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A reminder that 09/11 will always be part of our lives


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I was at the White Sox game last night. They had a nice tribute to 9 11. A Chicago policewoman got choked up singing the national Anthem and had to pause and the crowd erupted. Was rather moving. Brief chant of USA afterword. Several other smaller tributes with the first pitch and hero of the game. 

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23 hours ago, NotIThatLives said:

Firefighters spoke of sharing a cellphone to call their wives and say goodbye – or of saying goodbye to each other.

Timothy Brown recalled saying to fellow firefighter Terry Hatton, “I love you, brother. It might be the last time I see you.”

 

I imagine those firefighters had to know with all their experience they weren’t coming out alive. Like getting off the boats at Normandy…to face that realization head on and forge ahead is bravery…well it just can’t be put into words. The only word I can think of that comes close is simply Love…most powerful word in the world. God bless all their families.

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On 9/12/2021 at 12:30 AM, IUFLA said:

There's a documentary by French filmmakers Jules and Gedeon Naudet, who just happened to be with some NYFD guys at a gas leak when they caught the first plane fly into the tower on film that's so raw it's difficult to watch. As they're in the lobby of one of the towers, they finally realize this massive sound coming every 50 seconds or so are from jumpers hitting the pavement outside of the foyer...

Link

I used to show this documentary to my students. Nthe only footage of the 1st plane hitting and it was an accidental recording. 

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Like everyone else I remember Sept 11th. First day on a new job. Lady came in and mentioned a plane crash in NY. I remember going back to the break room and watching it all unfold on tv. I also remember it was a beautiful day…remember also needing to fill up because I was on E and I had to go to 3 gas stations because first was empty and second would only let you get 5 gallons and it was a 45 min commute for me. Took me over 3 hours to get home because the gas lines were so long. 
 

As for stories I remember there are so many…but sports related I suppose is this documentary on ESPN and worth watching. The man in the red bandana.  


 

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At each of the 3 memorials that we have visited each of us picked 1 name, specifically prayed for that person's family . When we would get home we would research them and share their story with each other. 

So thankful that we have been blessed to be able to take our kids to those places and so many other historical locations. For me personally my 3 most surreal places I have been are

1. Shanksville Memorial 

2. Tomb of the unknown at Arlington 

3. Gettysburg 

Thank you to all that serve to make our country great.

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1 hour ago, Billingsley99 said:

At each of the 3 memorials that we have visited each of us picked 1 name, specifically prayed for that person's family . When we would get home we would research them and share their story with each other. 

So thankful that we have been blessed to be able to take our kids to those places and so many other historical locations. For me personally my 3 most surreal places I have been are

1. Shanksville Memorial 

2. Tomb of the unknown at Arlington 

3. Gettysburg 

Thank you to all that serve to make our country great.

Let me add the memorial at Oklahoma City. Those chairs on the hillside representing where the victims died, especially the small chairs for the children, was very moving. The fact that it was a domestic attack only made it worse.

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2 minutes ago, cthomas said:

Let me add the memorial at Oklahoma City. Those chairs on the hillside representing where the victims died, especially the small chairs for the children, was very moving. The fact that it was a domestic attack only made it worse.

Not been there but I can only imagine.  Was coming home from college and stopped at 5he McDonald's in Versailles and saw it on the TV,another moment frozen in time fir me. Thanks for sharing

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5 minutes ago, cthomas said:

Let me add the memorial at Oklahoma City. Those chairs on the hillside representing where the victims died, especially the small chairs for the children, was very moving. The fact that it was a domestic attack only made it worse.

Yep, I've been there...you're right, sad and chilling...

Thankfully we did the right thing with the murderer...

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Unfortunately, I have yet to visit any of the 9/11 memorial sites.

My wife and I did visit Vad Yashem, the Holocaust memorial in Israel . We spent, easily 4 hours there and could have stayed longer had the tour we were with not had a schedule. We both left the memorial completely exhausted and with a sense of sadness/despair. 

 

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1 minute ago, Steubenhoosier said:

Unfortunately, I have yet to visit any of the 9/11 memorial sites.

My wife did visit Vad Yashem, the Holocaust memorial in Israel . We spent, easily 4 hours there and could have stayed longer had the tour we were with not had a schedule. We both left the memorial completely exhausted and with a sense of sadness/despair. 

 

For some reason the memorial at the Pentagon did not move me like the others. I almost felt guilty for it. Visiting the Holocaust museum in DC had a big impact on our family as well. It is just so hard to even fathom, seeing all those shoes really put some things in perspective I think for my kids .

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2 hours ago, Steubenhoosier said:

Unfortunately, I have yet to visit any of the 9/11 memorial sites.

My wife and I did visit Vad Yashem, the Holocaust memorial in Israel . We spent, easily 4 hours there and could have stayed longer had the tour we were with not had a schedule. We both left the memorial completely exhausted and with a sense of sadness/despair. 

 

I can't imagine. I know we've had a trip in mind for many years that keeps getting delayed for various reasons for a "Christian" pilgrimage to Isreal but that is also on the list of things we also want to visit while there. What's kind of sad is the recent attempts in Poland to not necessarily erase the Holocaust but sort of whitewash their own nations history involved in it. https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/polands-ruling-party-puts-an-extraordinary-museum-of-polish-jewish-history-into-limbo

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/polands-holocaust-restitution-law-is-an-injustice-editorial-677090

https://www.jurist.org/news/2021/08/poland-appeals-court-overturns-libel-conviction-of-holocaust-historians/

One wonders how many more years before these museums etc will be closed and the history no longer taught. 

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38 minutes ago, dgambill said:

I can't imagine. I know we've had a trip in mind for many years that keeps getting delayed for various reasons for a "Christian" pilgrimage to Isreal but that is also on the list of things we also want to visit while there. What's kind of sad is the recent attempts in Poland to not necessarily erase the Holocaust but sort of whitewash their own nations history involved in it. https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/polands-ruling-party-puts-an-extraordinary-museum-of-polish-jewish-history-into-limbo

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/polands-holocaust-restitution-law-is-an-injustice-editorial-677090

https://www.jurist.org/news/2021/08/poland-appeals-court-overturns-libel-conviction-of-holocaust-historians/

One wonders how many more years before these museums etc will be closed and the history no longer taught. 

There is a huge movement amongst the remaining survivors of the Holocaust to get out and tell their story, to try to prevent the history from being lost. I have listened to several such people, including Eva Kor who opened the Candles Holocaust Museum in Terre Haute

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1 hour ago, dgambill said:

One wonders how many more years before these museums etc will be closed and the history no longer taught. 

You could say the same thing about this country.  We have a tendency to revise/erase history that is uncomfortable or controversial.  My personal preference is to teach it all, making sure that the audience understands historical context (values, environment, etc.) rather than trying to judge long-dead people through a modern lens.  That's always going to create problems.  If you just go back to the 1950's, it's almost comical how different beliefs and values are.  Advertisements from that timeframe are always good for a laugh.

I don't remember the exact quote or who said it, but a WWII American military leader advised personnel to take a lot of pictures of the Jewish detainment facilities since it was suspected that the Germans would attempt to deny the holocaust absent evidence.  Some Arabs have publicly challenged the facts of 9/11 (and of course Saudi Arabia denies involvement despite the fact that the vast majority of the terrorists were Saudis).  Closer to home, some have attempted to whitewash treatment of native Americans, slavery & even the klan.  I say tell the whole story...the good, the bad and the ugly, but remember that historical context is important.  People 200 years in the future will likely be just as dismayed and perplexed at what we find acceptable and even commendable today.

You can't learn from history if you revise or erase it.

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On 9/13/2021 at 10:09 AM, cthomas said:

Let me add the memorial at Oklahoma City. Those chairs on the hillside representing where the victims died, especially the small chairs for the children, was very moving. The fact that it was a domestic attack only made it worse.

I’ll add the traveling Vietnam Wall memorial. The wall itself was a moving site, but the scene surrounding it even more so. You can’t help but feel the pain when you see some of the toughest looking men you’ve ever seen reduced to publicly sobbing on the ground at the sight of a name carved in black granite. 
 

There is also something admirable. Individuals from all walks of life: corporate execs to outlaw bikers, every race, religion, ethnicity imaginable….if you wore a uniform and know a name on that wall, there was only one word used….”brother”. 

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6 hours ago, Zlinedavid said:

I’ll add the traveling Vietnam Wall memorial. The wall itself was a moving site, but the scene surrounding it even more so. You can’t help but feel the pain when you see some of the toughest looking men you’ve ever seen reduced to publicly sobbing on the ground at the sight of a name carved in black granite. 
 

There is also something admirable. Individuals from all walks of life: corporate execs to outlaw bikers, every race, religion, ethnicity imaginable….if you wore a uniform and know a name on that wall, there was only one word used….”brother”. 

This x1000

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  • 2 weeks later...

Watched the 4 Flights documentary on History channel on demand this weekend. Hard to get through, but if you ever forget how devastating 9/11 was on a personal level, watch it.

Side note: I worked with Terry Biggio (who is interviewed in the documentary...he was the OMIC or Operations Manager in Charge, at Boston ARTCC on 9/11 and caught on really fast to what was transpiring) when he was the Administrator for the Southwest Region of the FAA. I knew what he'd gone through that day, so I never brought it up. Talked baseball, as Craig Biggio is his brother...

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