9/11- WE WILL NEVER FORGET?
Today if you cruise around the web you’ll find the phrase “We will never forget” posted all over. And yet, I have to ask myself… HAVE we forgotten?
A quick look at the news, the election coverage and the sad state of our country, our dollar and our values tells me we have.
Remember how you felt that morning? How you felt sick inside as you watch in disbelief? Remember when the first plane hit the Tower One? Remember when the second one hit Tower Two? Remember how all meetings stopped? How all work stopped? How no one did anything except watch the TV that day?
Remember the flags flying outside everyone’s homes and the clip on flags eveyone put on their cars?
What about the Republicans and Democrats holding hands and singing together?
What about the thousands of items for purchase that had our flag on it?
Remember how everyone wore the flag and flew it high as a badge of honor? How we all felt pride in our country (some of us for the first time in our lives)?
Have you bought a flag lately or has it become “lame” again as it was on Sept 10th 2001?
Remember Jay Leno and David Letterman crying on television and how they didn’t say anything funny for weeks? Remember how you felt when you watched those towers burning and the sick wrenching feeling you got when you found out it was done on PURPOSE?
Remember how we had the anthrax attacks afterwards and how everyone was so frightened about everyone and everything?
Remember how it felt to get on a plane after that horrifying day? Or what it felt like to watch helpless as our economy stalled and still has not rebound yet as a result?
Remember the endless films, shows, documentaries and news footage that played the days over and over again and the sick feeling watching those poor people jump from the buildings?
Remember the black box recordings from the planes that they released?
I remember it all.
I remember every time I’m forced to wait in two hour lines at the airport. I remember every time I see some soldier has died in Iraq. I remember every time I look at my business and how it’s changed since 9/11.
I remember how 90% of my colleagues went without work that year because no one created the next season of cartoons out of fear.
I remember every time I STILL struggle to pay bills that I incurred from the entire year I was jobless as a result of 9/11.
I remember how the tides turned on us artists that year as well and how the studios started to lower our salaries to the point where we make about 2/3 of what we made just 8 years ago yet work twice as hard and twice as fast.
For one short year our country felt as one. We felt connected. We felt and knew each others pain. We felt proud to be an American.
No one laughed at that song that year.
I’m Proud the Be an American.
Tell me this… do you still feel proud?
I do.
9/11: I WILL NEVER FORGET.
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CLAP CLAP CLAP…
I remember that morning, and how three months earlier I had taken AA Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles as I had done MANY times before.
I remember having a meeting in the towers 8 months prior to that.
I remember thinking that what Israel has had to deal with on a daily basis has finally come here. The big question was – was it going to stay?
People can argue all they want about Iraq and what the Bush administration has done. His leadership, and the war that his Administration has waged seems to be a lot of what makes people NOT proud to be an American.
How unfair. The fact of the matter is that we haven’t been attacked here since. Why? Because they are focused on attacking us there, and have vowed to focus all resources on expelling us. Call me callous, but I’d rather have al qaeda focused on our military instead of our malls and restaurants. For that reason alone, I hope its a very long time before we are totally out of Iraq. People here are “sick of the war”. How the hell do they think the Iraqis feel? We are so damn pampered.
I’ll tell you – I’m proud to be an American, but I’m frustrated with how shallow we can be as a nation. The country is poised to choose a man who, if elected, will be the least qualified person to ever hold the office of President. I’m not talking race, religion or even politics – just strict proven capability. Why? Because he sounds good. To me, that’s shallow. I don’t care if a person is black, white, brown, yellow, male, female – I want a President that will strengthen our country and make sure that my family is protected. Why? Because I REMEMBER 9/11 and it still scares the crap out of me. Mr. Obama may one day have done enough to prove that he is up to the job, but I don’t think that day is here today.
Many in this country want CHANGE because they are unhappy with how things are today. Maybe they should look back to the year after 9/11 and realize how bad it COULD be. These are the same people who said we went to war in Iraq because of oil. I guess they somehow missed me when the free tank of gas was given out? Did you get yours?
How bad would our economy be with suicide bombers hitting our malls during the Christmas shopping season? How bad would our jobless rate be if companies were too afraid to innovate and bring new products to market because the population at large is scared out of its mind? Nobody buys anything at times like that… How bad would it be for Los Angeles if the entertainment industry was again paralyzed by rampant uncertainty? How bad would the dollar be world-wide if our country was in the throws of real economic chaos, not just a downturn in growth?
We whine for change, why? Because the foam on the latte of our American lives has somehow been deflated? We should be thankful a hole hasn’t been punched in the cup.
Change is good if its toward something better. Better is always different, but different isn’t always better.
How many attacks will it take to bring out in our people the backbone of iron that you can see in places like Tel Aviv? Honestly, I hope we never have to find out… America largely doesn’t “remember” 9/11. We recall it. We recall it as what is hopefully the worst attack we will ever witness – and that from afar, for most of us.
I can tell you one thing – I’m sure John McCain doesn’t recall it that way. No, it’s not the worst thing that he’s ever seen. Not by a mile. I’d much rather go with a man who has clearly proven the quality of HIS backbone, thank you very much. I’m not even fond of his politics much, but I’m confidant of who he is and what he can do.
I’m proud to be an American because of the heritage of people like that.
[...] brother wrote a very poignant post about 9/11 and the many repercussions of that [...]
Memories are short, feelings of nationalism fade. It’s how we are as humans when we get comfortable again. Fortunately, those of us who love our country loved it before those cowardly attacks and still love it now. God Bless you, Mike, for posting this, and God Bless America!