My Lost 10 Year old 9/11 Commentary

This is the third installment of posts focusing on the ten year anniversary of 9/11. Much of these posts are excerpts from a now inactive personal website I kept and wrote to at the time these events unfolded.

From the shambles of virtual pages that made up my old personal website there is a commentary piece written there titled "Something Has Been Taken From Us" dated 10/7/01.  Here is what I wrote. There is some editing of grammar and emphasis added by me today.

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Something has been taken from us.

It hurts me deeply to know that the day I walk the streets of New York City, I will not be able to gaze upward and see the enormous twin towers looming over me. I will not see this magnificent sight which so many others before me have seen. My children will not be able to see this sight. Only in pictures and movies will this site continue to live on. I and those who come after me will see nothing but the blue sky. For this great and awe inspiring sight has been taken from us. It has been taken by a group of people who had a point to prove. They decided it would be proper to prove it by destroying a landmark of one of America’s greatest cities.

People have been taken. Over five thousand* 2,996 people can no longer walk, live and work among the streets of New York City. These people were mothers and daughters, fathers and sons. They were grandparents, uncles, aunts, and nieces and nephews to someone out there. They were friends, family and coworkers alike. These people were only carrying out their day to day activities, yet the lives of these people were taken because someone decided to take them in order to show the hate they feel.

Our security has been taken. We can no longer progress leisurely through airports. We are under the constant watch of FBI, police, U.S. Martials and customs Agents. We are no longer allowed the conveniences of curbside check in and so forth. We are now forced to go through two-hour lines at airports, sporting events and even Disney land, as we must allow security to inspect every bag to ensure that everyone is safe. Our children have been shaken and now they sleep each night in a state of worry. All this is because someone took our security to scare us into respecting his or her beliefs.

Jobs have been taken. Thousands of jobs have been lost. Billions of dollars of money has been lost in income. Businesses have been destroyed. [Over] Two hundred stories and 10,000,000 [square] feet of office space between both towers have been decimated. Other buildings around the World Trade Center towers have also been destroyed along with their businesses. Our economy has been shaken as deeply as the foundations of the World Trade Center its self. This was done just because a group of people in this world wanted us to notice them.

What has not been taken from us is our freedom. It has been set forth in our Declaration of Independence that we have unalienable rights, which [among them] are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Though lives were lost, our foundations of liberty shaken and happiness shattered they are unalienable rights and are stronger than ever. What has not been taken from us is of far greater value than all that has been taken. It is not something to take for granted but it is not something to overly brag about. All we need to do is look at the flag in honor and respect and remember what we have gone through to gain those rights we continue to retain. Indeed, we have had something taken from us, but think about what has not been taken.

~~Glen~~
10/7/01

*At the time this original commentary was published, the estimated death tolls were much higher than they actually turned out to be.

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Note the line in the last paragraph regarding our unalienable rights, "It is not something to take for granted but it is not something to overly brag about."  This foreshadows some of the attitudes I carried over the longer term towards 9/11.  I'll explain further in some of my next posts.

10 years ago... from Monday, 9/12/01

Yesterday was the first post in a multi-post series on the 10th anniversary of September 11.  I shared what I wrote as a college freshmen to the journal section of my own personal website (which is now thoroughly defunct).  Just innocent typical concerns of a young college student in a quiet world.

Here is what I wrote on September 12, 2011.  The Wednesday after the September 11 attacks. Again, no editing, just the words I wrote that day.

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Wednesday, September 12, 2001

    In response to yesterday's events I hope that everyone back home is ok and good and calm. Classes were canceled here in the afternoon and evening and most of us just hung out and watched the news reports. After a while a bunch of us needed something to get our minds off the tragedy so we rented some good funny movies.

    It is a lot different experiencing something like this in college rather than in our little town of Derby/Angola. It seems that everyone here knew someone or has family there in New York. I am friends with a girl who has a mother and father who live in New York. Her mother worked in the World Trade Center and if she were 15 minutes earlier for work... she would have been dead. She is ok though. Her daughter was a wreck but she's doing well too. I thought about Heather, because if you don't already know, she is attending NYU. She too is ok. Just so everyone knows.

    My grandmother even called me yesterday afternoon and mentioned how this resembles Pearl Harbor in her time. I can see the parallel here. For our generation this is the closest thing to Pearl Harbor we have lived through. We have witnessed the Oklahoma City Bombing, the World Trade Center Bombing and several Embassy bombings. These were cowardly acts of terrorism which were done for no better reason than to scare us. This tragedy though is much more. It is a coordinated effort in which targets were systematically determined. An economic center like the World Trade Center, a strategic military center like the Pentagon and possibly other targets which we don't yet know about. These targets were hit multiple times in the case of the WTC. Although our own transportation system was used against us and no conventional weapons of war were used, this attack was not merely a terrorist attack, but an act of war.

    In the following weeks and months we will be finding those responsible for this act of war and I am confident that we will make them pay. As the land of liberty and freedom, we well certainly make sure that those responsible will not be capable of such an act again. If this requires a war... then we must face the future. It is too soon to tell yet. So, I pray for everyone at home, the victims, the relatives of victims and everyone in this nation to be strong and come together so we can face this. I urge you to do the same thing too and keep a positive attitude as we continue on from here.

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In  a second entry dated September 21, 2001 when it became more apparent who perpetrated this attack against us, this is what I wrote.

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Friday, September 21, 2001

    Hi everyone. Well, it looks as if the United States is kind of going to war, I guess? It is a terrible thing that has to be done but we just have to come together as a nation and face this. There is no need to worry your selves about this. We are the world military super power. We will prevail over the evil that is responsible for this. Once again I want to urge everyone to say a prayer (or just think a minute if your are not religious) for the soldiers who will be shipped out and the victims and their families. Then maybe we will finally take those words in the pledge of allegiance more seriously than taking them for granted like we have for the past 12 years of reciting them in school.

    I for one will never listen to the words of the Pledge or National anthem and feel the same way again.

...

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I find it an astonishing coincidence that I just so happened to be writing a personal journal on a personal website at this point in history.  It is amazing to me that I inadvertently captured the somber feeling of those days in writing.

10 Years ago... yesterday - 9/8/01

I'm going to write a short series of posts this weekend reflecting on the 10th anniversary of September 11.  I know, my self diagnosed ADD is taking me all over the place in terms of topics these days, but I feel compelled to write as the ideas come.  After all, the events of 9/11 affected me pretty deeply and had a pretty significant effect on shaping me in the past decade.  It deserves some pause and exploration.

Ten years ago yesterday was 9/8/01.  It was a Saturday.  It was only my third weekend away from home attending college at Nazareth.  It was a time before blogging became as popular as it is today.  Facebook was still a figment of Mark Zuckerberg's imagination and the internet was still somewhat of a new technolgy present in day to day life.  I was into toying around with the internet in high school, so I built my own web page (Titled "Take a Seat Next to Me")and taught my self how to code simple HTML.  I was much more of a nerd then than I was now.  (Who am I kidding... I'm still a nerd.  Probably more so!)

Here is what I wrote to the jouirnal page on Saturday, September 8, 2001.  Ten years ago from yesterday. No editing, just the words I wrote that day.

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Saturday, September 8, 2001

    Well after another very busy week of college I am enjoying the weekend. It's so fricken hot in our room! If anyone back home just happens to have an extra air conditioner lying around, please send it to O'Connor 2 Rm. 417. Thank you!

    Well, I am starting my job next week. I have the best job. I am getting paid for doing nothing right now because our training session ended at 12 but was scheduled to go until 3 so we get paid till 3. I am working in the computer service department so I get paid to watch the computer labs, help people out and do my homework. It's an awesome job! Now with my schedule getting filled up my goals for next week include mastering time management. We will see how that goes!

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I find it funny that I mention mastering time management.  That's something I have yet to do a decade later!  This is just typical activities and concerns in the quiet world of an average college freshmen.

Only 14 miles. (!)

I’m in the taper phase of my marathon training program.  For those of you who are not into the running thing, when training for a marathon he longest of the long runs will take place 3 weeks beforehand and it is typically about 20 to 22 miles.  Mine was about 21 miles.  you typically cut back your weekly mileage in the three weeks before the marathon race.   A 21 mile run puts me just above the altitude of Huascaran according to my “running mountains” approach of breaking down this goal.

Earlier today I was talking to a co-worker regarding my training and I said, “Yeah, I only ran 14 miles yesterday.”  Only 14 miles!  I never thought I would make it to a point where 14 miles is psychologically considered a relatively easy weekend long run for me.

I think this may be a sign I am ready to tackle the big 26.2.

By the way... I attended my 10 year High School reunion this past weekend.  I will comment on that next (plus I still owe the reader one more post on Atlas Shrugged).

The Ballad of John Galt - Act II

Just completed Atlas Shrugged last night. It will take me a few posts to digest and present some of what I uncovered.

In my previous post I predicted the viewer would disagree with the claim that it is OK for man to profit from his existence and rationality.

In these modern times we live in it is said that those Men of the Mind exploit those who are not. Think rich oil executive profiting from $4.00/gal gas. A common illustration of this exploitation concept.

Back to Galt's monologue: Galt presents a demonstration that people can not be exploited by men of the mind. Place a person, with no belongings other then them selves (not even money or clothing) in wilderness devoid of all modern advancements of the mind.

Ask that person to do the following:

1. Easily/quickly Cook a nutritious meal
2. Send/recieve an e-mail
3. Travel 100 miles to a neighboring city in less than 4 hours
4. Heal an unfortunate sickness/injury incurred

Men of the mind are the cause of the modern advancements making these tasks possible. What could the Man of the Mind (that "greedy" oil executive) possibly exploit from the person in the wilderness who has no capability to do any of these listed things nor has any other intrinsic value other than their own mind?

Not much.

The modern day attitude towards "greedy" businessmen can't be due to an issue of exploitation as we inherently have nothing of value to offer other than our mind.

Perhaps we just envy what they have, can't they share... OH... yeah... that's covered in the book too... stay tuned!