October 2011
49 posts
September 2011
67 posts
Metafilter users essentially liveblogged 9/11
The thread, “Plane crashes in to the word trade center,” was started at 5:58 a.m. Sept. 11, 2001, and at that point just included a link to CNN.com.
With growing horror, outrage, fear, well wishes, pleas for sanity and some scary reports from Lower Manhattan, hundreds of Metafilters users documented one of the worst days in U.S. history.
Ten years later, it’s still difficult to read. Some excerpts:
My dad is across the street. He was talking to my mom after the first one on the cell phone. When the second hit, the phone went dead. shit shit shit shit shit shit
my dads friend is an msnbc reporter. he said that people are jumping out of the fucking building like 80 floors up and landing right in front of him.
posted by adampsyche at 6:55 AM on September 11, 200
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Evacuate lower Manhattan? With the subways shut down? PATH goes through WTC’s basement — or did. Nobody’s getting home to New Jersey anytime soon. I can’t imagine what the jams at the tunnels are like … and the fear of people going through them.
Christ. The Chicago-Cleveland flight could have passed through the airspace of the air-traffic controller I know. (He called his gf to tell him they were landing everything, and she called me to wake me up.)
posted by dhartung at 8:21 AM on September 11, 2001
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If anyone needs to make a phone call in NYC to tell someone they’re ok, you can e-mail me. I seem to have local phone service within NYC
posted by ParisParamus at 9:17 AM on September 11, 2001
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my greatest fear is how our government is going to respond. more erosion of freedom in the name of security. mark my words.
posted by rebeccablood at 10:10 AM on September 11, 2001 [189 favorites]
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Rebecca is right. The sad irony is that if we do give away our freedom for more “security” the terrorists will have won.
posted by daveadams at 10:18 AM on September 11, 2001 [5 favorites]
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I am afraid of how many more lives may be lost in the US’s quest for vengeance.
posted by phichens at 11:03 AM on September 11, 2001 [3 favorites]
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This goes beyond terrorism to a form of asymmetrical warfare. The response to such an attack must be as definite and strong as any one would give in open battle. If countries such as Afghanistan, Yemen and Iraq are willing to harbor known terrorist organizations, they must also be willing to suffer the consequences of those associations. And, if this attack is state sponsored, the US must considered itself at war.
Regardless of blame, America will fundamentally change because of these acts. The very freedoms which define the nation will have to be reconsidered, and, if needed, changed. Such a change to a society goes beyond the material loss by forcing a consideration of a nation’s sense of identity.
For this inevitable loss, coupled with what will surely be a horrendous loss of life, we must all grieve. I am not an American nor am I given to slogans, but I do hope that today, and for many days hereafter God blesses America in all that it will have to endure.
posted by sunsolid at 11:16 AM on September 11, 2001
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I keep thinking about what America will be like in 10 years vs what it would have been like if this hadn’t happened.
posted by quirked at 12:17 PM on September 11, 2001 [11 favorites]
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People in the streets are screaming at Arabs near me. Its absurd, and horrible. One woman, “Are you happy with what you’ve done?” Another man, “It’s going down soon, man.”
I have a friend who claims the ash I’m breathing is asbestos. Internal memo at ABC News.
posted by Doug at 12:29 PM on September 11, 2001 [1 favorite]
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My heart died today for these people snuffed out in a senseless act. I am neither concerned nor interested in America right now. Right now I am concerned for humans, the thousands that lost their lives today and the millions who loved them.
Humanity is good. Let’s prove it. Love your brothers and sisters.
Peace. Please.
posted by Kafkaesque at 12:34 PM on September 11, 2001
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Hmm, having thought about it, I reckon the first thing the US is going to do is put bin Laden top of their list, and send cruise missiles at Afghanistan until they get him..
posted by Mossy at 1:03 PM on September 11, 2001
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This from the great minds at MSNBC: (**my emphasis**)
At the **Pentagon**, the nerve center of the nation’s military, one wall of the **hexagonal** building was destroyed when a hijacked commercial plane crashed into the adjacent helipad.
I’m glad the #1 news source for much of the wired public practices such stringent editing and fact-checking, and has *such* a strong command of geometry.
posted by poorhaus at 1:17 PM on September 11, 2001 [1 favorite]
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“and any generalizations they are making about Muslims.. well, they aren’t acceptable, but they may be excusable”
I’d have to disagree. It’s all been very shocking, unbelievable and tragic BUT racism and religious prejudice are never excusable. Being a muslim myself I don’t see why what these barbarians have done should reflect upon me one bit. I’m condemning them as much as the next person.
posted by Saima at 2:32 PM on September 11, 2001 [2 favorites]
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if the people of NYC can pull together in the face of this tragedy and act with compassion and dignity, then there is no other sign that can be given to the world that illuminates the ideal that we cannot be broken.
sadly, i don’t believe the people responsible, or those who are thinking in the same vein, will hear it.
posted by jcterminal at 6:11 PM on September 11, 2001
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CNN TV is also noting that people trapped within the WTC rubble are making cellphone calls.
Kind of makes you guilty for jamming up the network with frantic “are you okay” calls.
posted by linux at 8:55 PM on September 11, 2001
