Anyone else remember how if felt after 9/11 with a rapture ready nut in charge?

[NNN0LHI]

And over 90% of the country caught a case of mass Stockholm syndrome? They had it so bad they actually approved of that crazy asshole Bush who let it occur on his watch? Bush had a +90 % approval rating for a short while. We watched over 90% of the country become crazy as a shit house rats overnight.

Remember when you were wondering if what was happening was real? Especially when people you knew, even seemingly normal and intelligent people you had known your entire life began acting like characters from the movie Invasion of The Body Snatchers? I didn't know any of them any more? Remember how that felt?

I get cold chills up my spine whenever I think about that period of my life. Please, lets don't ever do that again.

Don

[Dawson Leery]

1. That first year after 9/11(2002) was a horrible years by all accounts.

I try to not think about that year.

[EFerrari]

2. I remember exactly. Even my friends were hesitant to criticize that coke head

when he was telling the country to go shopping. Even on the phone with me. Even in private.

And there is a very good reason to remember. RMoney is the BushCo candidate. They're itching to come back, folks.

[lunatica]

3. Yes. I remember

My main worry was that Bush would react exactly the way he did, and I was invited to leave the country by a woman I worked with. She actually said she would gladly give up her rights in order to be safer. Four years later she was wishing someone would assassinate Bush to put us out of our misery.

[Gregorian]

4. I must be lucky. Everyone I know thought Bush was the cause of 9/11.

Within hours, my sister called me to say that Bush did it. But then we grew up in one of the most liberal towns in America. In the shadow of Stanford university.

[hifiguy]

5. I certainly do.

I always thought it was a criminal act that should have been investigated by the agencies that deal with criminality. But that might have brought unwanted attention to the connections between the Bush Crime Faimly and the Saudi royal plutocracy. Can't have that now.

[ladjf]

6. I had a firm intuition that what was being told to us was nowhere near the real truth. nt

[freshwest]

7. All I could think of was the dying and the dead. I never agreed with anything done afterward.

But I was struck how it turned the media completely in his favor. For months the scandals were coming out about all of GWB's cronies and the stealing that was going on. It was on daily and I thought he would be at best a one-termer if not impeached.

Then the media stopped that and they went gung ho for war and patriotism. It was almost impossible to get away from the non-stop media blitz, and just as hard to not look, like a wreck on the freeway. They invaded every channel, even MTV, TWC and all the rest. No matter where you went to get away from it, there it was.

As far as the day's event itself, I was watching TV early that morning in my time zone to get the local news and weather, then the feed from NYC came through. I watched as the second plane hit while they were reporting on the first.

I had thought the first was an accident and remembered the story of the plane that flew into the Empire State Building. The news feed was the same quality as a Hollywood film, I thought, isn't that something, they have cameras right there so NYC must be being filmed all the time. I was traumatized watching the coverage day after day hopeful people would make it out of the towers. They didn't and I couldn't even look at pictures of the thing for years without a gut-wrenching emotional reaction.

Then when the Iraq invasion began, the film coverage was likewise just like Hollywood. And inescapable no matter what form of media one chose, and the media was supportive of the invasion, I remember Blitzer carrying on as if it was a neck on neck horse race. All the details we didn't want to know.

The film from Baghdad had so many views, showing the bombing juxtaposed with the calls of birds in the morning in the gardens. So much imagery and sound pumped into our minds, creating a reality both beautiful and horrific. And then we took over and the chase began as if watching a re-run of the Fugitive.

The crew around Bush said they were the ones who made history, that the rest of us can just stand by and watch as they did it, that we couldn't stop them. Maybe they did.

The reaction to go to war was never one I supported, nor the Patriot Act. It was the follow through of the PNAC vision. But the Bus team made history and changed the world.

It's said the purpose of war is not to win a victory but to change the country waging it socially. Bush succeeded in doing that, we'll never be the same.

[Dawson Leery]

8. The Bush years forever turned me against the aspects of "traditionalism".

[RagAss]

9. My clearest memory of the aftermath was Colin Powell lying in front of the World.

I knew then how little the average American could do when money and power want to go to war. It will happen again....and again.

[Initech]

11. My clearest memory was Jerry Falwell saying homosexuals were responsible for 9/11.

And that it was God's wrath because we live in a country that allows for it to occur - and I was joining a church at the time. After that I dropped out of the church and became an atheist ever since.

[RagAss]

13. Cool.... You were "Saved" by logic and common sense !

[Mariana]

15. I remember that, Falwell and Pat Robertson, right on the teevee.

Just a couple of days after it happened. Funny how the RWers never threw a shit fit over them blaming America for 9/11. They'd come unglued if any Democrat/liberal suggested that US policies and actions may have contributed to the terrorists' mindset (how dare you blame America!), but these assholes got a pass.

[Initech]

10. Yeah I do *NOT* want to give the Republicans a blank check to do anything again.

Which is essentially what we did - and they went bat shit insane over it.

[cynatnite]

12. I like to close my eyes and imagine President Al Gore with a 90% approval rating...

Then I wake up.

[Fumesucker]

14. Oh yes..

It was truly creepy..

I remember arguing somewhere online about Goering's quote and pointing out exactly how well it fitted the situation then getting crickets in reply.

“Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

[quaker bill]

16. I was standing

watching a TV in a conference room next to a Muslim staff member and friend when the plane hit the second tower. I said to him in that moment, knowing Bush* was President, "alot of innocent people are going to die over this".

I spent alot of time a little more than a year earlier working for Al Gore because I was led to believe and knew deeply that if that village idiot from Texas was elected, we would be at war in the middle east within a year. That morning I saw the path unfold.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

17. My mom called that morning and asked if I was watching the news

We had a TV, but only used it to watch VHS movies. I had to go find the rabbit ears to see if I could get a station. Only one would come in and it was snowy. I had one radio station on in the living room (KQED) and another on the other room, (KPFA) I was watching or listening to whatever was new. Did that until Friday when I had to go to town. The media was already talking about going to war. Passing a highway patrol the thought occurred to me, "Do you believe there is power in Peace under Pressure?" I was so against the war for oil and knew that was what it was all about. Saturday the TV went back to having commercials and I pulled the rabbit ears off and never watched again. I went to all the early peace marches in San Francisco even though it was a 2 and a half hour drive to get there. I just finished reading Sibel Edmonds book "Classified Woman" and have followed the Architects and Engineers for 9/11 truth and the Fire Fighters for 9/11 truth. I feel so discouraged about the state of our nation. But last night I went to listen to one of the candidates for 5th District Supervisor, someone who was in that position in the past. Two different people have served since he retired, but he is so opposed to what the last one has been doing he is running again. (approved every development plan submitted even though it was against the General Plan.) I just don't know what to do with the situation we find ourselves in. I'm so glad for the Occupy Movement. Around 2003 I was at an environmental fundraiser event and Jerry Brown was there. I went up to him and listened to the conversations that went on for a while and there were so many people he knew and the conversations were nothing I had anything to speak up about, so I left. As the event was closing i saw him sitting by himself at a table and went over and spoke to him about how I thought it was an inside job and all the evidence and asked what he thought and what could be done. He didn't reply what he thought about it, but just suggested I go home and take care of the situations in my neighborhood that I could work with. I can't tell you how disappointed I was at that moment.