A Tribute

[Voyage]

I would like to make a small tribute here in memory and honor of those who died on a day like today, a year ago; and all of those who helped after the tragedy.

This is a time for reflection and of positive change.

Peace And Love To Everyone.

Voyage

[DanceMan]

Thanks, Voyage, for your posting....It means a lot to all of us who live and work near ground zero in NYC that so many around the world are united here with us....God bless you and everyone.....DanceMan

[jazz_pilgrim]

I would also like to pay tribute to those who died in that terrible tragedy exactly one year ago. My thoughts and prayers are with them, their friends and relatives and all Americans to-day.

Peace to you all, my friends, wherever you may be in the world

[Blaxman]

Hi, I want join my words to this tribute.
I still in shock!! Those were coward acts indeed!! :sad:

God bless you all, friends!!

Sincerely,

Mauro.

[Funky Dude]

I too like to pay tribute to the people that died :sad: and my thoughts and prayers are with them and they're friends and family. Also I heard on the news that on Bondi Beach in Sydney Australia a lot of us formed a large American flag to pay tribute to the people who sadly :sad: lost their lives in this terrorist attack.

Peace will prevail.

[Outsider]

I also will pay tribute to the victims of the terrorist attacks. I will never forget them.

I'm proud to be an American!

[sammyperez]

As a native New Yorker and proud American just wanted to say I'll never forget. Also, to my friend Alan Merdinger who worked on the 102nd floor of the north tower, your memory lives on and the Taekwondo mission continues.

Easy,

Sam "ALL JAM"

[BrunoRepublic]

I am also in a quiet and contemplative mood today. I will never ever forget the events of one year ago. I can't remember what I did two weeks ago, but I remember that day as if it had just happened. Even though I'm in another country, New York is still relatively close to my city -- in both a geographical and cultural sense.

Like many people, the tragedy had a profound impact on my view of life. Six weeks later, I visited New York for the first time with my friend Laura -- both to see the sights, and to offer our support to a city which had suffered such a loss. I was absolutely amazed and fascinated by the place. The experiences I had and images that I saw had a profound effect on me. Contrary to the hostile urban attitude that I was expecting, all the New Yorkers were very kind, helpful, and seemed genuinely pleased to see us. I immediately understood why New York is so special. It's like no other place on earth. It really is "all that". I hope to return soon to do some more exploring. I have no doubt that I could spend a lifetime there, and still not see it all.

But our most unforgettable experience came on the last day we were there. Laura was trying to get to Battery Park for one of the boat tours (she's a sucker for touristy stuff). With the last three subway stations closed, we had to walk part of the way. We got lost, and unwittingly found ourselves at ground zero. Even six weeks after the tragedy, the scene was unbelieveable. Makeshift memorials everywhere, people quietly sobbing, and the steady noise of construction and recovery equipment working away. Although they had closed off the area, one could still see the massive devastation everywhere. The huge pile of smoking rubble. The white dust spread all over lower Manhattan. The nearby skyscrapers with all their windows blown out -- each of these as tall as the bigger office towers in my city, yet old photos show how they were dwarfed by the twin towers. ... the images on TV didn't even prepare us for what we saw first-hand.

We both stared in silence for about half an hour. Laura took some photos. I object criticisms that this was morbid -- how could anyone simply ignore this? It wasn't something I wanted to see -- it was something I had to see. I needed to see it so that I could grasp, for lack of a less cheesy term, "the human side" of it.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Graham Start on 2002-09-11 12:33 ]</font>

[Ricardo_Mata]

I was not born in the U.S. but this is my home in every sense of the word. On Sept. 11th 2001 I cried more than I had ever cried before in my life. Today, as I was in my car driving to my first class of the day, a local radio station was reading the names of each and every victim of the attacks.

I was stopped at a red light and began to cry. I felt self-concious and tried to stop. As I did, I turned to both sides, maybe trying to find out if anybody had seen me. To my left there was a police officer in a patrol car, crying. To my right, a fellow in a Lexus, wearing a suit and tie, also crying. I felt a certain closeness to each and everyone of them.

May God Bless the victims, their families, the troops fighting to keep something similar from ever happening again, and each and every one of you.

My love to all of you.

[DanceMan]

Thank you, Richard, for those kind words...but never be ashamed to cry, especially for something as devastating as tragedy and loss..I remember crying that day, initially for myself, for having made it out of there alive as I was walking (not running) and looking directly upward at the Towers on Church Street at 9:45 and not (thankfully) 9:59....as Machine and others have said, there but for the grace of God go I......I guess if I didn't GO as fast as I did, I wouldn't be on this thread posting this tonight.....

[keefelc]

San Francisco paid a special tribute to the victims of 9/11 this Sunday. A now local artist, originally from Beijing, created a three mile banner of U.S. Flags. An estimated 1,500 people unfolded and held the banner as it stretched across the SF coastline. The SF Chronicle called it, "an artistic display of patriotism, rememberance and strength."

[SandraDee]

Although I've never been to NYC (I've visited California twice) I always dreamed of living there when I was a kid in late 70s/ early 80's & for years had a giant photo of the Manhattan skyline on the wall of my living room. I can't bring myself to look at this picture any more as i feel sick/ angry/ upset to think of what happened a year ago. Things will not be the same again but we must not let these evil people beat us. Terrorists are cowards & the rest of us are made of better stuff.