Friday, September 11, 2020

2,977 - Revisited

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American Airlines Flight 11 - 87 passengers and crew.

United Airlines Flight 175 - 60 passengers and crew.

The World Trade Center - 2,606 civilians and first responders.

(U.S. Navy Photo by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Jim Watson)
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American Airlines Flight 77 - 59 passengers and crew.

The Pentagon - 125 civilians, soldiers, and sailors.

(U.S. Navy Photo by Journalist 1st Class Mark D. Faram)
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United Airlines Flight 93 - 39 passengers and crew.

Shanksville, Pennsylvania - 1 police officer on the ground.

(U.S. Government photo)
The youngest was 2 and a half, the oldest was 85.

How many years of life experience were erased that day? How many years of potential  were erased? We will never know. We can only mourn the dead. Not bring them back.

I wish I could forgive those who perpetrated these heinous acts fifteen years ago. But it isn't in me, God forgive me, but I cannot forgive this, ever.

I remember, I mourn.

Woe to those who would let such a thing occur ever again. That too will not be forgotten, nor forgiven.

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Note: In the casualty figures above, I do not include the perpetrators. May they rot in Hell for all of eternity and may their names never be spoken again. May they be forgotten, unforgiven, and unmourned. Forever.


Upon reflection...

I posted that four years ago.  It was an election year, as is this. At the time I was not very confident in the outcome of the election. Needless to say I was surprised. Pleasantly as it turned out.

Once again I am not very confident in the outcome of an election. For many reasons which I won't go into. You have your opinions, I have mine, they probably differ. And I respect that.

I say above that things would neither be forgotten, nor forgiven. It seems though that those that remember grow smaller in number each year. Every time I drive near New York and see the skyline, I remember what it used to look like. It's a constant knife to the belly.

Many just don't care, and that grieves me.

Not all have forgotten, read this.

Those who forget the past are not necessarily doomed to repeat it, but they are certainly doomed to make the same mistakes over and over again.

I fear for my country...





25 comments:

  1. I cannot forget and I still hate ‘em.

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  2. I feel the same as your last line....I fear for my country....

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  3. Will see how many blank-eyed stares I get when I tell people to remember the anniversary.......Never Forget! Today is a good day to hate.

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  4. I do not forget, Sarge. What I find unforgivable is not such much those that perpetuated the act - not that I do not forgive them, but that they were motivated simply by hate - is those that, having seen all of that, continue to make excuses for them, including individuals that live in this country.

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  5. I will never forget. Ever.

    I have enough Viking and Scots blood in me that I can think of some very creative methods to demonstrate my total absolute unforgiving hate on those who perpetrated this horrible crime, not just those who physically carried it out, but those who financed and approved it. Those methods begin with radioactive hot molten sand, and include boiling oil, red hot pincers, dull butter knives and an eon of time.

    To this day, people are still dying from what was done on that bright September morning, brave men who rushed to look for survivors.

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    1. I used to scoff at the thought of genetic memory. When someone threatened one of my close family members, the thoughts and methods that popped in my mind were startling. Things I'd never read or even thought about before. I've found we descend from old English: Scot, Irish, Welsh, with some northern Europe thrown in for seasoning. I wonder if it's true, does DNA hold memories?

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    2. It would explain simple instinctual things we do. And revenge is pretty instinctual.

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    3. (Don McCollor...(From a Sci-Fi book)..."When one is plunged in boiling oil, death is quick. It takes much longer if the oil is slowly heated. King Sven looked like a patient man"...

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  6. Always remember to honor those who died that day, and those who've sacrificed themselves since then trying to bring justice to the perpetrators of 9/11 and those who follow that hateful creed. Also don't forget those in this country who've appeased the terrorists or even supported them or who are emulating them in their riotous behavior..

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  7. I was scheduled to fly that morning to OKC. Didn't happen. Drove there the next day, and went to the OKC Memorial the day after. Very quiet and somber. Good for reflection, and decision making. I had hard choices to make after that.

    We are watchers on the wall. When we spot the advance party, we warn, to give our people the most time to meet the threat. If they just ignore the call, it's on them. If we ignore our duty, it's on us. That duty is in my bones like Jeremiah's call. It almost burns when I don't speak up. I have observed our political "watchers" cry wolf about made up evil for years. They have dulled the ears of the people. When I warn, folks immediately think I have a political angle.

    I fear the tree of Liberty is dying of thirst. It either fades away, or gets sated.

    I fear for our country as well.....

    The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
    But I have promises to keep,
    And miles to go before I sleep,
    And miles to go before I sleep.

    Balancing my wants and desires with the duty to advocate for Liberty seems like an endless road... miles to go before I sleep....

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  8. " I fear for my country." Or as the obsequious maitre'd put it when he whined with his pithy edict about the deportment of Ferris & friends in Ferris Bueller's Day Off: "I weep for the future!" Sadly. he may have been FAR more right than even he knew..

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  9. It was not just “something some people did.”
    I'd like to echo these comments, may the perpetrators burn in Hell.

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    1. Amen. May the perpetrators get their just rewards serving whatever hellish master they actually served.

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  10. Colors raised. Loaded "musket" waits in the corner.

    Watched through the window as our neighbor across the cul-de-sac put out his colors. At the same time, neighbor two houses over (wife, retired university professor) brought trash bag to the curb, glanced around, went back inside. Have never seen the colors fly at that house. I have grave concerns about our coming election and the aftermath. I will not expand on that here. Just know that if things go sideways in my AO, they will have climb over stacked bodies and a pile of spent brass first.

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  11. Some will be voting this year, who weren't as yet alive on that day.
    "the land of the free and the home of the brave!" Not so much anymore, it seems to me.

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  12. Hey AFSarge;

    To us and those like us, We don't forget. As far as the election goes, I hope the results are the same as 2016 but time will tell if God will grace us again.

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  13. And, sadly, due to illnesses and cancers caused by working the pile or breathing the dust of both the WTC and Pentagon sites, the death toll rises daily.

    And the secondary toll of broken minds, broken relationships, broken people also climbs.

    It is a jagged wound in our nation that will fester and bleed bodies for at least 50 years more.

    Yes, I count all of those lives, too.

    I haven't forgotten. I haven't forgotten the shock, the pain of knowing someone just knifed our great nation. I haven't forgotten the street scenes of people jumping and hollering for joy that the Great Satan had fallen to it's knees. I haven't forgotten politicians who worked to cover their actions and to blame conservatives for everything while protecting the people who did it.

    I haven't forgotten Fort Hood. The recruiting offices. The beltway snipers (who, yes, contrary to what you in the public were told, did it for religion and for revenge.) The Pulse nightclub. And all the other attacks that have caused people in foreign lands to jump for joy as the Great Satan is slashed and stabbed and bleeds.

    Haven't forgotten at all.

    And it sickens me that the politicians who support stabbimg the Great Satan still sit in Congress and not in prison or in a grave. And that more of them have been elected since, thanks to some other person who sat in the White House.

    I haven't forgotten.

    But too many already have.

    Too many have bent their knees to totalitarianism, to socialism, to outright Marxist-communism, to Shaitan and the real Satan.

    And I haven't forgotten, and I won't forget. EVER.

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  14. "I fear for my Country."

    As do I, My Brother, as do I.

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  15. Amen to all of the above.
    "I, too, fear for my Country."

    While we remember the actions of foreign enemies of our Constitution and way of life, and freedom of religion, we must not ignore the emerging threat from domestic enemies.
    John Blackshoe

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  16. "I", too, "fear for my Country." It is my opinion that if the leftists win, by June of 2021 we will not recognize the country that we knew, loved, and defended. FWIW, a week after 9/11/01, I called MILPERCEN, DA, and volunteered for recall after five years of retirement. DA didn't have much use for another OSA airplane driving CW5 but I wasn't the only one who volunteered. regards, Alemaster

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    1. Lots of people did volunteer to return, some even got the chance. You are not alone in what you wanted to do.

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  17. Never forget, never forgive... NCC, Pentagon. Capt Larry Getzfred, Jack Punches (CDR, Ret), AW1 Joe Pycoir.

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  18. As the sun sets on yet another anniversary of the second date which will live in infamy, I weep, I mourn.

    I do not forget, I do not forgive.

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  19. There is not enough diversity training possible for me to ever forgive or forget the bastardizes of the Religion of Peace!

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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