9/11 | PUNT ROAD END | Richmond Tigers Forum
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9/11

We went to the memorial site in December '16. Anyone who doesn't get emotional there is ...I dunno.
 
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Spike Lee has a new documentary series out NYC Epicenters 9/11-2021½, four eps, I'm watching the first one now. First one is on Covid19 in NY, but many of the people interviewed are 9/11 vets and talk about how this is impacting on their populations as well. Absolutely scathing on Governor Cuomo. The 3rd and 4th eps are on 9/11 specifically. Apparently Spike is a bit of a conspiracy theorist and had to re-edit some of the more bizarre stuff out. Definitely worth a watch if you want a black/minority view about how all this went down. It's a Spike Lee joint so he does things like caption President Barack "Brudda Man" Obama, and Trump is "President Agent Orange".


It's on Binge/foxtel.
 
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We went to the memorial site in December '16. Anyone who doesn't get emotional there is ...I dunno.
Yeah. In the museum there’s a section where you can hear communications by first responders, air traffic controllers, and people inside the buildings and from the planes.

There’s one particular loop you can listen to of a guy called Sean Rooney who is trapped high up in the South Tower. He calls his wife Beverley a few times. I won’t ruin it if anybody wants to listen to the exchanges but geez. If your not moved by it you’re not human. There is also another sad twist to the exchange post of the attacks as well.
 
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The United Airlines Flight 93 plane that crashed in Pennsylvania doesn't get enough of a mention I reckon. Passengers finding out what had happened and realising they were on one of the flights. Decide to fight back and take back the plane.

Undoubtedly saved many lives not sure they ever worked out where it was headed but the White House would be the most likely.
 
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The United Airlines Flight 93 plane that crashed in Pennsylvania doesn't get enough of a mention I reckon. Passengers finding out what had happened and realising they were on one of the flights. Decide to fight back and take back the plane.

Undoubtedly saved many lives not sure they ever worked out where it was headed but the White House would be the most likely.

Agree, no one knows the target but it was likely something in Washington. Either the White House or the Capitol building you would assume.

An attack on the Department of Defence - tick
An attack on capitalism - tick
An attack on the US senate or president - highly likely
 
I thought it was Camp David.

Until you go stand in the area the towers stood you can’t comprehend how inconceivable is that TWO buildings would fall down in that area. It’s incredibly expansive but compact at the same time. I just stood there the first time I went and looked around, couldn’t really grasp what had happened where I stood.
 
Will never forget until the day I die the moment Sandra Sully said a plane has hit the second tower.

Chilling.

Standing in the lounge room watching it unfold, I thought it was the start of WW3.
 
The United Airlines Flight 93 plane that crashed in Pennsylvania doesn't get enough of a mention I reckon. Passengers finding out what had happened and realising they were on one of the flights. Decide to fight back and take back the plane.

Undoubtedly saved many lives not sure they ever worked out where it was headed but the White House would be the most likely.
Watching Turning Point on Netflix it seems the Capitol was the target.
 
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I was watching the West Wing and they went to news with the first tower being hit. We were speculating about how close the flight paths were to the towers, especially given the amount of traffic to a few busy airports in NYC. Also trying to work out if it was deliberate (back then you asked, how could that be?) and then the second tower got hit and you knew it was deliberate. Seeing it virtually live from the other side of the world it was just a shock.

Some years later we flew to Europe, Brussels, not long after the attack on that airport. Half the place was boarded up because of the damage and heavily armed cops/military everywhere. A mate of mine lived in Madrid when there was an attack there and would normally have been on one of the affected trains.

The world has changed because of these events but we need to understand more about why this is happening. When you look at countries like Afghanistan, Malaysia and lots of others there is more fundamentalism than there was back in the 1970s when things were getting freer, what went wrong? We need to understand the root cause of the radicalisation and the rise in terrorism and try and find out why some are radicalised and believe terrorist acts are worth committing.

DS
 
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In the new 9/11: Inside The Presidents War Room, they suggest the Shanksville plane was heading for a Washington target. Cheney had given the order to bring it down before the courageous passengers brought it down themselves.

The WTC area is nothing like it used to be obviously. What you see now as the Freedom Tower, various structures like the Oculus etc and all the space there, is now wildly different. The original towers plaza and footprints were quite large. Some people think the memorial pools are the same size footprints. They’re not quite.The pools are a bit smaller and obviously all the towers’ plaza infrastructure is gone, mostly consumed by the Memorial trees and such.
 
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We went to the memorial site in December '16. Anyone who doesn't get emotional there is ...I dunno.
Most spine chilling place I’ve ever been .

The second time I had the privilege of been there , I had a mate with me who had never been to New York so we were seeing as much as we could in 48 hours so I took him there for a ” quick look” 4 hours later we walked out with hardly a word spoke .

Reading one of the many chiiling stories in there was about a fire fighting team that people passed running out as they were running in knowing they would most likely die , but that’s what they were fire fighters and they had a job to do, *smile* it still gives me chills . So many incredible stories of courage ,and sacrifice .

Not sure if there’s an online way of viewing it , however if there is and you haven’t been there , it’s a must
 
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A thing a lot of people don’t recognise is the toll post 9/11 as well.

There are some 111,000 people registered for assistance with the WTC Health Program for health related issues resulting from the towers’ collapse. Injuries, toxic dust inhalation etc. I think there’s 3000 or so directly attributable deaths to the toxic dust and tens and tens of thousands of cases of illness that appear related. Some $12 billion in aid and assistance has been spent helping these people v $4 billion spent on direct victims and their families - if that puts things into perspective. The support program covers an area from the tip of Manhattan up to Houston Street as it dissects lower Manhattan from the Hudson River (west) to the East River and then part of Brooklyn across the other side of the East River. Anyone in that area at the time can register for medical and financial support. That’s a huge populous.

A few years ago I had dinner at Delmonico’s in the Financial District. Went to their sensational bar downstairs after. Met a senior exec from AIG. Dunno how we got around to talking about it but he told me about one of his best friends dying recently from toxic inhalation from 9/11. He broke down crying as he explained the day, what happened to his friend etc.

Just a shocking day and act with outcomes that will be forever felt and the true quantum and reach of impact, not completely understood.
 
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Was there for the 10 year anniversary, 10years ago. The most strange and eerie public event I've ever been to. Really crowded for blocks around, but no noise. Nobody speaking. You could speak if you wanted to, and a few were, I got talking to the police chief, who had a full police livery corvette, but nobody felt like it. The strangest thing was a different groups there, in matching costumes or grouped together with banners. Conspiracy theorists, amish peace choir, British Jewish anti-muslim nazis (I kid you not, I have photos), crazy bearded religeous freak on roller blades with stars and stripes, normal people mourning loved ones, and many more. No fighting or animosity between any of the groups, I asked the chief about it, why not? 'Its the constitution pal". Never forget it.
 
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