It's September 11

[agate]

We're remembering September 11, a day nobody can ever forget.

A view of the impressive memorial in New York in honor of the innocent lives so tragically lost on that day:

[agate]

The memorial at the Pentagon, where each bench is engraved with the name of one of the 184 victims:

[agate]

The memorial at Shanksville, Pennsylvania, commemorating the 40 victims in Flight 93. The wall contains a panel for each name.

[Howie]

I had never seen any of those.

[funnylegs4]

I plan to go to the memorials someday. RIP precious souls. Your lives were valuable and were stolen from you in the worst possible way.

[agate]

I believe that the one in Pennsylvania opened up only in the past year.

[Earth Mother 2 Angels]

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Forever In Our Hearts

[Sunshine]

Where were you when you first heard the news?

[Howie]

I had been to the store, and came in and turned on the TV, and the first plane had hit, and within a few minutes of watching, the second plane hit. A surreal day.

[agate]

It was about 9 AM, and I never would have had the TV on and wouldn't have known about it possibly until I watched the evening news. But there was an urgent-sounding knocking at my apartment door, and the guy who lived across the hall was trying frantically to tell me something.

This was the guy with MS who lived across the hall for about 17 years. He used a power chair and had lost the use of his voice, and usually tried to communicate with an electronic device.

I didn't get what he was trying to say but his apartment door was open, right across from mine, and he kept pointing at his TV screen, which I could see from my doorway. Something dreadful was happening, and so I turned on my TV and found out.

My neighbor hardly ever knocked on my door. When he knocked and I saw how upset he was, I knew that this was something major.

To have thought to come across the hall to let his neighbor know was a truly neighborly gesture and could not have been easy for him.

Looking at that memorial scene in Pennsylvania with its rolling hills, I wonder how anyone could want to wreak havoc and destruction on this beautiful country we live in. There are some very insane fanatics running around loose, and a few days later my helper and I were expressing our horrified astonishment when we learned that some of the terrorists had learned their skills right here in the US.

[funnylegs4]

It was just a regular day for me but it felt eerily quiet. I came home that night and saw the images on TV and I didn't know what they meant until much later.

Here's an interesting book about 9/11. Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register...

[Catdancer]

I don't know anyone personally who was affected by 9/11, and living here in rural Wisconsin we were far away from anything. I was on my computer, a desktop, when a breaking newscast came up, that a"small plane crashed into the world trade center. I walked out to the living room and turned on the tv.....in time to see the second plane crash. Obviously the early report was wrong, and quickly corrected. We sat in front of the tv for literally the next 24 hours, tears streaming down our faces, then they'd stop....then start again, as the horrific events of that day just kept rolling on. The humanity. The destruction. Destruction not just of physical things, but a fracture in the fabric of our democracy.

I think I suffer ptsd over this event. I can't watch replays of anything having to do with it without my heart racing, tears welling up. Even just writing this causes me anxiety. I stayed away from tv today, and pretty mulch off the net to avoid coverage of it. 15 years ago...yet it still haunts me. I can't comprehend how those families and friends deal with it.

[agate]

I didn't watch the coverage at all after turning on the TV long enough to see what was happening, or as much of it as anyone knew at that time. I guess I just wasn't up to it.

I can understand how anyone would have long-lasting after effects from watching it. The mind seems unable to process some horrors that are beyond belief.

[Earth Mother 2 Angels]

((((((Hugs to All)))))) ~

((((((Cat)))))) ~ I just wanted to let you know that I wrote this response, before I read your response. I am with you in all regards ~

The morning of the 9/11 attack, I was busy caring for my sons and hadn’t yet turned on the TV. A dear friend, who works in the aviation industry, called us leaving a message that she was thinking of us “on this very tragic horrible day.” I immediately called her to ask her what had happened, thinking that it was a crisis in her family. She answered sobbing and said, “Turn on the TV.”

And there is it was ~ those terrifying images that no amount of time will ever erase. We cried together as it just kept getting worse.

For Jon and Michael, I put on movie videos, because I did not want them to witness it, and as much as possible we protected them from seeing those images continuously replayed on TV for weeks/months/years.

Jim had been up all night (on his shift) with our boys, and I hesitated to disturb his sleep, but by mid-day, I was experiencing shock, and I needed him. I snuggled up next to him, trembling and weeping, and whispered, “Please hold me.” Then, I began to explain what had happened. We clung to each other, trying to understand the magnitude of it all.

For the following week, I coped with PTSD symptoms, collapsing at 2:00 every afternoon from utter exhaustion and full body aching to where I couldn’t stand. My face and torso were covered in a hot, red rash. I was surprised by my response, but it was undeniable. I had flashbacks to the “duck and cover” drills we had each Friday, when I was in elementary school, to the TV images of the Vietnam War and all of the boys I knew, who died there, and to the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK. I didn’t realize the cumulative effect of that trauma on me until 9/11.

I recognized that I was literally hurting for everyone who had lost a loved one, and for those who were injured, missing, and for the First Responders, digging through the rubble. All we could do was pray for them and make donations. I had to continue to take care of my children and face what was awaiting us.

Fifteen years later, there are 5,400 people registered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s World Trade Center Health Program, who are diagnosed with cancer from responding to the 9/11 attack.

Only registered and activated users can see links., Click Here To Register...

They and many others are being denied the care they need, as they attempt to jump through the red tape bureaucratic hoops in their way.

If we truly want to honor all of those innocent souls, who were taken on 9/11, then we should honor those brave souls, who worked tirelessly, selflessly, to recover their remains and return them to their loved ones. They are suffering now, and they need our support.

Pray for Peace ~

Love & Light,

Rose

[Pegakafarmgirl]

I was home, on the computer, playing Pogo games,, players told me, then I immediately worried about our son stationed in Germany, and glad I did,, secluded missle base, and they got targeted.

That's a day no one will ever forget,