Were members spared in OKC and WTC disaster

[grapevine]

Well after SOB Tim McVeigh and sob of earth number two Terry Nichols who got a light sentence bombed okc I heard that of the LDS people that worked there were people that had not missed day of work in decades one pools broke, and one had a flat tire on the way to work and were thus saved.

That tragedy happened just before my mission. Reading articles on it I think one member did die. Since rain falls on just and unjust I don't think members would be saved more that nonmembers.

SAme from WTC. Hich Councilor even told story many of us heard of how 20 members worked there were either sick, had dentist appointments, could not get to work for one reason or another. One member did die in Pentagon and two were on planes that crashed. I think there were several members n WTC missing or killed. Stuff legends are made of. Righteous do die with unrighteous or purpose of mortaility would be defeated.

[Bo Diddley]

Well after SOB Tim McVeigh and sob of earth number two Terry Nichols who got a light sentence bombed okc I heard that of the LDS people that worked there were people that had not missed day of work in decades one pools broke, and one had a flat tire on the way to work and were thus saved.

That tragedy happened just before my mission. Reading articles on it I think one member did die. Since rain falls on just and unjust I don't think members would be saved more that nonmembers.

SAme from WTC. Hich Councilor even told story many of us heard of how 20 members worked there were either sick, had dentist appointments, could not get to work for one reason or another. One member did die in Pentagon and two were on planes that crashed. I think there were several members n WTC missing or killed. Stuff legends are made of. Righteous do die with unrighteous or purpose of mortaility would be defeated.

I believe that God saves non-LDS as well. So for as many LDS that were miraculously saved, there may well have been non-LDS miraculously saved as well.

That said, I do know that the Lord loves His Covenant People. I can point to several instances in Iraq where we were miraculously preserved. If you read up on the 222 FA in Korea, they have some pretty impressive history as well.

[RC Vikings]

SAme from WTC. Hich Councilor even told story many of us heard of how 20 members worked there were either sick, had dentist appointments, could not get to work for one reason or another.

We may have been spared but it looks like we could work on our reliability.

[Mormon Red Death]

Seth MacFarlane spared

Seth MacFarlane has made millions laugh as an animator, writer, producer, director and voice of cartoons such as “Family Guy,” “American Dad!” and “The Cleveland Show.” However, if it had not been for a mix up in his travel itinerary on September 11, 2001, MacFarlane would never have had the chance to create “American Dad!” or “The Cleveland Show.”

On September 11, 2001, he was scheduled to return to Los Angeles on American Airlines Flight 11, after being a keynote speaker at his alma mater, the Rhode Island School of Design, in Rhode Island. Fortunately for MacFarlane, his travel agent told him his flight would leave Logan Airport at 8:15am, when it was actually scheduled to depart at 7:45am. MacFarlane arrived at Boston Logan Airport a few minutes after boarding was stopped on his flight and he was told he would have to wait for the next flight. An hour later, Flight 11 was flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, killing everyone on the plane. MacFarlane quickly contacted his parents after the plane hit the WTC to tell them he was not on it and was alive.

In an interview, MacFarlane recalled what happened with his usual sense of humor: “I was booked on that flight and I was drinking the night before and hung over and I missed the plane by about 10 minutes. It was a very close call for me.” He also jokingly stated, “alcohol is our friend. I think that’s the moral of that story.” He also said that he thanked God that his travel agent had screwed up the departure time or he would have been on board and he wouldn’t have known what to do when the terrorists took over the plane.

On the February 10, 2011, MacFarlane announced he is directing his first feature-length film, “Ted.” The film stars Mark Wahlberg who also survived by missing Flight 11 on that fateful day.

[Surfah]

John Thompson spared too:

On Monday, Thompson visited with Jim Rome on Rome's radio show, where he told his own story in harrowing detail. The details are as follows: In 2001, Thompson was set to fly to New York to do a long-negotiated studio interview on Rome's show at the time. Thompson wanted to be able to do the interview and still make a friend's birthday party in Las Vegas on Sept. 13, so he booked a ticket on American Airlines Flight 77 departing on Sept. 11. That didn't work for the show, whose producer, Danny Schwartz, asked Thompson to instead push his flight back to Sept. 12. Thompson didn't like the change, and he told Schwartz as much. Schwartz persisted. Thompson relented. After the events of 9/11 -- Thompson's house is near the Pentagon, and he felt Flight 77's impact as it crashed that morning -- the Georgetown icon realized just how lucky he had been:

“[Thompson's assistant said], 'You were supposed to be on that plane. If that kid hadn’t have talked you out of it, you would’ve been on that plane,'" Thompson said. "The strangest thing about it was, it’s hard to be elated about all of it because of what happened. I’m appreciative. I went out on my porch, smoked a cigar, said my prayers … but at the same time, you can’t be too jubilant about it. But had it not been for that set of circumstances, I would have been on that plane on the 11th.”


The whole interview is well worth a listen. Rome even put Schwartz and Thompson on the phone together:

“Let me tell you something, if you’re ever in Washington, D.C., you look me up,” Thompson said to the producer. “I was antagonistic in those days, and how you handled it saved my life, and I appreciate that.”


Unfortunately, the tragedies of those days still unfolded, and they still affect thousands of people -- and the United States -- in profound ways each and every day. But Thompson's story is a tiny sliver of purely positive luck in that day's otherwise bleak memory. The lesson, as always, is that we never know what lies ahead around the next corner. Sometimes getting lucky is the best you can do.

[Uncle Ted]

I was scheduled to fly the morning of September 11, 2001 but my flight was cancelled.

[Non Sequitur]

Seth MacFarlane spared

Seth MacFarlane is a self-described atheist, so I think that was just a coincidence.

[DrumNFeather]

Jackie Chan and Julie from the Real World as well:

"Jackie Chan, who was excused from an early morning film shoot on the roof of the World Trade Center due to a late script; Real World New Orleans cast member Julie Stoffer, who ditched out of the Boston-to-L.A. flight at the last minute after a fight with her boyfriend."

[SteelBlue]

Jackie Chan and Julie from the Real World as well:

Hmm, this is starting to sound like the teacher on the space shuttle story. In the first years after that shuttle explosion, I must have met 100 people who claimed that a teacher at their school was the alternate if McAullife couldn't go.

[PaloAltoCougar]

A friend of mine was in a Manhattan conference room on 9-11, getting ready to push the send button on an SEC filing for JetBlue's IPO. Sensing that the hijackings and mass destruction might have a material adverse effect on airline stocks, they decided to hold off on the filing.

[Pheidippides]

A friend of mine was in a Manhattan conference room on 9-11, getting ready to push the send button on an SEC filing for JetBlue's IPO. Sensing that the hijackings and mass destruction might have a material adverse effect on airline stocks, they decided to hold off on the filing.

I don't know which is worse: that I understood this immediately and nodded my head in agreement, or only sort of laughed because I would have done the same.