I really can’t say anything in this space that I haven’t said at some point in the preceding decade. All I can tell you is this: 1) sometimes the 9/11 coverage reaches such a point of omnipresence that you just want to curl up in a dark room; 2) the Mets have been a source of great frustration to me this year.
So where am I this evening? At the Mets game where there will be a 9/11 ceremony at 7:30.
PAD
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1)Don’t I know it. (And I’m not even American) 2) That’s why we have soccer in Europe. (Not that it works, it is just as frustrating.)
We have soccer here in the US too. I’m actually a fan of the MLS’s New York Red Bulls.
Anyway, I know the constant tributes on this day can be a bit tiresome, but it is justified in this case.
It’s strange the things I remember from 9/11/2001. (I was in NY, but on Long Island, not in NYC.) I remember it was a sunny, warm day, a Tuesday. I remember watching TV and them showing a plane flying into one of the Towers, and no one knew what had happened — an attack? an accident? — and then, minutes later, a second plane hit the other tower and the “accident” possibility was gone. I remember, watching, stunned, as the whole building collapsed. I remember driving around, with an odd sense of quiet among everyone. I remember coordinating emails and phone calls between relatives, to let everyone know the status of my uncle (who lived uptown) and my brother (a firefighter in Queens; he was too far away to be there at the collapse, thankfully). And I remember the news, showing that horrifying footage over and over (which made it ironic later when some folks said having footage of the WTC from movies or shows would be “too disturbing” for some people), with Giuliani offering strength and support, Bush running around like a chicken with his head cut off, and no one knowing if this was the start of a war or the totality of the attack.
It was a scary and sad day.
I remember never watching TV in the morning–except for that day. I just felt something was wrong, and no idea why.
The first tower was hit already, and we were thinking it was a crazy accident. Then We watched as the 2nd plane hit live.
I never have to see that again. I’ll watch no TV today.
After the horrible loss of life, the saddest thing about 9/11/2001 is that we tried to come together — and failed. We were and have been kept apart as a people by selfish interests on all sides of the political spectrum. The terrorists didn’t win. We did this to ourselves.
Well, it didn’t help me yesterday watching Rudy Giuliani give the Republican response to the president’s weekly address trying to make the case that we should stay in Iraq and Afghanistan open-endedly until we win – whatever the hëll that means. But God forbid that if we are attacked again under Obama’s watch you can bet your last dollar that there will be nothing like the brief unity that the country had after 9/11/01; more likely there’ll even greater polarization than we have now with blame-gaming all over the political spectrum.
And let’s not forget that Rudy Giuliani was the one who said on Fox News that America had never been attacked by terrorists while George W. Bush was president (later “clarifying” that he meant “after 9/11”) — and that not one other person on the panel corrected him on his mistake.
I liked the take of this by Seth Meyers on SNL a week later: “I always knew sooner or later someone would forget what happened on 9/11, but I *really* didn’t think it would be Rudy Giuliani.”
Well, even if he meant “after 9/11”, he still forgot the anthrax attack that happened right after. And if I wanted to be jocular, I would also take a page from “Diceman: You Are Ronald Reagan”, and say that he also forgot the 2005 attack on America’s biggest aircraft carrier: the USS Great Britain. But that’s not really funny.
Speaking of the mets…. Has Barney Stinson had his cigarette for this year?
Not yet. They’re 12 back for the wild card with 17 to play. Maybe next weekend when they go head-to-head with wild card leader Atlanta.
I just heard on ESPN that MLB is not waiving their new-for-’11 rule regarding Non-team hats. Uncool, Bud. Uncool.
During the broadcast of the Mets game the other day, one of the announcers described MLB’s decision about the hats as “tone deaf.” I think that’s accurate.
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PAD
Yeah, it was “tone deaf” and, well, Bud’s reaction to the Mets making it public:
http://espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/6964904/report-bud-selig-angry-new-york-mets-took-hat-flap-public
The address line kinda says it all, but I mean, I’ve never been to New York, but even I, a guy from Utah knows the gaping wound that’ll never heal in New York because of what was lost that day.
Precedent be dámņëd, you old fool, you should have helped NYPD and FDNY have their day at Citi Field.
Keith Olbermann gave Selig and all of the MLB front office a well- deserved scathing rebuke on ‘Countdown’.
I have trouble looking at that photo which keeps getting reprinted of the plane banked left just short of hitting the second tower. I keep wishing, almost praying, that the next time I see it there will be a red and blue speck at the front pulling it up, up, and away, but there never is.
I was out and about today, and when I got home I watched my NFL team’s game, skipping past a lot of stuff.
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Yes, I remember 9/11; no, I don’t think I can forget it even if I wanted to. I certainly don’t need to be reminded of it all the time, at the airport, at sporting events, on news websites, etc.
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So when I see that most of the last week had stuff like on Yahoo where you could “Relive 9/11”, I just get angry more than anything else. Nobody really wants to relive 9/11, and, more than that, 9/11 need not have happened at all.
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We certainly haven’t learned nearly enough from what happened that day, if anything at all.
That may well have been the low point of the Mets season, and we were there for it. The whole big 9/11 memorial, followed by an eleven inning exercise in futility in which the Cubs repeatedly tried to hand the game to the Mets and the Mets kept handing it right back, leaving bases loaded in the bottoms of the 9th and 10th, stranding fifteen runners (maybe more; I lost count) and the bullpen finally imploding to cough up six runs in the 11th. Failure in offense, failure in defense, on a night when Mets fans were already emotionally raw from 9/11.
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At least Kath and I had the pleasure of Bob and Deb Greenberger’s company.
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PAD
I’ve lived on Staten Island for 16 years and worked in Manhattan for all that time. My train went thru Cortland street station a few minutes before the first hit. It was a strange day that was spent between nausea and numb.
However…
In the past ten years I have married a wonderful woman, had my life enriched by a loving, funny and creative circle of friends, watched their children come into and explore the world, re-connected, via Facebook, with people I grew up with and who guided me in growing, and had what was simply a place to live indoors become my home. NO ONE could “forget”, but remembering these things is, I like to think, to hope, far more important.
I uploaded 62 of the high-res pics I took on the tenth anniversary to Wikimedia Commons at: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Tenth_anniversary_of_the_September_11,_2001_attacks
They’re the first 62 on that page.
The first 24 shown were taken at the ceremony at Liberty Plaza here in Union City, NJ.
The next 35 were taken in Lower Manhattan near the World Trade Center site (I was not able to gain access to the National Memorial and Museum).
An additional three were taken at the Liberty Plaza marker yesterday, two of which show a little sign and drawing that someone left there.