anyone patriotic today?

I was in a college english class when it happened. I remember walking into the cafeteria to get a drink afterwards and there were a hundred slack-jawed people with blank faces staring at the t.v.s. Everything was dead silent. It was like something out of the X-Files. I immediately reached for my tinfoil hat and panicked when I realized I had left it in the car. I cursed myself for having become so lazy and complacent. Luckily I had been taught to think on my feet under extreme pressure, however, and I quickly purchased two cans of diet soda from a nearby vending machine. Holding one against each of my temples to fend off malicious signals I worked my way towards the exit on the far wall, never taking my eyes off the brainwashed crowd before me. Never again would I let my guard down, I thought to myself as I slipped away unnoticed. I didn't know until I arrived home that someone had merely flown a plane into a building, and then another, and another.

I found it all very exciting. I never really went through the stunned "OMG America is under attack" phase that so many others did. I never felt outraged or saddened. I still don't really care, other than being affirmed in my belief that people are egocentric, non-thinking sheep a good portion of the time. I'm not going to adopt an eagle or wave a flag or gnash my teeth because of the "them" killed one of "us." I view us as a species, making patriotism a largely useless concept.

Does it help that your dad is an oil baron too?
 
i had a personal near miss, know many with near misses that day, and also know a handful who weren't so lucky. i was traveling out West, and my family and I changed our flight from Boston-LAX to PVD-Salt Lake, and the plane from Boston would have been the one we were on. My best friend was late going to his office...in the West wing of the Pentagon. I had friends who were late to work or had cancelled interviews in the Towers that morning. I also know a lot of people who are still in therapy (through the loss of loved ones, or debris/body parts hitting their windows). This is generally a rough day for me.
That being said, I'm not doing anything special today. It's a day for me to personally reflect on, mostly internally- I will be calling some of my friends to give them a long-distance hug. I think though, that my world view has changed since that day and my attitude of tolerance and respect has matured since that day. I have a lot of friends from India/Pakistan/Turkey/etc (I used to play field hockey with former olympians from out there), that are scared to be in this country because of people's ignorant attitudes towards 9/11, and that upsets me.

that's crazy. :(

this makes me think of all the changed plans-getting coffees-late to works-on vacations out there who will probably do this the rest of their lives on this day. that, with all the ones who were directly impacted in some way, shape or form makes the ripple effect of this much bigger than i have thought of before. i wonder how many think they have a second chance at life and do things differently today because of it.
 
Why doesn't google have a nifty graphic to remember the day? They make one for everything else. Google must hate 9/11 victims. :(
 
Why doesn't google have a nifty graphic to remember the day? They make one for everything else. Google must hate 9/11 victims. :(


They even had a HLC graphic.

The first year or two afterward the media played on the event so much in what was an obvious grab for ratings that a lot of people, myself included, became a little jaded about it.
 
I slept through it honestly. Varisty football 2 a days were killer. Woke up when the second plane hit.