My avatar

[enigma]

never forget, aka my avatar

I am in no way celebrating the explosion and the terrorism that caused it.

I recently received an email that had been forwarded millions of times entitled "never forget". Because too many Americans seem to have forgetten why we are fighting terrorism here and around the world, I though that occasionally using the picture as an avatar would be a good reminder. I never intended to continuously display the picture because I don't want to desensitize us to the evil perpetrated by those evil barstards.


However, being the pragmatic person that I am, I can understand that some of you misunderstand my purpose. Because of this, I will not continuously utilize this picture of the WTC's destruction.

Thanks to ASADFW7 and others for showing me that my purpose could be misunderstood.

regards,
engima

Edited to get ASADFW7's name correct.
Edit #2. added never forget to string title.

 

[Typhoon1244]

...too many Americans seem to have forgotten...

I suppose it's probably different in Manhattan and at the Pentagon...but you're right. It's as if September 11th was some shocking T.V. miniseries that was popular two years ago. I knew America's attention span was getting shorter as time went by, but I never thought the memories of that morning would fade the way they seem to have.

I have loved airliners an everything about them since I was three years old. Their use as weapons was, to me, an unimaginable obscenity...I haven't quite been the same since that morning. I suppose none of us have.

If you haven't seen it yet, go rent or buy a video called In Memoriam: New York City by HBO. It's probably the most well-produced chronicle of what happened on the 11th. People need to see it. People need to remember the anger, the grief, the sense of betrayal. Maybe people will start taking the attack seriously then.

 

[Timebuilder]

I never felt that I misunderstood the picture.

Every time I see it, I think back to just three months before that picture was taken, as I flew up the Hudson at four in the morning in a Lear at 1,500 feet. The building cleaners were hard at work, and just about every light in the building was lit. It was an awesome sight.

I think of the morning I was up with a student, and was told I had to land ASAP, with the sound of yelling in the background while the controller told me that a second plane had hit the WTC.

After I went inside I watched the TV with everyone else, dumbfounded, and knowing that my career, my life, and America itself were being deeply affected, right before my eyes.

In the weeks that followed, I saw several images that suggested that there was a face, or faces, in the rising smoke as the building burned. No one has ever explained to me if ALL of the photos were retouched to make the face appear to be present, or if there are bona fide news photographers who are saying that the "face" pictures are original and unretouched. The avatar picture seems to have one of those "faces". Can anyone shed some light on this?

 

[52vincent]

Well put, could not have said it better myself!!

I was in a Walmart store that frightful morning, it was not busy cause it was early. I happened to walk by the electronic section and saw it on the tv's. No one was around, I finally told one of the employees there she came over to watch too, no one in the store ahad known yet. A few minutes later the only place you could find an employee was in the electronic section.
Everyone was in disbelief.

God Speed!!

 

[EagleRJ]

http://tvnews3.televisionarchive.org/tvarchive/html/

Play the overview near the top of the page and remember how innocently that day began.

All of the pacifists and anti-war protesters out there should have to watch this, since people's memories do appear to be fading. They should realize too, that as bad as that day was, it's nothing compared to the attacks we are trying to prevent right now.

 

[3GreenNoRed]

That was a terrible day. And like everyone else we will never forget where we were. Just like my parents and the JFK assassination.

The worst part about the tragedy is that in a way the terroists got what they wanted. We were total free country and now security has gone way up which is a plus to an extent, yet there used to be alot more freedom about the airport and now you can't get greated at the gates, etc... I used to be able to get on some airplanes at the airport with pilots and see the cockpits of the big stuff that I dreamed of flying someday. Now I almost have to conceal the fact that im a pilot when at the airport flying the airlines. Its too bad.

 

[buckdanny]

And not only in the US

I remember I was in Helsinki, Finland having a late lunch - early dinner with a friend. Then I got an SMS from someone else I knew there, saying that the US was in chaos and the towers where gone. I thought it was unreal, told my friend, and we left to find a place with TVs. We got into a bar with a giant screen TV that was blasting CNN live; I never saw a bar that packed on a Tuesday morning before. It was just unreal, everybody was in shock. Flying back to the US was not the same as before.

Buck

 

[GuppyPuppy]

http://tvnews3.televisionarchive.org/tvarchive/html/

Play the overview near the top of the page and remember how innocently that day began.

All of the pacifists and anti-war protesters out there should have to watch this, since people's memories do appear to be fading. They should realize too, that as bad as that day was, it's nothing compared to the attacks we are trying to prevent right now.

As difficult as that was to watch, thank you for posting the link. Even after all this time I can't help but cry when I see the images. I lost an old friend that day who worked on the 103rd floor of the north tower. Her name was Kristine.

GP

 

[FL000]

Normally I wouldn't pitch anything that comes from the French, but the DVD 9/11 by French brothers Gédéon and Jules Naudet is far and away the most outstanding documentary of that day.

Many of you may have seen this documentary aired on HBO and CBS. I did not see it until I got the DVD late last year. For those of you who don't know, these two brothers were documenting the 9 months of probation for a FDNY rookie, or "probie". They have the only footage of the initial attack on the North Tower. One brother spends the rest of the day using their amazing access to the Batallion Chief filming from inside the North Tower. Ironically, those in that tower were completely unaware of the apparent chaos taking place nationwide. The other brother, left back at the firehouse, is shielded from the horrors of what is going on inside the towers, but records reactions of people in the street who have been clued in by news reports to the bigger picture of what was happening that day.

I guarantee anyone who watches this will "never forget".

9/11 on Amazon.com

 

[Typhoon1244]

Please tell me if I'm the only one who feels this way: the worst part of the whole thing is that the men responsible for all those deaths died in the attack. It's different when you've lost someone and you have the murderer to focus your anger on. But this was a murder-suicide. I harbor a great wrath toward the 9/11 attackers, and that wrath has nowhere to go.

 

[avbug]

Let it go.

What you cannot change, let go.

 

[FL000]

Here's a story about a NYT reporter who seems to have forgotten:

Speaker disrupts RC graduation
A New York Times reporter delivers an antiwar speech that offended many.
By CARRIE WATTERS, Rockford Register Star

ROCKFORD — New York Times reporter Chris Hedges was booed off the stage Saturday at Rockford College’s graduation because he gave an antiwar speech.

Two days later, graduates and family members, envisioning a “go out and make your mark” send-off, are still reeling.

Guests wanting to hear the author and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter are equally appalled.

And College President Paul Pribbenow is rethinking the wisdom of such controversial topics at future commencements. This is Pribbenow’s first graduation.

Hedges began his abbreviated 18-minute speech comparing United States’ policy in Iraq to piranhas and a tyranny over the weak. His microphone was unplugged within three minutes.

Voices of protest and the sound of foghorns grew.

Some graduates and audience members turned their backs to the speaker in silent protest. Others rushed up the aisle to vocally protest the remarks, and one student tossed his cap and gown to the stage before leaving.

Mary O’Neill of Capron, who earned a degree in elementary education, sat in her black cap and gown listening. She was stunned.

She turned to Pribbenow and asked him why he was letting the speech continue. He said it was freedom of speech. Pribbenow later said when people stop listening to ideas, even controversial ones, it is the death of institutions like 157-year-old Rockford College.

In tears, O’Neill left the ceremony.

Her husband, Kevin, sat in the audience with their daughter and was as indignant as his wife.

“This is a ceremony. ... The day belongs to the students. It doesn’t belong to a political view,” he said.

Hedges, a war correspondent, criticized military heroic ideals that grow during war. The fervor sacrifices individual thought for temporarily belonging to something larger, he said.

Hedges sympathized with U.S. soldiers. He characterized them as boys from places such as Mississippi and Arkansas who joined the military because there were no job opportunities.

“War in the end is always about betrayal. Betrayal of the young by the old, of soldiers by politicians and idealists by cynics,” Hedges said in lecture fashion as jeers and “God Bless Americas” could be heard in the background.

After his microphone was again unplugged, Pribbenow told Hedges to wrap it up.

Elinor Radlund of Rockford read Hedges’ book on war and was horrified at what she said was the audience’s rude behavior. She was indignant she couldn’t hear the speaker.

“They were not behaving as people in an academic setting, where you’re supposed to be open to a great many ideas,” Radlund said.

Pribbenow said Rockford College takes no political stance, but the job is to challenge students. He reminded audience members of the liberal arts college’s commitment to listening to other viewpoints.

It didn’t happen.

Spontaneous reaction led 66-year-old Gerald Kehoe of rural Boone County down the aisle in his first time to protest anything. He was hurt to hear a verbal attack on the country. He attended Saturday’s commencement to watch his daughter graduate, the fourth from Rockford College.

Rockford College political science professor Bob Evans said it’s a reminder of the “raw edges of emotion” on the issue.

A student who rushed the stage could face reprimand although he still received his diploma.

“It’s important to go on the record that it’s inappropriate behavior,” Pribbenow said.


Rockford Register

 

[T-Gates]

Enigma-

Because you avatar has a purpouse behind it, I don't think too many will have trouble with it. On the other hand, when Lrjtcaptain posted with an avatar which was a picture of PSA Flight 182 seconds before it crashed into a neighborhood, I questioned his reasoning behind it. He responded "No reason" That was just pointless.

--03M

 

[Timebuilder]

Forgotten?

What the reporter has forgotten is the price that others have paid which allows for the sharing of his unfounded viewpoint.

Is Hedges a French name?

 

[Iceman21]

I am constantly thinking about that day. I am constantly reminded about it every time I set foot on an airport.

I was flying that day. That day wasn't right from the beginning. Right after takeoff I had some engine vibrations the promptly kept me in the pattern, when I touched down all air traffic was grounded.

I even had to go into work that day. Imagine being in the ramp tower at the world's busiest airport (ORD at that time) and being able to hear crickets chirping for three days straight.

I have let go, but I will never forget.

 

[sidesaddle]

Lest We Forget

I think your use of that avatar is not disrespectful at all. I can't believe how many people seem not only to have forgotten the tragedy of that horrific day, but seem to be ignorant of the geoplolitical realities that it represents.

We were brutally attacked and thousands of innocent people died and many other are suffering in a variety of ways today and will suffer for years to come.

These evil murderers would have killed more if they could have and others like them would like to do the same or worse if they get the chance.

Jefferson said it well "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance"

Your avatar stirs my love for this country and freedom.
JMHO

 

[Salty Dog]

I choose to remember it this way:

http://www.airliners.net/open.file/188149/M/