9/11/17

    It's that time of year again. It's time to remember 9/11. Much time has passed. There are teenagers who are studying for SaTs who were not yet born then.
      I still am brought to tears when I watch clips of the towers being destroyed ,of the people jumping from the buildings, and from the reading of the names.
       I remember those who lost their lives that day and I grieve with all who were left behind. No one truly knows how much beauty the world could have gained had so many not had their lives cut short. It's up to us to continue their legacy since they cannot. We need to let those who are important to us know they are as this is life and there are no dress rehearsals.

Remembering 9/11

View of lower Manhattan from the Q train. Freedom tower on far right

  Another 9/11 is here . I am off of work today and and am watching the reading of the the names of those who perished in the attacks of 9/11. It always brings tears to my eyes. This year there isn't really a theme for those reading the names . Every type of relative of those who were lost are reading the names. It is a little disconcerting how sometimes as they read the names there is a lag between the photo on the screen and the name that is read. They do not always match. The sound from CBS keeps fading in and out .
      I admit that I do not usually watch all of the names being read. Its such a long list. Its a beautiful day today. It was a very hot sunny day in New York City on  9/11  of 2001. I particularly remember how bright it was that Tuesday because the day before had been so rainy.

Lower Manhattan.. Freedom tower on far right

The Freedom Tower

    I am glad that the weather is nice out today . It makes it a little easier for those downtown who are there for the memorial ceremony .
    As I watch the names and ages of those who we have lost flash on the television screen I realize that they would be fourteen years older now had they lived. Those who were young then would no longer be so young. They were not blessed to be able to experience the passage of time.
      9/11 was a horrible day for all of us. It was a living nightmare that one could not escape. I remember waking up 9/12 /01 thinking  "Now  what?" What  does one do after the world has been changed forever? After 14 years I have learned that life does go on even when one is not sure it can. It just takes awhile to get back on track sometimes.
     I have included some pictures of downtown Manhattan. Some include the new freedom tower that memorializes 9/11 . The tower is the very tall building on the right side of the first and third picture and its the building in the center in the last picture.
          Lets never forget those live who were lost and those who were so brave that day. Lets pray for peace. 

9/11/14 the Bar Mitzvah Memorial Year

     9/11 or Patriot Day as I once noticed they are calling it is again upon us. I still have a knot in my stomach when I think about it. It was the day America's innocence was lost.
    What can I say. The world is in just as big a mess if not bigger than it was 13 years ago. I suppose its the bar mitzvah memorial year. Now what would the haftorah be?
     A thirteen year old is a big  kid. There are thirteen year old kids out there who for them 9/11 is a history lesson. Time just goes on... I guess this how elderly people feel. One remembers certain events so clearly you almost forget how long ago they occurred.
    I pray for peace in the world . I pray for peace in the United States.  I pray for peace in Israel. I pray for an end to terrorism.
   

    

Patriot Day 9/11/13

     When I opened my calender to September this year I noticed that September 11 is now called Patriot Day. I am not sure exactly why, but it will always be merely 9/11 to me.
       It has been 12 years since one of the most horrific tragedies in my lifetime. It was the first day in my life when I experienced lack of appetite. And yet , life has moved on.
       On 9/11/01 it had seemed like time had stopped. I woke up 9/12/11 and wondered what next? Could life ever go on normally again? I went to work the next day and realized it could except for the fact that no one could stop talking about what had happened the day before.
     September 11,2001 was an extraordinarily beautiful day. The day before it had rained non-stop, which accentuated just how sunny and beautiful September 11 was. It just goes to show that just as tranquility does not always prevail on  a sunny day, tragedy does not always occur on a rainy day. Attractive people aren't always kind and less attractive people sometimes are more genuine.
      I cry for the families who lost loved ones during the attacks. I cry for the loss of our collective innocence.
      May we be inscribed for a year of peace, health and harmony.
     
      

The Reading of the Names

     I do not recall being at any pre- 911 holocaust memorial ceremony that actually read an extended list of names of people who perished. I remember seeing lists of people who were murdered and hearing individual accounts , but never a whole reading of names of those who were lost. Maybe it was done before but I never noticed. I have noticed that at the JCC in Manhattan they will be reading names of those who were murdered during the shoah. I think that this is meaningful. I find it meaningful to hear the reading of the names of those who died during 9/11 at the  9/11 memorial every year. I admit that I don't usually listen to all of the names being read, but I guess that this is the point. So many were lost that its difficult to listen to all of the names being read . During a holocaust memorial there are even more names to be read. And those are just the names we are aware of . 

remembering those who perished on 9/11

 this is one of the makeshift memorials that were erected in union square right after 9/11. May we never forget those who perished . May we never forget those who died trying to help those who were trapped. May there never be another terrorist attack as large  as the one on 9/11/2001. May there never be another terrorist attack ever. I pray for peace. 

9/11...again

      Rosh Hashanah is next week and behold 9/11 is upon us today. Its hard to believe that it has been 11 years since 9/11. Then again I can believe it.  It doesn't seem as though it has just happened. I even almost forgot about it. Almost.
      It is good that it does not strike such a strong cord whenever it is mentioned but on the other hand it is sad. Its been 11 years since our innocence has been taken away and its hard to remember the world  that was .

sleep

i normally do not have nightmares. last night was a harrowing exception. though i haven't been obsessing about 9/11 lately i managed to have a terrorism nightmare. the scene of the nightmare was union square. several planes landed in union square while elsewhere in manhattan there were beheadings. this nightmare seemed too real. i woke up from the nightmare to find myself silently screaming. it was so-ooo--ooo unsettling. i turned the light on in my room for a little bit and after waking .
it was definitely one of those dreams you would not wish to come true.

9/10/01

on the evening of 9/10/01 it rained cats and dogs. i was very peeved at the time because i had needed to restock my refrigerator, but couldn't due to the torrential rain that night. another thing i will never forget about that night was my subway ride home. it is something i had never seen before or ever  again. one of the poles that people hold on to spontaneously fell . at the time no one was holding on to it. one man picked up the fallen pole and claimed it as his own . he took it home with him as a souvenir.
9/11/01 was a bright and shining day especially compared to the day that had proceeded it. this made the tragedy of the day make people feel even more off balance. as if it that could be possible.

p.s. i realize that this is a photo of a subway car that is very old and was not in service 9/11/01 but its   cool and i used it anyway.

inspired by 9/11/01

being a technophobe i am always the last to get the new technology bandwagon. when cellphones were new i kept putting off getting one because i didn't want to be that accessible . after 9/11 it all changed. the idea of having a cellphone made me feel safer so i got one. when i went to the store it became obvious to me that a lot of people were buying cellphones as a result of 9/11. in his sales pitch the clerk who helped me remarked how it really helps to have a cellphone when one is running from a burning building. even at the time i found that  remark over the top. then again, it was no worse than when the train conductor would say that due to the"incident" at the world trade center all q trains were running local.

9/11 ....the reading of the names

every year at the site of the world trade center they read the names of those who lost their lives  9/11/2001. this year is no different. it is  broadcast on television . family members of the fallen are reading the names as i am writing this. it is hard not to shed a tear when one realizes how long it is taking them to read those names. parents, spouses , children , brothers , sisters,aunts, uncles and cousins were lost. when a fourteen year old girl read her father's name and said that this was by his "peanut girl" one realizes how long ten years is . there will be a day not too far off when the children who were born to 9/11 widows within the year after 9/11 will be old enough to read their fathers names. the most heart wrenching is listening to the parents who lost children on 9/11. how can anything be the same for them?
to all those who were lost on 9/11/01 may they rest in peace. may those who had loved ones who perished that day may they have peace.

9/11/11

where has the time gone? the events of 9/11/01 are as clear to me now as they were ten years ago.  on  the morning of  9/11/01 i was at work when two planes flew into  manhattan and destroyed the world trade center. i was at work when another plane hit the pentagon and yet another plane went down in pennsylvania. everyone at work crowded around a vintage 1976 tv and watched in disbelief as the first tower fell and then then the  second. though by the time i was watching it both planes had hit the trade center,  it barely registered that there were actually two planes  even though i later realized that i had watched the instant replay of both planes hitting the trade center.
i know several people who escaped the world trade center that day. they were the lucky ones.
i stared in disbelief as i saw the photos of thousands displayed all over manhattan looking for the "missing" people. they most certainly are missed but they are  not alive either.
for days after 9/11 there were sirens. for at least a week after you could still see the smoke as the world trade center continued to burn. for weeks there were war planes overhead in all of the five boroughs of new york city.
i lost three pounds on 9/11/01. i couldn't eat for weeks. whenever i put food in my mouth it tasted like sawdust. the world as we knew it was forever changed.
it wasn't until november that i was mentally able to see the destruction at the world trade center site. even then there were throngs of people gathered to  view the devastation.there were signs beseeching onlookers not to take photos of the destruction. no one heeded that request. i took pictures, but the truth was that by then it was just a big pit. not much else was left, beside the stench.
i took pictures of the "missing" people. i took pictures of the shrines  individuals erected in union square in memory of those who were murdered. i found out from photos of the "missing" that i  knew a few people who had siblings that died in the world trade center.
it was hard to endure those frummies who were happy this event happened to the united states because they thought that this would make the united states understand israel better. what fools. all events of terror are horrible. and actually the destruction of the world trade center does ellipse many other acts of terror because of how many people were murdered. the zealous fools would say that because israel has less people that proportionally that its the same but i don't agree. a life is a life and 3,000 were lost at the world trade center at one pop. i don't advocate comparing tragedies in any event. acts of terror are acts of terror. no need to compare.
i pray for peace. i pray that 9/11 will remain the only terror act of its kind in the united states. peace and love forever.

new york state of mind

living in new york is a weird experience. when i lived in the midwest no one would revel in living in the midwest or talk about the midwest like an actual being. in new york, new york is a being. its a topic . sometimes its nice to leave new york because one does not have to constantly hear people speak about new york and new yorkers. its a very egocentric existence. its almost as if new york is a country instead of a state.
after 9/11 people would talk about the devastation as if it it only affected new york and new yorkers. a major part of the devastation happend here , but it really happend to the united states not just to new york city and the tri-state area.

9/11

im embarrassed to say that i almost forgot it was 9/11 yesterday and by the time i remembered it was too late to post about it, so im posting about it today. perhaps its a good thing that i forgot to blog about it. perhaps it means some of the pain has gone away. i dont mean to say that i shouldn't be sad that 9/11 happened or that so many were murdered, but i do think that the memory doesnt need to remain a fresh wound.
i did watch some of the memorial ceremony that was held at the wtc site. it still makes me cry. i think that the rainy weather was appropriate.
9/11 was one of the scariest days of my life . though i was in manhattan at the time, b"h i was not in downtown manhattan when it occurred. one could see the smoke from the upper east side where i was at the time. that was bad enough. watching the footage on the television at work was surreal. at first when i saw the second plane hit it did not even register. when the first tower fell i felt like i was punched in the stomach. when i heard about the plane that hit in washington i felt immobile. and of course the final blow was when some kook told me that they thought it was great because now america knows how israel feels, i was ready to kill them on the spot . here i am reeling from the scariest attack on the united states and someone is happy about it. some people just don't get the point. terror attacks should not happen ANYWHERE EVER. and just because a terror attack happend here it doesn't mean that anti-semites will suddenly identify with the israelis.
may the memory of those who perished during 9/11 be a blessing . peace on earth . shalom .

unbearable thoughts

its been a week since the attacks in mumbai and i am still disturbed by it. how it happened to the people of india as well as those murdered in the chabad house. i am also in awe of those firefighters who rescued people from the hotel in the taj mahal, even when they were instructed not to by their superiors. at great risk to their own safety they rescued 3oo people. i am equally in awe of sandra samuel the nanny who saved the baby of the slain chabad rabbi and his wife. equally miraculous is how this baby lived through this at all.

in the new york's jewish week rabbi menachem mendel nemes , a yeshiva teacher in crown heights was quoted as telling his students that" if this group can cause that much destruction in the world, imagine if that size group got together to do good deeds." this my friends is the truth . this is what is wrong with the world. so many pool their energies for evil instead of channeling them toward good. what an incredible world we would live in if only good was channeled instead of evil.

however... all is not lost. hatikvah-hope is in the essence of the jewish people. we must have hope that good will prevail over evil and that there will be total and complete shalom someday soon.... very soon...
as for those freaks of nature who say to the world "maybe now they will understand" when a terror attack happens to someone who isnt jewish "GET OVER YOURSELVES!!" its equally evil to revel in anyone suffering such a brutal attack. one should wish that peope learn compassion for terror victims in a peaceful manner, not by reveling in others misfortunes. i heard frummies say this after 9/11. to me they almost seemed happy. many jewish souls were lost during 9/11, yet they were happy to pontificate their mantra of "maybe now they will understand" . well folks, i surely dont understand. reveling in harm to others just "so they will understand" is childish and definitly not frum.