I remember this photograph very distinctly, as I felt it captured the emotions of this country so succinctly. This is nary a face in this photo that isn't aghast - in fact, most people you see are tormented by what they are witnessing. In many ways, it says more than a picture of the burning towers could, if that is possible.

This reminds me of the airport on Sept. 11th when I got booted off my flight by the FAA order to ground all flights (and there was still a moron next to me complaining about missing her connecting flight, like there was actually going to be a connecting flight).

In the shuttle back to the parking lot, a pilot was on board with a cell phone and there was a young black woman freaking out. Her boyfriend was in the south tower and the pilot kept getting phone calls. Every time it rang it was bad news. The first one was about the plane in PA. Then he got a call about a missing plane. Then he got a call about where the President was. Then he got a call about the first tower falling and the woman just started screaming.

We told her that they had probably evacuated everybody (having no idea where the plane had hit, having to climb down all those stairs, etc. - most of us had only seen the first plane hit in that distant shot when you could still say it was an accident). It's weird, but it really didn't occur to me that it was a big deal until I saw it on television, especially those people running from the collapse.

It makes me sick when people say America deserved this. Like killing the boyfriend of a random woman on the RIC airport shuttle is a grand political statement.

The above picture, as well as this one seem to capture many people's reactions immediately following the attacks.

What you see here is the face of the civilized world reacting to the murder of human beings. Now look at [Link: littlegreenfootballs.com...] That's the face of the Arab world reacting to the murder of human beings. Now tell me that our cultures have anything in common -- or, for that matter, that theirs is anything other than barbaric, animalistic, and immoral.

It's time for us to turn them into human beings, whether they like it or not.

We are in pain, the people of Israel are also in pain, while the Palestinians sell "Osamam lighters" that show a plane hitting the WTC.
And we are supposed to talk about how peacfull the Pals are?

May all the victims rest in heaven.

May all the arab terrorists burn in hell.

God Bless America!

Amen.

I've started putting up 9-11 related essays and links in anticipation of tomorrow.

This is my favorite 9-11 story. If those pictures make you depressed and angry, read this for comfort.
[Link: www.hfienberg.com...]

Suggestions from Jewish tradition for ritualizing the commemoration of 9-11. Links to several thoughtful essays about silence, conversation, markers, time.
[Link: www.hfienberg.com...]

As we prepare to give tribute to those victims of 9/11 the country is in a high state of alert (level orange). The nightmare continues. The world is sure a different place than it was a year ago today. And it's still so unbelievable, isn't it?

No kathyn, the world is the same, but our eyes are open now................Lip

More on the new high (orange) alert status at:
[Link: foxnews.com...]

Anger doesn't even begin to express what I feel. I am enraged and outraged everytime I see, read about, or hear stories of what happened on 9/11. Tomorrow will be awful, but we shouldn't hide from it or try to forget. We must remain outraged, we must remain incensed, we must never forget the evil these men did. Never forget, never forgive.

On September 14 last year I attended an interfaith memorial service held in the Anglican cathedral in Vancouver, Canada. The cathedral was filled to capacity with hundreds more lining the streets outside. The two saddest sounds I have ever heard were played at that service. The first was the shofar, the second was "Adagio for Strings" by the American composer Samuel Barber. The Adagio is one of the saddest expressions in music, it is also one of the most beautiful. I remember asking myself as I listened to the music, how could a world that produced something so beautiful be the same world that produced such evil. The question still haunts me, in spite of all I have read in the year since then.

As George W. Bush said:

"This conflict was begun on the timing and the terms of others; it will end in a way and at an hour of our choosing."

Never forget, never forgive.

God Bless America.

And I wept and said to myself: Away with the tears!

The sorrow will cease but the graveness will remain!

The graveness will remain, it will seep into the well of the world

like a prophecy, like holy scriptures -

Do not cry, do not weep ...

Eighty million murderers will atone for one worried child in Israel!

-- Yitzhak Katzenelson, from "The First Ones"

I have a question: Is the date 9/11 the same in the muslim calendar?? Don't they go by the moon???
I wonder if their anniversary is another day?

A lovely website to pay tribute to the victims...

Memorial Quilt

#13 -- Yeah, I've wondered about that, too. As far as I know, they use a lunar calendar.

I have a question: Is the date 9/11 the same in the muslim calendar?? Don't they go by the moon???
I wonder if their anniversary is another day?

There is an approximately 11 day difference in the lunar and solar year. So technically the one year anniversary in the Muslim (and Jewish) calendar was 10 days ago.

May we never forget these faces.

ScrappleFace is a satire site, but this is not satire.

Scott Ott

#3

Wow, Doug.

Hadn't seen that one before. I'm struck by the variety of ethhicities on display, and utter meaninglessness of those kinds of distinctions.

Out of many, One.

The Jewish anniversary was August 31. Judaism adjusts the lunar calendar to the solar so that seasonal holidays don't precess out of their season.

#3, 18

The face of America.

My brothers and sisters.

No more hyphenated Americans, please, just "Americans", for that is who you are, who we are.

Let us not forget who our foreign friends are, either.

Hand in hand, united, we can get through this.

"God bless America / Land that I love..."

Let's roll...

The horrified faces of those people remind me that, as nightmarish as 9/11 was for decent people everywhere, those of us who were not in NY and DC didn't see the carnage close up, didn't hear the screaming, didn't see body parts flying and people smashing into the ground, didn't smell that terrible odor. The rest of us suffered, but we didn't run down the street fleeing from a billowing cloud of smoke and debris. However terrible it was for us, it was a thousand times worse for anyone near Ground zero or the Pentagon.

I salute the spirit of the people of NY (and of DC too, my home for 12 years). God bless you!