It Wasn't Always Like This. I'm a Gen Xer. I will be 51 in June, which is wild to me because I grew up during the latter part of the Cold War with the Soviet threat of nuclear war so I figured we'd be long gone by now. However, there was a period time of time from around 1990 to 2001 where it was not at all like this. It wasn't great, but it definitely wasn't like THIS.
We saw the Berlin Wall comes down and the reunification of Germany and Eastern/Central Europe coming out from behind the Iron Curtain as the Soviet Union collapsed to name a few of many things that happened between 1990-1991 that seemed to start ushering the change to better times. There were better times, but they didn't last long. Flash forward 36 years and here we are.
I asked my history buff fiancé when was there a time in history in which things were okay - he replied that was the post war era - we were living in it - and that was the 'good part' of history which to be honest, wasn't that great actually - which says a lot.
This was as good as it gets. It was better. It was not like this. It was problematic, but we used to be able to talk about things in a constructive way where now I can't make it through a single day without enraging someone online for having the audacity to exist and think for myself.
It will be the 25th anniversary of 9/11 this year and its hard to believe that much time has passed. I wish the younger generations could have experienced the world before 9/11. It wasn’t perfect by any means. It was different in a way that died that day and every single thing that’s happened since then is how we got to this - this was the end game. It feels like we have been stuck in limbo since and that is evident when you notice how everything has kind of been stylishly the same around 2002. It’s really noticeable if you go back and watch Friends - the 1990s episodes look like the 90s and the 2000s ones look like they could have been filmed today. It was jarring when I watched the reunion because my brain could not parse why they were so old now because the show still looks like it could have been filmed recently despite the show ending in 2004. There was a magical time in which we didn't really talk about politics beyond election years and where we didn't lose friends or family members because of their affiliations.
I realize there is privilege in saying that, but all in all my values haven't changed over the years and they are quite simple:
- Live and let live and don't be a dick about it
- Peace, safety, and sovereignty for all
I have to say that the extreme far leftists who are so Anti-Western and Anti-Capitalist that they think we deserved 9/11 and there is a clear lack of empathy and gross misunderstanding of history that breaks my heart because its obvious they have no connection to that day.
What was that day like?
I was 26 working at Marsh & McLennan (Marsh, Inc) in Philadelphia. The first plane hit our corporate headquarters in the North Tower and we lost 400+ people some of whom I talked to on a regular basis. I imagine some of those who survived the impact were some of the Jumpers.
My boss and I went up to New York City to volunteer with families a couple weeks later and I carry the weight of that day with me - one woman I talked to the look in her eyes will haunt me until my last day. I am okay carrying that grief for her. I do not know her name nor her family members name. I remember her eyes and that grief. They were taking families down to as close to ground zero and they could safely get and they would take a handful of ashes because that’s all that they had left of their family member and all that they could bury. There was a man who survived only because he was traveling. I heard him say he should have been there - the survivors guilt was palpable. I saw the walls of missing persons. My story of that day is much longer. We had to evacuate Center City Philadelphia. I worked on the 26th floor of a medium sized skyscraper. The fourth plane was still in play over Pennsylvania. I learned that I can drive while having a full blown panic attack that day.
There’s so many more personal stories. We had to wait to hear from friends and loved ones in Lower Manhattan. We were not alone. This affected so many friends from one who lost a childhood friend who was a stewardess on one of the planes to another who was stuck on the subways in the stations before the World Trade Center to hearing stories from friends in Lower Manhattan who were burning toast like they did during plague times to cover the stench of death.
So I take it very personally when I see bullshit farce leftist podcast bros and wannabe political creators saying we deserved 9/11 because they are drunk on the hatred of "the west" and capitalism. Hundreds of children did not deserve to become orphans as a result. It wasn't like 9/11 took out all the evil CEOs and board members. It took out people like you and me. Humanity needs to move past solving wars with more wars. One genocide will not solve another, but here we are 25 years later stuck in the fascist hellscape that arose from that day.
9/11 was the pivotal point in which everything changed. We had a chance to do better and there were moments things weren't like that or like this, but 2016 changed it all and the nails were hammered into the coffin.