To many New Yorkers, 11/3/04 felt a lot like 9/12/01.

[milkyway]

I live in Manhattan. 9/12/01 was an unforgettable day, even more so than 9/11/01. I will never forget walking the streets that morning--everybody looked shell-shocked, like they woke up in a world they did not know. The streets had an eerie feel to them. I felt as if everything was brand new, as if I were experiencing the city for the very first time. The city looked different, it sounded different, it smelled different. On my way to work I happened to pass by my Hindu pharmacist. He's usually very friendly with me, but on that morning he walked quickly with his head down, barely acknowledging me. He was obviously terrified that somebody might mistake him for a Muslim and attack him.

Walking to work on 11/03/04, I had that same shell-shocked feeling. I saw on another DU thread where fellow New Yorker Chelsea Patriot said it felt like it was 9/12/01 (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=956633&mesg_id=957483&page=), and I knew instantly exactly what they meant. As I passed by people the morning after the election,I was wondering if they felt as I did. I had been nearly obsessed about this election, so I figured most people were not as emotional as I was. But I was wrong. I realized what was different about this morning. The streets were full of people going about their daily routine--but nobody was talking. It was the same eerie, cinematic quiet that I had felt on 9/12/01. Everybody had withdrawn into their self, silently trying to cope with this new world they now found themselves living in.

Once again, our city had felt attacked. A president whose record was four years of total failure had been elected simply because an apparent majority of Americans felt that he was on their side in opposition to the culture that New York has come to symbolize. And, as on 9/12/01, we realized that we are hated, we are vulnerable, and we don't know when, or in what form, the next attack will come.

[Nordic]

1. Wow. I'm SO GLAD you wrote this!

Because although I don't live in New York, I was feeling the exact same way -- without the obvious "resident of NYC" references.

I was worried if I expressed this that people would think I was nuts, or had my head up my ass, or was being melodramatic.

But yeah, it feels almost as bad as 9/11. I'm experiencing the same kind of shock, the same kind of bafflement, the same kind of "I can't believe this is happening" feeling. And I'm starting to feel the same kind of anger, only it's starting to be directed at my fellow countrymen. I'm ready to say to hell with this country and it's ignorant, spoiled, cowardly and childish fuckwads.

It's like 9/11 without the actual horror of all the death and destruction.

But that's happening elsewhere. Fallujah for instance.

This time we're the bad guys. And you and I are powerless to stop it.

Others, and a LOT of them, must be feeling the same way but, like me, were hesitant to say so.

[milkyway]

2. I think it's the realization that, like 9/11, this is going to be with us

for a long time. It's not a bad dream that will quickly come to an end. I never felt like this after any other election loss, but the world seems different to me. I think we all know bush is going to treat the election like a coronation. We are about to experience bush unleashed, feeling as if there are no restraints on him. We are facing a dark, unfamiliar future, one that could be horrifying.

[Nordic]

5. exactly. 9/11 had that same emotional result

I kept thinking "what's next?"

And I'm thinking that now with Bush.

Bush, the terrorist.

I'm also having SERIOUS feelings of hatred for my own country right now. I've never experienced this before. I get frustrated with it, I hate certain people in it, but I have never, until, well, today, actually! - felt HATRED for my country as a whole.

I fucking HATE that my country could have voted for Bush, that they could even have come close.

[GRLMGC]

3. It's so unfair!

Places like NYC, L.A., San Francisco, and Chicago, places that did not support Bush, are going to pay for this horrible decision made by people who will not be affected. I almost think this is punishment since, apparently, we are not "real" Americans. It makes me so mad!

[DireStrike]

4. You know, strangely, I didn't find that.

I go to queens college. I didn't see one person that looked as dejected or dead as I must have looked. But maybe that's just because I was staring off into infinity all day.

Oh well, more people to convert to the cause.

My mom, on the other hand, who works for a local hospital, said she got the same thing there.

[fujiyama]

6. I'm not a New Yorker

but I feel it anyways.

I have felt this way only three times in recent years - after Gore conceded, yesterday morning, and after 9/11.

[sandnsea]

7. I have no country

That's really all I know. How New York must feel, attacked twice and once by their own country, I can't even imagine.

[Lorien]

8. A friend from Syracuse wrote the very same thing

yesterday morning. I think a lot of us feel this way.

[sir_captain]

9. Yeah, it's pretty true

though I think I still felt worse after 9/11 what with all the people I knew being dead and all.