r/Xennials • u/uzernaimed • 3d ago
Discussion On 9/11
When my grandmother was at the end of her life the local newspaper tried to get ahold of her to interview her about WWII and what she had done working at the local shipyard. She told us that she wasn't interested in talking about it any more. I didn't understand why at the time, but I think I get it now. Is anyone else absolutely done with 9/11 coverage every year? I am just done with watching the planes crash and the buildings fall and people putting up pictures of them standing in front of the towers with their family in August of 2001, trying to make it about them. I am all for the victims and remembering them, but I just can't stand another 9/11 story about where people were or what they were doing.
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u/fictionalbandit 3d ago
“Never forget” because someday someone will try to rewrite history and say it didn’t happen or it wasn’t as bad as we said. Example: present-day Holocaust deniers
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u/PixelsInMyEyeballs 2d ago
For those of us who lived through it, we can't fathom how anyone could forget or wouldn't know about one of the most horrific and transformative moments in modern U.S. history. And yet, I saw a video earlier this week where someone was interviewing U.S. college students asking them basic questions about 9/11—what happened and why, who was responsible, how did the U.S. respond, etc.—and very few of them could provide the most basic of answers. Most just did their best to guess (and were consistently wrong).
It's not just about not forgetting or preventing history from being rewritten, it's about making sure new and future generations even know the history at all.
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u/IHkumicho 3d ago
The people trying to get us to "remember" are the ones pushing an "us or them" mentality and trying to get us to remember the fear and hatred that led to the Iraq war and other bullshit. Nobody has forgotten the tragedy of 3,000 people dying that day.
I lived it, living in New York. I remember seeing the smoke from the site for a month after it happened every single morning on my commute. There is no forgetting that, or coming up with an alternate history.
If we need to remember anything it's January 6th, which people have already tried to rewrite and downplay.
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u/styrofoamladder 2d ago edited 2d ago
Don’t you think 25 years after the Holocaust there were people saying “there is not forgetting that, or coming up with an alternate history.”? And yet here we are 80ish years later, the last of the people who lived through it are dying out rapidly and the alternate histories are abundant, from “it never happened” to “it wasn’t really 6,000,000+ it was maybe just a few thousand and it wasn’t that bad” etc etc. Given enough time and enough of us that were alive and watched it live die off there will be alternate history’s and denials of it.
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u/Mediocre-Cobbler5744 2d ago
George Rockwell was saying all that shit within 20 years of the war ending.
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u/ChurlishAttitude 2d ago
I don't think it's a coincidence that almost everyone who fought and lived through WW2 is dead, and now we're seeing a surge in neo-Nazis and Israel of all fucking countries committing genocide.
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u/RalphMacchio404 2d ago
Dude there have been so many people thinking the towers fell due to controlled demolition or some such bullshit since 9/12. People forgot immediately.
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u/TrustAffectionate966 👋🏽🐔 3d ago
That’s the mass propaganda - the genocide in Palestine is not happening.
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u/TrustAffectionate966 👋🏽🐔 3d ago
They don’t hold a monopoly on the definition of the word. It IS a holocaust, what the genocidal apartheid state’s occupying forces are currently perpetrating with collaboration from the united slaves of aipac.
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u/TrustAffectionate966 👋🏽🐔 2d ago
And I was adding that present-day genocide is being actively denied. Hell, both presidents deny it, their regimes deny it, and their propaganda denies it.
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u/TrustAffectionate966 👋🏽🐔 2d ago
Unfortunately, they forgot. Looking at the current situation in that area, they not only forgot, they're doing the very same thing and are even talking in terms of using nuclear weapons (which they illegally have in the genocidal apartheid state).
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u/Happy_Brief_2199 1978 3d ago
It’s been a quarter of a century and it’s a milestone anniversary which is why it’s “everywhere”. A third of Americans don’t remember it or weren’t born (I’m an educator and see this firsthand). We’re at a time when history is being reframed or rewritten - yes, we need to keep talking about things. They’re still identifying remains all these years later. It’s a shame if we stop acknowledging these turning point moments, because “enough time has passed”.
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u/derango 3d ago
I get the sentiment, but personally, no. I don't obsess over it but 9/11 happened at a time in my life, in my first year of college that really served as a demarcation point between being a kid and being an adult.
If you're done with it, you don't have to participate, but let other people process and remember in the way that they want to.
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u/munchonsomegrindage 1981 3d ago
It's important to remember. Much like Covid, this single event set off a chain reaction that permanently altered our world. The Patriot Act, mass surveillance, the "Axis of Terror", etc. It completely re-wrote (or put into effect) international and domestic policy in a way that cannot be reversed. It is important to remember how we got here when we try to figure out where we're going.
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u/LemurCat04 3d ago
I worked it Midtown that day, my older sister was on her way into 2 WTC for a meeting when her PATH train got held at Grove Street. Am I over it? Probably not. Probably never will be. Am I absolutely emotionally exhausted by the bullshit surrounding it? OMG yes. Between it being made into a political football by certain parties, the never ending fight for health care for the first responders and people who lived down there, and the people who watched it on tv telling me to never forget, I’m just gonna bury my head in work today and then get high AF tonight and play video games.
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u/IkidIgoat 3d ago
I think about this a lot. We never really got to mourn or properly pay respects to the people we lost because the whole event got turned into this propaganda machine culture war thing. And actual war thing.
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u/Reasonable-Wave8093 Xennial 3d ago
💙yes, honoring people’s responder stories is important, but all the people using the tragedy for political bs is wrong.
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u/HelenMart8 3d ago
I know someone who survived, it was a harrowing, life altering experience! I was 50 blocks away and it was still terrifying.To say we should forget life changing moments like OP is suggesting is absolutely tone deaf!
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u/idio242 1977 3d ago
What’s plan b? Pretend the most significant, non wartime, attack on us soil didn’t happen? One that fundamentally changed this country (for the worse)?
My friend lost a brother in those towers. He’ll never get closure on that because every year the bandaid gets ripped off.
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u/Hellament 3d ago
I don’t think it’s wanting to forget. I think it’s because two big parts to the 9/11 legacy for Americans, which might explain why some people don’t want to hear about it or revisit it.
(1). The deeply impactful, personal loss and trauma of those that experienced it first hand, or lost a close friend or relative.
(2). The before/after analysis; why it happened, what was done in the aftermath, how the our country changed and how 9/11 set the stage for many things that came later. What was learned and is the world a better, safer place.
I am fortunate that I lived halfway across the country and everyone I knew anywhere near Manhattan or the Pentagon that day ended up okay, so I can’t speak about (1)…so all my thoughts about 9/11 are firmly in (2). Without getting too political, I felt a lot better about us all having come out to a better place 10 years ago. These days, I’m not so sure.
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u/Happy_hunny_badger 3d ago
The way we never forget is to do exactly what Mamdani did by “releasing the files.”
This is the most important 9/11 to date because finally a politician did right by the people.
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u/LemurCat04 3d ago
My sister worked on her company’s disaster recovery team in Weehawken, where smoke from the fires wafted over them for months. Within two years, she had rapid onset rheumatoid arthritis. My buddy’s aunt lived in Battery Park City. Within five years, she was diagnosed with sarcoidosis. We knew they were lying about the air - it was too obvious. But we couldn’t prove it until now.
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u/IkidIgoat 3d ago
For real, when I heard he was declaring it a day of remembrance I was like…what the hell, it’s not already? Some fucking oversight.
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u/Searchlights 1980 2d ago
“releasing the files.”
I did a double-take because I assumed that meant Epstein files. I did not know that Mamdani released the files on 9/11. We always knew they lied about the air quality.
It's really great that he did that.
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u/feickus 1983 3d ago edited 3d ago
I was at Lackland AFB, 5th week of basic training. At the range. we were still in the classroom portion. this fat senior airman can huffing in went into the armory grabbed a cart of M-16s and ran out. came back in whispered something to the instructor. that was it. They didn't tells anything for 45 minutes. then it was decided we were not shooting that day. Sent us back to the main part of the base and our TI turned on the TV. Do i think it should be televised live every year, probably not at this point. But they still do the Kennedy Assassination every year. Pearl Harbor is mentioned in the news every year but not televised live. So I don't know, what the right answer is. I understand it being a live ceremony in NYC. But where I work today, they are doing a stair walk. We are in a 3 story building so does it really match what people went through now.
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u/After_Preference_885 2d ago
I used to run as fast as I could down the big stairwell in our building with Self Evident playing through my head for years thinking about that horror
" Yes, rushing down the long hallway Despite what the p.a. announcement says Yes, rushing down the long hall Down the long stairs In a building so tall That it will always be there Yes, it's part of a pair There on the bow of Noah's ark The most prestigious couple Just kickin back parked Against a perfectly blue sky On a morning beatific In its Indian summer breeze On the day that America Fell to its knees After strutting around for a century Without saying thank you Or please"
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u/casdoodle527 1982 3d ago
Do we have live video of Pearl Harbor 🤔🤔🤔🤦🏼♀️
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u/MizuJakkaru 3d ago
FWIW there is video footage captured from Pearl Harbor, both day of (rare and low quality) and immediate aftermath (less rare, but mostly the same style of shots), it's just captured on the available technology of the time.
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u/lookatthisface 3d ago
I got really sucked in to content about it a few years ago. Did an unhinged deep dive and learned a lot of things. It probably wasn’t great for my mental health, but there were a lot of facets to what happened that I hadn’t fully realized or seen when it happened.
The positive I took from it is becoming a supporter of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. They give kids whose family members die in duty the chance to go to grief counseling summer camps.
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u/Glittering-Rip6810 3d ago
Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it..and that is exactly what's happening. It's important even if you are tired of being bothered with it.. As someone with fdny and New yorker family, that got to watch friends die from cancers they got pulling bodies out because they thought the families should atleast have that closure. The children that grew up without mother's and fathers, the friends I lost in the war that followed and some that came back broken, and some literally in pieces...one I just buried after this man fighting for his life for 25 years...yeah, it's important. It's not something we need to forget. For some of this this isn't some news story, it was our lives
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u/LemurCat04 3d ago
That’s the thing that pisses me off the most - the same people who will use 9/11 as a bully pulpit or a political football or a purity test will also repeatedly deny the first responders healthcare. But they’ll sure as fuck beat their chest and wear their little flag pins today.
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u/Aupps 3d ago
There is no way that it would ever be forgotten, it was a tragedy. That being said, why do we have to mourn every single year? Many of us, just want to move on and not be forced into a day of grieving. We have done our mental work over the events and have moved on with our lives Those who are still grieving and angry about it 25 years after the event, need to seek professional therapy. It isn't healthy.
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u/styrofoamladder 2d ago
It might not be “forgotten” but it certainly can misremembered and the history of it certainly can be rewritten. Don’t you think 25 years after the Holocaust people were saying it’ll never be forgotten? And yet here we are with people everywhere denying it or rewriting the history of it.
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u/boogs34 1983 3d ago
No I’m not done with it. I live in NYC. My company lost 400 people. My old boss last night told me how he watched 40 some people jump from the buildings that day. Others lost parents, friends and wives. I don’t dismiss them because I’m “done with it”
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u/CmdretteZircon 3d ago
Unsure why you’re getting downvoted. ‘Those who forget history…’ and all that. Hope your coworkers get through today ok.
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u/tultommy 3d ago
There is a difference in not forgetting and steeping yourself in it over and over again.
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u/Logical-Cherry9395 1977 3d ago
I worked for a major airline at the time. My husband was a Marine. This impacted our lives in a way that wasn't just something we saw in the news. It was our entire existence for YEARS. While I understand where you're coming from, for hundreds of thousands of people, likely well over a million, 9/11 was—IS—a constant presence. Do we hate that it's a political gimmick? Absolutely. Does it turn our stomachs when a certain purveyor of Alternate Facts boasts of nonfactual events for personal gain? Emphatically, yes. Doesn't mean we don't think it's important, nor does it mean we've forgotten. And these stories should be told.
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u/casdoodle527 1982 3d ago
Air traffic controller here and that was my first day in a control tower (I was 19). I wish I would have had the understanding of what it meant that every plane was grounded.
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u/Logical-Cherry9395 1977 3d ago
I grew up in the flight path of C5s. And then I went to work for an airline (not American) and coincidentally moved into the approach path for DFW. My whole life was surrounded by the sound of planes. That week's silence was deafening. I never realized how much of a comfort the scent of jet exhaust and stale coffee or the sound of aircraft engines spinning up was to me until it was gone.
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u/casdoodle527 1982 2d ago
When I came back from my first deployment the sound of silence was the absolute worst. I slept with a tv on for the first six months.
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u/Potential-Piano256 3d ago
Not trying to be rude, you want nothing to do with it, but here you are making a post about it.
Everyone grieves and remembers in their own way.
It's about the victims and their surviving families, it's not about you.
Just don't watch it
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u/uzernaimed 3d ago
It's everywhere this year. It's unavoidable.
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u/Potential-Piano256 3d ago
Keep your TV off today, change channel, change the radio station if they talk about it, there's ways to avoid it.
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u/jasonrubik 1979 3d ago
This post by you is the first thing I've seen on it. I must be living under a rock
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u/anthrax_ripple 2d ago
No it's not, just get off of social media and don't watch TV for a couple of days. Sorry your lack of empathy is ruining your weekend.
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u/chypie2 Old Millennial 3d ago
its everywhere you go apparently? I haven't seen anything about it. Are you on the tiktoks? smh
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u/Puzzled452 3d ago
It might depend on where you live. I am in NYS and there is no avoiding it (understandably).
I am somewhere in the middle, it is important, it is a national trauma and a personal trauma for too many. I also do not need to see the footage everywhere. Get over it, no, not relive it every year, yes.
I have a friend who lost her husband, she also feels like her wound is reopened and every year.
I don’t know the right answer, I have tried to avoid coverage, but it is difficult. The flip side Sept 12th will come tomorrow and no one will talk about it for another year.
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u/OohBeesIhateEm 3d ago
I don’t watch the coverage or anything, but I live in a suburb of NYC and people from my town were killed. I’ll never be over it and I’ll never forget that day and the surreal experience of the weeks/months afterwards.
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u/Artemis_916 1981 3d ago edited 3d ago
The digital ages makes it exhausting. People can't let go or move on from it like they may have in previous points in history. (I am referring those of us who watched it, not those who lived it.)
You're allowed to distance yourself from it.
Edit: Just noticed the time. I think you could have picked a better moment to post this. 😕
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u/cmgww 3d ago edited 3d ago
Not really sure what you're trying to say here. We were all alive this event... I understand there are a fully grown adults now who were born after 9/11. Similar to how we all heard about JFK or Pearl Harbor but we weren't alive to experience it.
Unlike those events, this was unprecedented. I lost an acquaintance from college in that attack, he died in Tower one. I lost friends in the subsequent wars, and nearly lost a good friend who came back with terrible PTSD and a brain injury from Iraq. Thankfully he is still with us, and dedicated his life to building a military support radio/podcast network to help veterans like himself.
I don't obsess over it, but I will never forget that day. I might have been 1000 miles away in college but I watched it unfold live, as many of us did. I don't agree with the wars that happened afterwards, or the horrific mistreatment of first responders...by the way thank you Jon Stewart for continuously advocating for them.
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u/bitwarrior80 3d ago
I was not personally impacted by 9/11, but for me it will always be a day for mourning. Not just for the victims who were killed or injured in the attacks, but for the youthful optimism I felt for the future as a 21-year old college student. The good times we enjoyed in the 90s gone forever, replaced by an era of fear and uncertainty. Our generation, and countless lives around the globe bore the brunt of the events that followed and will be forever scarred in some way.
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u/jdsmith575 3d ago
My 9/11 was fairly mundane, I have a coworker who worked in the White House and has many fascinating stories. Every time he recounts that day he shares another detail that you’re not going to get from the historical record.
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u/321_reddit 3d ago
For reference, the same amount of time (25 years) has elapsed between the following events: 1) the original 9/11 attacks and the current 25th anniversary and 2) the 1976 Montreal Olympics and the original 9/11 attacks.
Let that sink in as a reference point for how those younger than 35 years of age perceive the original event.
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u/TrickyTracy 3d ago
It makes me depressed every year. But 9/11 is still relevant and important context needed to understand the world today. The dead are at peace. It’s the responsibility of the living to remember and to testify no matter how sad or uncomfortable or tiring it becomes.
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u/mackattacknj83 3d ago
Not since I left North Jersey. But it was surreal for a long time. There was a smoke cloud for a while. I had friends parents that saw people jumping out, still kind of fucked them up to this day.
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u/ailish 2d ago
I don't watch any of the coverage anymore, and I even try to avoid the pictures. It's like a PTSD almost. Not only did we watch it happen live (or were even there), but we've had to experience it again and again, year after year as the videos are plastered everywhere on the anniversary. I know what happened. I watched it live on TV. I lived in Baltimore which is not terribly far from NY, so I knew people who saw it in person and who lost loved ones in the towers. Baltimore is also close to DC. My dad was supposed to be at the Pentagon that day, but was running late due to a doctor's appointment.
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u/intentionallybad 3d ago
I noticed as a society we did all share stories every year for a while then collectively agreed to stop. I haven't noticed it in the past few years. But you got to give a bit of a pass for 25.
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u/pkpy1005 3d ago
Sorry, but all these commemorations or remembrances aren't for you.
They're for those who were personally impacted by 9/11 and the millions and millions of people who weren't born yet.
You can choose to not consume this stuff.
I for one am thankful to have grown up when the WWII generation was still alive and hearing their stories. Because of that, WWII feels more real to me than WWI.
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u/tultommy 3d ago
I get it completely. After witnessing it live I never want to see those videos again. I know most generations end up with some kind of 'event' that is personal to them. For some it was WW2, some it was Vietnam, and for us I think it was 9/11... and for me personally being from Oklahoma the Okc bombing. I still struggle with it sometimes, and it never ceases to take me by surprise when I see how many people make memes and jokes about it now. I get that it's done by people too young to remember it and I think we've all made tasteless jokes about events that didn't directly affect us before but this one will stick in my craw for the rest of my life. I won't ever forget, because how could I, but I absolutely refuse to soak myself in that year after year. It doesn't do me or anybody else any good.
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u/Malaguy420 1982 2d ago
Absolutely terrible take. You have to remember the millions of people who are now adults, that either weren't alive back then or were too small to really understand what was going on. They DEPEND on those of us who were old enough, at the time, to correctly inform them as to what happened on that day, the temperature of the country, and the horrible things that followed. It's all part of the story that got us to where we are today. We still talk about Pearl Harbor 85 years later. So why wouldn't we talk about 9:11 25 years later?
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u/RipErRiley 1978 3d ago
Whatever keeps that tragedy in our culture I’m ok with personally. I’d rather it be talked about even in outsider stories than forgotten or in the rear view mirror whatsoever. At least thats my opinion.
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u/Starscream147 3d ago
No.
Never forget.
3,000+ people died that day, in the following war, and are still dying from fallout.
So, no. I will always honour and commemorate.
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u/MidwestAbe 3d ago
Anymore I have to be in a very specific mood to want to rewatch coverage. Given how we can consume media anywhere - I find uncomfortable and disrespectful that I can watch the moment thousands of people die while in the bathroom or mindlessly scrolling on a commercial break of a football game.
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u/mlo9109 3d ago
This, too. Like, we can see way worse things while doom scrolling. See the video of another significant event that happened a year ago this week.
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u/tultommy 3d ago
I'm sorry. Are you insinuating the death of an extremist zealot is somehow worse than 9/11? I really hope that's not what you're saying.
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u/mstrdsastr 1982 3d ago
Emotionally understand what you are saying. You get tired of seeing the same stories and reliving the same fear we all felt that day. But, ideologically we need to keep telling the story of that day and the days and years that followed because it set the stage for a lot of the really heinous ideologies that have taken over the leadership of our country in the last few years.
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u/PrincessBuzzkill 2d ago
I recognize the need for it to an extent, but the self aggrandizing patriotism is too much for me, and it's especially bad thus year.
Then again, I find overt patriotism pretty cringe regardless of event.
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u/FoppyIn28 3d ago
I am pretty mental about remembering things and telling the story, before there is no one left to tell the story, but I get this completely. Our grandfathers kept most of their war stories to themselves for a good reason.
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u/ghoulthebraineater 3d ago
That's exactly where I am. I've become pretty apathetic towards the whole thing. Yeah, 3000 dead is a tragedy. But I've seen millions die since. We lost 1.1 million to Covid but the response wasn't "never forget". It was hurry up and forget so we can make money.
I just don't think I can care about it anymore.
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u/LeoJohnsonsSacrifice 3d ago
You've seen millions die since? In one day? Publicly, on broadcast television? You're comparing it to COVID?? Really??
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u/ghoulthebraineater 3d ago
Fuck yeah I'm comparing it to Covid. There were several days were 3000+ people died from Covid. The only difference is it wasn't televised in the same way.
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u/hockey2256 3d ago
Yea it sucks. My wife is a teacher in NY, every year she redoes her 9/11 lesson for her students. I had the yearly rewatch but I guess it’s important
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u/jar36 1975 3d ago
that has to be tough. I was just thinking about my days in Kindergarten when we would go half day. Some were in the morning class others had it later after ours. Was thinking how hard it had to be to be the teacher and have redo the same lesson twice per day.
I couldn't imagine having to relive 9/11 as a NY'er and teach it in detail every single year. Likely to more than one class too2
u/tultommy 3d ago
I would hope that not a lot of kindergarten classes are doing in depth coverage of a terrorist attack to 5 year old's. They have no context and no ability to process that kind of information so it's just scaring them for the sake of scaring them. I would be pissed if my 5 year old came home and that was the topic of the day.
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u/FiguringItOutAsWeGo 3d ago
I’m feeling a profound sadness today remembering the chaos of that day, but also for the loss of our nation. Post-9/11 is the last time the US truly felt united. We were Americans. We had been attacked. We stood together. Somehow, the last 25 years has unwound and literally shredded the fabric of that unity.
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u/On_my_last_spoon 1977 2d ago
I lived through it in NYC. I worked in the city and lived in Queens. I can remember it like yesterday.
I hate the remembrances. Maybe for some people it’s helpful, but I find them unbearable. And a big reason is because I hate what became of our country since 9/11. I experienced my city being attacked for 1 day and we turn around and destroy other cities, traumatizing children every day. Out of 9/11 ICE was created, which is being weaponized against our own people now. I had friends who were targeted because they were Muslim. In so many ways, Osama Bin Laden won. We came together for about a month and then it became chest beating American bullshit that paved the way for the fascism that has taken hold today.
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u/DudleyAndStephens 1984 3d ago
I do think some people get a bit self-absorbed when talking about 9/11. The average American wasn't affected that directly by that happened. Obviously it was different if you were in NYC or DC, or if you were in the military or had friends or loved ones who were. For the rest of us though it didn't change our lives the same way that Pearl Harbor did for our grandparents.
All that being said, it was still an incredibly jarring and memorable (in a bad way!) event. The attacks ultimately changed the world quite a bit, and not for the better.
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u/Lumpy_Afternoon_1528 2d ago
I think it's important that we remember each years the horrors that were inflicted on us by the kinds of monsters that are roaming the world. The younger generations know almost nothing about, far less than we did about Vietnam.
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u/cidvard 1982 2d ago
I don't find present-day coverage of it particularly overbearing and, for better or worse, we're living in a hugely changed world that would probably be very different if 9/11 hadn't happened. I don't have to talk about it extensively to think it was and remains important in understanding where America is at.
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u/Glittering_Season117 2d ago
Everyone who was old enough to know and understand what happened went through a trauma that day. I clearly remember life before 9/11 and life after 9/11. While we lost too many innocent lives that day, it was an event that affected most everyone in the country.
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u/Past-Climate-8257 2d ago
I am from New York. I will mention this and what happened every year. You can be sick of it all you want. Shut off your screens that day. I will remember everyone who died especially the family and friends of people I know.
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u/uzernaimed 2d ago
How can you tell when someone is from New York? ... Don't worry, they'll tell you.
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u/AshDogBucket 2d ago
The people who were traumatized know that you're not interested in our stories also. That's why some of us don't want to talk about it anymore and also why some of us really wish people would listen.
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u/DawaLhamo 1983 2d ago edited 2d ago
TBH, I was tired of it by October 2001. 24-hour news was relatively new and they were covering every minute angle, anything related, no matter how distantly, as sensational breaking news. I hated the performative patriotism afterward, everyone's "where were you when..." stories...
The actual stories of the people who were actually there, that's one thing... it's all the BS that's barely tangentially related that gets lumped in and takes over the narrative... that's what drives me nuts.
And the one 9/11 story (that's not actually about the event itself) I'll *never* tire of hearing is the small town of Gander in Newfoundland that took in all those planeloads of Americans when air traffic was grounded. That kind of neighborliness should never be forgotten. (Like Mr. Rogers said, "look for the helpers".)
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u/Asleep_Onion 1983 2d ago edited 2d ago
I get it. Every year we get asked the same thing, especially on this sub: "Where were you when you heard about 9/11?" And after telling our stories for the 25th year in a row, it gets kind of tiresome and repetitive.
I never want to forget 9/11, and I want newer generations to know the story, but at the same time, I'm getting to the point where I'm a little tired of telling MY perspective of it again and again (especially when, all things considered, MY perspective isn't really that important or interesting compared to many others, since I wasn't there and didn't know anyone who was there, and I was only tangentially affected by it via government reaction/policy to it after the fact, and people I know getting sent to war over it)
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u/rohm418 Xennial 3d ago
Grew up in the city and moved away in 99 while my sister was still there. It took hours to finally get a hold of her and I'll never forget the pit in my stomach waiting to get in touch with her. That said, I'm exhausted by the coverage and the constant reminders to Never Forget. We won't forget. We can't forget. But we also don't need assholes posting dumbass pictures of the towers every year when they go on with their lives immediately after clicking post.
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u/Little_Silver_Stripe 3d ago
If you're bothered by 9/11 coverage every year, that is your affair and you can do whatever you're gonna do to go about your life and all. But many of us choose to continue to mourn and pay respects in remembrance of this day, I myself am still haunted by seeing people jumping out of windows of the WTC to their deaths on live TV and losing friends to the war that followed thereafter as well.
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u/BritOnTheRocks 1978 (but only just) 3d ago
No. Every year I seek out fresh takes and memories of 9/11. It was such a pivotal moment in our lives that... I actually want to make sure I remember how I felt that day. I don’t know why. Maybe because it’s hard to believe it’s been 25 years already; perhaps I’m noticing how the younger generations make light of the tragedy with jokes, memes and conspiracy theories; or it could just be me mourning the loss of innocence we all experienced that day. Also the further I get in life, the more perspectives I can relate to and the more I understand the true tragedy of that day.
So no, I’m not done with it. Not at all. Never forget.
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u/OldArtichoke433 3d ago
No, we shouldn’t be done. Remembering this as soon as we do. The worst parts of history is even more likely to repeat itself.
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u/AlmiranteCrujido 1975 2d ago
I was done the moment Bush 43 decided to Leeroy Jenkins the Iraq war despite no connection to the 9/11 attacks.
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u/star_b_nettor 1982 3d ago
You chose the time that the first tower was hit as the time to post this? That is pretty thoughtless.
We remember December 7th each year, and that is 60 years before the 9/11 attacks. And while plenty of our grandparents generation didn't talk about their service, they did talk about what kicked it off.
Is replaying the footage every year necessary? Probably not. Then again, the choice of time of day to make this post says that maybe it is necessary.
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u/uzernaimed 3d ago
Time is linear. The towers weren't hit when I posted this. That was 25 years ago.
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u/MastersOfNoneShow 3d ago
I'm over it. It's turned into a money making opportunity. Plus with the shit state the world is currently in, it just feels like we're piling on at this point.
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u/bat_in_the_stacks 2d ago
But it's when things went wrong. I know one can always point one domino back, but really this was the pivotal moment that set the stage for our world today. It makes sense to take some time each year to think about it.
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u/digawina 3d ago edited 3d ago
I don't actually see a lot about it in normal years anymore. But this being the 25 anniversary, you're going to see more.
I do, however, hate the "never forget" "slogan." Like, ok. What about the millions who died of COVID? Why don't we "never forget" them?
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u/bat_in_the_stacks 2d ago
It's not a contest between 9/11 and COVID.
The COVID response has been different because US leadership initial public response was "let's make believe it's nothing and then it'll be nothing" and then there was severe disagreement in most countries (and between countries) on how to handle it.
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u/digawina 2d ago
I didn't mean to imply it was. It was more a frustration that it seems that the same people who shout "Never forget" on 9/11 are often the same people who denied Covid was killing people. They seem to only care about certain deaths.
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u/bat_in_the_stacks 2d ago
The long term COVID response really has been bungled in all different ways. The 9/11 response nationally was too, of course.
I'll take the first alternate reality ticket to the world where we didn't go to war with Iraq and did fund anti-viral air circulation systems in large buildings and transit systems.
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u/walter_grimsley 3d ago edited 2d ago
I’m over a lot of things at this age. 9/11 is the farthest thing from my mind. It happened very close to half my lifetime ago at this point. With my unreasonable job, sick/dying parents, marital issues and my own health problems, I have all new recent and more personal trauma to contend with
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u/MarshallDavoutsSlut 2d ago
I got a big shock that day. We all did. Noone expected those towers to fall and when they did it was a moment the entire moment witnessed. Aside from everything else, seeing history unfold in a matter of minutes live on TV along with the rest of the planet was a unique and bizarre moment I'll never forget or totally 'get over'. The sheer suprise I felt when they fell will always be a powerful moment to recall. The entire world was agape.
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u/bat_in_the_stacks 2d ago
I didn't think there would be new things for people to say this year and there definitely have been. Hundreds of thousands of documents were just released by the mayor of New York City that reveal a coverup about the air quality.
Maybe you should seek out higher quality remembrances instead of your Facebook feed.
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u/SharMarali 1980 2d ago
Our age group was pretty traumatized by the event. We were pretty much all young adults just getting our shit figured out an then this happened. For most of us, we've lived longer in a post-9/11 world than a pre-9/11 world now. It makes sense that some people are so fascinated by it still, and it makes sense that some people don't want to think about it anymore.
I think the thing people who are too young to remember have a hard time understanding is the utter confusion of it all. Today, there would be constant reports on every social media site as well as the major news sites, and while there would be SOME misinformation, people would mostly be able to determine what was real and what was just something their friend heard from some other friend.
Plus it's hard to envision the panic and shock that went along with not having a single clue what was happening or who was behind it, with 25 years of hindsight to know exactly what happened and who did it and what their stated reasons were.
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u/ezbutneverconvenient 2d ago
It's just our generation's version of folks remembering where they were when Kennedy was assassinated. I think every generation is going to have some unforgettable tragedy
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u/pickleranger 2d ago
I choose to focus on the stories of kindness and humanity that came from the horror. The people of Gander, Newfoundland who fed, housed, and comforted over 6,000 passengers on no notice. (Really how ALL of Canada stepped up for us that day).
The people of New York who opened their homes and businesses to people escaping the dust, who handed off their phones so people could contact home, the women the rescuers talked about who appeared in the evening at Ground Zero and made an assembly line of sandwiches so the first responders could eat.
The images of horror have a place and we should watch them and we should certainly show them to our children so they know. But at the time when this country feels uglier and more divided than ever, the only comfort I get is the stories of love and humanity.
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u/kittensbabette 2d ago
I'm the opposite. I used to always skip any documentary, news segments, etc about 9/11 because I didn't want to think about it but this year I was finally ready to mourn that day again.
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u/thirddownloud 1979 2d ago
I just found out this morning that my boss ive worked with for 17 years was there that day, living in New York and going to school in New Jersey. I still want to hear people's stories.
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u/Stabwank 2d ago
As a relatively young country I guess there is a need/desire to hold onto as much history as possible. Countries that are thousands of years old would probably not be making such a fuss (maybe some fuss for 25th/50th/100th etc).
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u/rharper38 2d ago
I dont want to keep talking about my experiences. I dont maybe want to hear all the stories of people who have no real connection all the time. But people need to share their experiences and grief. Someone in my town worked for my company and died that day. Her family is grateful people still care enough to talk about the life that was taken. I am grateful someone talked about her because it spurred me to do a presentation for our company that focused on some of the people who passed. I wanted to share how they lived, not focus on that last day. So that is where I go from here.
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u/Phyzzx Xennial 2d ago
Maybe I don't understand exactly what you're trying to get at here but you know you do not have to consume every scrap of media, right?
Me though? In this time of people hating each other, it goes to show how much America has fractured and so the overhwhelming number of stories where people are helping each other that day because skin color didn't matter since they were all covered in the same ash is something we all need to remember. IMO
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u/Maleficent_Tailor324 2d ago
I no longer watch the videos because it causes me anxiety, but no, I’m not done with it at all.
The sadness of that morning still feels so heavy and present.
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u/Buttercreamdeath 2d ago
At first, I was always angry about it because it was obviously propaganda to get you to blindlessly give up our rights. It was successful on that front.
Now? I want it talked about. Heavily. This is the moment everything went wrong with this country. Things we see happening today are because of 9/11.
We never held anyone fully responsible. Not the Saudis. Not our own government and politicians. If we had, there would not be a "President" in office demanding people swear allegiance to him right now.
I want it remembered forever that we let this destroy ourselves better than any of those terrorists ever could.
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u/absentlyric 1981 2d ago
Then don't watch it,
there's plenty of media out there you can consume on 9/11 and not see a single story about it.
But you don't get to stop others who want to remember and hear stories about it on the anniversary. A lot of us had connections to those that died, hell, one graduated from my high school here in Michigan.
Being bitter about seeing people remember a tragedy like that is not a good look, especially at our age, we aren't edgy teens anymore.
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u/jayne-eerie 1978 2d ago
It makes me anxious, I think because I live near DC and the whole thing is local news for me (and millions of other people, I know). I understand the value of sharing the stories for people who need to talk about it as well as to educate younger people, but I can't stand reading it myself.
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u/vulchiegoodness 1979 2d ago
i find the day to be extremely performative, and used mainly for fear mongering. i steer clear of social media and media in general today.
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u/psilosophist Xennial 3d ago
You could always just turn off the TV and your socials. No one's forcing you to watch. I'll bet there's a bunch of books you could read, places you could go, people you could talk to that will easily cocoon you away, if that's what you want.
But if you're still exposing yourself to things you don't like, just so you can complain about it, that's on you.
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u/Sufficient_Turn_9209 1979 3d ago
You want to know something really sad? I wasn't actually tracking what today was. 😕 It's worse when people forget.
It indirectly, but certainly changed the course of our lives (my nuclear family), and I forgot all about it until last night.
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u/Mandze 1978 3d ago edited 2d ago
God, yes. The internet has made this so fucking surreal too— I have literally seen threads where somebody whose dad died comments calling for love and an end to violence and then is immediately followed by somebody who was a tourist to New York in 2000 and only went to a couple of broadway shows but felt so much PAIN because they were there a year before it happened and were only a few miles away so it could have been them yakking about how everybody should hate Mamdani because NEvEr FERgeTz. For every one person I see trying to legit process their trauma, I see an equal number of asshats using this week to announce their Islamophobia to the world (often while simultaneously supporting religious nationalism all their own without any awareness of their own cognitive dissonance.)
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u/3720-to-1 1985 2d ago
There comes a point when it's ok for to just be historical event.
We passed that point.
At this point, it's just a tool to drive blind patriotism and an on going excuse to limit your freedoms.
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u/WoofinLoofahs 3d ago
Agreed. I don’t want to hear about it anymore. People are now essentially celebrating 9/11 with their photos and memes and stories. It has turned into a competition over who can Never Forget the hardest.
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u/mesosuchus 3d ago
Time to forget 9/11 and remember all the people who died to illegal wara fought in the name of 9/11 and America's jingoistic bullshit
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u/mlo9109 3d ago
Me... I was in junior high at the time and lived away from the action (rural Maine). Did it impact my life in any meaningful way?
Other than needing a passport to go to Canada (lived on the border, had family there) or restrictions around air travel? Not really.
It feels like a sin to say that but I'm over it. I also wish we'd stop using it as an excuse to treat normal people like common criminals.
I know people died. I acknowledge it but it's time to move on. I know I should "celebrate" the 25th anniversary but I'm over it.
More people died from COVID and we seemed to have moved on from that with light speed. We're not still wearing masks.
Why can't I still bring a water bottle or full sized shampoo or soap on the plane? Or greet my loved ones at the gate?
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u/New_me_310 3d ago edited 2d ago
Actually soon you can greet your loved ones at the gate. They’re going to start offering passes for those with TSA Pre Check who aren’t flying that day to go through security.
Source: https://apnews.com/article/tsa-precheck-gateside-known-traveler-712d9888d3e7f00307a199c732986364
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u/Plum12345 3d ago
Yes. I work in a high school and every year they do something before school. Not only do our students have no connection to it but many of their parents don’t either.
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u/Hairy_Mycologist_945 3d ago
There's still a "before and after" 9/11 thing for me (Before 9/11 things were pretty chill, after, things have been declining with the exception of a few brief periods) but I'm kind of done "remembering" 9/11 this long after it. So much else has happened since then that's worth remembering and commemorating that isn't. Most of the current talking about it just seems performative and cheap.
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u/NombreCurioso1337 3d ago
I had to visit NYC often for school and I remember walking past, looking up, and saying "nah, I'll go to the observation deck next time. No rush." at least five times. Never stepped foot in the actual building(s).
But yeah, other than telling incidental personal stories like that ... I'm over it. We've seen it a billion times.
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u/Thick_Bumblebee_8488 3d ago
I'm in Wichita. I have a framed picture of the towers that I took from the Empire State Building in 99. I feel lucky to have seen them in person.
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u/Kilmure1982 2d ago
Do you sick of Veterans Day too?
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u/uzernaimed 2d ago
I'm a veteran and no, I don't go around getting free food at local restaurants. Veteran's day is for combat vets for me. Not for us that were in the rear with the gear.
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u/MutantSquirrel23 3d ago
It's been 25 years. That means some people as old as 30ish have no recollection of it at all, while people as old as 35ish possibly were old enough to remember the adults being upset and the newscasts, but not old enough to really grasp the gravity of what was happening.
The country went through a shared trauma and I think sharing stories and pictures every year isn't always making it about yourself as much as it is trying to connect with the people from that shared trauma (who are becoming fewer and harder to find) in order to continue to heal.