9/11 - Ten Years Later

[farrellgirl99]

No matter how shitty the nyc subway is, I think its finest feature is its 24 hour service (well if they're not doing work on the line )

But I hate traveling to other cities where the subway stops at midnight. Like what is that. It just encourages drunk driving and expensive cab rides.

[Romeo]

When I was in London I was shocked first at the pubs closing at 11:30....then the tube at 12.

[mockbee]

another reason why NYC is great....you don't need a car. UNLESS you live in the outer areas of Bronx. BK & Queens that has sketchy subway service.



you can even live in Jersey City or Hoboken NJ and get to NYC with ease!



the bad side...rent. It's too damn high! We're getting priced out of the city.

The Red 2/3 line from 116 --> Canal was my regular run. Boy was it ever. I ended up taking the bus more often than subways after a while (when not trying to get to work) I just felt like a mole too often being underground so much. I loved the subway for getting to work though.... I would run down the stairs and your ears get very in tune for different sounds and what they mean. Like screeching sounds meant 'RUN! There's a train coming!!' and then the type of screeching became key, like a long low screech meant that it was coming from the south and I didn't care about it because the tracks were such that it made that sound, then a high-humming screech meant that is was coming from the north and I needed to book it unless I wanted to wait down in that furnace for 15 minutes. Then if the platform was full it meant that a train hadn't come in a while, and I was probably good and due for one, the worst is when it was completely empty and people are coming up the stairs, and you see the tail lights go off in the dark tunnel.....FUUUUUUCK!................ but also if there are a lot of people impatiently waiting there is probably a delay and I need to go back up the stairs and find a different train down the street, like the A/C/E...........

Those were some real times, but honestly, it was rough sometimes........

[Bandit72]

When I was in London I was shocked first at the pubs closing at 11:30....then the tube at 12.

That's the thing about London. Everyone raves about it, but unless you are willing to pay £40 in cab fares to get home or have other means of transport, your night out is dictated by the underground.

[Romeo]

I loved the tube as a visitor because it was so easy to understand and get around on your own (unlike the NYC Subway that even makes a seasoned rider scratch their heads!)

But the HURRY UP and get home before the tube stopped suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked!! lol

[Hype]

I loved the tube as a visitor because it was so easy to understand and get around on your own (unlike the NYC Subway that even makes a seasoned rider scratch their heads!)

But the HURRY UP and get home before the tube stopped suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked!! lol

The NYC subway took me like 30 minutes to figure out, and all I wanted to do was go from Little Italy/Chinatown or so, back up to East 60th. I think I took two trains... not even sure which ones. It made no sense to me that there was no straight line route

[Romeo]

also it's not easy for a out of towner to figure that "Astoria-Ditmars Blvd" means it's a uptown train. Just put "N Uptown" and leave it at that!

Also the freaking exits.... "Exit-N-E Corner of 6th Ave ----->" "S-W Corner 42nd St" North East? South West?? Who the hell do I look like? Magellan??

[mockbee]

The NYC subway took me like 30 minutes to figure out, and all I wanted to do was go from Little Italy/Chinatown or so, back up to East 60th. I think I took two trains... not even sure which ones. It made no sense to me that there was no straight line route

Should have got on the 4/5/6 line at Canal or Spring and you would have had a straight shot to 59/Lex.......


(see..... I did a hype there! )

[Hype]

The NYC subway took me like 30 minutes to figure out, and all I wanted to do was go from Little Italy/Chinatown or so, back up to East 60th. I think I took two trains... not even sure which ones. It made no sense to me that there was no straight line route

Should have got on the 4/5/6 line at Canal or Spring and you would have had a straight shot to 59/Lex.......


(see..... I did a hype there! )

I think that is what I did. I know for absolutely sure I got off at 59th or 63rd and Lexington.

For some reason I couldn't get to those lines directly from where I was downtown though.

[mockbee]

No....NYC you gotta hoof it a ways sometimes to get to the right line. And if you haven't been there before and it can be almost impossible to navigate those lower neighborhoods to find the right block. Even when you find the right block you can not spot the entry.

[Hype]

No....NYC you gotta hoof it a ways sometimes to get to the right line. And if you haven't been there before and it can be almost impossible to navigate those lower neighborhoods to find the right block. Even when you find the right block you can not spot the entry.

It didn't help that I was exhausted. I complain about Toronto's subway being tiny and kind of pointless, but it's easy to navigate since it's basically just two straight up and down lines downtown, that are connected in the middle (Union Station) and then one that runs cross-town further up. It's a bit stupid since there is no downtown cross-town subway, but there are trains, streetcars, and buses, so I guess the subway's unnecessary.

[LJF]

Another year. I remember seeing the plane hit tower 2. I remember counting the floors to make sure it didn't hit where my wife worked. I remember thinking she is fine. I remember not leaving my desk until she called. I remember getting her call and calling her parents. I remember my video feed cutting out and not knowing what just happened. I remember waiting for her to call again. I remember getting in touch with her again. I remember my anger. I remember how still and quiet the rest of the day was. I remember our friends that took her in and made her feel safe for the night. I remember all of the calls and e-mails from our friends checking to see if she was ok. I remember how lucky I was to get her call because sadly thousands of others never got that call.

[SR]

Another year. I remember seeing the plane hit tower 2. I remember counting the floors to make sure it didn't hit where my wife worked. I remember thinking she is fine. I remember not leaving my desk until she called. I remember getting her call and calling her parents. I remember my video feed cutting out and not knowing what just happened. I remember waiting for her to call again. I remember getting in touch with her again. I remember my anger. I remember how still and quiet the rest of the day was. I remember our friends that took her in and made her feel safe for the night. I remember all of the calls and e-mails from our friends checking to see if she was ok. I remember how lucky I was to get her call because sadly thousands of others never got that call.

I can't remember reading anything here as powerful as that. Happy for your family; take care today, everyday

[Romeo]

On 9/10 I was returning home from Virginia from my nieces wedding. I drove over the Verrazano around 4:30 pm, looked to my left from the upper level to see the Statue of Liberty & WTC. I did this every time I returned home. I didn't know it would be the last time seeing the buildings.

I was off from work on 9/11 but promised my supervisor I would meet her at a NYS Medicaid meeting at 10:00 at the Suffolk county building in Hauppauge. I was checking a baseball website I used to post on before leaving my house and my friend Kirsten posted " a plane just hit the WTC"
I thought it was a small cessna and thought to myself "I'll listen to 1010wins on the radio"

I thought I was listening to the end of the world. The second plane hit and by the time I pulled into the Government office complex parking lot the South Tower fell, the Suffolk Police were surrounding the building closing it. I walked up to one of the cops, he told me the building was closed and I told him the Tower just fell. I found my Supervisor and she tried to call the office, I left to go home. I was in a panic because the Pentagon was hit, there was rumor of a car bomb outside the State Dept (which was false) but I have family that worked in those buildings and just wanted to find out of they were alright besides my friends that worked in lower Manhattan. When you hear on the radio a 110 story building collapses you picture it falling sideways, not pancaking. I couldn't imagine the devastation.

So I raced home on the Northern State parkway, right before they shut all the parkways down. I was like the lone car on the road besides emergency vehicles racing towards the city, lights and sirens blaring (it was at this time all off duty fire & policemen were ordered to report)
On the race to get home the North tower fell

I tried to call home but the cell towers were jammed. I FINALLY got my sister who is in a complete panic, she's trying to call my sister-in-law in DC and can't get through.
I get home, finally saw the replay of the plane hitting the tower and the towers collapsing, finally seeing what I heard unfold on the radio and I was just numb.
Thankfully all of my "people" were accounted for. Unfortunately the days that followed you found out the people that you knew that didn't make it home. Conversations went like this "Hey, remember Jeff Nussbaum from High School...." you ended up knowing of at least 5 people who died. A friend of a friend, a brother-in-law of a friend, a friends cousin.

But what I remember was the weeks after, weeks filled with sadness but people were being nice to each other.

[Pandemonium]

The thing about this anniversary that hits me more and more every year is that it seems like the world stopped that day and has been slowly but inexorably going backwards ever since.

[chaos]

The thing about this anniversary that hits me more and more every year is that it seems like the world stopped that day and has been slowly but inexorably going backwards ever since.

Indeed.

[Essence_Smith]

The thing about this anniversary that hits me more and more every year is that it seems like the world stopped that day and has been slowly but inexorably going backwards ever since.

Indeed.

If you frame it that way I guess...

I don't know how many here are up on the Boondocks comic strip that was still running at the time...Aaron McGruder is a little nutty, but he had his finger on the pulse and did some pretty inflammatory shit at the time that got the strip pulled...this is the strip that did it:


After that he did a lot of slick commentary on it that I felt was on point and it said a lot that the feelings in the air were so strong that even a comic strip wasn't safe...everything going on now is predictable imo...dumbing down of the educational system, media playing the games they do, patriot act, surveillance everywhere etc...and it may sound silly but McGruder had some of it in that strip...here's the one that ran a few weeks later after they brought it back:

[Romeo]

The thing about this anniversary that hits me more and more every year is that it seems like the world stopped that day and has been slowly but inexorably going backwards ever since.

I agree.

[Xizen47]

Found this pretty interesting. Hunter S. Thompson 9/12/01

From Thompson’s ESPN.com column on 9/12/01:

The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for Peace in Our Time, in the United States or any other country. Make no mistake about it: We are At War now — with somebody — and we will stay At War with that mysterious Enemy for the rest of our lives.

It will be a Religious War, a sort of Christian Jihad, fueled by religious hatred and led by merciless fanatics on both sides. It will be guerilla warfare on a global scale, with no front lines and no identifiable enemy.…

We are going to punish somebody for this attack, but just who or what will be blown to smithereens for it is hard to say. Maybe Afghanistan, maybe Pakistan or Iraq, or possibly all three at once. Who knows? Not even the Generals in what remains of the Pentagon or the New York papers calling for WAR seem to know who did it or where to look for them.

This is going to be a very expensive war, and Victory is not guaranteed — for anyone, and certainly not for anyone as baffled as George W. Bush. All he knows is that his father started the war a long time ago, and that he, the goofy child-President, has been chosen by Fate and the global Oil industry to finish it Now. He will declare a National Security Emergency and clamp down Hard on Everybody, no matter where they live or why. If the guilty won’t hold up their hands and confess, he and the Generals will ferret them out by force.

[Pandemonium]

Found this pretty interesting. Hunter S. Thompson 9/12/01

From Thompson’s ESPN.com column on 9/12/01:

The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for Peace in Our Time, in the United States or any other country. Make no mistake about it: We are At War now — with somebody — and we will stay At War with that mysterious Enemy for the rest of our lives.

It will be a Religious War, a sort of Christian Jihad, fueled by religious hatred and led by merciless fanatics on both sides. It will be guerilla warfare on a global scale, with no front lines and no identifiable enemy.…

We are going to punish somebody for this attack, but just who or what will be blown to smithereens for it is hard to say. Maybe Afghanistan, maybe Pakistan or Iraq, or possibly all three at once. Who knows? Not even the Generals in what remains of the Pentagon or the New York papers calling for WAR seem to know who did it or where to look for them.

This is going to be a very expensive war, and Victory is not guaranteed — for anyone, and certainly not for anyone as baffled as George W. Bush. All he knows is that his father started the war a long time ago, and that he, the goofy child-President, has been chosen by Fate and the global Oil industry to finish it Now. He will declare a National Security Emergency and clamp down Hard on Everybody, no matter where they live or why. If the guilty won’t hold up their hands and confess, he and the Generals will ferret them out by force.

The Man nailed every single point. It's sickening that not only was most if not all what Thompson said at the time pretty obvious to anyone paying attention but how 13 years later, his prediction of a never ending holy war with "Them" is still playing out with no end in sight.

[Essence_Smith]

Not for nothing, but I didn't see anything visionary about his piece...it's fairly predictable stuff to anyone who's really studied history...there are many works of fiction that predate 9-11, etc that follow similar courses of events, and when hasn't religion been used to mobilize force and start wars? It's one of its functions in modern society. No such thing as a holy war imo...I mean I know what people mean when they say it, but the people abusing Islam to get that set riled up are clearly using people's belief as a tool and obviously it isn't christians vs muslims

[Pandemonium]

Not for nothing, but I didn't see anything visionary about his piece...it's fairly predictable stuff to anyone who's really studied history...there are many works of fiction that predate 9-11, etc that follow similar courses of events, and when hasn't religion been used to mobilize force and start wars? It's one of its functions in modern society. No such thing as a holy war imo...I mean I know what people mean when they say it, but the people abusing Islam to get that set riled up are clearly using people's belief as a tool and obviously it isn't christians vs muslims

I disagree. It is a "Holy War" by the very definition of most of the Islamic fanatics fighting it. You'll never see it plastered across newspapers or later, in history books. It doesn't matter that power brokers on both sides are using religion overtly or subversively, fanning religious fervor as a tool to accomplish non-religious goals (land grabs, etc), it IS for all intents and purposes a religion-based conflict.

And like I said, Thompson's viewpoints and predictions weren't that difficult to figure out for those paying attention to current events. I think to publicly state what he did only one day after 9/11, and even publicly bashing Bush Jr in the process took balls.

[Essence_Smith]

Not for nothing, but I didn't see anything visionary about his piece...it's fairly predictable stuff to anyone who's really studied history...there are many works of fiction that predate 9-11, etc that follow similar courses of events, and when hasn't religion been used to mobilize force and start wars? It's one of its functions in modern society. No such thing as a holy war imo...I mean I know what people mean when they say it, but the people abusing Islam to get that set riled up are clearly using people's belief as a tool and obviously it isn't christians vs muslims

I disagree. It is a "Holy War" by the very definition of most of the Islamic fanatics fighting it. You'll never see it plastered across newspapers or later, in history books. It doesn't matter that power brokers on both sides are using religion overtly or subversively, fanning religious fervor as a tool to accomplish non-religious goals (land grabs, etc), it IS for all intents and purposes a religion-based conflict.

And like I said, Thompson's viewpoints and predictions weren't that difficult to figure out for those paying attention to current events. I think to publicly state what he did only one day after 9/11, and even publicly bashing Bush Jr in the process took balls.

I hear you, I just don't think one side having the motivation can define it as such...if the conflict for BOTH sides had religious agenda then I'd be inclined to look at it that. The U.S. as we know are involved for COMPLETELY different reasons. Hunter's piece was brave, but as you say anyone paying attention saw it developing and the outcome imo is fairly predictable on our end...we knew we had a good old boy in office and now had a reason to go into the middle east guns a'blazin.