Carrie's Bar & Grill: Ten Years Later

UPDATE 9/12/11: For Arno

The Only Living Boy In New York

The only American not on Earth on that day in 2001, NASA astronaut Frank Culbertson, had a unique vantage point on the attacks. From the International Space Station, Culbertson snapped a photo of smoke streaming from the World Trade Center wreckage that day after two hijacked planes crashed into the Manhattan towers.

(link)

Paul Simon and a somber rendition of "Sound of Silence" today.

And here is a link to an interesting post concerning the Saudis, and our country's president, GWB, and others that allowed Bin Laden's family and other Saudis to fly out of the United States in the two days that followed 9/11, despite the no fly orders in place.

I am re-posting a piece I did 9/11/10. I cannot think of anything to say that I did not put in that piece. Also, Bob over at his blog has created a few posts over the past week that say more than I could ever say today, on this tenth anniversary of the tragedy.

Evil is not destroyed by shooting at it, by imprisoning it, by executing it. It is as at best only constrained. In that sense, evil's power is equal to love. But evil is destroyed by love.

This is really the way out of the death of this world - love. It is so unfortunate that such an idea is scoffed at by many.

Love is the Answer - England Dan and John Ford Coley's version of the Todd Rundgren song.

My September 11, 2011 post.

The first two or three years were the hardest for me. I could not work on that day, I was totally unable to even type or write "September 11" or "9/11" in any fashion. I watched like a maniac each and every program that was aired on that day those first couple of years, and back then, there was pretty much 24/7 coverage.

After the invasion of Iraq, there appeared to be less 24/7 coverage of the events of 9/11, and as I watch a complete repeat of a live broadcast on MSNBC, I already see the lies about the incident being fed to the media as we know some things to be different from hindsight. For a specific example, I take the comments made by the newscasters many, many times, (did I say MANY? You could get drunk if you took a shot every time the broadcasters and the people they were talking to said "no warning") that the government had absolutely no indication that terrorists would hijack a plane and fly it into a building, as one of those misleading statements, since we already know that the government WAS warned this very thing WOULD happen a month earlier!

The phrase "never forget" was utilized for a number of years, and has been taken in different ways. Some use "never forget" as the mantra for a continued war on the religion of Islam and countries that are Islamic, and others have taken it to remember what NOT to do, retaliate irresponsibly or even at all. Remember and never forget what hate creates. I subscribe to the latter view.

I am quite amazed at the level of hate that has slowly creeped into the mindset of some of America, thanks, in no part, to the manipulation of our media to keep up the "rah rah" for the Iraq invasion, and continue to associate the 9/11 tragedy with the Bush Administration's (and neocons alike) reason for invading Iraq (and not trying to capture and crush the revolutionary ideologues actually responsible for this attack - Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden). Had the U.S. taken true advantage of the world's outrage at this attack, and proceeded to take out Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden and their control over the Afghans ... well, you can write in your own opinion after the ellipses.

Anyway, it MAY be nine years later, but I will never, ever, forget what happened. I don't harbor any hate toward the perpetrators or toward Islam, as many of the stupid people do. When you think of the nature of tragedies, man made and nature oriented, many more severe devastating and loss of life things have happened that far outweigh the carnage of 9/11. With that in perspective, I mourn for a place that was deep a part of me, the twin towers. I mourn for those that had to make a choice to burn up or jump off of the towers - I cannot even possibly get a grip of what that has to feel like. I mourn for those passengers on the airplanes when they realized they were going to fly into buildings and die, and their mindsets moments before they died. I mourn for those passengers of Flight 93 that did not allow the final plane to reach its intended destination, even though all aboard perished. I mourn for the loved ones that had to hear the last words of those that perished in these events of 9/11, and can only slightly begin to feel the pain such phone calls elicited of the recipients.

Mostly, I remember how easily corporate interests, and religious intolerance and hate can morph into what we have seen the past few years. Nothing has gotten better. It has only gotten worse. America has descended into economic chaos, and Osama bin Laden could not be happier. The stupid Americans are tripping all over themselves to undo all that is truly American, much to the amusement of Osama bin Laden. Al Qaeda has fragmented and grown to such proportions that Osama bin Laden must feel proud that he was able to orchestrate Americans' intense divisiveness, and have turned on each other in ways "no one could have anticipated" to quote our government's favorite excuse.

And, unfortunately, all the speeches Obama as President makes, are meaningless, because he and his administration have espoused just about everything the Bush administration put forth in the realm of "state secrets" and homeland security issues, which policies don't exactly tell the truth that the Obama administration has actually gone many steps further than Bush, for example, the "shoot to kill" American citizens residing other countries, without a trial, without an arrest, without a conviction (even if it were in abstentia, but no, NADA provocative reason), such that to be an American right now is not exactly the best thing when compared to the overall state of the world.

I shall never forget, even if all I do is remind others of the REAL events that occurred, and steer them away from the perversion that has slowly creeped into the "understanding" of the events of 9/11.