Home > Gwinnett > Rick Badie / My Opinion > Archives > 2008 > September > 11 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USSeven years later, Sept. 11 memory still fresh
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’d just walked into the office . TV news had broken about the first plane’s crash into one of the World Trade Center Towers. Minutes later, when it was clear there’d been a terrorist hijacking, an editor sent me out to get reaction.
I interviewed a group of World War II vets who often had breakfast at what used to be Roy’s Classic Diner in Norcross.
“You can’t stop them,” said Marty Freedman, referring to the enemy. “You have to eliminate them.”
Our country changed drastically after terrorism hit home. A phrase was coined to reflect the new mood and attitude of America, its people, government, and world status.
The “new normal.”
Here we are seven years later, on the anniversary of that awful day. No one will forget what took place.
Do you remember what you were doing and where you were when you first heard the news?
Now fast forward to today, 2008.
How do you reflect when the anniversary rolls around? Is it just another day? Or something else?
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By justagirldawg
September 11, 2008 11:50 AM | Link to this
The memory of 9/11/01 is still very fresh for me as well. I was pregnant, and it was my deceased mother’s birthday. I was afraid the rushing hormones were gonna make me an emotional basketcase. When I heard of the plane crashing in to the first tower and heard it might be terrorism, I couldn’t get my mind around that evil. When the second tower was attacked and the doubt removed, I just prayed and wondered if this was the beginning of the end….. to hear the plane crashed into the Pentagon and the hero’s that took out the plane headed for the White House was more than I could stand. My co workers and I just gathered around a 9 inch black & white tv and sat silently watching the day unfold. It was horrific and I remember that day like it was yesterday. I remember the bond we felt as Americans in the days after. We were not Republicans, Democrats, African American, Mexican Americans…we were just Americans.
By Cindy
September 11, 2008 12:20 PM | Link to this
How do you reflect when the anniversary rolls around? Is it just another day? Or something else?
I’m not a fanatic by any stretch of the imagination. But I do reflect on 9/11/01 regularly. It’s not an exception that I make; more commonplace. Different aspects for different reasons. The destruction and devastation was integrated into our daily lives to pretty much create a standard of how things are done now, for safety and precaution.
No it’s not just another day and shouldn’t be dismissed as just part of the past. It’s the reason so many of our men and women are away from home now to protect us from it happening again. It’s the reason why our public safety people step up to the plate to do a mostly thankless job for us. It’s the reason that I’m proud to be an American and you should be proud too. We were attacked because we’re free. Freedom is not free and never will be. Cowards are always looking for ways to take it from us.
By Rev. Jeremiah Wright
September 11, 2008 1:49 PM | Link to this
America’s Chickens were coming home to roost.
I’m Jeremiah Wright and I endorse Obama and this message.
Rev. Wright
By LT5000
September 11, 2008 2:13 PM | Link to this
Speaking of Illegal Immigrant dangers, here is today’s
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT NEWS:
A grand jury panel said illegal immigrants appear to be committing a “disproportionate number” of crimes in Gwinnett.
In presentments to be published in today’s Gwinnett Daily Post Legal Notices, the panel recommended the county commission and state legislature track the impact of illegal immigration on taxpayers.
If anyone wants to know what is really going on in Gwinnett, they should read the Gwinnett Daily Post, not the AJC.
LT5000
By Marvin B. Waters
September 11, 2008 3:26 PM | Link to this
I do remember that day quite clearly. It marked the end of us being really secure about our safety, and proved that “security measures” don’t mean JACK to someone who intends to hurt you & other innocent people. They will find a way.
To me, it also reaffirmed (and clarified) the Muslim problem. It was a slap in the face to most, in not all, that our American Muslim “citizens” and “leaders” appear to condone the attacks and refused to speak against it, and were cowards in this regard.
Anyone who stands by in cowardice and doesn’t speak out against terrorist is endorsing it, and I have no tolerance for that.
Funny how to the Muslims and the middle east we are all “infidels” and the “corrupt West” but you can’t stop ‘em from coming here.
I’d go to war to defend my family and my neighbors, black or white, but don’t expect me to give a dámn about your whining about “being profiled because your Arabic.”
Sincerely, A Proud American “Infidel” Who Won’t Forget
By MJK
September 11, 2008 7:46 PM | Link to this
Marvin,
You are SO far out of line by stating that our American Muslim citizens and leaders appear to condone the attacks and refuse to speak against it.
Your comments are pure bullsh|t and you are a coward if you won’t get out and meet wonderful Muslim people that have emigrated here and appreciate the freedom and opportunities that America provides.
Crawl back in your hole and enjoy your right to be ignorant.
By LT5000
September 12, 2008 6:54 AM | Link to this
MJK,
In fact 4 of the Sept. 11th hijackers were illegal.
And Marvin is right, the Muslim community was quite muted in their response to Sept. 11th. No one really stood up and harshly condemned it.
I remember the images of Palestinians danceing in the streets.
LT5000
By MJK
September 12, 2008 8:01 AM | Link to this
Why do the actions of a small group of Muslims that included many that were not in our country legally make it OK to denigrate the entire population of Muslim Americans?
You might think that the response was muted, but just Google something like “Muslim speak out against attack” and follow the links. With the benefit of hindsight you can read about reactions from the community and see that Marvin is wrong. Their reaction wasn’t muted at all. It was swift and strong. Maybe it wasn’t picked up by the media enough but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a strong condemnation by Muslims.
A friend of mine complained to me that he wasn’t pulled out of line going through the airport a few months after Sept 11. He wondered why a young Muslim looking guy with a Muslim sounding name didn’t draw more attention. It was his country that was attacked and he was upset because he thought the procedures that were being put in place weren’t enough.
And as far as Palestinians dancing in the streets, all I can say is who cares. There are thousands of people in the third world that would burn an American flag while the cameras are turned on but be first in line to come to the US if they were given a chance. That Beacon of Hope stuff might sound corny but its the truth.
By LT5000
September 12, 2008 8:46 AM | Link to this
I quote the “Great” Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan. Hereis one of his statements about 9/11.
“Whenever a nation becomes great and powerful by God’s Permission, as America has; whenever a nation becomes the undisputed ruler of the world, as America has, by Allah’s Permission; when a nation becomes the only remaining superpower, having the power to destroy other nations and people by the tens of thousands and millions, as Allah has permitted America the power to do, and that nation then has a spiritual lapse and begins to sink into moral decline, the Qur’an teaches that Allah (God) raises a messenger, but he raises that messenger from among the poor and the abject to guide and to warn the great and the powerful.
Now to be fair, he did issue some rather canned condemnations of the 9/11 attacks before that, but this is far from a harsh condemnation.
LT5000
By MJK
September 12, 2008 10:08 AM | Link to this
Pick any topic and the lunatic fringe will be just that. To condemn my friends because Person A is a horse’s a* is dumb.
By Mary's Mom
September 12, 2008 10:40 AM | Link to this
MJK perhaps you should revisit facts ecnountered on a daily basis.
Again, if you don’t speak out against horrible actions by others, you’re an enabler and might be considered condoning it in a round-about way.
No one has condemned your friends. The statements made by Mr. Marvin were refreshingly frank, and based on what actually happened when Muslim “leaders” were given the opportunity to comment on the horrible events that took place.
Yes of course there are good and bad in any group, but we are speaking on the whole and not ‘splitting hairs.’
How long have you been in the lunatic fringe, by the way? ;-)
By LT5000
September 12, 2008 10:45 AM | Link to this
Dr. Salah Sultan is president of the American Center for Islamic Research (ACIR), a non-profit organization registered in Ohio and located in Columbus
“This scenario… I still believe to this day… This scenario still baffles me. I share the view of many Americans, French, and Europeans, who say that 9/11 could not have been carried out entirely from outside [the U.S.] - by Muslims or others. The confessions by some people could have been edited. But even if they were not edited, I believe that these people were used in a marginal role. The entire thing was of a large scale and was planned within the U.S., in order to enable the U.S. to control and terrorize the entire world, and to get American society to agree to the war declared on terrorism - the definition of which has not yet been determined.
Just another Muslim condemning the 9/11 attacks, right MJK?
LT5000
By Michael H. Smith
September 12, 2008 11:18 AM | Link to this
You are very right Cindy, there is nothing free about freedom and it is America’s carefree-dumb that has proven to be the most costly of all.
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety, said Franklin.
To that I must reply: They who give up essential safety to obtain a little temporary liberty tolerate their own demise.
By Katie
September 12, 2008 11:44 AM | Link to this
I don’t want to be mean or insensitive, but are we going do this EVERY September 11th??? Yes, it was tragic but nobody is going to forget it. Why add another day to get depressed about. Let’s put the memorial up and be done with it. Life has gone on.
By Katie
September 12, 2008 11:44 AM | Link to this
I don’t want to be mean or insensitive, but are we going do this EVERY September 11th??? Yes, it was tragic but nobody is going to forget it. Why add another day to get depressed about. Let’s put the memorial up and be done with it. Life has gone on.
By Jais
September 12, 2008 11:47 AM | Link to this
Lol good point good point.
By MJK
September 12, 2008 11:48 AM | Link to this
You can Google all day long to find random crackpots who claim George Bush ordered the 9/11 attacks and some of them will even be President of made up organizations like the American Center of Islamic Research but to condemn followers of an entire religion because of the comments of a few is dumb.
Does Rev Wright speak for all Christians? If so we’re all the lunatic fringe.
By Grading Wooten
September 12, 2008 1:44 PM | Link to this
Cynthia McKinney is to the lunatic fringe on the left what Sarah Palin is to the lunatic fringe on the Right.
Palin is part of a movement to secede Alaska from the USA. She thinks the Bush Doctrine is “one in the hand is worth two in the bush”. (Hey, isn’t that what got her daughter in trouble)?
Cynthia McKinney thinks W lied to the American people about WMDs and the Saddam Hussein/Al Queda connection. Cynthia McKinney thinks that Cheney and Bush were warned by the FBI and the CIA about plans Al Queda had to fly planes into skyscrapers. Cynthia McKinney thinks that Bush knew about the sleeper cells of Al Queda taking flying lessons and living quiet lives as hockey moms and dads.
Cynthia McKinney thinks Bush has been the worst president we’ve ever had bar none.
But Sarah Palin thinks that if she can see a country, she can pack her foreign policy resume with that country. Well, sarah, I see england, I see France, but how many have seen your daughter’s underpants……
Sarah Palin thinks we should not educate our underaged, unmarried daughters about sex. I guess Sarah’s Secret is Victoria’s Secret.
John McCain was tortured as a POW. Sarah Palin feels tortured by NOW.
Obama 08: Aint no secrets.
By Mark
September 12, 2008 1:57 PM | Link to this
Obama 08: Ain’t no way.
By deadmuslims
September 12, 2008 2:04 PM | Link to this
If this country allowed terrorist cells in, trained them to fly jets (remember, they only wanted to learn and were taught to only fly a plane, not land one), and then fly OUR commercial airlines into OUR buildings, then we got what we deserved.
By Marvin B. Waters
September 12, 2008 2:14 PM | Link to this
“…to condemn followers of an entire religion because of the comments of a few is dumb.”
What’s dumb is sticking one’s head in the sand. I’m afraid you’ve missed the points made here entirely. Let’s reiterate:
The point was that it was really the lack of comments made after radical Muslim terrorist attacks, and the apathy and cowardice of “American” Muslims to show any reassurance to fellow infidels (Americans) that it was from extremists, not core beliefs.
Damage isn’t only done by doing something bad; it’s also done by doing nothing and not taking a stand against what’s wrong.
Despite all the rhetoric, all the politically correct “feelings”, the truth is that a large number of Muslims in the USA isolate themselves from the rest of us and behave likewise in an unsavory fashion.
A number of times I have seen Muslim “men” making their “wives” (slaves?) pump gas at the QT and driving them around Gwinnett while they rested in the back of the vehicle. They also had to follow behind their husband in the stores and do what they said.
All while being covered almost 100% in clothing.
It is absolutely pathetic to support a religion that condones and even insists(!!) women are treated like dogs.
There have always been those that take a given religion out of context and do harm in its name. HOWEVER, on the whole, the Muslim ‘culture’ in general is an extreme and largely exibits this behaviour; not a small minority; also preaching the violent death of non-believers.
Those who have never deal with harsh reality just don’t really understand. Facts ain’t pretty sometimes!
By Biker Chick
September 12, 2008 2:26 PM | Link to this
I was at work that morning, in a document warehouse in Fulton County. My normal work location would have been on the 53rd floor of the Nationsbank Bldg. downtown. We heard the reports coming in by a worker in the warehouse office who had a radio. She kept coming down the hall with reports of what she was hearing. Initially, noone was concerned and we continued working.
Then, when she told us about the second plane, and then the Pentagon, the mood in the room became chilling. I remember having cold chills and slowly realizing “We are at war”.
At the time, she was hearing that planes were thought to be heading for other major cities, including, possibly, Atlanta. I and other frantically began calling our colleagues in the Nationsbank building. They were already being evacuated, but some of my team was working in a rented office in the Wachovia Bldg. They were still there and I told them to leave immediately and go straight home.
As we began to prepare to leave, the girl with the radio came back down the hall and told us that some of them were going to pray and invited us to join them. Every single person in that room walked down the hall, joined hands in a circle and prayed for the people in danger and for our nation as tears streamed down our faces and our hands shook.
I remember driving down the interstate in Atlanta and seeing the electronic DOT signs all flashing “National Emergency”, “All airports closed”. The words, “National Emergency” were surreal to me. How could this happen? Were we prepared? What is coming next?
I went home and watched the news reports, trying anxiously to get my mother on the phone. She worked in Washington, D.C. for a defense contractor and sometimes visited the Pentagon offices. Finally, I got through and she said they were safe, sheltering in the basement of their office.
I felt the need to do something, anything, so I drove to the nearest Walmart and purchased an American flag and hung it from the front of my house. So puny an effort, but somehow it made me feel a little better.
That day, I believe, if the terrorist’s plans had gone 100% right, we would have seen 10’s of 1000’s die and more cities would have been hit. I remember hearing reports that afterwards when they were searching planes at the Atlanta airport, they found boxcutters hidden in the bathroom of a jet that was scheduled to fly out of Hartsfield that morning bound for Belgium. An international flight, meaning it would have been carrying a lot of fuel and flying out of a city with a tall building, which at the time, was called the Bank of America building.
I also am convinced that the next strike against Americans on American soil will be massive in comparison and we are not anywhere near prepared for what is to come. If you think the Federal response to Katrina was horrible, imagine what will happen when we experience the next terrorist attack? We need to remember that although our economy, jobs, healthcare are all important issues, the MOST important issue of this upcoming election and the one we should hold our leaders accountable for, is protection and prevention against terrorists, including securing our borders now.
By Tar and Feathered
September 12, 2008 4:17 PM | Link to this
Jais you should hang it up already, no one is buying that crap about you serving in the military. Please spare us.
By Tar and Feathered
September 12, 2008 4:25 PM | Link to this
“Grading Wooten” aka Poste Haste, aka Oz, aka The way, aka Analcord, aka truth march, aka coptalk, aka Wxyz, aka Hans Apology, aka Pee’er Pressure, aka coptalk, aka Ty cobb, aka Bandrity of pundrity, the poser can’t keep his names straight posting the same comments on two different blogs under two different names, get help poser you lonely pathetic little man.
By Tar and Feathered
September 13, 2008 6:17 AM | Link to this
Now Post Haste, Oz, Wxyz, coptalk will be posting under “The Apostled” Sooooo transparent.