I still call beautiful Fall days like that September 11 weather. And you’re right the memories don’t fade. I was born July 28, 1945, near London, England, just as the war was ending. I grew up there and in the Isle of Man and remember we still had rationing when I was old enough to want sweeties. And our Christmas stockings had an orange in the toe because the fruit was a hard to find treat. After emigrating to Canada, we finally ended up in the States. But other family stayed in Canada. One cousin married an American and worked on the 95 floor of one of the towers. It seems like yesterday that a received a call from her sister in Toronto asking me what I thought from seeing the television coverage. All I could say was, “She’s gone.”
Born at the end of ww2, raised during the aftermath in the worst bombed UK city. Loosing my Dad at 5yo, who had fought behind enemy lines in both wars. My own experiences fighting in a mid east oil war. Seeing the 9/11 images on the TV, and a little later personally having had the background story from the photojournalist who created those images. These are some of the most profound events that have shaped my life, my beliefs. Yes it must stop it must stop it must........ Peace, Maurice
At least now we know why all the former republicans were following Mary's unc off a trip - they all are wannabe autocrats. I watched the towers go down in odd silence with many others looking with a clear view from the top of Rt 17 in Mahwah, NJ.
Now I'm watching it from the outskirts of Allentown as this country is being gaslighted by magas and businesses (the kleptocracy) and wannabe autocrats.
It must stop (per Mary) and I agree. All I can do is push truth to the lies over the internet and in person (w/a mask on) and hang upside-down flags from my windows. I get Ruth Ben-Ghiat's newsletter and she has been working on stopping it through truth. The problem is how long will it take to bring the minority back to earth - how many decades and is there really anything we can do at this point. I don't know other than vote.
It seems like yesterday. I remember driving up to Ground Zero from Philly, a few days after 9/11. The shocking, ripped apart terrain, along with the choking dust, was impossible to believe. It seemed as if this devastating event was bringing our nation together. No such luck. It's been one war after another, and one lying Republican after another. The upheaval caused by 9/11 can only be matched by the upheaval caused by January 6, 2022 -- another day of infamy. Thank you for a post that is both elegiac and furious. I couldn't agree more.
Too many wanted to believe it couldn’t happen again, especially anywhere outside of New York City. And it needs to be remembered who gave their lives to take the third plane down, who lost health and lives to the toxic dust of cleanup and rescue and just trying to escape and service dogs who went to comfort those dealing with the dust and pieces of bodies and lost their lives to the dust and the exhaustive drain on their energy. Remember the people who tracked down Ben Ladin and sent him to a watery grave following the Islamic guidelines.
He got his comeuppance. There are too many that need to get theirs today.
I enjoyed your piece very much. I realize you do not want to hear stories of others, but I will tell you from someone who worked six blocks away it may have been a sunny day but not beautiful as my workmates and I witnessed history from our office window then fled for our lives wondering where and when the next plane would hit NYC.
Mary, your curiosity about living through WWII might be in part slaked by watching the TV series "Foyle". The production does a get job of capturing the nuances of competing interests brought to the fore by war. Beyond that you might know that the Reichstag fire that preceeded WWII was likely a false flag that helped Hitler take control of Germany. We've lived through our own version of that with 9/11. One needs to be careful what one wishes for.
The three steel-superstructure skyscrapers that collapsed that day were the first such buildings to collapse completely due to fire (started by the planes crashing) in the 100-year history of that kind of construction. Further, their collapse characteristics (symmetrical and at--or very near--freefall acceleration) cannot be duplicated by the fire-initiated gravity-driven natural collapse that is the official story of the day.
Unfortunately, the horror of 9/11 is the starting point for our own murderous wars of aggression, torture, and the continued blinding of Americans by a new (and much more practiced and effective) Operation Mockingbird.
We squandered most of the goodwill the world had with us from 2001-2010 out of fear, and then we threw the rest into the toilet from 2016-2020.
2022's announcement to the world that Russia was about to invade Ukraine, and it subsequently happening exactly like so in spite of Russia claiming it wouldn't happen, has brought us back somewhat. It's the best we can do right now.
Mary, enormous gratitude for what you expressed. I can only add my own tears and fierce hope that our country will somehow wake up and get its collective one people’s ass together.
Mary, I hear a slight depression in today’s piece. I’m not trained, as are you with a PhD in clinical psychology, so my observation is more a feeling. I pray for everyone who is feeling low on these days of remembrance. But I also know that these are also days to remind survivors, those who ran for their lives and those who watched in horror, that our lives have gone on. Those who were living then, have been changed by the experience of 9/11 in ways that cannot yet be completely defined. History will tell the varied stories, sharing what happened and what changes it caused. From dogs and people who ran toward the tumbling buildings subsequently dying of diseases due to the site’s destruction, and those who perished horrible deaths on that day. Through all that horror, we who survived have a duty to rally together, to pull together, to stand together and fight for the freedoms as they have been given to us. Although, fragile, our democracy was also a survivor. Lest we forget, it is still worth everything we have to continue to fight for its survival. Peace to you Mary and to everyone on these days of remembrance.
I was on the Canadian highway driving east from Toronto on a four hour drive to see my parents. My mom was in the beginning stages of dementia and I was going to spend time to assess the situation and offer my dad some support. My husband and two daughters stayed back in Toronto. As I drove under that glorious clear blue sky, the radio was delivering the horrific news about the twin towers. I was half way there. I noticed that there was almost no traffic on the usually busy 401. I had no cell phone then. I stopped at a service station to call home. Should I turn around and come home ? My husband said to keep going, they were all fine. So I continued on, with traffic getting more and more sparse, but an eerie “quiet” was getting loud outside.
One of our friends was in New York at the time of the attack. She had been shooting a film. She immediately hired a taxi to drive her to Toronto, where she stayed at our house for a while.
It was so surreal.....everything about that day. My mother didn’t understand what was going on, but the rest of us were shaken to the core.
America, I wish you strength, hope, and courage to keep fighting for the ideals you have always fought for and aspired to live by.
I still call beautiful Fall days like that September 11 weather. And you’re right the memories don’t fade. I was born July 28, 1945, near London, England, just as the war was ending. I grew up there and in the Isle of Man and remember we still had rationing when I was old enough to want sweeties. And our Christmas stockings had an orange in the toe because the fruit was a hard to find treat. After emigrating to Canada, we finally ended up in the States. But other family stayed in Canada. One cousin married an American and worked on the 95 floor of one of the towers. It seems like yesterday that a received a call from her sister in Toronto asking me what I thought from seeing the television coverage. All I could say was, “She’s gone.”
Born at the end of ww2, raised during the aftermath in the worst bombed UK city. Loosing my Dad at 5yo, who had fought behind enemy lines in both wars. My own experiences fighting in a mid east oil war. Seeing the 9/11 images on the TV, and a little later personally having had the background story from the photojournalist who created those images. These are some of the most profound events that have shaped my life, my beliefs. Yes it must stop it must stop it must........ Peace, Maurice
At least now we know why all the former republicans were following Mary's unc off a trip - they all are wannabe autocrats. I watched the towers go down in odd silence with many others looking with a clear view from the top of Rt 17 in Mahwah, NJ.
Now I'm watching it from the outskirts of Allentown as this country is being gaslighted by magas and businesses (the kleptocracy) and wannabe autocrats.
It must stop (per Mary) and I agree. All I can do is push truth to the lies over the internet and in person (w/a mask on) and hang upside-down flags from my windows. I get Ruth Ben-Ghiat's newsletter and she has been working on stopping it through truth. The problem is how long will it take to bring the minority back to earth - how many decades and is there really anything we can do at this point. I don't know other than vote.
Yes, vote, tactically if needs be
Yes to every beautifully written word. Thank you for expressing what my heart feels.
It seems like yesterday. I remember driving up to Ground Zero from Philly, a few days after 9/11. The shocking, ripped apart terrain, along with the choking dust, was impossible to believe. It seemed as if this devastating event was bringing our nation together. No such luck. It's been one war after another, and one lying Republican after another. The upheaval caused by 9/11 can only be matched by the upheaval caused by January 6, 2022 -- another day of infamy. Thank you for a post that is both elegiac and furious. I couldn't agree more.
Too many wanted to believe it couldn’t happen again, especially anywhere outside of New York City. And it needs to be remembered who gave their lives to take the third plane down, who lost health and lives to the toxic dust of cleanup and rescue and just trying to escape and service dogs who went to comfort those dealing with the dust and pieces of bodies and lost their lives to the dust and the exhaustive drain on their energy. Remember the people who tracked down Ben Ladin and sent him to a watery grave following the Islamic guidelines.
He got his comeuppance. There are too many that need to get theirs today.
I mean really, WHO HAS FORGOTTEN 9/11?
If you were alive and over the age of 7, you remember.
I enjoyed your piece very much. I realize you do not want to hear stories of others, but I will tell you from someone who worked six blocks away it may have been a sunny day but not beautiful as my workmates and I witnessed history from our office window then fled for our lives wondering where and when the next plane would hit NYC.
Mary, your curiosity about living through WWII might be in part slaked by watching the TV series "Foyle". The production does a get job of capturing the nuances of competing interests brought to the fore by war. Beyond that you might know that the Reichstag fire that preceeded WWII was likely a false flag that helped Hitler take control of Germany. We've lived through our own version of that with 9/11. One needs to be careful what one wishes for.
The three steel-superstructure skyscrapers that collapsed that day were the first such buildings to collapse completely due to fire (started by the planes crashing) in the 100-year history of that kind of construction. Further, their collapse characteristics (symmetrical and at--or very near--freefall acceleration) cannot be duplicated by the fire-initiated gravity-driven natural collapse that is the official story of the day.
Unfortunately, the horror of 9/11 is the starting point for our own murderous wars of aggression, torture, and the continued blinding of Americans by a new (and much more practiced and effective) Operation Mockingbird.
Thanks Mary!
Much appreciated, ❤️ your insights
❤️🩹
James A
What a disgraceful person you are.
What is disgraceful? All she wrote is true.
We squandered most of the goodwill the world had with us from 2001-2010 out of fear, and then we threw the rest into the toilet from 2016-2020.
2022's announcement to the world that Russia was about to invade Ukraine, and it subsequently happening exactly like so in spite of Russia claiming it wouldn't happen, has brought us back somewhat. It's the best we can do right now.
'It just couldn't happen over here!" Frank Zappa.
Mary, enormous gratitude for what you expressed. I can only add my own tears and fierce hope that our country will somehow wake up and get its collective one people’s ass together.
Mary, I hear a slight depression in today’s piece. I’m not trained, as are you with a PhD in clinical psychology, so my observation is more a feeling. I pray for everyone who is feeling low on these days of remembrance. But I also know that these are also days to remind survivors, those who ran for their lives and those who watched in horror, that our lives have gone on. Those who were living then, have been changed by the experience of 9/11 in ways that cannot yet be completely defined. History will tell the varied stories, sharing what happened and what changes it caused. From dogs and people who ran toward the tumbling buildings subsequently dying of diseases due to the site’s destruction, and those who perished horrible deaths on that day. Through all that horror, we who survived have a duty to rally together, to pull together, to stand together and fight for the freedoms as they have been given to us. Although, fragile, our democracy was also a survivor. Lest we forget, it is still worth everything we have to continue to fight for its survival. Peace to you Mary and to everyone on these days of remembrance.
I was on the Canadian highway driving east from Toronto on a four hour drive to see my parents. My mom was in the beginning stages of dementia and I was going to spend time to assess the situation and offer my dad some support. My husband and two daughters stayed back in Toronto. As I drove under that glorious clear blue sky, the radio was delivering the horrific news about the twin towers. I was half way there. I noticed that there was almost no traffic on the usually busy 401. I had no cell phone then. I stopped at a service station to call home. Should I turn around and come home ? My husband said to keep going, they were all fine. So I continued on, with traffic getting more and more sparse, but an eerie “quiet” was getting loud outside.
One of our friends was in New York at the time of the attack. She had been shooting a film. She immediately hired a taxi to drive her to Toronto, where she stayed at our house for a while.
It was so surreal.....everything about that day. My mother didn’t understand what was going on, but the rest of us were shaken to the core.
America, I wish you strength, hope, and courage to keep fighting for the ideals you have always fought for and aspired to live by.
🇺🇸💙🇨🇦