What does 9/11 mean to you?

As we approach the 'historic' ten year anniversary of 9/11 a lot of people are talking. About how 9/11 changed America. I've had a chance to talk to a lot of people recently and see what they think about this, and now I want to know what you think?

I think American changed in a horrible way from 9/11. I think we became scared, jumping at every shadow we could find, and violating the basic principles our country was founded on.

What do you guys think?

I think myself and a huge number of my fellow country countrymen lost friends, loved ones, and basic confidence in our ability to defend ourselves.

I see many people still with little closure to help them put this tragedy behind them, with an un-winnable war that has dragged on for 10 years now.

I want peace for my fellow men and a resolve to support each other, as that is what made us great.

I find it enlightening living in NYC now, and seeing how NYC'ers vs the rest of the US views this.

I was not in NYC in 2001. But my experience now is that New Yorkers who were here then see this as a personal, local event. To them it is a story of individual lives lost and changed, rather than any greater principle. I think that people outside New York are the ones who have saddled the 9/11 tragedy with the baggage of patriotism, warrior-ism, and fear which you see today.

9/11 empowered a lot of people who should never have been given anything resembling power.

Nearly 3000 people died who shouldn't have.

It is true that a lot of stuff such as the Patriot Act is just BS. That said, there are plenty of people out there that hate you because you're an American. There are plenty of people that hate you because of your religious views, or lack thereof. I've met some of these people. That said, we should never sacrifice liberty for security.

I agree with the OP.

the media has taken it as a way to make us scared of everything...

I think our government leveraged it well to their advantage. They shoved some very unamerican legislation down our fearful little throats. We might just come to mourn that more than the other someday.

Oh, I also think the media are making a berkeleying mint on this anniversary and that is a tragedy all it's own.

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Outside of domestic terrorism, 9/11 WAS America's WAKE UP CALL to global terrorism... never forget that. Many nations have dealt w/ terrorism for years and decades before it finally hit our shores.... and it was inevitable if not predictable.

Carefully weigh liberties vs security.. I think we've done that each and every day since 9/11/01, and it's far from being over

9/11 makes me feel used and manipulated. Not by the ass-holes who perpetrated it, but by the media and lots of other people. I feel like something really E36 M3ty happened to us and so there are people out there who are determined to try to twist the knife to earn a couple of bucks off of me.

Like, we had the opportunity to really learn something important, but instead if I don't watch your TV special and buy the commemorative plate then I don't really love Amurica.

Drewsifer wrote: I think American changed in a horrible way from 9/11. I think we became scared, jumping at every shadow we could find, and violating the basic principles our country was founded on. What do you guys think?

I think you need exposure to more people went into civil/international action in some capacity, and less 'story tellers.'

there is nothing in terms of law, legislation or any 'evil government machinations' that has surfaced since 9-11 that doesn't have a comparable mnemonic in America's past. There's nothing new under the sun, but there are plenty of people who, either in ingorance, or opportunism, have attuned into a few key shreds of information, and formulated an entire judgement foundation upon it.

I think 9-11 represents a clear distinction for the people who were alive and aware during the attacks, that no matter how much you wish people would just stop and listen, there is a group of people where such niceties are wasted 100% of the time, who look at you and want to visit you harm without any other pretense needed. I think people who have been thru this, despite their high apple pie in the sky wish that it wasn't so, are not so quick to assume that the people who wish to stand up to this with force and fortitude are the evil hate-filled people they used to charge them as.

I think at the same time, those same people who begrudgingly are forced to see this cold reality have become better and warmer people because of it. They see their family, friends, fellow citizens in a more active light.

I reject your thinking that we're somehow changed in a horrible way because your poster seems to think we're all jumping at our shadows. I know i'm not. I have too many friends in/been to the sandbox that arent. And any of the people that are in this day an age didn't need 9-11 to be that way and were probably that way long before 10 years ago.

Drewsifer wrote: I think American changed in a horrible way from 9/11. I think we became scared, jumping at every shadow we could find, and violating the basic principles our country was founded on. What do you guys think?

I don't think anything has changed at all. IMO, some of the things I personally consider what's "wrong" with the country of my birth (decline of privacy/religious adherence/"knee-jerk" military reactions to what should be diplomatic problems) were already present before the attack happened.

YMMV. My strongest memory from that day (other than seeing the towers fall, of course) was hearing the Congress starting to sing on TV..and then noticing that by the time I got to "..by the Dawn's early light..", I finally figured out that those berkeleyers were singing Gawd Bless America, instead of the National Anthem.

Oh, well..they've been telling me to "LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT" for 35 berkelying years. I thought I was staying because I loved it. Maybe I shoulda got out while I was young enough to do so.

Maybe I'm horrible, but I still think "Porsche" when I see 9/11.

Or maybe I beat the terrorists.

Joey

rotard wrote: It is true that a lot of stuff such as the Patriot Act is just BS. That said, there are plenty of people out there that hate you because you're an American. There are plenty of people that hate you because of your religious views, or lack thereof. I've met some of these people. That said, we should never sacrifice liberty for security.

There may be plenty of non-Americans who hate Americans, but there are also a lot of non-Americans who hate other Non-Americans, many Americans who hate non-Americans, and many Americans who hate other Americans. Hate far predates America.

It was a tragedy for sure, but it is difficult for me to compare it to some of history's other great losses. It has appeared more of a symbolic loss to me than a loss of life; proof that our country is not invincible, and that our defenses are not impenetrable despite our isolation from the rest of the world.

peter wrote: I think that people outside New York are the ones who have saddled the 9/11 tragedy with the baggage of patriotism, warrior-ism, and fear which you see today.

I strikes me as odd to that the average person outside NY seems to think about being attacked/afraid of foriegners alot more than New Yorkers do. Aside from our politicians who are constantly using 9/11 as a way to get money back from Washington most people don't really worry about it. This past friday was the first time I've ever really seen the city E36 M3 themselves over a terror report which makes me think they had a pretty good reason to be on edge, but as always most everyone just bitched about how it was an inconveniece and most would rather take their chance with a mad bomber than sit in that kind of traffic.

While I will never forget the horrible sights and smells from that day and the months that follow and the initial fear I felt, certainly the most I've ever felt, I also learned a lot about myself and my fellow Americans. A lot of good happened inn the aftermath and the shiny happy people in charge missed a great chance to really build upon it.

The rest of the country got to see that while we are different from much of the rest of the country we aren't the heartless pricks and criminals you've been led to believe. In the days and weeks after the attacks many people from around the country felt compelled to come and help. They saw how we really were people like them, even if it was in akinda weird cousin way*.

I've met thousands of people since then who've said they never would have come here before 9/11 because they'd always heard it was a crime ridden cesspool but were now compelled to come see for themselves and help get the city going again. Many have comeback and encouraged their friends to do the same. It was appreciated, it helped us get going again and gave people something to think about besides terrorism.
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*I was driving a group of Air Force ME's from their hotel to the pier where they had set up a makeshift morgue. Many entrance ramps on our route had people stationed round the clock with people waving flags and banners and cheering as we went by with various fire, police and personel. At the ramp we got off for the pier one night there were a group of young women who felt removing their tops would be a good morale booster. The man behind me from Arkansas commented how he was surprised how everyone in NY was more friendly than he imagined. That we were like a big family, though we'd be like the weird maybe gay cousin everyone has.

My thoughts are the same now as they've always been from day one. Did we deserve it? No. None of those people deserved to die that day.

But I expected something like this would happen to us. You can't stick your nose into the world's business and not expect to piss off some nut jobs.

But I expected something like this would happen to us. You can't stick your nose into the world's business and not expect to piss off some nut jobs.

Yeah... for being one of the youngest nations on the planet, we sure do think we are the alpha dog, don't we?

I was in a plant in Missouri on that day, 650 miles from home in Michigan. I wondered if moving to this country 18 months earlier had been a horrible mistake. Because the airlines were all grounded for several days I decided to drive back on the 3rd or 4th day after. It was a beautiful sunny day. By the time I got home to Michigan I wasn't fearful and second guessing the decision to move here any longer. Everywhere I looked on that trip there were flags. Hanging from the overpasses, hanging on the sides of barns, hanging from fences and front porches. It left me with the feeling that the USA had just received a black eye, but certainly had not been brought to its knees. The pride of country was still there.I still feel that way, despite the current problems. I do believe people's confidence has been shaken by the financial crisis, and Washington's lack of ability to compromise on anything and lead us is prolonging that.

These thoughts are more related to the decade since, and not to the day of the attack.

Militarily: We entered a period of experimentation with tactics. The proponents (e.g. Rumsfeld) of "smaller, faster, lighter" try to win wars with more technology and fewer boots on the ground. We can't honestly say how that worked, because we then messed up the experiment by making our soldiers stay in harm's way for a decade because we were using them as the de facto local police force. That required lots of boots on the ground, and lots of our kid's blood spilled on the sand.

Socially: I think we entered an era when the nation became less tolerant of dissent and differing views.

Personally: Lost a job, and changed careers. Had an engagement fall through, and did some stupid stuff that destroyed another very important relationship. OTOH, Discovered humility, resiliance/self confidence, and cars.

I agree with deadskunk as I had also only been in the US for a couple of years, the pride and strength that the general populace showed after the attack was amazing and I was impressed by the responses of most individuals.

I also agree that the politicians and press have behaved miserably since then, they have shamelessly used fear mongering to further their own agendas.

9/11 was a wakeup call for all those who thought that since America is the colossus which straddles the globe that we were untouchable.

We are not. We cannot continue skipping along the garden path we were on before 9/11, which really sucks. It's a lot like if you had your house broken into; in a matter of moments your life changed. You now fear terribly for your kids and your wife's safety. That thought now consumes you. What if...? Could it happen again? What do I do? How much reaction is too much?

You need to do something. You add an alarm system, buy a big ol' gun and maybe a big ol' dog, sometimes you don't sleep well at night listening to every little creak and click of the house, wondering if that noise is the precursor of another break in. The LAST thing you want is an instant replay. Maybe you even sell your house and move to a different neighborhood. Uh, hard to do that with a whole country, though.

Dubya had it right. He said once, early on, that the war that was dropped in our laps was not winnable in the conventional sense. You may not like him or how things went in Iraq etc, but dammit he had that exactly right. Of course the pundits all immediately said 'how could he SAY such a thing?' and the next day he backpedaled, which to me was the worst thing he could have done. Instead of going all Churchill 'blood, sweat and tears' on us (which would have been the best thing), he and his handlers botched it. We showed ourselves to be what OBL said: a paper tiger.

It's also become the cornerstone for every nutcase out there who will take advantage of all America offers in the way of freedom and opportunity only to complain about and denigrate that same society when steps are taken to try to keep it together. To those, I say: Stop it. Just stop. You think the TSA and the Patriot Act are a pain in the ass? Just be glad you don't live in Israel. Their internal security makes those two organizations look like polite parking valets.

Dammit, we are not perfect. There's been plenty of mistakes along the way, such as the CIA interfering in Latin America back in the '50's. But we are not on the same level as the Saddam Husseins, Osama bin Ladens, Pol Pots and Quadafis of the planet. To those who incessantly complain about this country: You have a better idea of how to govern 300 million people and make all of them happy? No? Until you do (and can prove it works) STFU.

Many people say the #1 reason we were attacked is due to our support of the Saudi regime. Okay, what would you have us do? Overthrow their government? Isn't that what everybody bitches about all the time, interfering in the workings of another sovereign nation? You cannot have it both ways. So out of necessity we hold our noses and deal with them. That's the way of the world, gang. On a smaller scale: you may not like the people you deal with on a daily basis but in the end what are you supposed to do? Kill everyone who doesn't agree with you at least 80%? Good luck with that.

Right behind that is our support of Israel. Which pisses the Palestinians and the other Arabs off to no end. They say if we just pull our support for Israel then they will love us forever. So allowing genocide is the only way out for us? Uh, no. Not to mention as soon as they polish off Israel the Islamic nutcases (and no I did NOT say the entire Islamic world!) will be back to bitching about our permissive decadent Western ways and we'd be right back where we started.

So 9/11 to me means when the chips were down we all pulled together as only Americans can, when the initial shock wore off we went right back to the denial of the reality of the ways of the world, the 'me first' and 'there's no way but my way' attitude that is the ugly dark side of us. And I'm a bit sick of it, honestly.

I was actually at our local airport, planning on going flying in my old Aeronca. It was a beautiful, "CAVU" day, perfect for flying . I had the Miata parked, top-down, with the radio on, next to the plane as I made all my usual pre-flight checks. Suddenly, the BBC radio announcer had an very agitated voice;. "A plane has struck one of the Twin Towers!" he said. Even though the Towers are about 60 miles from our airport, you can clearly see them, once you're about 500 feet off the ground. Obviously, I didn't go flying that day. It's really changed general aviation.....and not for the better.

When I think back, I do not think the US public were asked to be engaged in this war in any meaningful way. In WW II, there was a sense of sacrifice and unity among the general population. For example, back then, people donated aluminum pots for the war effort, bought war bonds, were asked to donate to the USO, accepted rationing and made many other contributions to the effort. With the exception of a small number of Americans who served in the military, it seems like the rest of us were just told to "go shopping".

On 9/11/01, I lost a good friend from Whippany, Mike in the South Tower. We have a limo driver friend who lost his son. One of our secretaries at work lost a daughter. And two of my SCCA racing friends, Joe DeLuca and his girlfriend Linda Gronlund were on Flight 93.

Yeah, you are right. I'd forgotten about that whole 'go shopping' thing. But it does tie in with Dubya's not going Churchill on us which would have been the best thing.

I did not lose anyone I knew in the attacks. I nearly did; one of my best friends is an electronics engineer who was supposed to be at the Pentagon that morning. For some reason, the schedule got moved so he didn't fly out on the 10th as he was originally supposed to. He called me on the afternoon of the 11th, he said he could see the installation he was responsible for hanging in the wreckage of the hole in the Pentagon. His two daughters probably do not know how close they came to losing their father.

Appleseed wrote: None of those people deserved to die that day.

I think there were 19 who deserved it.