My very first blog post was on September 10th, 2001. A strange date, turns out. I just re-posted something that my brother wrote on the 11th because I didn't know what to say.
Perhaps more importantly....many of our soldiers, police officers, firemen (especially volunteer) and intelligence agents were also "born" on that day.
I am thankful to all of them, and all of our leaders on both sides of the aisle, that in the 7 years since we have stopped 100% of all terrorist attacks on US soil. Let's hope that is a streak that continues for decades to come.
turph
· 1 year ago
If seven years ago we witnessed the birth of our socially-empowered web, what type of event will be required to facilitate main stream acceptance of its power?
We have seen glimpses with micro reporting of natural disasters of late, but will it take a large scale event in a major tech centric city to move things? I hope not.
As an aside, this NYer is spending his first 9-11 on the west side, in Seattle. There is a strange disjoint which is hard to explain.
Ryan Graves
· 1 year ago
Those hours were indeed long. It will all be for not unless we learn from the strengths that we found in ourselves during that time. And let those realization affect the decisions we make regarding our country going forward. http://ryanagraves.com/09/11/2008/well-always-r...
Brian
· 1 year ago
Well said.
I have two kids to show for it.
Crises have a way of focusing the mind.
Bruce Barber
· 1 year ago
I was on the radio (WPLR in New Haven, CT) that morning.
I described the events for hours as we watched them unfold on television.
All I can remember was wanting to get home to hug my children.
And then all I could think about were the people that were never coming home again.
Those people, and their families, are the ones I'm thinking about today.
andreaitis
· 1 year ago
lots of sirens as i walked in the city today. and each time, it felt like everyone collectively stopped, held their breath, and waited a split second just to make sure these were everyday sirens. the air felt a little heavier, the sky a mix of light and dark. i walked carefully on the sidewalk, caught between the now and then.
seven years ago we were waiting to go to korea to bring home the baby boy we were adopting. we weren't sure how or if 9/11 would change our travel plans. but six weeks later, we boarded a half-filled plane and took off. we brought our son home on thanksgiving day. and i remember how warm it was that thanksgiving, how we sat on the deck with our baby, surrounded by family. and how with smoke-filled scenes of 9/11 still raging in our heads, we took our son for his very first walk in his new stroller, the sun strong and bright.
Steven Kane
· 1 year ago
The very best piece on 9/11 - James B. Stewart's "The Real heroes Are Dead"
I'm never quite sure what to think about 9/11. On that day I was duty officer on my submarine (out of Groton, CT), finishing up some last maintenance before we went on a six-month deployment. Needless to say all of our plans were destroyed. We had two of the top admirals in the Navy come down to check on us that afternoon as our boat was going to be the next to leave for the Med/Mid-east. Security on base changed instantly.
So while I saw 9/11 happen, I was completely out of touch with the world for the next six months. Except for a couple of port calls where we heard about the concerts, saw the photos, etc., we didn't know much about what was going on in the world. (News of the anthrax attacks was particularly worrying from afar.) We didn't get back until spring of 2002, when it seemed like a lot of people had moved on.
Having experienced 9/11 the day, but essentially nothing else in the aftermath, it's hard to relate to the rather dramatic changes that occurred in the weeks and months that followed. But each anniversary the emotional distance for many seems to grow and it's like my experience is more like the average American's than it used to be.
It almost feels that while the victims and their families still grieve for their loved ones every 9/11 and always will, as a country we celebrate and grieve each year for the community that existed in the aftermath of the attacks. It's the community that I missed being away, and something that I wish as a country we could get back.
Krassen Dimitrov
· 1 year ago
Fred, You simply cannot afford to leave the political conversation now! This election is extremely important and I just cannot fathom the kind of world my kids will live in if we have McCain-Palin with control of the nuclear codes. So get some energy drink or something and get back into it.
I have a tiny specialist blog (click on my name) and I will be posting a lot of political entries, however, blogs like yours are the ones with the high volume hits as well as diverse, swing-vote visitors. So don't give me any excuses and get you butt in gear.
With regard to that Palin woman, here's a quote from Karl Rove that should give you a historical perspective and explain why you simply cannot retreat:
"Michael Dukakis spent the last months of the 1988 campaign calling his opponent's running mate, Dan Quayle, a risky choice and even ran a TV ad blasting Mr. Quayle. The Bush/Quayle ticket carried 40 states. Adlai Stevenson spent the fall of 1952 bashing Dwight Eisenhower's running mate, Richard Nixon, calling him "the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, and then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation." The Republican ticket carried 39 of 48 states. If Mr. Obama keeps attacking Mrs. Palin, he could suffer the fate of his Democratic predecessors."
Now we know, and history is quite clear that the Democrats were 100% correct: Nixon did turn out to be a disgraceful crook and Quayle did turn out to be an illiterate fool. So what Rove is saying is this: "We, Republicans can sneak in creeps on the political scene, and win elections before the American people realize what's going on." The question now is: is this also true in the Internet age, when information dissemination is much faster?
I don't know the answer, but we have to do everything that is in our powers. If we lose, we lose, but don't let it be for the lack of trying. Just keep pounding and exposing this pathetic blizzard of lies and incompetence: the earmarks, the jet "unsold" on E-Bay, the abuse of power, the complete ignorance on issues ("What is the Bush doctrine?" "Fanie and Fred got to expensive to taxpayers?"), the religious intolerance. We need to attack and attack and keep pounding not only the ticket but their surrogates, their supporters, their fundraisers, etc.
The other thing: the reality is that this just cannot be done timidly. It has to be done forcefully, even viciously. Remember, the low information voters can perceive a lot by the tone, even if they don't get the issue. We still have to back up the tone with facts, simply because that's who we are (unlike the Right) but the tone cannot be academic.
Finally, it has to be done personally. I like the "Barbie doll" dig! Don't pay attention to all the phony outrage that it generated. This is pretty much standard operating procedure for these people. Let them whine and keep hitting. In fact we need more of that. Let's see how much meat is there in the National Enquirer story, we should be pounding hard on the GOP ticket consisting of two adulterers. This stuff is important to many voters and exposes their phony "family values" rhetoric. Another venue that we need to explore is McCain's pro-pedophile position; I am writing a blog entry on that right now. We cannot be "above" these things, even if we naturally find them distasteful. Nothing is beneath me when I am determined to leave a more decent world to my children. Besides, nothing we do will ever approach the complete moral depravity of what the Republicans do. (The latest thing from Ohio, sending defective absentee ballots to registered Democrats)
Let's get to work!
fredwilson
· 1 year ago
Dimitrov
I don't have the right personality to blog about politics. I certainly don't have the right personality to be in politics. I care too much and it really pisses me off when the right wing hate mongers fill our comment threads with their crap. I have not gone into that comment thread since yesterday at noon and I plan to avoid it from now on. I don't like hating half of my readers and that's what happened to me yesterday.
kidmercury
· 1 year ago
anybody who is in nyc, check out ground zero, join the folks wearing the black INVESTIGATE 911 shirts. you want real change, that is how you get it. 9/11 truth ends the war, ending the war is the first step to reducing government and limiting inflation that caused prices to rise by more than 14% over the past year. look at the history of monetary policy, war always leads to inflation, that is how you pay for it. those who argue bush/congress didnt increase taxes should consider inflation to be the real tax the feds gave you.
for those who think mcbama is change, just remember they are both in nyc today, repeating the official lie, and have rejected the 9/11 truth movement entirely when confronted about it.
ralph nader, activist and presidential candidate dennis kucinich, congressman ray mcgovern, 27 year cia veteran robert steele, marine corps veteran jesse ventura, former governor
that is just a brief list, the whole list is too large to put here (www.patriotsquestion911.com), it includes all sorts of govt officials, intelligence agents, architects, engineers, physicists, witnesses, victims family members, etc. the fact that the media has done such a splendid job of trying to ignore 9/11 truth illustrates how f'd up the corporate media is, and how desperately we need social media to deliver us the Truth that sets us free.
i assure you you have more to fear by not embracing 9/11 truth than you do by ignoring it, as the only way to stop another 9/11 and retaliatory actions for an aggressive foreign policy is 9/11 truth. so consider doing what you can to be a part of it. maybe you will be like fred and invest in a company like meetup that has enabled 9/11 truth groups to flourish at a grassroots level. maybe you will use your blog to promote 9/11 truth like marc andreessen has. maybe you will make a monetary contribution to activists like wearechange.org.
and of course be happy and celebrate, from here on out 9/11 is a symbol of resistance to tyranny and a reminder that freedom and truth trump everything and can never be defeated.
All Comments
http://www.0xdeadbeef.com/html/2001/09/index.sh...
I am thankful to all of them, and all of our leaders on both sides of the aisle, that in the 7 years since we have stopped 100% of all terrorist attacks on US soil. Let's hope that is a streak that continues for decades to come.
We have seen glimpses with micro reporting of natural disasters of late, but will it take a large scale event in a major tech centric city to move things? I hope not.
As an aside, this NYer is spending his first 9-11 on the west side, in Seattle. There is a strange disjoint which is hard to explain.
http://ryanagraves.com/09/11/2008/well-always-r...
I have two kids to show for it.
Crises have a way of focusing the mind.
I described the events for hours as we watched them unfold on television.
All I can remember was wanting to get home to hug my children.
And then all I could think about were the people that were never coming home again.
Those people, and their families, are the ones I'm thinking about today.
seven years ago we were waiting to go to korea to bring home the baby boy we were adopting. we weren't sure how or if 9/11 would change our travel plans. but six weeks later, we boarded a half-filled plane and took off. we brought our son home on thanksgiving day. and i remember how warm it was that thanksgiving, how we sat on the deck with our baby, surrounded by family. and how with smoke-filled scenes of 9/11 still raging in our heads, we took our son for his very first walk in his new stroller, the sun strong and bright.
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2002/02/11/020...
So while I saw 9/11 happen, I was completely out of touch with the world for the next six months. Except for a couple of port calls where we heard about the concerts, saw the photos, etc., we didn't know much about what was going on in the world. (News of the anthrax attacks was particularly worrying from afar.) We didn't get back until spring of 2002, when it seemed like a lot of people had moved on.
Having experienced 9/11 the day, but essentially nothing else in the aftermath, it's hard to relate to the rather dramatic changes that occurred in the weeks and months that followed. But each anniversary the emotional distance for many seems to grow and it's like my experience is more like the average American's than it used to be.
It almost feels that while the victims and their families still grieve for their loved ones every 9/11 and always will, as a country we celebrate and grieve each year for the community that existed in the aftermath of the attacks. It's the community that I missed being away, and something that I wish as a country we could get back.
You simply cannot afford to leave the political conversation now! This election is extremely important and I just cannot fathom the kind of world my kids will live in if we have McCain-Palin with control of the nuclear codes. So get some energy drink or something and get back into it.
I have a tiny specialist blog (click on my name) and I will be posting a lot of political entries, however, blogs like yours are the ones with the high volume hits as well as diverse, swing-vote visitors. So don't give me any excuses and get you butt in gear.
With regard to that Palin woman, here's a quote from Karl Rove that should give you a historical perspective and explain why you simply cannot retreat:
"Michael Dukakis spent the last months of the 1988 campaign calling his opponent's running mate, Dan Quayle, a risky choice and even ran a TV ad blasting Mr. Quayle. The Bush/Quayle ticket carried 40 states.
Adlai Stevenson spent the fall of 1952 bashing Dwight Eisenhower's running mate, Richard Nixon, calling him "the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, and then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation." The Republican ticket carried 39 of 48 states.
If Mr. Obama keeps attacking Mrs. Palin, he could suffer the fate of his Democratic predecessors."
Now we know, and history is quite clear that the Democrats were 100% correct: Nixon did turn out to be a disgraceful crook and Quayle did turn out to be an illiterate fool. So what Rove is saying is this: "We, Republicans can sneak in creeps on the political scene, and win elections before the American people realize what's going on." The question now is: is this also true in the Internet age, when information dissemination is much faster?
I don't know the answer, but we have to do everything that is in our powers. If we lose, we lose, but don't let it be for the lack of trying. Just keep pounding and exposing this pathetic blizzard of lies and incompetence: the earmarks, the jet "unsold" on E-Bay, the abuse of power, the complete ignorance on issues ("What is the Bush doctrine?" "Fanie and Fred got to expensive to taxpayers?"), the religious intolerance. We need to attack and attack and keep pounding not only the ticket but their surrogates, their supporters, their fundraisers, etc.
The other thing: the reality is that this just cannot be done timidly. It has to be done forcefully, even viciously. Remember, the low information voters can perceive a lot by the tone, even if they don't get the issue. We still have to back up the tone with facts, simply because that's who we are (unlike the Right) but the tone cannot be academic.
Finally, it has to be done personally. I like the "Barbie doll" dig! Don't pay attention to all the phony outrage that it generated. This is pretty much standard operating procedure for these people. Let them whine and keep hitting. In fact we need more of that. Let's see how much meat is there in the National Enquirer story, we should be pounding hard on the GOP ticket consisting of two adulterers. This stuff is important to many voters and exposes their phony "family values" rhetoric. Another venue that we need to explore is McCain's pro-pedophile position; I am writing a blog entry on that right now. We cannot be "above" these things, even if we naturally find them distasteful. Nothing is beneath me when I am determined to leave a more decent world to my children. Besides, nothing we do will ever approach the complete moral depravity of what the Republicans do. (The latest thing from Ohio, sending defective absentee ballots to registered Democrats)
Let's get to work!
I don't have the right personality to blog about politics. I certainly don't
have the right personality to be in politics. I care too much and it really
pisses me off when the right wing hate mongers fill our comment threads with
their crap. I have not gone into that comment thread since yesterday at noon
and I plan to avoid it from now on. I don't like hating half of my readers
and that's what happened to me yesterday.
for those who think mcbama is change, just remember they are both in nyc today, repeating the official lie, and have rejected the 9/11 truth movement entirely when confronted about it.
learn about 9/11 truth:
www.patriotsquestion911.com
www.911blogger.com
www.infowars.com
folks who are a part of the 9/11 truth movement:
ralph nader, activist and presidential candidate
dennis kucinich, congressman
ray mcgovern, 27 year cia veteran
robert steele, marine corps veteran
jesse ventura, former governor
that is just a brief list, the whole list is too large to put here (www.patriotsquestion911.com), it includes all sorts of govt officials, intelligence agents, architects, engineers, physicists, witnesses, victims family members, etc. the fact that the media has done such a splendid job of trying to ignore 9/11 truth illustrates how f'd up the corporate media is, and how desperately we need social media to deliver us the Truth that sets us free.
i assure you you have more to fear by not embracing 9/11 truth than you do by ignoring it, as the only way to stop another 9/11 and retaliatory actions for an aggressive foreign policy is 9/11 truth. so consider doing what you can to be a part of it. maybe you will be like fred and invest in a company like meetup that has enabled 9/11 truth groups to flourish at a grassroots level. maybe you will use your blog to promote 9/11 truth like marc andreessen has. maybe you will make a monetary contribution to activists like wearechange.org.
and of course be happy and celebrate, from here on out 9/11 is a symbol of resistance to tyranny and a reminder that freedom and truth trump everything and can never be defeated.