Kevin's Watch

Zarathustra wrote: He will have the luxury of thinking about it as something like Pearl Harbor, something that might even bug him every year as the anniversary rolls around and our society shares a collective memory that he can't share, a memory like folklore that tells a tale of sadness that he'd rather not feel.

Interesting. I have thought in the last few years how the memory of 9-11 is so much like the Great Generation thought about Pearl harbor. To me its just history. I have seen the pictures, videos, movies, read the books about it. But its not as real to me as 9-11 was.

I was in a radiator shop having my radiator flushed. I was sitting there with the owner and we were watching it all unfold on TV. My truck had been ready for 45 minutes but we were too busy seeing this happen, seeing the second building hit and realizing this was no accident. Then the horror of seeing people jumping from buildings, then the Pentagon is hit, then a plane unaccounted for. Its almost surreal to remember but its such a solid memory.

Those of us that lived through 9 11 ... and witnessed events as they unfolded I think will always see it as vividly, feel it as profoundly.

I remember being sick and not able to sleep and it came on the telly in the early hours of the morning. My husband and I were frozen and sat without moving till we had to. I think we must have sat there motionless for 6 or 7 hours, in shock, horror and disbelief.

We did not speak ... we did not move.

We both worked in government and knew this would change everything and it did. First and foremost to provide support to our US LEO, military, commercial and global intelligence partners.

There was immense pressure to get domestic CT, national security legislation and measures in place in support of US initiatives and requirements particularly across aviation and maritime industries.

9 11 changed the world ... and how all nations interacted with it ... from that point on.

It seems a little strange to me to be remembering 9/11 with COVID surrounding us. But the feelings I felt on that day are different. I feel I have some control over COVID as long as I am careful. On 9/11 I had a feeling of little to no control - that my life could be yanked away by a whim of terrorism. Yes now that is overly melodramatic but that was the feeling I had at that time.

The other feeling I remember is the short lived feeling of unity we felt as US nation on that day. With all the hyper partisan feelings now that unity seems long gone. Now that is the feeling I remember most. I hope this day we can try to remember unity instead of screaming how right "our" side is.

Yes me being over melodramatic again. Oh well....

Remembered this place, and remembered this thread today.

(A Discord buddy linked me a memorial thread that runs each year from Yet Another Very Different Forum From Ours. "Ohhh.. yeah; it's today.")

I thought this would be a good day to touch base with the past. I see the pics are gone, which is ok. The memories cannot be taken down, I think back to that day and it never, ever fades. And it shouldn't, just like the memories of some wonderful times we all had. All of it, the good and the bad, shaped the people we are today.

Wishing you all peace and comfort during these very hard days.