Is anyone else like me? 9/11 was not an earth shattering event in my life

[county worker]

nor is the killing of Osama Ben Laden. I just can't seem to get that emotional or excited about either event.

[trud]

1. 9/11 was payback

The U.S. has killed far more civilians in other countries, but somehow that escapes our national consciousness. Perhaps that's why 9/11 didn't surprise me. Chickens coming home to roost. I am glad bin Laden is dead, however.

[Deep13]

10. The stated reasons for 9/11 were all religious...

...and had nothing to do with civilians being killed. Al Qeada (someday I'll learn how to spell that) objected to infidel soldiers in Saudi Arabia, the cooperation between the Saudi govt. and western nations especially the USA and American support of Israeli policies.

[JoePhilly]

19. No they weren't ... and your added text demonstrates that.

The real driver of the 9/11 attack was political, not really religious, although like in the US, religion can be a useful tool, as in our own fight against the "Godless Commies".

9/11 was really a political attack. It was not so much about "infidels in Saudia Arabia" as much as it was about "western" influence and control in the middle east. Religion is used only to help motivate those who will be sent to die.

And the "cooperation" you speak of does not stop with the Saudis. OBL and the terrorists see the US as the puppet master, pulling the strings so that dictators stay in power, and western companies collect the oil profits.

Religion is a subtext. Global politics is the issue. Israel in this context is proof that the west can set up a government anywhere they want in the ME.

[Deep13]

35. "Religion is used only to help motivate those who will be sent to die."

Without which the attacks were not possible.

Whatever bin Laden's and the other Al-Queada leadership's subjective motives, the stated reasons and the reasons his followers were willing to fight and die for were religious. "Western" = non-Muslim. Al-Queada's objection to Israel is that it is a non-Muslim majority state in what they regard as their territory. Al-Queada doesn't seem to have a problem with atrocities being committed against Muslim civilians by Islamic governments.

[JoePhilly]

53. Wrong.

Al Qaeda hates the Saudi leaders as well.

They see them as enriching themselves at the cost if the rest of the ME.

And again, as I suggested, it is easier to get some one to die for your cause if you can convince them that GOD wants them to do it.

How do you think the GOP SELLS war to rural Americans? They wrap the cross in a flag, and claim we MUST go kill the godless heathens.

For the leaders, God's wishes are the LAST thing they care about. Their goals are political. And religion is just a tool.

[Ikonoklast]

72. Bin Laden would kill the entire House of Saud if he could.

He despises them completely.

You are correct in that religion is the vehicle used to motivate the ignorant fundamentalists to kill or blow themselves up, all the while bin Laden had a political agenda that had nothing whatsoever to do with Islam.

[Puregonzo1188]

80. Um...no they weren't al-Qaeda, while it wanted an Islamic Caliphate, had very specific political

grievances.

1)US troops out of Saudi Arabia (ok they could be construed as religious)

2)Israeli occupation of Palestinian land (I really hope most DUers realized Israel/Palestine is a colonial conflict, not a religious one)

3)US sanctions on Iraq

4)US backing of Arab dictators (you know like Mubarak)

[krabigirl]

43. Blowback. And I agree with your statement. Nt

[Dennis Donovan]

2. Were you in NYC , DC or SE PA at the time?

I was on my way to NYC down I-87 when I heard about the first plane. I u-turned and headed back home to watch from 9:30am on. I was stunned by what I saw, to the point of dealing with a depression that lasted all winter.

[stuntcat]

32. I heard a boom in Arlington

a boom that felt different from anything I'm used to here.

Also I worked at the World Trade center for a few months when I lived in NY so that brought it a little closer. My friends there all have stories about the confusion that day and the long walk everyone took uptown.

The actual hits/destruction aren't what really got to me about it though. The way it upset everyone in the country, and got the entire world's attention, that's the stuff I take from it, years later. I was already starting to see the world as a dangerous scary place crawling with f'ed up monkeys who think they're Gods. Now I'm just trying not to cry every day while I watch the disasters get bigger and bigger while all the fat old women I know keep pressuring me to have a baby for them to play with :eyes: No fricking way am I investing enough in this sad world to give my innocent kid the rest of the century.

[Vinee]

45. no, but I was in the infantry at the time so it turned out to be a pretty significant even

in my life.

[Deep13]

3. I was a bit surprised by 9/11.

I knew it was a big deal, but I wasn't personally shocked by it. It never made me afraid or blind with anger. I'm glad they got bin Laden, but it's not making elated or anything. It's just another fact in this conflict.

[MineralMan]

4. I'm sure there are others who feel the same as you.

I'm afraid I'm not one of them, though. 9/11 had a visceral impact on me. I'm over that now, and don't like what came from it, especially the two unnecessary wars we're in. But, it had a huge impact on me. Bin Laden getting killed? Not so much. He's not so much of a factor today as he was then.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[malaise]

6. My husband said America would never be the same again

the day those aircraft hit the twin towers. It was a world changing event.

[Ron Green]

8. Yes, but the way America will never be the same is not the way the corporate media

want us to think about it.

[H2O Man]

81. I agree.

On a personal level, I found the death and suffering caused by those who flew the jets into the buildings (and the one that "crashed") extremely disturbing.

On a social/political level, I knew that our nation would change in such ways that would render the Constitution -- especially the Bill of Rights -- unrecognizable.

[dipsydoodle]

7. I was disappointed

to learn that Chile wasn't responsible : the US might have understood that better.

[mmonk]

9. It was the beginning of the end of any innocence I had left in this aging body.

[hakko936]

11. no, i am not like you

9/11 has forever changed how I look at the world and our vulnerability. Getting bin laden would have meant much more to me if it happened 8 years ago. I think he long ago lost his grip of control of Al Qaeda and that makes getting him now a bit disappointing. We should have kept a laser focus on getting him and not gotten into Iraq.

[kiranon]

24. Neither am I. 9/11 was a life changing event for me. n/t

[anneboleyn]

57. My brother's office building was directly across from WTC 1. So yes it was a big deal.

And we couldn't reach him for nearly seven hours that day. He was/is the type of person who would have run into the towers to help. He happened to be in a meeting in midtown that none of us knew about, including his very pregnant wife. His office building was destroyed when the towers fell. Lots of friends died (he's in finance and knew a lot of people in the towers). It was a very big deal for our family.

[Raine]

66. Me too nt

[DefenseLawyer]

12. 9/11 was a pretty big event to me at the time

but not one that caused any lasting impact on me personally. I wasn't there and didn't know anyone personally that was there. The killing of bin Laden is definitely not an earth shattering event to me. But then I sort of take things as they come anyway, and everyone is different in that regard.

[Ineeda]

13. It did have an impact on me.

I was horrified and angry, very sad about the victims, and in awe of the first responders. What I wasn't, was scared for my safety. Not one bit, unlike some I know who weren't in any more potential danger than I was. On the other hand, I was concerned about the country. BTW, I'm good with OBL being killed and particularly glad that this president succeeded where the last one failed.

[quinnox]

14. 9/11 was a big deal to me, but the Osama bin Laden killing was not

earth shattering at all.

*shrug*

Just another horrible and crazed terrorist who bit the dust, he is nothing but a scumbag who got lucky once to pull off a big attack. A patsy even.

I just don't think its as momentous as the media are making it out to be. I heard tv news talking heads say "This is the kind of event where you will remember where you were when you heard the news!"

Uh, no I won't. Its a temporary big news story, that is all, just like Fukishima for example. It will fade away soon.

[Connie_Corleone]

15. Well it was for me.

Seeing people trapped on the upper floors of the buildings, jumping out the windows to their deaths, the Pentagon attacked, seeing the buildings come down. Yeah, it was an earth shattering event.

[sufrommich]

16. You didn't get emotional on 9/11? nt

[Armstead]

17. 9-11 was earth shattering for everyone, whether consciously or not

In a personal level 9-11 mat have seemed earth shattering at the time. But all of the shock waves and reactions have affected everyone.

It affected the basic worldview ofvthe zeitgeist, and resulted in a lot of heinous shit (see US politics and policy 2001-2008) and encroachments of privacy and countless inconveniences, like changing the basic nature of a simple airplane trip.

[CJCRANE]

18. There are are probably a lot more people like you

than you think.

I wasn't directly affected by 9/11 but it had a big impact on me. As the war on terror unfolded I became fascinated by finding out what it was really all about.

I found DU a month or two after 9/11 and spent many, many hours for many years here and on the net reading and researching the background to 9/11 and the war on terror.

But I've found that very few people are really that interested in finding out the details of 9/11, the people involved or the people affected by it.

[Ezlivin]

76. You're edging toward the Dungeon with that kind of banter

Let me set you straight, pal. You need to believe and confess publicly that the Official Story is correct or DU has a place for you in the 9/11 Dungeon. If you have doubts about the most minor of details then that's the place you'll need to go.

Only wild-eyed lunatics think that what occurred on 9/11 deserves a closer look. Good DUers know when to accept the story fed to them by the government.

Or so I've been told in the Dungeon.

:)

[catbyte]

20. I still get the heebie jeebies when I think of slamming into the towers

and what those people went through. Also the desperate ones jumping. I tend to break down huge events into small moments and that's what affects me most.

[a la izquierda]

21. I grew up in NJ...

across the bay from the towers. I saw them every day of my life until I moved to CA at age 23 in 2000. 9/11 shattered me for months. I still cannot go to "ground zero" and when I fly into Newark, it sickens me to look at the end of the island.

[uppityperson]

75. I flew into Newark a couple yrs back, sitting by a nice French woman

We were both looking out the window, talking and pointing out things, then got very quiet. She was crying, me with tears. First time I'd been there. Saw Lady Liberty, then the spaces.

[Sonoman]

22. For me, it was no big deal until those buildings collapsed in neat piles.

That's when it got my attention.

Sonoman

[Glorfindel]

23. It was for me...some of the people I love best live in New York City

And worked in lower Manhattan at that time. I couldn't hear from them for more than 24 hours. Very much an earth shattering event. Bin Laden? Good riddance to bad rubbish, but his death is nowhere near the big event that 9/11 was.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

25. Whether we realized it or not at the time, it shattered our lives as we knew them.

I was one of the people who realized things were about to change for the worse. So, yes, it was a life shattering experience for me. Still is.

[woo me with science]

26. Yup.

I suspect this may be a generational thing. This thread is of interest:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1025638

[Lone_Star_Dem]

40. An excellent point

I suspect your right.

Thank you for the link. It was a sad testimonial to how different things have become post 9/11. The current generation coming of age under this new world view can't really miss what they never knew. What I find myself wondering is how it will impact our future generations of world leaders?

[Armstead]

41. Interesting...does explain differences in generational views

Growing up I could never remember a time the Cold War wasn't a central reality. But my parents grew up during the rise of Hitler and WW2..,,So our views were very diff as a result.

[Dawson Leery]

39. What was considered "normal" changed.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

42. That it did.

And, not for the better. Not just in America, but globally.

[Dawson Leery]

47. The Xenophobia of "old" Europe re-emerged.

[subterranean]

27. I was shocked when 9/11 happened

but I didn't get excited when I heard about the killing of OBL. I was just mildly surprised because I'd assumed he was already dead.

[JI7]

28. i thought it was one of the worst things to happen in my life

[Iggo]

29. 9/11 was huge.

Killing of OBL just another trippy day.

[Shiver]

30. My stomach lurches everytime I see the pictures of the people who jumped.

I can't understand how that image alone can't affect someone.

[anneboleyn]

58. Me too. I am actually dreading the film version of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Tom Hanks is going to play the father who jumps from the twin towers. That is just going to be brutal.

[hlthe2b]

31. May I ask (broadly) how old you are?

I don't know anyone that was not at least a teenager or older on 911 that has expressed that it had minimal effect on them. I could understand if you were very young--particularly if you were living quite far away from the areas impacted, but I still find the seeming nonchalant attitude surprising. That said, I wouldn't term it "earth shattering" either, but it was an event that had considerable impact. :shrug:

[hfojvt]

78. let me introduce myself

I am 49, and my initial reaction was to mentally push back against all the media hype - "omigod it's the end of the world, it changes everything!!! It's hugh!!!1!1" Reports that evening said 50,000 casualties, which I doubted and a day or two later was proven correct in my doubts.

My first thoughts were to react against Bush as well. It seemed clear to me that he was gonna use the event - and the media hype - to go play cowboy. His speech that night made me more worried about the Bush administration than I was about terror attacks which I did not expect to be any more successful after 911 than they were before.

9/11 was fairly quickly followed by the Anthrax attack on Sept. 18th. I was again immediately suspicous of Bush, or somebody in the Bush administration, because the targets seemed to be Democrats and media critics of the Bush administration. Also, I expected the perpetrators would never be caught. When I learned it was US Government anthrax, I said basically "uh huh, what did I tell you."

Admittedly, my thinking may have been shaped by a novel I had read in 1999. It was about a secret NAZI hit squad. They were being trained by a retired police chief from Berlin. In their first training mission, they killed an opposition politician. The Hitler Government then promptly named a special task force to investigate that murder. To lead the task force, he named a highly respected law enforcement official - the retired police chief of Berlin.

By the time of the 1 year anniversary we were at war with Afghanistan and pounding the drums of war against Iraq and there was talk of invading Syria and Iran, etc, und I wrote this

'In any war, the first casualty is the truth.' As we approach the anniversary of Sept. 11, that seems to be true of the war on terror. September 11 is being hyped by the media, as 'the day that changed America', is being used by the current administration as a justification for attacking Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea, und there is talk of Saudi Arabia.
I do not want to minimise the death und destruction that took place on Sept. 11, but the government und the media seem determined to make it bigger than it is. They say: "America has been attacked und now America is at war." Compare the loss of 9-11 to an actual war. World War I, for example, cost 116,708 American lives, not to mention the devastation it caused to Germany, Austria, France, Great Britain, und Russia. That devastation was one of the chief causes of WWII which cost 407,316 American deaths, und over 40,000,000 deaths world-wide.
Before 9-11 is escalated into some kind of world-wide conflict between America und evil, or America und Islam, Americans should think about those numbers. How does the destruction of 9-11 compare to the destruction America subsequently caused in Afghanistan, or the destruction we previously caused in Iraq? Can we honestly say that the death und destruction we cause is justified, whereas that done to us is evil? Can we honestly call it "defense" to attack Iraq because they "might" pose a threat to us in the future? Since we are openly talking about attacking Iraq, wouldn't it be self-defense if they were to attack us?
To date, 9-11 is the only 'successful' terror attack we have seen on America, in America, for as long as I can remember. In the year following, there have been no other attacks (although fellow Americans continue to phone in false threats).
However, in the year following 9-11, there have been over 20,000 homicides in America, if this has been an average year. In the year 2000, U.S. residents age 12 or older experienced about 25.9 million crimes. 19 million were property crimes, 6.3 million were crimes of violence. There were about 250,000 rapes. Thus in an average year, 6.3 million Americans are terrorised by their fellow Americans. There is a war on terror for you.
99,860 people died in accidents in 1999, over 40,000 in automobile accidents. Maybe we should bomb Detroit, since that is at least eight times worse than what Al-quaida did in a year. 29,199 people killed themself in 1999, und HIV was a big killer, taking 14,802. In the same year, 3,823 people under 55 died of the flu or pneumonia, as did 59,907 people over 55. That is dwarfed by the over 600,000 who died of heart disease.
The health data is from NCHS, und it demonstrates that an ordinary year of homicide, accident, und disease are much worse enemies than any terrorists have managed so far. There are much better ways to spend billions of dollars than by using weapons of mass destruction on people who are so evil that they are trying to develop weapons of mass destruction.
As Edward Bellamy wrote: " ... who are the public enemies? Are they France, England, Germany, or hunger, cold, und nakedness? In your day governments were accustomed, on the slightest international misunderstanding, to seize upon the bodies of citizens und deliver them over by hundreds of thousands to death und mutilation, wasting their treasures the while like water; und all this oftenest for no imaginable profit to the victims."
Those who beat the drums of war against terror, are not looking at the enemies of humanity. Since war is terror, they are also like a fireman who shows up at a house fire with a flame-thrower. The war mongers eager to use violence against those they dislike are just like the terrorists they are claiming to fight - an enemy of peace, und of humanity.

It was once 3,000 deaths on a single day, by then it was 3,000 deaths in a year, and now it is 3,000 deaths in 10 years unless you count the people killed by the over-reaction.

[dkf]

33. I was worried about sleeper cells and what they might try to do.

I stayed away from malls or larger events. I was pretty much unconcerned about jihad prior to that. I admit the idea of the madrassas really freaked me out, especially knowing how whacked our own right wing could be.

[jp11]

34. I'm sure they are but I have to ask what then would you consider an earth shattering event

for you? What do you think makes it one for other people that doesn't carry over to you?

Just to be clear I'm not jumping on you or trying to say you are evil/heartless/etc for not feeling that way.

[cbdo2007]

36. The recent Japan earthquake and nuclear disaster were not earth shattering events in my life...

but I still understand how important these events are and am very emotional about them.

[Art_from_Ark]

73. The Japan disasters were earth-shattering events in my life

I live a bit to the south of the really bad disaster areas, but I have been finding out that my area suffered extensive economic damage as a result of the 9.0 earthquake-- 10s of millions worth of damage just at the local university, tens or even hundreds of millions more at other institutes, not to mention damage to private homes, as well as disruptions in gas, water, electricity, and food supplies. If it was that bad here, I shudder to think what it has been like closer to the epicenter. In terms of monetary losses, the recent Japanese disasters have been by far the worst in the world.

[Me.]

37. As A NYer, In The City At The Time

I'd have to say my feelings are different than yours. And aside from the attack itself, other things that you didn't hear about or see on television held it in place. Like the sound of helicopters, even weeks after, in the early hours of the morning flying around and waking up to wonder if you should be worried. Or the posters that went up in my upper west side neighborhood asking us to attend the funeral of a local fireman and arriving at the church to see the streets lined with people, so many that only about half could fit in the church. The restaurants and streets filled with people the night of because people wanted to be comforted by the presence of others. After the initial shock that most people in the country experienced it was the small moments and life unusual that lingered long after the buildings fell. But it may be that you had to be in one of the three places to feel the full impact of the shock.

[closeupready]

38. I was working in Manhattan that day, and the weeks and months surrounding the date were surreal.

But in a long-term sense, life DOES go on - people still get married and have kids, go to school, dance and sing, eat and sleep. Am I a traumatized person because of it? No.

I do know that I still get angry when I see pictures of the towers on fire or footage of the towers collapsing - I can't watch such stuff without shouting expletives and feeling my blood pressure rise, seriously.

At least I know that the message is clear, esp. after getting OBL - hit us, and we will have our justice in return. No matter how long it takes. So don't even think about it.

[krabigirl]

44. The former was, but not the latter. Nt

[al_liberal]

46. I was out of the country on business.

I walked into my Graz, Austria hotel room and turned on the TV in time to see the second plane hit. Then it was back to business as usual for me for the next two weeks. Sure, I spoke with relatives here and watched CNN as much as I could but it wasn't the same experience. Once I came home I had missed all of the events, emotion, and very real hysteria that went on here.

[onenote]

48. pretty much anyone with an ounce of empathy felt something emotional on 9/11

[Uncle Joe]

49. What were you doing on 9/11 when you first heard the news?

[Brickbat]

50. I feel the same way. My own microcosm -- how my family and I relate to each other, how I go about

my day -- didn't change that obviously. The macrocosm I live in did, of course. But I feel the same way. I was shocked and saddened on 9/11. Many other newsworthy events had much larger and more direct effects on my life, however.

[Igel]

51. Earth-shattering? No.

But we were to teach English to a bunch of elderly Russians at a JCC. It was closed down because of fears of a parallel attack.

Later, an acquaintance (the significant other of my wife's colleague) said that he'd been doing his residency in uptown Manhatten on 9/11. They were all on high alert waiting for a rush of casualties. After all, impacts like that had to have a large number of really severe traumas associated with them. But the patients didn't show up. He said that the place was silent when they suddenly realized why they were all standing around on high alert doing pretty much nothing, with all the equipment and supplies ready, triage stations set up: Those who were able to get out didn't need their services, and those who needed their services didn't get out. They packed up the unnecessary gear, shaken.

When he got home he called his father, an officer stationed at the Pentagon. His father was just arriving at the Pentagon and watched the plane slam into the building. He ducked to avoid being hit and killed by debris.

For *him*, it was earth-shattering. And, out of empathy for him and the others seriously affected by it (not to mentioned dead), I can consider 9/11 important.

[Awsi Dooger]

52. I slept through the 9/11 coverage

Read the book Seabiscuit until literally minutes before the first plane hit. I was on Pacific time, going to sleep at not quite 5 AM.

When I awoke at nearly noon, everything was over.

I was stunned, and watched everything for days, but I don't think I've ever felt the impact as much as I otherwise would have.

[smirkymonkey]

54. I live here and I watched the towers go down from downtown

Manhattan. The most horrible thing was knowing that the debris flying out of the building was people jumping, but I wasn't hysterical or upset in a normal sense. I think a lot of us were just in shock and disbelief for a long time. Honestly, I have to say I had been expecting something horrible to happen - I really hated Bush at the time and I knew he was up to something evil.

I was frightened, but went about my daily business, was happy when I was laid off because that meant I didn't have to go downtown or ride the subway, but I really never got overly emotional. Neither was I emotional over OBL's death. It won't change anything and besides, I was convinced he'd died in a cave from kidney disease years ago anyway. So, when's the next Royal Wedding? :sarcasm:

[Marrah_G]

55. I think its normal if you live that far away and really had no connection there.

I think it was different for East Coasters and people who had people in Manhattan that day and especially more traumatic for New Yorkers.

The closer you are to something, the more impact it has on you emotionally.

[Lucian]

56. Surprised about 9/11? Yes. Earth shattering? No.

[NYC Liberal]

59. Not me. I was living in Manhattan that day (still am)...

I didn't know for hours whether my father was alive. I felt the fear of not knowing what would happen next or where the next attack might be. Cell phones weren't working so I couldn't call people.

It was an AWFUL day.

[WilliamPitt]

60. I am not at all like you.

[Dappleganger]

61. If what happened to your countrymen on 9/11 didn't move you...

there is something broken inside.

[DFab420]

62. I don't even know what to say to you.

9/11 shattered the lives of everyone, and changed our country for the ensuing decade.


you post leaves a poor taste in my mouth.

You might not care about Bin Laden.. but nto emotion about 9/11?

[RagAss]

63. I distinctly recall every Repug I knew "shitting their pants" scared that day.

I was sad for the innocents who perished...just as I was a week ago for the tornado victims...but there was no fear. Maybe I saw too much tragedy in my life to react the way those who lived a comfortable life, like they lived, reacted.

[Raine]

64. Wow, it's something I'll never forget the horror of

no matter how long I live. I guess you're lucky you were unaffected ... still no emotions, I don't know. :shrug: :-(

[Safetykitten]

65. 9/11...nothing? Really? Wow.

[Patriot 76]

67. Good for you, but please have some fucking respect!

Come spout that nonsense here in NYC. I dare you!

[Ohio Joe]

68. No

The friends I lost on 9/11 most certainly made it an earth shattering event for me.

To be frank, that such an event evokes nothing from you is very disturbing. It must suck to be so emotionless that 3k deaths by using airplanes as weapons means nothing to you. I shudder to think what it would take to get a response from you. Very sad.

[MoonRiver]

69. OMG, were you an infant?

It was the most momentous, horrifying event of my life. I still feel phobic when I see 9:11 on clocks. And I don't live anywhere near New York.

[ipaint]

70. I was surprised and saddened but the devastation and death we left in the

in our decade long "response" to it has been earth shattering and eye opening.

[cali]

71. no. although the killing of bin-Laden is not a big deal to me. 9/11 was.

[Dawson Leery]

74. kick

[frogmarch]

77. 911 was earth shattering for me

and for my kids and their kids, who were visiting Mr. froggy and me in Wyoming, where we lived at the time.

We were stunned and horrified as we watched the events unfold on TV. None of us will ever forget it. It was mind-blowing. It seemed surreal.

We were all glad when we learned that President Obama had gotten the bastard who'd masterminded it. To us, Osama bin Laden's death is a very big deal - a joyous very big deal.

[Codeine]

79. Damn, you're just way too bad-ass, dude.

Man, I wish I could be the Cynical Internet Tough Guy you are.