There are days that we never forget. There are days that everyone remembers.
I still remember the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1944. I was six years old. Everyone was crying. It seemed the whole nation was weeping for the president who had led us out of the Depression and through most of the war.
I vividly remember the day that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. I was living in New York City. People stood on the street listening to their portable radios. They clustered in small groups, sharing the unbelievable news from Dallas. I was out part of the day, going to the doctor, but then hurried home, where I was glued to the TV, watching the horrible news as it happened.
September 11 was another day that riveted the attention of everyone, it seems, in the nation and many abroad. Today, on the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, we remember that grim day.
I was at home in Brooklyn Heights, just two short blocks from the waterfront. I remember a tremendous noise as I sat at the breakfast table, having a second cup of coffee. I thought it was a bad automobile accident on the BQE (the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway). Then I got a phone call from my friend Mary, urging me to turn on the television. Something awful had happened at the World Trade Center. A plane crashed into one of the towers. Maybe it was a small plane that was off course. No one knew.
I grabbed one of my dogs and hurried down to the waterfront. Just as I arrived and looked up, I saw the second airplane slice into the second tower of the World Trade Center. The first tower was in flames on the upper floors. The sky was a beautiful, cloudless blue. I stood with a stranger, we looked at each other, and said something to this effect, “Terrorism. Not an accident. Not a small plane. Terrorism.”
I rushed home to turn on the television to see the first tower collapse, then the second tower. It took time to learn that nearly 3,000 people died that day, including hundreds of firefighters who were running up the stairs as others were running down.
Mary came home, and we went to the local hospital to donate blood. But they turned us away because the hospital was not getting any survivors. We went to the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge to see hundreds of people heading in our direction. Some of them were shoeless. Many were holding briefcases. All of them were covered in the ash from the fires.
Everything in the city came to a halt. The bridges and tunnels were closed. The subways were closed. There was no traffic. There was a steady rain of ash that covered all the cars, streets, and yards in the neighborhood. In our backyard, we found a scorched and charred piece of paper that had been on someone’s desk only an hour or two earlier.
For weeks afterward, the “pile” continued to smolder and burn. The air smelled foul, a combination of burning plastic, melted steel, and human flesh. That acrid odor remained in the air for many weeks. The only sound was the sound of sirens and the whoosh of military jets overheard.
I was by no means a victim, but 9/11 had a dramatic effect on me. Every night, as I tried to fall asleep, I imagined the terror inside the buildings. I imagined those who made the decision whether to burn to death or jump out the window. I couldn’t stop thinking about all those who were lost.
9/11 was a tragedy for the victims and their families. It was a tragedy for our nation. It was a tragedy for the nations on which we made war. It is impossible to look back on our “revenge” and sense any satisfaction. There had to be retribution for mass terrorism, for an unprecedented attack on our country, but our remedies were wrong. Easy to see in hindsight. Not so clear in the moment, when passions ran high. The least we should expect from our government is: tell the public the truth. Always.
“Easy to see in hindsight. Not so clear in the moment, when passions ran high.”
But a lot of us did see. It was obvious to anyone with a brain that invading Afghanistan – already tried by the Brits and the Soviets – would be an utter debacle. It was obvious to anyone with an internet connection (and, again, a brain) that Iraq/Saddam Hussein had no role in 9/11. That’s why millions of us spent so much of our time protesting while the rest of you closed your eyes to everything besides what the mass media told you.
“The least we should expect from our government is: tell the public the truth. Always.”
Why would you expect that? When have they ever? Bay of Pigs, Vietnam War, WMD in Iraq, Russiagate, and on an on. The list of documented lies our government has willfully told us is far too long for any naivete about government truthfulness.
But, fortunately, I’m not feeling too bad about 9/11 anymore now that liberals tell me 1/6 was so much worse: https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/09/11/911-was-bad-but-it-wasnt-qanoners-wandering-around-the-capitol-for-a-few-hours-bad/
You can’t even give it a rest on 9/11? And you compare a foreign terrorist attack on the US with domestic terrorism fomented and encouraged by the President of the United States himself – and excused and condoned by the Republican party – whose purpose was to thwart democracy so he could remain in office after he clearly lost an election?
One event was more dangerous to democracy. The other was a tragedy of immense proportions.
I understand why an Australian who doesn’t care about her own country’s ugly history and the atrocities her own country committed in their colonialist occupation of a land that was already home to others would be such a Trump defender. But on 9/11 she should give it a rest.
It’s 9/11. The man you hated ended the war in Afghanistan.
You and Caitlin Johnstone both repeat every right wing talking point to minimize the ugly intention of the 1/6 insurrections, and you clearly haven’t watched most of the footage of how violently that mob attacked the Capitol with the sole purpose of stopping the democratic process so that the man that you keep defending could remain in office despite being defeated.
Many of us also “saw” that electing Trump would be a grave danger to our democracy – and would result in a dangerous right wing takeover of the Supreme Court. Many of us also “saw” that his ugly divisive and racist and xenophobic rhetoric and willingness to promote the most harmful lies was dangerous to democracy. You didn’t see that when your own passions ran high, and you continued to be blind to something that was obvious to anyone with a brain.
Is there any chance that you will ever STFU? You are definitely not better than that. This is such a cynical, disgusting comment. Please seek help.
“It was obvious to anyone with a brain that invading Afghanistan – already tried by the Brits and the Soviets – would be an utter debacle.”
Now this person is claiming that Bernie Sanders does not have a brain?? Really?
Bernie Sanders is an admirable and ethical person with integrity who admitted he was wrong to vote to authorize the invasion of Afghanistan.
When will the people who said electing Trump was no big deal because they did not care about the Supreme Court have the integrity of the man they just insulted? Will they ever admit they were wrong?
People get things wrong and it is not always because they are dishonest or “lack a brain”. The ones with integrity acknowledge their mistake.
The ones who never admit they are wrong, and hypocritically throw insults at people like Diane Ravitch and Bernie Sanders who have acknowledged getting things wrong in the past, don’t have one tenth of the integrity that Bernie and Diane have.
Getting something right on occasion doesn’t make you an admirable person. Crowing and bragging endlessly about the times you are right is not a mark of integrity. Admitting when you are wrong is the mark of integrity. Bernie Sanders and Diane Ravitch understand that. But that is a lesson that Trump and some of his enablers never learned.
$6.4 + Trillion Dollar WAR ON TERROR Budget Re-Imagined
10 years of vaccines for kids in 117 countries
$110 billion
10 years of $10,000 bonuses for all US public school teachers
$318 billion
Sending all 2009 US high school grads to private college
$347 billion
Doubling US spending on HIV/AIDSand cancer research for 20 years
$493 billion
10 years of CO2 offsets for all Americans
$559 billion
Meeting UN anti-poverty goals by 2015
$757 billion
20 years of universal preschool in US
$860 billion
Buying a house for every homeless American
$878 billion
Buying the world an iPhone 3GS
$2 trillion
10 years of private health insurance for uninsured Americans
$2.2 trillion
Paying off 1/3 of US home mortgages
$3.5 trillion
https://www.nationalpriorities.org/cost-of/
Having worked in and paid attention to various federal spending issues for the past three decades, I am always astounded how many people don’t understand the difference between millions, billions, and trillions of dollars. Citizens in general do not understand the scale of the differences. Thanks for that list.
Great point, Greg. Here’s how I used to put it to my students: A million seconds is 11.57 days. A trillion seconds is 11,574,074.07 days, or 31,688.74 years.
A bit of a difference, I’d say!!!
A billion is what a poor billionaire has.
100 billion is what a semi-rich Billyanaire has.
A trillion is what a Bezosaire will have in a couple years.
A trillion is also what a Muskovite will have in a couple years.
I was in a student intervention meeting on 9/11. It was a cool, crisp morning without a cloud in the sky. The secretary came in and told us about the plane crashing into the World Trade Center. I wondered how anyone could crash into the tower on a day with perfect visibility. When the second plane hit, my mind understood the gravity of situation, terrorism. The rest of the day was surreal with adults crying in the halls and a steady stream of parents eager to get children home in case we were under attack.
When the dust settled, we learned that one teacher lost her fire fighting husband and another lost her son. The district also lost a couple of alumni, one of whom was the “man with the red bandana,” Welles Crowther. Our high school planted a tree as a memorial to this brave young man.
Today in New York is a “9/11 day”: a beautiful, cloudless, deep blue sky, a crisp hint of autumn in the air. A quick flash of terror causes me to look up, scan the sky for airplanes. No, just a gorgeous day.
I was thinking that, too.
I had a similar experience to you, and I still remember that incredibly loud boom sound that was unusual enough to make me look out my window. I saw nothing and promptly forgot about it, and then some minutes later the day turned into one that had been unimaginable to me. The dusting over the cars and railings and papers and the stunned silence of the neighborhood. And then the slow dawning of how many lives had been shattered and how much had been lost.
Probably the strongest, deepest memory of September 11 I have–I was on Capitol Hill that day–was how beautiful the weather was that day and the days immediately after. I am oddly reminded of that day every time the weather is perfect.
Greg, like you, I see every crystalline blue sky as a reminder. It was like that on 9/11/21. A “9/11 sky.”
“tell the public the truth. Always.”
Unfortunately, mostly in our dreams.
To witness the attacks so close, I can’t imagine. It was hard 200 miles away. Thank you for sharing your story. I am not watching any news coverage – but have read a few personal accounts, including yours, that have been moving.
Thanks for the thoughtful and moving remembrance of that horrible day. I was shocked and appalled and fully expected that they would next take down the Empire State Building. We weren’t attacked by a nation but by a group of terrorists who used our own airliners as bombs on our own soil. What if that plane that crashed in PA had taken out the Capitol Building? We probably would have invaded and occupied a third Muslim country just for the hell of it.
Everything was upside down and backward that day, twisted like the the steel beams of the skyscrapers. Everything was wrong. The sky was such a beautiful blue above the dust and smoke. Rudy Giuliani was a hero. That’s Rudy Giuliani, who bleeds hair dye and holds press conferences next door to porn shops. He was an American hero. The unintelligent president of the United States, who had been chosen by the Supreme Court instead of elected, was promptly saluted and hailed as the Commander in Chief. I’m surprised the towers fell down instead of up.
Rudy Giuliani was not a hero, but it was one brief time in his life where he actually rose to the occasion. It would have been so easy in the immediate aftermath to find easy scapegoats and feed into the terror that the attacks were designed to foment. And for one brief moment, Rudy did not do that — I have no doubt that the even more reprehensible Trump would have been only thinking of how he could now brag that he had the tallest building downtown and claim his own acts of heroism and charity at the site while looking for easy scapegoats and fomenting hate and division for political gain.
I despised Rudy, and I was stunned that he rose to the occasion.
To NYC’s credit, once the dust settled and Rudy started returning to his usual self and suggesting that the election be cancelled so he could stay in office, NYC put an immediate stop to that. There was no way that Rudy – even in the height of his popularity – was going to remain Mayor.
Progressive Naderite Mark Green – who won the 2001 democratic primary and ran against Bloomberg, lost narrowly after 9/11. Although that Mayoral election was the closest in a century, some blamed the progressive Green for his own demise — which was greatly aided by the anger of the supporters of the man he defeated in the primary, which managed to depress the vote so that Bloomberg squeaked a victory from a progressive.
I have wondered whether the Soviets and their stooge, Trump, have something on both Gouliani and Lady G.
Diane
That sends chills and so personal – and first thoughts of giving blood. So very you!
I was a thousand miles away – just getting to the office. A school day to begin in with 20,000 kids and adults arriving. Two quick shares.
One was confidence elementary teachers would know what to do. What to say and what not. High school is high school. Middle school? Right or wrong – no tv! One tower, the second tower… what if it didn’t stop? And the visuals of people and destruction…13 year olds and fear – with empathic adults – but not parents and guardians.
The second – immediately and over the days – line in the sand – confront any allegations, stereotyping, name calling. Some excellent columns in the local paper, one by a writer who is Muslim, were used in classrooms and administrator meeting. A principal invited an educator from a local Mosque to talk with administrators.
Talking to the journalist this week – and the paper re-ran her column from 2001 – with a new one. She wrote that in 2001 she received about 100 emails and real letters and 95% were supportive and compassionate. She asked could she have written the same column today? The comments alone would be supportive – and would be horrific and threatening.
But that’s for another day. Today, a remembrance.
I remember you writing about September 11 before, Diane, and I was hoping you’d do so again today.
The weather here upstate this morning was cloudless and clear, too, after the fog burned off….a “9/11 day” as you call it.
I recall those first days after the attacks when no planes were flying overhead, except for military air traffic. (A major flight path skirts high above our home, just to the north.)
Empty.
I often think about that time when I watch airliners and their contrails now.
Thanks, John
I worked mid-‘70’s to mid-80’s for an engineering company whose offices were scattered among three downtown buildings. The towers were finishing construction; all 3500 employees were relocated to the South tower Floors 79th-91st when our space was ready in ‘80/’81. Mine was the 81st floor. Having a ‘window office’ was no longer just for the brass, because there were so many windows. This first-rung supervisor got to look out on the tiny beautiful NY Harbor. My future husband looked out on the Hudson from another floor; he continued with that engrg group even as its host company was bought/ sold/ merged with others over subsequent decades [still does]. We followed its gradual relocation to NJ in the early ‘90’s, but there was always a small footprint in NYC, including the 79th floor in the South Tower. We both had old friends/ colleagues there.
In ’93 my husband called immediately from his NJ office after the bombing in the North Tower’s underground garage– to remind me he had not taken that meeting in the city that day. My girlfriend around the corner, an employee of Port Authority, was stuck in a cramped, smoky elevator cab for hours, eventually crawling out through a hatch in the side.
I have no words to describe that day in September eight yrs later as it unrolled on the television set, and on the skyline for days after. I wept as I saw people racing up the street I used to take to get a lunch calzone, trying to escape the tsunami cloud of collapsing debris rushing up behind them. Soon I learned that a lovely guy I worked with back in the day sent all the secretaries home when the North tower was hit, volunteering to field the calls from worried relatives. He was on the phone with his wife when the second plane took out floors 78-85 of the South tower.
Eleven families in our NJ town lost family members that day, a few more than one. My youngest’s best friend’s family shortly moved away, back to where they’d uprooted from years before, when his mom took a job transfer to the Trade Center. She’d suffered a nervous breakdown as a result of her experiences that day.
My husband has been back and forth to NYC on business any number of times in the last 20 yrs. I’ve been 3 times, and never downtown. When my in-laws were still alive, I’d shield my eyes from the view of downtown as we crossed the Verrazano to visit them in LI. Once, driving a son home from a pro hockey game, I took a wrong turn and found myself driving in circles down where you could see the huge beams of light directed out of those terrible holes toward the sky.
I lived and worked within blocks of the WTC when this happened. It was an awful, surreal time. I have no wisdom to impart.
My son was across the street, and ran from the cloud, finally running to the sixth floor of a building. My brother was in building 4. I was upstate at Indian Lake and did not kmow of their survival unit late in the day.
My niece & her Long island born/raised husband live on the Upper West Side, having met at NYU. Chicago-area born & bred niece went to NYC for college & never returned to live in the Midwest: instant NYC love. Both were on a trip to London, returned on Monday, September 10, 2001, & returned to their respective jobs on 9/11, he in the Financial District. Upon graduation, his job choices came to 2 firms: Cantor Fitzgerald in the
WTC or another firm. Not usually one to influence or be so interested in aspects of pay (niece has worked for non-profits throughout her career), she advised him to take the job at the other firm, not Cantor Fitzgerald, & so he did.
That decision saved his life for we know, of course, that Cantor Fitzgerald was on the 103rd Floor of the North Tower.