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Quim
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It is strange for me to be so far from New York City on 9/11, because so much of me is back there, especially today. I think, oddly enough, post-9/11 was when I truly fell in love with the city of my birth.
Of course, I've always had a relationship with that city of cities, the city of legend, of Wall Street, of George Washington's battle against the British, of dirty Time-Square squalor (ala Scorcese's Taxi Driver), of Big Nights and Bright Lights, of the quiet beauty of Central Park, of Donald Trump, the Yankees and the Knicks, of crack and weegee guys at every traffic light, of Sinatra and Norman Mailer, of George Plimpton and Basquiat, of fashion, finance, and publishing, the ground zero of creativity.
I recall the way the city and its people seemed to bounce back that day and in the days to follow as we lived with the smelly reminder of 9/11 in the air for months and months. Not even "victory" in Afghanistan in December 2001 could dispel that sickening stench rising from ground zero evermore. And yet we kept on living as if that stench was now a normal part of our lives.
It was in those-haze filled days that I fell in love with the City and its people and its spirit. It was, as W might say, a little bit of a religious experience, of being born again.
And, of course the gratuitous, senseless, misguided, delusional (radical muslim) violence of that day only begat more horrific, sad, bastard children (Iraq war, Abu Graib, increased renditions, hours of water boarding, NSA U.S. based surveillance, 4 more years of Bush, GITMO, Afghanistan "no end in sight", increased recruitment by and the spread of Al-Qaeda world wide (do I need to list the countries?), a wholesale degradation of respect for international law, increased risk that the U.S. will be struck in the next 9 years, and so on, and so on).
And I recall how new yorkers in those days drifting in the wake of 9/11 almost seemed to say hello to each other in the streets and in the subways... not quite, but they at least thought about it, saying hello, like we really all were just next-door neighbors now, not some 8 million anonymous people milling around in our little part of the beehive, almost friends.
I could have hugged so many New Yorkers in those days after 9/11, it's a shame I didn't, as it actually felt in like it would have been okay. They would have hugged me back, because we were all so traumatized and glad to have survived the attack on us, on all of us, but it couldn't but help feel like it was on us New Yorkers especially (no offense Pennsylvania (heroic flight 93), or the Pentagon).
Why? Because our beloved, my beloved, Twin Towers were now no more, along with some 3,000 other hard working, no-bullshit taking new yorkers who just wanted to go about their lives. You have to give credit to OBL and SKM where credit is due. They knew that hitting those two towers was akin to striking at the very center of our leadership, our government, and our military. Did they understand how fundamentally they were redefining the world and them in it, I'm not so sure. Even radical jihadists have been known to have brain farts.
I loved the way that New Yorkers seemed to almost raise their middle finger to these crazy people (or wrestle them to the floor as in Flight 93), these strangers who for no good reason had decided to shave their chests and try to hurt us as hard as they could. And we told them, fogetta' about it, you can go f*** yourself sideways till Tuesday motherf***er!
I recall how on September 19th I was in a bar in the west village when Sinatra came on singing New York, New York... there wasn't a single person in the bar who wasn't trying to sing along at the top of their lungs, loudly, almost as if in rage and in joy. Triumphant!, because we were not even close to being beat by those bad boys.
9/11 - Peace to all.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 9:15 pm on Sep. 11, 2010
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expatchuck
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A good read for the first four paragraphs, then the Bush bashing begins.
Too bad you ruined it.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 9:27 pm on Sep. 11, 2010
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Quim
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Der dem are da facts, EPC.  Without 9/11, Bush would have been as much of a historical footnote as Jimmy Carter is.
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 9:30 pm on Sep. 11, 2010
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Quim
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Blonk, don't you guys even have access to wikipedia downthere?
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 9:40 pm on Sep. 11, 2010
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Quim
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Quote: from Blonk on 9:44 am on Sep. 12, 2010
What bar she in or her BB pin #??
Blonk, that question is in the wrong section of the forum. Dr. Love will now whip you with a wet noodle until you cry moma.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 9:46 pm on Sep. 11, 2010
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expatchuck
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...and now you have turned what could have been a good thread into a junior high school discussion.
No more from me on this subject, in this section of the forum.
I won't politicize 9-11, and you should not have done so either.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 11:25 pm on Sep. 11, 2010
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Quim
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I politicized 9/11?! LOL EPC, really? Think carefully before you answer, but who do you think in fact politicized 9/11?
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 11:28 pm on Sep. 11, 2010
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vox
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Quote: from expatchuck on 9:27 am on Sep. 12, 2010
A good read for the first four paragraphs, then the Bush bashing begins.
Too bad you ruined it.
ฺBush-bashing?! Esteemed brother Quim didn't even START on what Bush deserves to get for 9-11. The man KNEW something was going down, and knew he could benefit from it, so he let it happen, pure and simple. Yeah, he didn't know quite how many would die, but he knew some would, and he LET IT HAPPEN for the way he knew he would be able to manipulate it in the press (and things like the "Patriot Act") to his advantage in control over the country and elimination of basic civil rights. Bashing?? Bush deserves a hell of a lot more than just "bashing"...
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 9:59 pm on Oct. 2, 2010
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