Remembering Sept. 11 while still moving on

..."In this world today, people can do whatever they want" on Sept. 11, said Gittens, a principal organizer of the Newtown event, which draws thousands throughout the day.

"I can do whatever I want, too. And what I want on Sept. 11 is to make a commitment to the 3,000 victims of the terrorist attacks. I want to do what I can to stop terrorism.

"One way to do that is to remember," Gittens said.

For the first time since four planes commandeered by terrorists etched an indelible page in American history, Sept. 11 falls on a weekend, and area residents are responding in a mixed way.

Some are devoting the day to contemplating the 9/11 attacks. Others are holding seasonal events with tributes to the memory of Sept. 11. And some are simply treating it like just another Saturday.

"We need to go on, but at the same time, we cannot forget," said Janet Fabian, a Morrisville, Pa., resident who's on a committee for her church's craft show...

http://www.nj.com/news/times/index.s...5795723963.xml

---

While the original FT thread to which so many had contributed to reveal, in real time, the incredulity and immense pain of that overwhelmingly sad event is seemingly now lost, the memory of that day will always remain.

FWIW, I expect to be back home to see the Rutgers football game that day.

Yet I will, surely, at the same time, remember!

-Mark

Doc,

I'm sorry the old threads are lost. The Flyertalk community really came together on that terrible day.

Over in Omni, there's a thread on googling your Flyertalk handle. Well, just for fun, I googled my friends name. Sadly, his cousin, who was killed on September 11, came up instead of my friend (same last name). It was a reminder to me how we were all affected by what happened; some more than others.

Please remember those that were lost on September 11. It's not just another day.

http://cf1.newsday.infi.net/911/vict...tter=m#results

A Universe of Loss and Recovery for 9/11 Families, Survey Shows

...In the three years since the attacks, there have been hints of the struggles the families have fought, of the lingering toll of their losses, of the agony of deciding, among many other things, whether to accept money from the federal compensation fund or to sue in pursuit of accountability. There have been, too, hints of recovery, or at least of a determination to repair their ruptured lives as best they could. Some have, over the nearly 36 months since Sept. 11, 2001, made their voices heard - some publicly, some only at memorial ceremonies when the names of the dead were read out.

A deeper and more comprehensive portrait, though, emerges from a New York Times survey comprising scores of detailed interviews exploring the families' emotional, physical and spiritual status. That survey found lives colored by continuing pain.

Almost half still have a hard time getting a good night's sleep. A few said they no longer flew on airplanes. About a third have changed jobs or quit. About one in five have moved since 2001, and a fifth of those who still live where they did on Sept. 11 would move if they could. Very few who lost a spouse have remarried.

The families are, it turns out, acutely aware of how others see them. Close to half those interviewed believe that other people feel too much has been said about what happened on 9/11. A third said friends and neighbors avoided talking about the attacks when they are around.

And about half see signs that others resent the attention paid to them....

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/07/ny...7families.html

While I disagreed with the clumsy way the management moved it from MilesBuzz, I think it still exists.

Please see:

Plane crashes into the World Trade ctr

There are still some other threads floating out there of that terrible day.

Thanks very much, FWAAA!

I'd wrongly assumed that it had been lost along with the other "long" threads during the latest migration.

Yet ironically, by moving it via TravelAssist, and perhaps thereby compacting it somewhat, management may well have served to "protect" it!

Admittedly, however, even now, it is impossible for me to read through it and remain dry eyed!

Thanks again,

Mark

The History Channel has featured several programs this week on the attacks - hard to keep a dry eye during them.

Yes, thanks. I did see one of these when I accidentally stumbled upon it at the hotel.

---

Wounds From 9/11 Attacks Persist

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/09/ny...9cases.html?hp

---

Airline repercussions from 9/11 still spreading

http://www.iht.com/articles/537860.htm

Falling Bodies, a 9/11 Image Etched in Pain

...The attack on the World Trade Center was one of the most observed catastrophes in history, and those who fell or jumped from the towers were, briefly, its most public victims. They emerged one or two at a time from a blanket of smoke and fire that rendered mass death virtually invisible. Nearly all the others killed that day - whether high in the trade center, on board the hijacked airplanes or deep inside the Pentagon - were beyond the sight of survivors and witnesses.

Those who came through the windows of the towers provided the starkest, most harrowing evidence of the desperate conditions inside. Since then, though, they have largely vanished from consideration. Newspapers rarely publish images of the falling people. Evacuation studies concentrated on the accounts of survivors.

The 9/11 Commission, which has compiled the most detailed history of the day, mentioned those who jumped only as they affected the people on the streets below....

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/10/ny...umpers.html?hp

---

Remembering 9/11- The task

Another reminder of our uncertain world can be seen in the halting efforts to secure the home front.
In the past three years, much has been done. Airport surveillance has been tightened. The FBI has tripled its anti-terrorism personnel. Congress has approved $5.6 billion to develop bioterrorism-monitoring devices and stockpile vaccines. Such efforts have made the homeland safer.

Yet few security analysts would say the nation is as safe as it should be. Just as the offensive against al-Qaeda overseas is yielding only partial success, the same is true of efforts to bolster homeland defense...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion...-thetask_x.htm

---

Sept. 11 families build foundations of hope

...Saturday will be three years since the attacks. The Peter C. Alderman Foundation is one way the financial outpouring for families of the nearly 3,000 people killed on 9/11 is flowing back into the world. Hundreds of foundations and scholarships memorialize those who died, created by their families to benefit causes and people. (Related item: List of memorials created in wake of 9/11)

Peter's foundation helps people like him who are victims of terror, his mother says. "These are people who are ... in one manner of speaking, dead," she says. "These are mothers who cannot take care of their children. These are fathers who cannot take care of their families. If we can bring these people back � we can't do that for Peter..."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/...harities_x.htm

The reading of the 9-11 names.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=354005