The 9/11 images that seared my soul
Posted on Friday, September 10, 2010 at 11:31 PM
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What do I remember most about that day?
The massive cloud of ash gently floating in the breeze across the skyline, wondering if it was part of a nuclear fallout of some kind.
Clutching my daughter's tiny hands to mine wondering if we'd see another dawn together.
Rushing to get my copy of Jim Dwyer's book on the 1993 World Trade Center bombing with it's eerie prediction that they would try again
Idiotically wondering whether I'd be able to publish our newspaper Irish Voice that day.
A feeling unlike any except the time I was in an earthquake in San Francisco and the very ground seemed to open and rumble at my feet.
Knowing at that moment of the second plane's impact all bets were off. Someone was out to kill us all
Crying as I lined up with thousands outside a firehouse on the Upper East Side and seeing the stricken firemen return from another futile day seeking their comrades.
Reading the hundreds of flyers pasted everywhere of families desperately seeking loved ones.
Being so proud that Ireland alone of any country, announced a day of national mourning.
Realizing with shock that I had stood for photographs at the WTC at our Wall Street 50 event in July with two men who were later killed on 9/11.
Interviewing the widows and parents of so many for my book 'Fire in the Morning' about the Irish on that day and being so impressed with their poise and grace under such awful pressure.
Three days later standing close to where the buildings once stood and realizing for the first time what their absence would always mean to our wounded city.
Realizing how incredible it was to be a New Yorker, given their reaction to that awful day and their determination to carry on.
40 comments
maloney | Sep 13, 2010, 12:12 AM EDT
ulster...last I heard your people were leaving pipe bombs in Catholic elemetary school yards. Yes we do everything better than you, including bombs, ours go bang. SEANO...they were actually illegals trying to dig thier way to see you down under. They heard how wonderful it is there and it wasn't gas, it was bean juice. Hard to tell how many children in iraq. Men, women & children all wear sheets.
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seanomelbourne | Sep 12, 2010, 11:28 PM EDT
Monsoonman hope your part of S.F. escaped the fire.
I have a theory Palestinian tunnel makers took a wrong turn and inadvertently ruptured the gas line or maybe they tried to redirect it to Gaza.
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seanomelbourne | Sep 12, 2010, 11:24 PM EDT
To set the record straight most civilians killed in N.I. were murdered by the army or pro-British terrorists,of the 150 children(u17) killed in the conflict 137 were killed by the army/R.U.C. or their proxies. By the way how many children were murdered by the U.S. in Iraqi bombings.
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Ulster1 | Sep 12, 2010, 11:00 PM EDT
Hancock, you said: "The English govt/ military are just as much terrorists as the IRA ever were."
When it comes to bombing buildings and cities, nobody can do it like the Americans!
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Monsoonman | Sep 12, 2010, 08:50 PM EDT
Don't do it Dennis, you have your whole life ahead of you and....there is still time to repent! But I have to toast you me lad, for sheer persistence in the face of overwhelming facts and the ridicule and abuse that go along with it.. I guess it is an Irish stubborness trait...Carry on lad and slainte!
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DennisQ | Sep 12, 2010, 08:42 PM EDT
Say it ain't so, Monsoonman! You've stopped believing me? I think I'll go out and hang myself.
But go ahead and humor me one last time, OK? Watch the video again and tell me the roof does not gather speed as it falls. Unfortunately I'm a hopeless case, because every time I see that video, that's what it does.
But go ahead and humor me one last time, OK? Watch the video again and tell me the roof does not gather speed as it falls. Unfortunately I'm a hopeless case, because every time I see that video, that's what it does.
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DennisQ | Sep 12, 2010, 08:39 PM EDT
You've finally made an observation I can agree with,Ajreaper. I don't explain how it could have happened; in fact I don't address methods at all. I just say that the increasing speed of the roof of Building Seven as it falls is evidence of acceleration.
And here's something else! Every time I look at that video, I still see the roof of the building increase in speed from frame to frame. Surely we're not looking at different videos, are we? I'm talking about the video of Building Seven on September 11th. It starts out, gathers speed, then finally disappears from view. I've used the word acceleration to describe the behavior of a falling object that picks up speed as it travels.
Go ahead, humor me. Watch the video again and tell me if it doesn't at least appear to accelerate.
And here's something else! Every time I look at that video, I still see the roof of the building increase in speed from frame to frame. Surely we're not looking at different videos, are we? I'm talking about the video of Building Seven on September 11th. It starts out, gathers speed, then finally disappears from view. I've used the word acceleration to describe the behavior of a falling object that picks up speed as it travels.
Go ahead, humor me. Watch the video again and tell me if it doesn't at least appear to accelerate.
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Monsoonman | Sep 12, 2010, 08:21 PM EDT
Sorry Dennis me boyo, your whacko logic has just cooked your credibility goose on all other issues. You should keep quiet like rosie o'donnel does and let others guess how whacked out you are, rather than opening your mouth up and dispelling the mystery. Hasta luego, from Californio, the land of fruits and nuts.
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Ajreaper | Sep 12, 2010, 07:56 PM EDT
LOL, ya don't explain how it could have happened just accept it did because all the details just get in the way of what you wish to believe. You want to flail away at wind mills go ahead Don Quixote.
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hancock | Sep 12, 2010, 06:34 PM EDT
The English govt/ military are just as much terrorists as the IRA ever were.
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DennisQ | Sep 12, 2010, 05:24 PM EDT
Please do look at the video of Building Seven's collapse, Ajreaper. It's very obvious that it's picking up speed as it falls. I'm not asking you to do any more than acknowledge the truth of what your own eyes will tell you.
Building Seven is more than falling, it's actually accelerating as it falls. The acceleration is measurable in a frame-by-frame replay of the video, and the final speed of the collapse is significantly faster than the original speeds. In the first frame, the building falls at a certain rate per second, and that rate increases as you advance the video.
Your argument that somebody would have noticed people wiring the building really doesn't address the actual measurements of the collapse. You don't have to explain the data to acknowledge that it really does show an acceleration. You're trying to say that because you believe the observed acceleration is impossible, it doesn't exist. However, that's not science - you are allowing your conclusions to interfere with your observations.
Building Seven is more than falling, it's actually accelerating as it falls. The acceleration is measurable in a frame-by-frame replay of the video, and the final speed of the collapse is significantly faster than the original speeds. In the first frame, the building falls at a certain rate per second, and that rate increases as you advance the video.
Your argument that somebody would have noticed people wiring the building really doesn't address the actual measurements of the collapse. You don't have to explain the data to acknowledge that it really does show an acceleration. You're trying to say that because you believe the observed acceleration is impossible, it doesn't exist. However, that's not science - you are allowing your conclusions to interfere with your observations.
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Ajreaper | Sep 12, 2010, 05:05 PM EDT
Explain how they prepare a building for implosion without anyone being the wiser? It's impossible, completely 100% not possible so anything you say cannot be true minus the other.
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DennisQ | Sep 12, 2010, 05:00 PM EDT
A object in freefall picks up an additional 32 feet per second for each second it falls. That's the speed of the top of Building Seven as it collapses on September 11th. The reason scientists say that Building Seven fell at freefall speed is that they've measured the distance travelled for each second of the collapse. There's no room for argument there, Ajreaper - these are simple measurements of distance and time.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology got around the problem by substituting the actual time of travel with something they called the average time of travel, and they did something really deceitful as well. Instead of starting the count when the roof starts falling, they started the count several seconds before. That brings the average figure into line with the principle of the conservation of momentum. They also decided to make their calculations a national secret.
Look for yourself at the speed of the collapse of Building Seven - it's smooth and continuous, and increases with each passing second. It's no wonder that NIST doesn't want you to look closely at their computations! The building is collapsing at freefall speed, and there's only one way that that can happen . . . if there's nothing in the way.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology got around the problem by substituting the actual time of travel with something they called the average time of travel, and they did something really deceitful as well. Instead of starting the count when the roof starts falling, they started the count several seconds before. That brings the average figure into line with the principle of the conservation of momentum. They also decided to make their calculations a national secret.
Look for yourself at the speed of the collapse of Building Seven - it's smooth and continuous, and increases with each passing second. It's no wonder that NIST doesn't want you to look closely at their computations! The building is collapsing at freefall speed, and there's only one way that that can happen . . . if there's nothing in the way.
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Ulster1 | Sep 12, 2010, 01:20 PM EDT
As Americans remember the terrorism of 9/11, they should also consider how the terrorism of IRA bombs killed innocent people--both Protestant and Roman Catholic. How much of the money to buy the bombs was given by Irish-Americans over the past forty years. Think of the 1998 bombing in the town of Omagh, Co. Tyrone. Your money paid for it. What goes around comes around,as they say. It's still happening--"Irish" Americans funding the Real IRA and the Continuity IRA. I know the doctor's office at the end of my grand-parents street was bombed. Many innocent people in Afganistan have been "accidentaly" killed by U.S military weapons. I express my condolences to all families of terrorism.
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