9/11, eight years later

September 11 is a Texas state holiday for firefighters only.

 

It's too damn bad they don't have a football team to go with it. But you're right- one of the truly great atmospheres in college football.

 

No. They're all wearing t-shirts.

 

part of the howard stern rebroadcast.

Jon Stewart also gave a speech about it that really hit home.

I will always remember the first song I heard on the radio after the breaking news alert at the top of the hour; Born in the USA. Bizarre sensation of anger and sadness at the same time.

 

No wonder no one likes you.

That is the most classless post in the history of SportsJournalists.com; And that's saying a lot.

 

I had been holding my tongue, but right on, chef.

 

I was at home — it was my day off — when my wife called to say a plane had hit the first tower. She woke me up. I was curious, turned on the TV and saw both towers in flames. I wondered how the hell that happened, and then saw the replays. Stunned? That is too weak a word. Horrified? To generic.

Chilled. To the bone.

I went in to work because I knew the paper would be putting out special editions — my boss called me as I was pulling into the parking lot to see if I could come in. Really? Ya think?

The images, repeated over and over and over again, both sickened and saddened me, but the feeling I remember most was anger. Pure, sheer, heat-radiating-from-my-skin anger. I felt violated. I can only imagine what anyone with a loved one in or near the towers felt. I felt like any semblance of safety and security had been ripped from my soul.

A 16-hour shift later, I went home and watched 4 more hours of coverage. Nothing new, but couldn’t turn away.

That was the first of a number of double shifts. For one, I was asked to gather photos and info and design a special 32-page tab. Few stories, lots of pics and graphics. I was asked to write all the cutlines. I was asked by an editor to “really think about the pictures and the settings. Don’t just write IDs, incorporate the theme of the page into the cutlines — like National Geographic!”

Sure. No sweat. Love the idea of making a keepsake tab for the most horrifying day I can remember.

Some 12 gut-wrenching hours later, I was finished — at about 1 a.m. — and the images and emotions of that day were permanently burned into my psyche.

 

Even QVC -- which perfected the art of getting people to spend money they don't have on things they don't need -- switched over to the CBC's excellent coverage for at least a day or two.

 

To me the legacy of 9 / 11 is long lines at the airport and compliant patrons dutifully putting the toiletries in a Glad bag. Meanwhile there is still a big hole where the towers once stood. Probably still be there 10 years from now. Sad indeed.

 

I'm on blackberry so it's hard to write anything long, but here's a short part of my story from that day. My mom was supposed to fly from NYC to San Francisco later that day. When I heard the first sketchy reports on Stern on my drive to work, my first thought was that my mom would have a safe trip because how often is there more than one plane crash in one day.

 

If you think Katrina was worse than 9/11, you're really fucking stupid.

 

I'm not sure what his point was--if he was trying to belittle the significance of 9/11 or just emphasize what a tragic decade it's been--I'll give him the benefit of the the doubt as to intent, but it was still a strange post either way. I'm not sure tragedies are something that should ever be ranked.

But I will say, when you combine those things with the most unnecessary war in our history, the 00 election, Big Laden remaining free, and plenty else, it has been quite a dismal decade in U.S. history, and I hope that's how it ends up being remembered after things (hopefully) get better. BYH nailed it when he called 9/10/01 the "last night of normal", this decade has been no way to start a millenium.