This is a place to discuss the events that are taking place today as part of the 9-11 memorial services. Barack Obama and John McCain with appear together later in the day at Ground Zero in New York, President Bush is at the Pentagon. John McCain is at Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Sarah Palin is in Alaska at her son’s deployment ceremony. The comments are open for discussion.
September 11th memorial services are taking place at Ground Zero, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. All the sites that were attacked on September 11, 2001, the worst attack ever on American soil. The names of those who died in New York are being read at Ground Zero, the site where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were destroyed in the terrorist attacks. Interestingly, Mayor Bloomberg of New York wanted to shorten the service by eliminating the reading of the names.
Today is a day for remembering heroes and remembering those who sacrificed their lives saving others. Its a time to once again feel our righteous anger and determination to never forget.
Videos of the speeches from todays memorials will be added as they become available.
President Bush is speaking at the Pentagon. Dedication of the Pentagon Memorial. He says, ‘When the buildings fell, heroes rose’. He honors those who rose their hands and resolved to defend our great country. The terrorist pierced the walls of the building of the Pentagon, but they have not damaged our resolve. There has not been a terrorist attack on American soil since that day.
The benches representing the victims, in order of age chronology are being unveiled. The youngest was 3 years old, the oldest was 71 years old.
John McCain is speaking at Shanksville, Pennsylvania. He’s honoring the men and women on Flight 93 who fought the terrorists in an attempt to take back the plane. ‘Greater love hath no love than this; that he will lay down his life for his friends’. We are in awe of their acts of heroism as much as we are in debt to it.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:35 am
Today is the day I dont want to hear about pigs or change, lipstick or polls.
I was three when I migrated to the US on a barge from Denmark with an American father who had adopted me and married my mother
NYC was the first American soil I ever laid foot on. Of course I dont remember any of it but growing up in Hawaii and always seeing how great NY was I swore to go back one day to part of America that recieved me.
At 21 years old I hopped a flight to NY to go visit a lady I met from NY who was vacationing here.
Whithin a couple of weeks I was working at Fraunces tavern on Broad and Pearl.
The oldest building in NYC where Washinton had sent his troopos off from.
Liviing in the Bronx I would catch the train to the city M-F and every day would walk past the towers as I grabbed a dog, a newspaper and got my shoes buffed.
Never once did the towers cease to amaze me.
I would visit the observation deck at least every other week and just stand there looking at the city in total amazement.
Coming from Hawaii where the tallest building was about 20 stories tall you can imagine the impact a place like the WTC had on me.
It was during one of those visits to the observation deck that I first realized the greatness and accomplishments of my country as I was working in one of the oldest buildings in our country that our founding fathers spent a great part of their time to being able to witness the towers as a symbol of all the progress we had made since then. I was blessed and felt special.
Every day I got to witness our countrys humblest begginings and its greatest achievments.
The day the towers went down I lost my years of sobriety as I watched the the neighborhood that contained people I knew and the part of my country that inspired me most as a citizen get taken away from me.
But my loss is no comparison to what happened to the thousands there that day.
I will drop a note in Gods box for all of them.
While I cry.
Never again you bastards
September 11th, 2008 at 7:35 am
September 11th, 2008 at 8:27 am
Amen Mickey, amen. One of my favorite bloggers, Daily Pundit, has a picture of the airplanes crashing into the towers at the top of his blog. He has gotten some flak for hit, but he says that he keeps it there to continuously remind us about what we are up against. We are not up against criminals, we are not up against people who can be reasoned with. We are up against people who know no bounds of shame or disgrace. On 9/11, we all remembered that, we were all Americans. God be with us all and please let us never forget, and give us the strength to stand up against those who would murder innocents.
September 11th, 2008 at 9:30 am
I was a twenty-one year old teaching English to college students in a remote city in China when the towers fell. I didn’t know you could get American newspapers online until weeks after the attack. For two weeks, until the Time magazine my mom sent me arrived, I only knew what I could gather from the Chinese news. I lay awake at night terrified that I would wake up to find my entire family had been wiped out by an anthrax epidemic. Some of my students were kind, but my tutor told me that when they heard of the attacks, college students across China, including him, threw up their hats and cheered. Throughout the rest of the year, during class, students brought up the numbers 9-1-1 and snickered. I had not one American friend- the only person I had to talk to about it was a French man forty years my senior who wasn’t very sympathetic (though he did stand up for me when a Chinese member of the English faculty went on a rant about Americans). When I finally met up with some Americans for Thanksgiving, I burst into tears over the Peking Duck (substitution for turkey). I never imagined missing my country more. On this day, I always remember watching the tragedy from afar, wishing I could go home to the people I loved. And I bow my head for those we lost, and the people who will never be able to come home to them.