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10145. arkymalarky - 8/28/2011 5:09:49 PM Yeats' Second Coming 10146. arkymalarky - 8/28/2011 5:09:52 PM Yeats' Second Coming 10147. judithathome - 8/28/2011 8:59:19 PM the center cannot hold.... 10148. Wombat - 9/5/2011 9:46:00 PM It might be a useful exercise for the remaining Motiers to assemble and relate their thoughts, feelings, and impressions then and now, for the upcoming 10th anniversary of 9/11. 10149. Ms. No - 9/6/2011 5:53:38 AM Good idea, Wombat.
How about 9/11 - Ten Years After? 10150. Wombat - 9/6/2011 3:34:38 PM Sounds good to me. 10151. iiibbb - 9/6/2011 4:18:16 PM The day of ---
(1) I was sitting at my desk in the graduate student office with my friend Liz. We couldn't get on the internet at all.
(2) I didn't think the buildings were going to fall.
(3) My true hatred of the press and the 24-hr news cycle was really kindled by 9-11.
Soon after ---
(1) I defended Bush's exploits to my wife until we were no longer after WMD's (with the exception of the tax cuts because I could not see how we go to war and cut taxes)... she still brings that up whenever Republicans are being really stupid... I was always an independent, but this is when I really realized Republicans weren't my dad's Republicans.
Now ---
(1) I think the TSA is a joke. I think a lot of the measures the US takes to fight terror are pure theater.
(2) I worry more about the economy and the world my son is going to live in than I do terrorists... terrorists are among the least of our worries.
(3) I still have zero faith in the press... 10152. judithathome - 9/7/2011 1:57:28 AM I was online that morning and posted here...when the second plane hit..."We are war, people."
Yes, we came to be at war...a fake war, wherein so many innocent people died...far more than were killed in the Twin Towers.
I am so bitter about what has happened since 9/11 that I cannot post anything more about it. 10153. Wombat - 9/12/2011 2:04:31 AM When future historians look at the events that formed the "tipping point" of the United States' decline as a world power, the 2000 election and 9/11 will stand out. The US electoral process failed and put an incompetent in office. When 9/11 occured, this incompetent set in process a series of actions that left the United States fiscally, militarily, psychologically, and morally weaker than it had been before.
Even today--ten years on--segments of US society display a lack of resilience bordering on hysteria, which seems to affect their personal and political decision-making. They are still afraid.
The question now is whether the United States can pull itself up from this or not. Given that one political party seems to appeal to the above-mentioned fear, and is not interested in actually governing, I am not optimistic. 10154. arkymalarky - 9/12/2011 2:53:27 AM well put. but i still think Americans will come thru. the retrospectives on 9/11 are inspirational and hopeful in that regard.
i was with my kids in the library all day that day, watching tv. i told my students last week that in 30 years of teaching, with all the memories i have, that is the only whole day that stands apart in my mind. and that age of students now doesn't remember much. they were six when it happened. it struck me that i can no longer share experiences with my kids of where we all were that day and what we felt and thought. i don't remember that being the case last year. 10155. arkymalarky - 9/12/2011 2:54:16 AM well put. but i still think Americans will come thru. the retrospectives on 9/11 are inspirational and hopeful in that regard.
i was with my kids in the library all day that day, watching tv. i told my students last week that in 30 years of teaching, with all the memories i have, that is the only whole day that stands apart in my mind. and that age of students now doesn't remember much. they were six when it happened. it struck me that i can no longer share experiences with my kids of where we all were that day and what we felt and thought. i don't remember that being the case last year. 10156. Wombat - 9/12/2011 4:33:58 AM I just finished watching Paul Greengrass' incredible film United Flight 93. The scenes in the middle of the film from when the first plane is hijacked to just after the second plane hits the World Trade Center are among the most riveting and horrifying of all the films I've seen. It made me almost physically ill. 10157. bhelpuri - 9/12/2011 9:13:29 AM Friends,
When the planes hit the WTC, I reported the events right here at The Mote as they happened in real time right in front of my eyes. Though suppressed to some extent, those memories are never far away, and remain raw.
The world as we know it is dramatically changed in just one decade.
The global economy is different, now clearly hinged on different processes. Parts of the Middle East are turned to chaos. America is pissing billions away on two lost wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, while simultaneously reeling from decades of scandalous theft from its economic elites. The idea of Europe founders, and the so-called Third World rises. There will be no stopping India and particularly China now, make no mistake.
Such historic moments are supposed to be rare in one's life.
But they have happened regularly in all of our lives over the past decade. We are seeing a profound shift, only made greater by the political situation in the USA.
I believe we're most likely coming to the very end of an era that will look startlingly short in future generations. Now comes a more complicated period of elbowing and place-finding, the USA just one of many factors
How the Americans react to this will determine the future of the country.
I still retain reasons for optimism. There is hope.
10158. judithathome - 9/12/2011 6:00:36 PM but i still think Americans will come thru. the retrospectives on 9/11 are inspirational and hopeful in that regard.
I only caught about 45 minutes of those...and what I saw was a perfect metaphor for today's politicial situation in this country and is one reason I don't share your hope.
What I saw showed inept air traffic controllers who even after the first plane had hit, were still saying it was out there flying but they had lost it on radar...planes from an air base scrambled to intercept the plane headed for the Pentagon but flew out to sea instead because they were given incorrect coordinates.
With a JET PLANE lodged and burning inside Tower 1 of the Twin Towers, people in Tower 2 started to head for the elevators to get out of the building and security told them to go back to their offices! With a burning building next door, they send people back up to their offices. Incredible!
And all the while, Bush...who heard about the first plane on the way to the school...sits there reading a story to a grade school class.
It mirrors what is happening today...a president seemingly in shock sits there unable to act or change events happening around him; ineptitude by Congress which seems to have lost direction, can't tell us where to run for safety, and seems determined to send us back into a burning building rather than save our asses.
Watching that made me fear for this country...rather than rally and act like determined adults and clean up the mess of the last 10 years, we as a country seem to have lost our collective minds and may put another Texas fool in office to bring us even further down than we are now.
Yeah, I'm a pessimist but nothing I'm seeing these days makes me think I have any reason to try and become more optimistic. 10159. arkymalarky - 9/12/2011 6:57:39 PM that's why i said retrospectives. the way average citizens handled beng in such horrific circumstances still amazes me and yes, gives me hope for humanity in general and americans in particular. the exposes are just a confirmation that from the beginning the bush administration was one of the worst in history. it blemishes clinton's as well, but at least he had his priorities straight.
obama's election was a good thing, but it wasn't a miracle and i'm not willing to give the tea party more power than the polls show because we're still clawing out of the bush/cheney hole and people are frustrated. if a republican becomes president then i'll revisit my feeling about the future, but i'm not ready to do that yet.
10160. judithathome - 9/12/2011 7:02:52 PM Well, you need to get ready because I don't think a Democrat can win anything in the coming election if they keep pushing and implementing the voter ID programs going in everywere. Making people PAY to get a voter ID...we're going backward, not forward.
I think Obama is a good president...he just needs to learn the other side is not interested in compromise and he needs to move on. 10161. judithathome - 11/7/2011 10:34:59 PM Verdict momentarily in the Michael Jackson doctor trial... 10162. judithathome - 11/7/2011 11:18:44 PM Verdict is guilty. 10163. wabbit - 11/12/2011 2:48:20 AM Good. Having that narcotic in a house with no available crash cart is inexcusable. 10164. arkymalarky - 11/12/2011 5:05:05 AM Too many people made it about Jackson. It was about the dr.
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