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Thoughts in remembrance of 911
IainB:
I remember lying in bed listening to the news on my radio alarm at about 0630hrs that morning and thinking:
"Why on earth are they broadcasting this silly fake stuff about a 'live' disaster in New York? I would have thought radio producers would have learned from the panic caused when The War of the Worlds was broadcast as though it were 'live'."
--- End quote ---
And then it slowly dawned in my still sleepy head that this wasn't a fake broadcast - that it really was happening as I lay there in my bed.
I remember saying to one of my coworkers that day:
"Things will never be quite the same after this."
--- End quote ---
And it turned out to be true, and a bit of an understatement.
Here are a couple of clips of how the world responded after that event:
* Remember Me: Beautiful musical clip with images from around the world showing solidarity with America's losses of 9/11, to the music of Mark Shultz singing "Remember Me".
* Rejoicing: Fox News footage of Palestinians dancing and celebrating at the news of the fall of the twin towers on 911.
Now I gather that there is a proposal to build a massive Islamic mosque at Ground Zero. Yeah, right.
"The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers." Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan, quoting from an Islamic poem.
--- End quote ---
In the film The Thin Red Line:
Private Edward P. Train: [narrating] "What is this great evil? How did it steal into the world? From what seed, what root did it spring? Who's doing this? Who's killing us? Robbing us of light and life. Mocking us with the sight of what we might have known."
--- End quote ---
app103:
Now I gather that there is a proposal to build a massive Islamic mosque at Ground Zero. Yeah, right.
-IainB (September 10, 2011, 08:02 AM)
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It's not a mosque, it's an interfaith community center, in much the way the YMCA is a community center. The so-called mosque is nothing more than a prayer room within the center. And it is not on Ground Zero, it's a couple of blocks away. In fact, a place of Muslim worship already existed on the location for quite awhile, used by about 450 peaceful Muslims, locals that live in the area. Blaming and punishing them for the attack would be no different than blaming and punishing all Christians for the Oklahoma City bombing.
What they want to do is tear down the existing building, which was damaged in the 9/11 attacks by falling airplane debris, and rebuild it, expand it and make it a community center and not just a place of worship. It will include a 500-seat auditorium, theater, a performing arts center, a fitness center, a swimming pool, a basketball court, a childcare area, a bookstore, a culinary school, an art studio, a food court, and a memorial to the victims of the September 11 attacks.
It specifically will not contain a mosque and only a prayer room because if you call it a mosque, then anyone of the Muslim faith, regardless of ideology can enter and use it for whatever purposes they choose, and if they call it a prayer room instead, they can have complete control over who they allow to use it, keeping out radical extremist groups who are less than peaceful...and allowing use by people of other faiths, including Christians and Jews.
The proposed community center's purpose is to promote multi-faith peace, tolerance and understanding...the complete opposite of what the 9/11 attacks were about. The Muslims that are responsible for the proposed community center want to push back against the extremists and be part of the rebuilding of the area.
"The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers." Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan, quoting from an Islamic poem.
--- End quote ---
And I seem to recall this from a very popular Christian hymn:
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
with the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;
forward into battle see his banners go!
--- End quote ---
mouser:
I hope we can avoid this becoming an angry political thread. Let's all try our best to keep things very civil, polite, and respectful.
A lot of people experienced an unimaginable amount of fear and suffering on that day and they deserve some reflection. But it's hard to avoid thinking about the waves of changes that radiated from that event and what they mean.
Here's an interesting article by someone who i frequently disagree with but has been pretty open about his emotional reactions to 9/11, and his changing ideas over time about 9/11 and what came after:
"Bin Laden hoped to provoke a civilizational war between Islam and the West. And we took the bait."
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/09/04/andrew-sullivan-asks-did-osama-win-on-9-11.html
Personal notes: I grew up in downtown Manhattan with clear view of the world trade centers; I always loved the look of them. My mother worked in one of them for a few years (forget which tower) in the 1990s. On the day of 9/11 i was woken up by a panicked phone call from my best friend from his work office in the financial district saying the streets were full of smoke or dust or something and that people thought there might be some kind of terrorist attack. It was very surreal.
rgdot:
I hope we can avoid this becoming an angry political thread. Let's all try our best to keep things very civil, polite, and respectful.
-mouser (September 10, 2011, 10:27 AM)
--- End quote ---
Killing each other is evil, period.
I will make a brief comment below, which I insist is NOT AT ALL in contradiction to the italic line above this one.
"Bin Laden hoped to provoke a civilizational war between Islam and the West. And we took the bait."
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/09/04/andrew-sullivan-asks-did-osama-win-on-9-11.html
--- End quote ---
The greatest problem is illustrated here (I confess I didn't read the article though):
To take 9/11 as the start of something is ignoring history.
Steven Avery:
Hi Folks,
And I had a view of the towers from my place in the sun (Bayside, Queens), so it was all intense. However, no direct friends lost.
On the five-year I hung out with the Trufers as I never really bought the Standard American Description (SAD) of what happened. Building 7, pristine passport landing on the street, etc. There was a conference that year.
And I am considering the same possibility tomorrow, the threat for tomorrow is a bit expected, and something to consider.
Shalom,
Steven
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