9/11

domino · September 2009

Having read the story of "Seeking Don" posted here yesterday, I really started thinking about the surreal quality of that day, the people I was with as I found my way home back to Brooklyn, the co-workers that I lost and the direction life has taken since then.

I did not cry last year when they read the names of my co-workers. Has my soul developed a callous due to the media presentation? Why do certain aspects of that day which are really mundane stay so vivid in my mind when other things that would be considered monumental are so fuzzy?

Bottom line - how is everyone else getting through this day?

tsarina · September 2009

Walking home from the dog park last night, I saw a light in the clouds and thought "hey that looks like the twin towers memorial" and then remembered that it indeed was. I too noted how desensitized (?) we've become. I did what most crazy ladies do and tried to get people passing by to notice. Some nice teenager stopped and agknowledged (SP)it.
I will never forget that day.

eggcream · September 2009

Bloomberg has nerve showing his ugly mug on tv today saying it hasn't been that long after being asked about the construction going on.

He's a waste.

domino · September 2009

I quietly listened for my friends' and co-wrokers' names and said a silent prayer.

I couldn't watch the political self-aggrandizing.

How would one define NOT LONG? Not long as in the time a child has not seen his/her parent? Not long as in the time a widow/widower has not seen their spouse? A parent their child?

This is a day to mourn those lost and the tragedy that ensued - politicos should be banned from the ceremonies and the site. Its not a photo-op, this is someone's gravesite.

pitu · September 2009

Hi Domino. In past years, I haven't found this board the best place to make common cause on the subject on 9/11, which may be why you're not seeing a big thread develop here. (Stacey is awesome btw.) It's too heavy, it's too exposed and for me it's just too infuriating to deal with callousness or cluelessness on this particular subject. It hasn't happened much this year, but I'm just not interested. I had a coworker who died there, and friends and acquaintances with family lost. It's a big big deal in my life.

Anyway, just wanted to reach out...hope your day is okay.

Every year I contemplate the lights in the sky, which is the only memorial I can personally embrace, and bear. It's the right kind of memorial for me - the presence of the absent embodied in a fleeting kind of way. The reading of the names is devastating, and the right thing to do, but I can't deal with the politicians pushing their way in either. I just think about my small number of names, and all the little crazy details of that day and the months after.

I think there's a growing split in NYC between people who have a direct experience of 9/11 and people who don't. The people who don't ask dumb questions and act enthusiastic inappropriately. O WELL...it was kinda that way right after 9/11 -- the rest of America lost their minds as far as I could tell, and NYers just dealt with our day to day reality. I understood that better when I had a friend in Afghanistan -- I was totally freaking out for him from afar. He was there and dealing with his day to day.

So - hope you're getting through this day and finding peace for yourself.

sweet tea · September 2009

(um, i don't usually post on this topic because i don't want to butt in -- i have my own memories of and thoughts about 9/11, but i didn't live in nyc then and don't want to seem to be ...i don't know. being weird. claiming equivalences. butting in.

but i do want to say that some of us without what i imagine you would consider a "direct experience" do try pretty hard not to "ask dumb question and act enthusiastic inappropriately." of course, those that do those things are easier to notice than those of us being quiet, but we are here, too.)

pitu · September 2009

I'm sorry sweet tea! I didn't mean *everybody* was automatically like that. There's a whole world full of thoughtful people that draw from other experiences and have empathy. Thanks for the opportunity to clarify.

MOD · September 2009

I'll put my 2 cents only to add:
I was kinda relieved nobody was posting on this thread. I dare to say brooklynian and many other message boards like this one are not places I would post about a traumatizing and significant experience that might affect me. Not only was I worried that yeah, someone would come in here and say something inappropriate or too enthusiastic.. etc... but we all know this messageboard well enough to say that there is a high chance that something like the OP's sacred memories get veered off into rants about the war, Bush, politics. And the more aggressive, callous, and instigating of the posters would turn this into a thread the OP or I would not have wanted it to be about.

domino · September 2009

PITU, Mamacita - Thank you. I connected with Stacey and she IS totally awesome. Turns out we have so many people in common - and I think we managed to be there for each other today. It is the end of the day - and I DID get through it - in typical Bklyn fashion. Some tears, some smiles and some good words from other people here in the best borough in the world. Although I am a Newbie - I feel connected to a little family - again, thank you all.

thegardener · September 2009

I'm just really glad this day is winding down.
It's a sad day and all this rain didn't help a bit.

I did get to spend it with some friends in the community, and it helped a lot.

thanks Brooklyn.

danielle123 · September 2009

Domino,

For the first time in 8 years, I watched 9/11 footage on the History Channel. ( had to force myself. It was horrible and horrifying and every negative adjective you can think of. But it was also cathartic and brought home (again - as if we needed it) how amazing and heroic our firefighters and police officers are. There is one shot where a number of firefighter are walking towards the videographer's camera and the videographer says that all of those firefighters died in the World Trade Center. Devastating: http://www.history.com/minisite.do?content_type=mini_home&mini_id=60026

9/11

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