.

And here we are four years later - NO Osama, NO WMDs, NO end in sight in Iraq, NO funding for national preparedness, NO truth in government, and NO, LA.

[awoke_in_2003]

13. hey UHC

I remember that feeling that eerie and unsettling feeling. I work at a flight training center at DFW airport, so you are used to hearing planes overhead all day. I remember how deafening the silence was, kind of spooky.

[mopaul]

10. And then Bush kicked into action

chilling photo. the last second of america before bush's carnage.

[Usrename]

11. He's a big fat zero without 9/11

I think we should build the towers back out of unobtanium. Something that is indestructable.

[suegeo]

21. He is a big fat zero WITH that day

Thousands of dead and destroyed property do not mark a success.

The media built the myth of him as a great leader because of his huge fuck up. The media should be put on trial for that and for the cheerleading they did when our dear leader invaded Poland with his panzer tanks. Oh wait, wrong fascist asshole.

[Qibing Zero]

12. Wow, great post.

That's what hits me the hardest about the day and those immediately after. It wasn't America vs the world for that short time, and that was always my main problem with our country, even as a kid (which I basically was at the time). Seeing the 'Today, we are all Americans' was the greatest. Then, things snapped back even farther back into the harshness of before. I can't deny that I have hatred for bush and co., and it really stems from this. Before, I just didn't like their stance on most things - now, it's personal.

[BlueEyedSon]

15. Really? I think the OWO ended when the SCOTUS installed the Neocon

cabal. Notice i do not say "Bush", he is just a frontman, a face, a marionette.

These ideologues would CERTAINLY have gone into Iraq, destroyed the UN, cut taxes for the elite and corporations, etc, etc.... ANYWAY.

[nicknameless]

16. Oh, mogster

That really *was* the end of America.
Now we're living in Jesusland, being ruled by a cabal of racketeers, with a figurehead that makes Alfred E. Newman look like a genius.

Please excuse the nightmare our country has brought about.
I wish to God that I could just wake up out of it.

Thank you for your kind words
:hug:

[TheCentepedeShoes]

17. Thank you for sharing, mogster n/t

[anarchy1999]

18. Thank you. There are no words, but you found them. n/t

[Skittles]

19. EXCUSE ME

I knew it was a terrorist attack WHEN THE FIRST PLANE HIT THE NORTH TOWER; I dislike the assumption "no one knew" - THEY certainly knew and SO DID I.

sorry, I don't mean to sound so agitated - but there were some people who knew that first plane was a terrorist attack which makes it all the more criminal that the second tower and Pentagon were not evacuated :(

[elehhhhna]

20. Love that title

"take a good long look
for the very last time--
the very last one
in a very long line..."

[mogster]

22. Thank you for your kind reponses

I liked to read your stories, what you were doing.

Peace :-)

[Usrename]

24. I was house sitting for my Mom who was visiting Washington DC.

She had never been to DC and was looking forward to it.

She had just installed Dish TV at her house, so the night before (9/10) I watched Joe Biden address the National Press Corps on CSPAN. All I remember from the event was that he thought strategic missle defense was a waste of resources. Most likely a nuke attack wouldn't be launched with missles. It would be cheaper and more effective to just import the nuke in a shipping container and drive it to the target area. He thought it was wrong to redirect resources to *'s pet project.

This sticks in my mind because I woke up to the attack on the towers. Then my mother called from the car and said they were on the highway heading in to town and could see smoke from the Pentagon.

She never saw the Capitol.

[populistdriven]

23. Bush replaced post-911 love for America with the rape of Abu Grahib

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

25. A few other choices: