Remembering 911

I came across this on social media.........



We rarely get a chance to see another country's editorial about the USA

Read this excerpt from a Romanian Newspaper. The article was written by Mr. Cornel Nistorescu and published under the title 'C'ntarea Americii, meaning 'Ode ToAmerica ') in the Romanian newspaper Evenimentulzilei 'The Daily Event' or 'News of the Day'.

~An Ode to America ~

Why are Americans so united? They would not resemble one another even if you painted them all one color! They speak all the languages of the world and form an astonishing mixture of civilizations and religious beliefs.

On 9/ll, the American tragedy turned three hundred million people into a hand put on the heart. Nobody rushed to accuse the White House, the Army, or the Secret Service that they are only a bunch of losers. Nobody rushed to empty their bank accounts. Nobody rushed out onto the streets nearby to gape about.

Instead the Americans volunteered to donate blood and to give a helping hand.

After the first moments of panic, they raised their flag over the smoking ruins, putting on T-shirts, caps and ties in the colors of the national flag. They placed flags on buildings and cars as if in every place and on every car a government official or the president was passing. On every occasion, they started singing: 'God Bless America !'

I watched the live broadcast and rerun after rerun for hours listening to the story of the guy who went down one hundred floors with a woman in a wheelchair without knowing who she was, or of the Californian hockey player, who gave his life fighting with the terrorists and prevented the plane from hitting a target that could have killed other hundreds or thousands of people.

How on earth were they able to respond united as one human being? Imperceptibly, with every word and musical note, the memory of some turned into a modern myth of tragic heroes. And with every phone call, millions and millions of dollars were put into collection aimed at rewarding not a man or a family, but a spirit, which no money can buy. What on earth unites the Americans in such a way? Their land? Their history? Their economic Power? Money? I tried for hours to find an answer, humming songs and murmuring phrases with the risk of sounding commonplace, I thought things over, I reached but only one conclusion... Only freedom can work such miracles.

Cornel Nistorescu

(This deserves to be passed around the Internet forever.) It took a person on the outside - looking in - to see what we take for granted !

GOD BLESS AMERICA !!!

 

Well thought out. I worry that to many of us have lost that understanding and are willing to give up freedom for something else. But then America does have a way of beating expectations.

 

Oddly, in the very moments of the events, 17 years later, this appears to be the only current mention on the entire Beeb....

Never forget??

How's that even possible?

 

Some would rather not remember.

 

How long will it last, though.

It came across my facetube feed that Jack Johnson and (what's left of) The Eagles are going to have a concert. In Hawaii. On December 7th.

I questioned the propriety of that, and was berated on all sides for being a redneck racist backwards asshole.

 

Indeed, reading that some 17 years later I can't help but think to myself....are we still [collectively] those same people. These past several years have seemingly brought about a change in what it means to be an American (and not for the better).

Of course as was mentioned, tragedy does have a way of making us put our BS aside and come together like no other, but it just suck that it still takes tragedy in order for that to happen. The rest of the time the country is polarized hating the other 1/2.

 

Think about that day all the time....

 

The surviving firefighters are still dying 17 years later from the attacks.

 

I dont have the words for that sadness and sacrifice.

 

This is so true. I always say that Americans come together and show who we really are when we are challenged.
It's unfortunate but really it's human nature. When things are going good and your life is super easy, it's easy to complain about the little things that don't really matter.
I have no doubts that when tragedy strikes again, we rise up and face it together. America really is better than the rest of the world, and as the Romanian so wisely stated...it's because we are a free people.

 

Charlie Daniels lyrics

https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/charliedanielsband/inamerica.html

 

Wow

 

I have no doubt we'd all come together like family again during any and every crisis - the hurricane in TX a couple years ago was a smaller, but great example.

The fact that this thread is even in the dungeon says it all to me. I remember that day vividly, yet thankfully, not nearly to the extent of some friends. Since that day, 9/11 has been turned into a political and religious tool for manipulation of actions and feelings. Fire fighters and their family's have had to fight for the help they were promised from the same politicians invoking 9/11 as a political tool. We have also been sending kids to various places across the ME with some new political explanation or opposing party argument each time.

 

9/11 was truly a fork in the road for my life. All of 2001 was bad for me, My dad died in April, lost a few more friends that year to car accidents, a car jacking, a suicide. My then wife and I were in the middle of splitting up. I was at newark Airport that day and I was in such a stressful mindset, I was with my Ex ready to board our when the first plane hit and we all lightly watched the smoke start to billow out, We all thought it was just a fluke, maybe a news chopper maybe a small sightseeing plane.

Some of the crazy things are the airport was really light that morning, very few people there. We got to the airport at 6:30 because that was the only ride we could get to take us to the airport. The Terrorists and all the passengers on United flight 93 were at the gate next to us. I can still see in my mind Jeremy Glick who was my Mom's neighbor, I didn't say "Hello" because I didn't know him well. He ended up being one of the guys who tried to retake the airplane in Pennsylvania. I lost 2 classmates in the tower attacks, They both worked at Cantor Fitzgerald.

I have more to it but honestly just trying to type out something coherent gets to me. Maybe later

 

Wow...

 

9/11 is one of those moments where I don’t think you’ll ever forget where you were and what you were doing at the time. I was just getting ready to head to class when my roommate started yelling to me that I had to see this and “some kinda shit’s going down”. I skipped class that day and we just sat and watched it all unfold on the news ... just dumbstruck by what seemed like it should’ve been a movie.

 

My parents were a bit of a wreck with me in the DC area and my sister in NYC.

My wife (girlfriend then) landed at Dulles on September 11th at about 12:30AM. She didn't go into work on the 11th because she got in so late from her work trip. She was getting ready to go in when the news starting coming in and she stayed at home to watch it. If not she may well have been on I-395 near the Pentagon when that plane hit. Her co-worker had parts of the plane that hit the Pentagon land her car while driving on rt. 110. When you drove by on I-395 days later you could still smell the smoke.

My now brother in law (sister's boyfriend at the time) looked out his window in Battery Park City and saw people falling out of the WTC towers. After the towers fell, he said it was like night outside. He wrapped a damp towel around his face and made for the river, jumped in and started swimming. He was picked up by a police boat and taken to Jersey. My sister was stuck in mid-town and couldn't get back to her apartment in Brooklyn for a couple of days. We couldn't reach my sister for about 24 hours and no one heard from her now husband for almost 48 hours before we learned he was OK.

I was at work in Reston, but they eventually let us go home after lunch since no one was getting any work done anyway.

Always remember. Stay united. Stay strong USA.

 

TRUTH