12 Years ago today DUer Khephra posted "Turn on your TV"

[The_Casual_Observer]

[hlthe2b]

1. I well remember and barely left the computer for the next two days.

Tears for that time, those victims, what we lost that day and in the days (and years) following as a result, and finally, tears for our dear Khephra. Scott, may you be at peace, along with those we lost on 911 and in the wars that followed.

[Aristus]

2. I had been lurking here since March of that year.

One week after that horrible, horrible day, I registered as a DU member, and have been here ever since.

I miss Keph...

[Cleita]

3. I miss Khephra.

No one has matched him in bringing all the breaking news to DU like he did. He was an awesomely nice guy too.

[QC]

4. I remember that day very well,

and I miss the sense of community that we had at DU back then.

[SoCalDem]

5. We were a very small group back then

I still remember the hullabaloo when we were awaiting the counter to mark our four-thousandth member ..

and when we had a "contest" to name the Lounge

[QC]

7. Oh yes, I remember.

I am member #2,785.

[kentuck]

39. You signed on before me.

[QC]

40. Not many of us left from back then.

DU was a real refuge for us back then, in the aftermath of the GWB coup.

[kentuck]

41. As my Brother Orville used to say...

"All great men are dead, and I'm not feeling too good myself."


DU was a refuge from the storm. I think we made a difference. Hang in there. I don't know how much longer I will be here? I tend to be much more blunt and less patient than in the past. There simply is no excuse not to educate yourself.

[lumpy]

28. Don't we all

[dionysus]

6. RIP Keph

(and Andy and nostamj and pbs-poll 435 and all the other great DUers we have lost)

[unblock]

8. note my avatar

at the start, he *was* lbn, like the way billboard's top 5 once *was* the beatles.

[Archae]

9. I still remember turning on the TV, seeing the first tower burning, and thinking to myself...

"Is this the latest Bruce Willis Movie?"

It slowly dawned on me that it was real, but as of yet I wasn't too clear as to the cause.

Then the second tower got hit.
I saw it live.

I later learned about the Pentagon and the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania.

[question everything]

26. I will always remember Charlie Gibson that day

I watched GMA - was more dignified then. They were reporting of the first plane crash, not sure whether it was a small plane with an inexperienced pilot. And then came the second crash. And Charlie just sat there and quietly said: now we know.

[lumpy]

30. Recently I watched videos of 9/11, just to refresh my thoughts on how it affected this nation.

We could no longer have trust that we would never be attacked in that manner. Sometimes I think many people in the US don't realize that we are no longer as safe and secure.
Strange, the difference in response between the attack on Pearl Harbor (WW2) and the NYC Towers. Have the American people become complacent.

[QC]

10. Hate to sound like an old fart, but I genuinely pity

those who came of age in Post-9/11 America.

This is a very different country than the one I grew up in, far more fearful and willing to give up basic liberties. I hardly recognize America anymore.

[Egalitarian Thug]

12. +1 and I blame us for allowing it to be done. n/t

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

14. I have a 15-year-old son

And he does not remember a time when his country was not at war in the Middle East.

[QC]

16. Yep. We have been in a constant state of war there since 2001.

Our young people have never known a time when that was not the case, or when air travel did not involve a cavity search.

These things are the new normal.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

17. Air travel does not ALWAYS require a cavity search

But you can request one...

[snagglepuss]

25. When I was 10 years I remember thinking WWII was in the distant past when in fact

it had ended just 20 or so years earlier. How does your 15 yr old process 9/11. Does he remember anything about the new broadcasts.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

27. I'm sure he doesn't...

He would have been only three years old.

[kestrel91316]

15. + 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000

[progressoid]

18. I remember when my daughter (she was 7) brought home a "weekly reader" from school just after 9/11.

It had a photo of the burning twin towers on the cover. I just had this ominous feeling for her and our country.

[dkf]

21. Ditto. Poor kiddies. :(

[lumpy]

32. I am with you, it is different. Perhaps with the advent of TV, internet and much broader

forms of communication people are spending more time on entertainment, fashion,gossip stuff rather than on world events, things that count, etc. Really sad.

[Jefferson23]

11. .

[Robb]

13. I remember that.

Back then I would always hit Bartcop first, then DU in the morning.

Bartcop had something like "We're at war, and we don't know with who."

[dkf]

22. Wow those were the days.

I remember back then there weren't all that many sites to go too either.

[Robb]

23. You could feel like you'd finished reading DU.

I think the last time I felt fully "up to date" was like 2003.

[dkf]

24. Lol so true. When did Media Whores fold?

I kept searching and hoping they would reappear but they never did.

[msanthrope]

42. They reappeared. Hell, some of them never left. The Horse abides. nt

[JitterbugPerfume]

19. Kef was one of a kind,

I still miss him .

[CherokeeDem]

20. The first place I turned to was DU

I worked at a law firm in Miami, directly across from Miami International. Even though we had the TV on in the lounge, I kept running back to my office to check DU. Then to one of the partner's offices to watch the planes landing one after another as the FAA ordered them down. I remember Khephra so well, and DemoTex...who walked us through what was going on with the planes.

I lurked for a long time and joined later...don't post much but I do miss so many of the
'earlier gang' on DU.

RIP Khephra, the victims of 9-11 and these endless, unnecessary wars, and our lost DU'ers.

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. I found DU after 911

but my husband had just deployed from Hawaii. My sis calls all hysterical at oh dark hundred (it is Hawaii bra), and tells me, "towers are down, have you seen the TV?"

Whoa, slow down and start again, as I rub sleep from my eyes.

The next few days were interesting since the US had it's air space closed down. In Hawaii that also meant the Islands were on their own. Most of the milk comes via air to the Islands. I ended going that day to the Exchange, the one IN BASE was not open, as the bases went on complete lock down, and got quite a bit of canned goods. We had just moved into Housing as well.

It proved to be the right decision. Not only did we have shortages of milk (outside the PX system), but also shortages period. But we did as we did. And the passengers stuck in Hawaii, if you are going to get stuck at least Hawaii is a friendly place to get stuck, were taken care off by a bunch of locals, including military families.

[denbot]

31. My roommate woke me up and told me to turn on my TV, just in time to see the second impact.

I remember asking half asleep, " Is this real?". DU, and buzzflash were my primary sources of news, and we all seemed to gather a little comfort from each other during such an unsettling time.

[madrchsod]

33. +1.......

[gopiscrap]

34. that was the day that I found out about DU

and lurked for years before joining

[Wilms]

35. For Kephra, ^

[KittyWampus]

36. That was the old DU where moderators helped maintain some semblance of order. The most hateful

trolls were tombstoned.

Now, they have stacked juries allowing their posts and egging them on.

[Warren DeMontague]

37. My mom called me that morning and said the exact same thing.

I think people didn't know how to express what they were seeing; it was like, just look yourself.

[Oilwellian]

38. I had the pleasure of meeting Khephra

We were part of a DU contingency that met in DC and attended the first anti Iraq war protest. He was the sweetest guy you would ever want to meet and is greatly missed by us old time DUers.