Glenn Beck stating her believes Obama is a terrorist. Poor John McCain having to take the Mic away from an elderly lady when she called him an Arab and wincing at people shouting “terrorist!” on the campaign trail, and trying to reason with them. Random attacks and shootings on Sikhs because people ignorantly asuumed they were muslim and therefore terrorists. Calls on national television to profile Muslims. The Muslim bans. It goes on and on…
I was supposed to be on a flight out of Reagan on the morning of 9/11.
I had a premonition and blew off the trip to a conference. If I had been on the flight, I would have had a 4" pocket knife clipped in my pocket. Since that day, I don’t fly much anymore.
Ultimately the generations who follow will see it much as many of us view Pearl Harbor. It’s hard to relate to it because it happened so long before we were born. Certainly I have read about it and I have studied the events leading up to it. But it doesn’t have the same emotional effect as 9/11 does since I was actually old enough to somewhat understand exactly what happened that day. Those who follow us will view 9/11 the same way.
My parents and uncles told me about Dec 7th, '41. They heard the announcements over the radio or by word of mouth, they shut down their machines (manufacturing!) and volunteered for the war.
Then thier wives took their places at the machines. My Mother made M1 Carbine parts.
Gas, meat, and a bunch of other things were rationed. Even children were encouraged to collect steel, tin, copper, old tires… New cars were not available. No one complained.
Dec7 went way deeper than Sept11, and it left a deeper impression on the American psyche.
I have not seen a heartfelt response like this in several years.
To everyone who commented from the time, from the tears, from the day, and from the heart; THANK YOU.
I am not alone. I rather love being alone, but not on this day.
That is true. The only event in American history that had a larger effect on the populace was the Civil War.
My maternal great grandparents purchased war bonds as they could afford them. They were fairly poor. My grandfather had two older brothers who served in the war. Both were army. He was the youngest of 11 kids born between 1917 to 1942.
My great grandfather, according to the older siblings, wanted to join (he was a World War I veteran but didn’t see combat; his unit reached their designated reserve trench line on November 11 1918 just a few minutes before the war ended) but by that point he was having serious health issues and wasn’t fit for duty.
After the second plane hit the WTC, RT 66 was a parking lot and all phones were useless.
I was ready to invoke Cold War protocol, load the wife, dog and minimal goods on the motorcycle and exit “town” the way all of us had always planned.
It quickly became clear that the attack was limited and simple, in the sense that it was at large targets and not mixed with NBC (Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical) complexity. And I was NorthWest of the Pentagon if I was wrong about the NBC.
I loaded the truck with gear and a dirt-bike, and drove down to the corner to fill the truck and bike with gas.
By mid day, I was sitting on my front porch watching white and green top helicopters flying out of DC at double-telephone-pole height. There were a lot of them.
We decided to stick and go back to our jobs the next day.
The motorcycle stayed strapped in the bed of the truck everywhere I went for a long time. Nobody even asked about it.
It’s funny that you talk about plans Physics Hunter…I had never been one to plan for things like this. But about a year before I started thinking about my proximate location to Chicago. Dirty Bomb kind of stuff.
I live South East of the city…and worried about this stuff. I had always planned my escape. I would head south 50 miles, than go west past any cloud of fall out or anything like that. Then I would slide North going about 100 miles west of Chicago up to our family summer home in Northern WI. There I could live forever! Never even once had to think about it. But my kids know the plan now that they are adults…and they know how to get there and where to meet up. It is always good to have a plan. THis is why people fail in crises. They don’t have a plan or they fail to follow the plan at hand.
Ask the Dem Politicians. They believe in Global Warming, and
they were down there on Vacation.
Is Bobby Menedez married? If so, that young girl I wouldn’t think be his wife. lol.
I guess he’s not married, but didn’t he get into trouble with some underaged
girl?
