good 9/11 post from another list

[crispini]

Note -- I am NOT the author... just liked the post, wanted to share.

From: "DCB" <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 2004 10:45:34 -0500 (GMT-05:00)
Subject: September 11: happy birthday to me


Before the year 2001, the most riveting thing about September 11, to me, was finding out who I shared my birthday with. The writer D.H. Lawrence, for example. The football coach Tom Landry. The filmmaker Brian De Palma. The musician Moby.

I spent my 36th birthday watching terrorists crash planes into buildings. The idea of a party and presents was a bad joke that day. I don't claim to feel the tragedy any more than any other human being -- certainly not more than the victims or their families -- but having "my" day become "9/11," a worldwide day of mourning, has sharpened my awareness of references to it.

My grandparents remember when Pearl Harbor was bombed. My parents know what they were doing when John F. Kennedy was shot. September 11, 2001 will be this generation's "time stood still" moment. What do you remember? After a friend's wake-up call, I turned on the television in time to catch the second plane crashing into the second tower. I remember a sense of fear and shock and helpless rage and vulnerability. Like many, I heard part of my mind screaming for the movie to be over and the nightmare to end. The movie Fahrenheit 9/11 makes much of the president's timid, deer-in-the-headlights reaction, but did any of us do any better?

Well, some did. Remember those passengers on Flight 93? While I was glued to the tube in paralyzed horror, and while Air Force One hopscotched the country, the passengers of that hijacked flight accepted their reality, assessed their options, and took their fate into their own hands. "Let's roll," said Todd Beamer, tossing out the phrase he usually used to herd his kids into the family minivan. Everyday citizens with everyday motivations, determined not to let their lives end on a terrorist's terms.

Only recently have we learned how it ended. It seems the terrorists crashed Flight 93 in response to the passenger resistance. But on that confusing day, whatever the cause, that smoking hole in the Pennsylvania dirt -- as tragic as it must have been to friends and family of those on board -- was the first ray of hope to reach us. As I began to grasp what had happened, I realized that citizens just like me had fought back. I clung to that knowledge like a lifeline. And if I find myself in the same situation someday, then I fervently wish for the opportunity and presence of mind to take similar action. I will not go down without a fight.

Because the president has few accomplishments on which to run, his handlers will continue to portray September 11 in campaign-friendly ways. Indeed, this is the defining moment of the president's term, and it can be argued that he has some claim to it. But the president cannot claim to own that event or define it for us. Ordinary people -- responding to their most fundamental and noble impulses, including a refusal to become willing victims -- beat him to it three years ago. Everything the president has tried to accomplish since then, for better or worse, is nothing more than the palest reflection of the courage of those passengers and of others who rose to the challenges of that day. These people didn't have polls, they didn't have advisers, they didn't have an agenda or an election to win -- they simply knew what was right and did it, whatever the cost. And no slick, multimillion-dollar campaign media blitz can take that away from them, or from us.

[annabanana]

1. You're right...good post

thank you

[JCox]

2. yes

BRAVO!

[Randers]

3. kick