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Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread

08 Sep 11 - 09:57 AM (#3220032)
Subject: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Stilly River Sage

There are lots of programs on television and radio, lots of articles and books coming out examining the path traveled since the attacks of Sept 11, 2001.

NPR Morning Edition reported today that StoryCorps has collected a lot of stories of survivors, remembrances of their loved ones--and the recent outpourings became an event in themselves. The article I've linked to has several of the stories linked at the bottom, they have a 51-minute special "We Remember" (this link opens a player window and starts the program), and there are links to outside sites and museums.


Each year, the oral history project StoryCorps has marked the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks with the voices of those directly affected by the events: wives and husbands, grandparents and friends of those who died that day.

But as StoryCorps founder Dave Isay tells Morning Edition co-host Steve Inskeep, the outpouring of stories about Sept. 11 initially came as something of a surprise.

"When StoryCorps started, I expected to see a lot of people come to StoryCorps who were dealing with kind of end-of-life issues," Isay says. "What I didn't expect to see were people coming to memorialize loved ones who were lost. And we saw that from the first days after StoryCorps opened eight years ago."

After seeing that StoryCorps was used so often to memorialize loved ones, the National September 11 Memorial and Museum approached StoryCorps with the idea of a partnership and "a powerful way to leave a record of these people's lives," Isay says.

That led to the current project between StoryCorps and the museum: to record one interview for each person who died on Sept. 11, 2001. So far, they've collected more than 1,200 interviews.

"We've had every sort of person," Isay says. "We've had firefighters who've never gone to therapy because they see it as self-indulgent, but come to StoryCorps because they realize they're leaving this record for future generations. And they come into the booth and cry for the first time."

Those stories have recorded the thoughts and feelings of many people touched by the attacks, from survivors who work at the Pentagon to mechanics and welders who worked in the recovery effort at ground zero. Families tell how their histories were rewritten, with the loss of a husband or a wife, a son or a daughter.

In addition to recording the unique lives of lost loved ones, Isay says, part of the goal is to "make the tragedy real and to make sure that we're always aware of what the families are going through."

"There is a lot of talk about victims' families finding closure now that we're hitting the 10th anniversary," he says. "I think that is a term that I know most victims would like to see banished from the English language when it comes to dealing with their lives. You know, there is no closure. I think that the best that we can do is remember."

Below, a one-hour special produced by StoryCorps and NPR collects some of the thoughts and feelings of those affected by the attacks:

'We Remember' — Stories From Family And Friends About Sept. 11

We Remember offers an intimate look at lives forever changed by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. In the hourlong special, NPR's Audie Cornish talks with StoryCorps families who lost friends and loved ones to find out how they make their way today.


Read the rest of the story and find the links to participants on the web page linked above.

SRS

08 Sep 11 - 10:01 AM (#3220034)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Stilly River Sage

And for a musical component here, when I heard about the memorials being arranged after Sept. 11, 2001, I knew that the piece that would fit this somber time so acutely was Samuel Barber's Adagio For Strings, op. 11. That indeed was the case.

SRS

08 Sep 11 - 10:05 AM (#3220035)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Stilly River Sage

Lots of memorials with music. One more.

Search results.

SRS

08 Sep 11 - 11:27 PM (#3220434)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Stilly River Sage

There is so much special programming going on now - surely someone will have something they want to share one of these days.

SRS

09 Sep 11 - 12:36 AM (#3220451)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: BusyBee Paul

I flew from the UK last Sunday to my sister's place in Utah. Tomorrow we fly to New York to join The Really Big Chorus, taking part in an In Memorium concert on 9/11, Sunday afternoon, at the Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center.

We'll be singing 2 pieces by Karl Jenkins - The Armed Man and the American premiere of For The Fallen.

i think it will be a very emotional weekend.

Deirdre

09 Sep 11 - 12:41 AM (#3220453)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Janie

Maggie - thank you.

09 Sep 11 - 12:49 AM (#3220457)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Janie

For those few of us in the eastern half of North Carolina,

Sunday, 9/11/2011 at 4:00, Duke Chapel. Free to the Public.

Rodney Wynkoop will conduct the Duke Chapel Choir, the Duke Chorale, the Choral Society of Durham, and the Orchestra Pro Cantores in a performance of Mozart's Requiem. Hundreds of Mozart Requiem performances were given nationwide in the aftermath of 9/11, and this music has become symbolic of mourning and consolation.

More here.

09 Sep 11 - 03:10 AM (#3220480)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Sandra in Sydney

Australian eyewitness shares story & photos On September 11, 2001, Sydney woman Penny saw American Airlines Flight 11 hit the north tower of the World Trade Centre from her hotel window across the road. She shares her story and photos for the first time. (read on)

see the 2nd photo - Penny says: "There is a dead man about the middle of (this shot of the courtyard below my hotel). He's wearing a pink shirt and white pants. I've often wondered if I could somehow track down his family, who would likely know what their husband/father was wearing and whether it would give them any comfort to know exactly what happened to him and that he didn't die alone because I watched and prayed and cried as he died."

09 Sep 11 - 09:56 AM (#3220615)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Stilly River Sage

There have been radio stories on NPR. Two in particular caught my attention:

Memories of Sept. 11's First Recorded Casualty Endure (Father Mychal Judge)

and

Slain Priest: 'Bury His Heart, But Not His Love' (again, Mychal Judge)

Here is an excerpt from the first article:


That Final Morning

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Judge rushed with some off-duty firemen to the World Trade Center, which had just been hit by the first plane. Tom Von Essen, who was then commissioner of the New York Fire Department, saw him in the North Tower.

"And he looked really concerned," Von Essen recalls. "We didn't talk. We always talked. We always fooled around. But we didn't that morning."

As it happened, French documentary filmmakers were inside the North tower. Their camera captured some of the last moments of Mychal Judge's life. In the film, says his friend, Father Michael Duffy, you can see the priest standing by the plate glass window, watching the bodies fall on the patio outside.

"And if you look closely at that film, you'll see his lips moving," Duffy says. "Now, for those of us who know him, he wasn't one that talked to himself. He was praying. And absolving people as they fell to their death."

Moments later, the South Tower collapsed. The force of the explosion shattered the windows and flung the priest across the lobby. In the darkness, some firemen stumbled over a body.

"It's Father Mike!" they yelled. They lifted his limp body and gently placed him in a chair. As they carried him outside, a photographer snapped an iconic picture of the developing tragedy.


italics mine. If you weren't crying yet in this story, that part tipped the scales.

The photo they discuss.

There are musical remembrances of Mychal Judge in these stories. Another article segment:

Judge was also a celibate gay man in the priesthood, a fact he revealed only to a select few. Brendan Fay, a gay activist who co-produced The Saint of 9/11, a documentary about Mychal Judge, says the chaplain's struggles drew people to him.

"Mychal sort of weaved his way in and out of groups that wouldn't be caught near each other," Fay says.

Republican Mayor Rudi Giuliani and Democratic Mayor David Dinkins; conservative and liberal Catholics; stock brokers and street people — all claimed him as a friend. One reason, Fay says, is that even in the dark hour, Judge could make life a celebration.

"His mother always reminded him, 'You can't go wrong with a song. When you don't know what to do, sing,'" Fay says.

Judge was famous for his rendition of the murder ballad, "Frankie and Johnny," which he sang at birthday parties. He once sang "God Bless America" at the funeral of a gay man in the middle of the AIDS epidemic.


SRS

09 Sep 11 - 10:02 AM (#3220618)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Stilly River Sage

Thank you for that link, Sandra. What a story, and her photos tell so much. The field full of ambulances, for example. When this happened they set aside space at Ellis Island and other sites, thinking they'd have to excavate the wounded across water to there as well as other places, but the wounded just didn't appear as they they thought. So many died, and so many were never recovered.

SRS

09 Sep 11 - 01:04 PM (#3220706)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Amergin

Saint of 9/11 is an awesome documentary about Mychal Judge....

09 Sep 11 - 01:48 PM (#3220725)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: katlaughing

I heard on NPR this morning that most schools are not teaching about this tragedy because it is considered too controversial.

Thanks for all of the links. I shall never forget being here, on Mudcat, when it was happening, those of us at home, able to watch it live on tv, relaying to those at work what we were seeing. It was a long, heart-rending, incredible day.

The first thread started at 9:06AM Sept. 11, 2001. Links to all of the others follow.

09 Sep 11 - 02:11 PM (#3220735)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: katlaughing

Did find the following article about a school which is using a new approach to teach about it: CLICK HERE.

More about what schools are doing to teach about it to children who weren't even alive then and/or don't know much about it at all: Clickety.

09 Sep 11 - 03:35 PM (#3220795)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Bettynh

I would hope that kids all get to watch this . Linda Ellerbee is a master of her craft.

09 Sep 11 - 05:48 PM (#3220851)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Stilly River Sage

PBS has played several excellent programs about aspects of the world trade center, about people's feelings of faith at the time and after, about how the buildings were constructed, and the one that I thought was most fascinating (it was new to me, I'd seen some of the others before) is one about the memorial site and all of the things going on there. I haven't been following the construction of the new building at 1 World Trade, so catching up on that was also interesting.

SRS

09 Sep 11 - 05:59 PM (#3220854)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: katlaughing

Bettynh, thanks for the link. Yes, Ellerbee is excellent.

10 Sep 11 - 10:09 AM (#3221109)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: saulgoldie

Is anyone doing anything special, gathering, singing songs, whatever?

There is a big Unity Walk in DC. Anyone?

http://911unitywalk.org/walk-experience/2011-program/


Saul

10 Sep 11 - 12:11 PM (#3221167)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: GUEST,999

I often spend that day (I will this year) contemplating and wondering about the value of what this world has become. I have thoughts for the office workers, visitors, first responders (fire, police, ambulance) and the many who died. Ranks up there close to Remembrance Day on November 11. At least it has for me the past 10 years.

10 Sep 11 - 12:46 PM (#3221182)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Mrrzy

Thank you for this thread, there is another one below the line refreshed from earlier retrospectives of 9.11. I am repeating my post on that thread here:

Just remember, 9/11 was not the beginning!

-Nov 4, 1979 - takeover of teheran embassy - first salvo in this third world war that has been being waged between the forces of fundamentalism (originally fundamentalist islam but the Xtian fundies are in too, now, thanks to Oslo) and the rest of civilization.

And the bombing by Hezbollah in April, 1983 that killed my father.

And all those planes blown out of the skies.

And all those embassies attacked, not just ours.

And all those hostages taken and individuals assassinated.

And the earlier bombing of the World Trade Center...

...and I would really like this list to not get longer.

Before 9/11, I spent Dad's birthday remembering how great he was and the anniversary of his death remembering how awful it is that he's still dead.

On the actual 9/11 we all kind of fell apart, I didn't realize we had PTSD but I could not do any work - how could I write marketing letters when THIS had happened?

Now I still do the death-day and birth-day rememberances for Dad, but I also spend 9/11 mourning all the dead from all the terrorist attacks.

But more than that, I spend it mourning the fact that the US government still hasn't learned anything about how to get people to stop wanting to kill us all. My family had really hoped that, as horrible terrible no good and very bad 9-11 had been, at least now the US would finally *get* it.

That they haven't, I think, may be sadder than all those deaths, dismemberments, and cripplings.

10 Sep 11 - 05:00 PM (#3221284)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Stilly River Sage

Everyone is producing and playing nonstop-9/11 stuff now, so pace yourselves. I'm working in the yard with no radio out there, and the one in the house is set on the classical station. Stick your toe into all of the powerful memories and analysis as your nervous system allows.

SRS

10 Sep 11 - 05:06 PM (#3221288)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Mrrzy

Um, quietly, I don't agree. It was a big fat hairy deal, and if going back into it makes you uncomfortable, well, I think that's a good thing.

10 Sep 11 - 05:27 PM (#3221298)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Stilly River Sage

Mrrzy, there are people get way too wound up, who get depressed, who have problems with over-dose on media. Just because it is there doesn't mean it is good for everyone to consume it as it is dished out.

You must remember that along with the programs comes advertising, and some of the material out there is frankly going to be overpowering to attract more eyes, and is quite possibly needlessly shocking. We're not talking "uncomfortable," we're talking clinical problems. And that isn't a good thing.

SRS

10 Sep 11 - 05:33 PM (#3221301)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: SINSULL

I looked over the threads from Sept 11. Two things stick out for me: first, my nephew has never been able to speak about all he saw that morning. Bits and pieces but some things have to remain untouched. Second, the memory that the hospitals never filled with injured and were so packed with blood donors that they had to turn them away.

Compared to the losses suffered by so many others in so many different places in wars and disasters, the losses at the towers and the Pentagon were insignificant. But as Americans we lost our innocent sense of safety.The threats we hear about supposedly planned for tomorrow are unpleasantly real.

I remember back in the 80s when the brother of an Iranian friend told me (with more than a little superiority) that Americans were fools who didn't recognize that terrorists were plotting to attack them on their own soil. I remember looking at him as if he had three heads and saying "It will never happen here." He was right, at least about the terrorist plots. I still don't accept that we are fools.

10 Sep 11 - 06:11 PM (#3221319)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Greg F.

You must remember that along with the programs comes advertising....

You BET there's advertising! Plenty good money to be made off this tragedy! Ya think that might be why the air waves are awash with this stuff?

Bruce has the right of it: "I have thoughts for the office workers, visitors, first responders (fire, police, ambulance) and the many who died. Ranks up there close to Remembrance Day on November 11."

A day for quiet contemplation & rememberance, not wallowing in a media circus.

10 Sep 11 - 07:45 PM (#3221352)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Mrrzy

Some of us as Americans lost that sense of safety back on Nov 2, 1979, when the first of our embassies was stormed.

I still find it amazing that all through the 80's and 90's *any* Stateside Americans kept that inno-sense.

11 Sep 11 - 06:38 AM (#3221482)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: RoyH (Burl)

Loving thoughts to all our American friends on this dreadful anniversary. Roy & Elaine Harris.

11 Sep 11 - 07:24 AM (#3221492)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Lizzie Cornish 1

On 9/11, a song which speaks of the terrible damage religion and power can do, when in the hands of those who seek to replace love with hate, support with destruction, trust with fear and inclusion with exclusion.

A decade on I feel we have still not reversed the damage of 9/11, nor heard one correct answer about what really happened. However, today is a day of Remembrance for all those who died on that achingly sad day.

'Dragonfly' by Reg Meuross

‎'Dragonfly' by Reg Meuross

"Silver wings from the blue
Crash and burn cut in two
Free to fly foreign shores
Free to die for your cause
... Born in grief, raised in chains
Blind belief, fear no pain
Learn to fight, learn to hate
Life is war, death is great

The world is your enemy
God is your king
And if it's His Will
You'll destroy everything
You show no mercy for innocents
Pity nor shame
Sting dragon, sting

Dragonfly, Dragonfly

Is your faith so correct
It requires no respect
For the good and the pure
And the wrongs they endure
Those who live and let live
Knowing life is to give
They've a right to belong
Ride the bus, sing their song

Crash into satelites
Blood on your wings
You're jealous of sunlight
And other of God's things
The sun shines for everyone
Peace is a blessing you earn
Burn dragon, burn

Dragonfly, Dragonfly

Dragonfly Dragonfly Dragonfly Dragonfly....."

11 Sep 11 - 07:27 AM (#3221494)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Lizzie Cornish 1

Each 9/11 should be A Day of Taking Stock Around The World, where the whole of Humanity gathers together in every town and city in every country, to remember the pain hatred and greed cause, to re-take and re-new The Vows of The Human Species which should be to care for Mother Earth, to care for Every Other Species and Each Other. No War. No Division. No Hatred. Everything Shared Willingingly Amongst One People, for that would bring Great Good to The Planet and to the Spirits of those who died.


Turn it into something incredibly positive, with power to heal not only the families of those concerned, but the whole planet...

It's not rocket science...but do those 'in charge' REALLY want such a thing to happen?

Do they really WANT Peace to reign around The Planet?

9/11? A Day to Become Our OWN Leaders!

11 Sep 11 - 08:56 AM (#3221513)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Lizzie Cornish 1

Apologies, I just need to correct a line from Reg Meuross's 'Dragonfly', above, which I put down wrongly:

"..Crash into satelites
Blood on your wings
You're jealous of sunlight
And other God's things
The sun shines for everyone
Peace is a blessing you earn
Burn dragon, burn...."

11 Sep 11 - 08:57 AM (#3221514)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: open mike

I recall that on that fateful day i was one of the many who were fighting a forest fire that had consumed tens of thousands of acres.
We had a fire line 8 bull dozer blades wide and we were holding the fire from crossing into an area with limited access. We were getting help from the air with water and retardant drops as well as rescue helicopters providing medical evacuation for injured fire fighters.
All the air support were forced to land when all planes in the country were grounded and we needed special permission to re-activate all the essential air support. This compromised our efforts on the POE fire.

11 Sep 11 - 09:20 AM (#3221518)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Stilly River Sage

I was preparing to take a trip a few days later but the flight and trip were cancelled. My ex was in a group that had travelled to Arkansas to teach a one-day training and was supposed to fly back to Fort Worth on Tuesday. They wisely kept the rental car when they realized what was happening and drove back to Texas.

Mary, I remember about the temporary hospital setup - Ellis Island was one of the places established as a evacuation site to get injured away from the site across the water, but it was not needed, in the end it was a huge death count, the injured the originally anticipated didn't appear.

SRS

11 Sep 11 - 03:17 PM (#3221659)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Mrrzy

From one of our own Catters:

As I walked over London Bridge I heard Cassandra cry
She saw the towers falling down, spill people from the sky
And all of us saw what she saw, the buildings torn apart
Saw the world turned upside down, a knife blade in the heart.

As I walked out through London Town I heard Achilles weep
He'd had a vision in the night which woke him from his sleep
A different kind of slaughter in a different kind of war
A thunderbolt from an open sky he'd never seen before.

The snakes around Medusa's head spread confusion and deceit
Her smile turns people's hearts to stone, success into defeat
We think we can control our lives, we think we make the rules
We look upon Medusa's face and then we know we're fools.

As I walked through the Isle of Dogs Odysseus caught my arm
He'd witnessed many battles but he'd never seen such harm
How do you fight with shadows, how do you catch thin air
How can you deal with evil when it drifts through everywhere?

As I sat down on Hampstead Heath I called Athena's name
But she was with the other gods, all playing stupid games
Our leaders are their playthings and our future is their prize
And every death in war is triumph through Medusa's eyes …..

The snakes around Medusa's head spread confusion and deceit
Her smile turns people's hearts to stone, success into defeat
We think we can control our lives, we think we make the rules
We look upon Medusa's face and then we know we're fools.

11 Sep 11 - 03:59 PM (#3221676)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Stilly River Sage

There's a live concert from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Temple of Dendur playing right now.

SRS

11 Sep 11 - 04:20 PM (#3221680)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Joe Offer

Here's a memorial song from Paul Kaplan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU2uyABtmbE.

11 Sep 11 - 11:24 PM (#3221741)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Stilly River Sage

The New York Philharmonic played Mahler's "Resurrection" symphony in commemoration - I need to check that out. I love Mahler's works. I didn't watch anything tonight, but PBS is good about repeats or having things available online.

SRS

11 Sep 11 - 11:55 PM (#3221747)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Songwronger

9/11: A Conspiracy Theory

A 5-minute video that sums things up.

11 Sep 11 - 11:57 PM (#3221749)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Janie

The simplicity of the Memorial program at the WTC, including the music, was lovely and devastating. I was not able to watch all of it. I saw James Taylor, Paul Simon and Yoyo Ma and don't know if there were others. These were not performances. They were expressions from the heart, and expressed the hearts of many in the universal language of music.

12 Sep 11 - 09:22 AM (#3221906)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Stilly River Sage

I didn't get past the reading of the names; a friend I meet for dog walking every morning morning today said the same thing happened to her - and we both ended up leaving the televisions and radios off the rest of the day. Nor did we follow it on the Internet.

I think there will be some distilled portions of these memorials and concerts that will become available and I'll look for the performers Janie mentioned, but revisiting the entire thing is too difficult.

A friend who lives at 14th and Seventh Ave in NYC was emotionally impacted like all New Yorkers (in some fashion - there is no claiming all experienced the same thing) and financially he was devastated by the event, as his work revolved around tourist tours around the harbor. Yesterday was a point in time where he looked back and could see how difficult it had been to get the services to keep him in his apartment and food on the table, all the while following the grim progress and watching to see if friends or acquaintances turned up on the dead or missing lists. And of the work it took to get to a point where he has some employment. He is still not back to where he was, but is at least doing it on his own. He told me about how that look back was good for him, but he declined to attend the tearful and wrenching ceremonies.

This is just three of us - but I wonder how many actually watched everything that was offered yesterday? The parts I did hear were lovely - I tuned in online and listened to that early evening concert at the Met Museum for a while. That was beautiful, somber music, it didn't have the overlay of human voices or photos telling the ten-year-old events of the story.

SRS

12 Sep 11 - 10:09 AM (#3221926)
Subject: RE: Sept 11, 2001 - 10 yr anniversary thread
From: Lizzie Cornish 1

'Songwronger' - I'm right with you, with that video..