Federal law has not changed since 9/11. So much for slogans such as “We are all Americans”. This tragedy reminds me of the Winterhilf (winter relief) program administered by Nazi Germany in the late 1930’s. German Jews were specifically excluded since they were no longer considered real Germans. What about the equal protection rights granted by the US constitution? When it comes to gay Americans, separate and unequal is still the law of the land for all too many purposes, six years after 9/11.

MJ
Sydney, Australia

From ‘For the Fallen’, Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Thank you

Tom & James
Manassas, VA

10 days before 9/11 I had just gone back to school and moved into my new dorm in midtown Manhattan. I lived on the 26th floor and had a pretty nice view of southern Manhattan. The first few days living there it was always, ‘oh wow, what a view, lets keep the blinds open’. Then 9/11 happened and it was ‘oh God, let’s close the blinds, I don’t want to look at that anymore.’

Getting out of class and walking over to 3rd Avenue that morning, looking south and seeing the huge mushroom cloud of smoke for the first time, it looked like an atom bomb had gone off. I was standing with friends and when we saw it, we just stared. No one said anything for awhile. The streets were completely empty. There were no cars. People were walking in the middle of the street like you see in those zombie movies where civilization is fallling apart. Everyone was walking north.

I was with my friend Rachel for most of the morning, scrambling around, trying to help her get information on her mom who worked in the WTC. While we were running around, trying to find a working phone, we stumbled into an Equinox Gym that had a TV on. People were crowded around it, watching the news coverage. Having not seen any news up untill that point, I was still in disbelief of what I had heard and upon seeing footage of the 2 towers smoking and burning, I elbowed Rachel and said “see, look, they’re still standing.” That’s when someone turned to me and said “no, that’s a tape, they’ve both collapsed.” It was in that moment that it really sunk in what had happened. There was a sinking feeling in my stomach. I began to cry. Fortunately, i’d find out later Rachel’s mom survived.

Days later there were the missing flyers to contend with. They were everywhere. Some people’s faces, those who obviously lived in my neighborhood, you’d see so often you’d feel like you began to know. Walking around Manhattan in those first few weeks after, it was impossible not to think about those people all the time.

Then there was the smell. A few days after the attacks the winds changed and the smoke began to blow north. It smelled awful. It didn’t really smell like any one thing, but it sort of smelled like burning plastic.

Still, eventually things returned to normal. After a few weeks, the smoke cleared, the missing posters faded, we opened the blinds again and life moved on.

And so it goes. That was some of my experience.

Overall though, I can’t really say I felt any less safe after 9/11, because living in NY, i was concerned about terrorist attacks before 9/11. I guess for most of the country the attacks were a wake up call. But in NY, we were already awake. We knew we were a target even before 9/11. I had done a presentation in school on Osama bin Laden in the spring of 1999. We knew the threat was out there. But anyway, that’s that.

Terance, formerly of right here in Georgia, has the definitive post on Gay Americans & 9/11. He followed it with this video. Watch it…….