9/11 as it happened

Remember Me is a good movie because of how they incorporated 9/11 ... which came out of nowhere.

 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Bin_Ladin_Determined_To_Strike_in_US_(August_2001).pdf

 

The various snippets of that day which I remember the most:

— it was such a sunny morning. I went to vote in the NYC mayoral primary before work and thinking it was the brightest sky I could remember
— I heard about the first plane from my office in midtown listening to Howard Stern. I called Mrs W, who also worked in midtown but was still home and told her not to go in. She went to her office anyway. As soon as the second plane hit, I walked down the 20 flights of stairs and went home
— once I was outside, the fact that no one’s cell phone worked was scary. No one could get in touch with each other. We finally heard from my brother-in-law, who worked near the towers 5 hours later.
— We ended up hosting a bunch of my wife’s co-workers at our apartment which was about 10 blocks from her office. After a while, we decided to go to a blood bank near our place and the line was probably 500 people and they told us to go home because it looked like there was no need given the small number of survivors.
— the next day, finally being able to access my work email and seeing all of the “are you ok” messages pop up at once.
— on that Thursday, a bunch of us were sitting outside at a bar on the UES and all of sudden the wind shifted direction. About 20 minutes later we were completed covered in a fog of dust from the towers

 

I meant an out of nowhere 9/11 moment in a movie.

 

Now that we have two decades of distance, can we all please admit that Alan Jackson’s “Where Were You” has held up like milk in the afternoon sun?

 

... so let's make some cheese?

 

I was in New York with a school group three months after 9/11 and a few things stood out:

— Downtown was a ghost town. A friend and I went walking around ground zero and we fortunately found a Subway open because we were starving. This was on a Saturday, but even then it wouldn’t normally be that empty.
— The missing posters were still on the fence at the church right near the towers (I forget the name). To see all of those and to know most of those people were dead, well… There were also some flowers and condolence notes too.
— We were heading back to our bus when I noticed some vendors uptown were selling postcards with photos of the second plane before it hit the tower and the aftermath. WTF?

 

It's easy to see too many crass advertisements and disingenuous flag hugging and feel outrage. Then again, how far are we from people who say, "Fuck your feelings," and then reveal themselves to be curators of slights? Maybe it's time to stop feeding the energy monsters. Anyway, who needs all that cholesterol?

 

Absolutely not.
It's not a timeless classic by any means. It's very much of a specific "you had to be there" moment. A teenager hearing it for the first time in 2022 might not "get it." And I'll even grant you that, musically, it's a little awkward and perhaps a minute too long.
But damn, dude, if you are an American who remembers that day and its immediate aftermath at all, I don't see how you can't identify with every emotion he mentions in that song — the mix of anger, sadness, confusion, fear, horror, helplessness and uncertainty about what happens next. I hear it and it takes me right back there.
I think he nailed the reaction of the everyman, the Americans who weren't in New York or Washington, perfectly. In that sense, it holds up pretty damn well, IMO.

 

There's some incredible reading/remembering here. You may have to sign up to see the stories in full, but no fee.

Essential Reading: Remembering September 11, 2001