Remembering 9/11

I remember it was our weekly staff meeting, and two coworkers came in saying they were watching CNN when it happened. When they said a second plane hit, we immediately knew it was a planned attack; one would have been believeable as an accident, but two? Shortly after the meeting began, somebody who'd been in a training session came up to the meeting: all non-bank people were asked to leave and we were put on a lock-down (since then, our security now requires everybody coming in, employees, vendors, guests, to have all possesions go through an x-ray and everybody has to go through a metal detector). We got our daily work done, and the supervisors weren't reprimanding us as usual when they saw we were online looking for news.

Two days later, I finally heard from a friend who was working at Nickelodeon/Nick At Nite at the time. Because she lived across the river in New Jersey, her usual 30-minute bus ride was cancelled and it took her about 6 hours to finally make it home.

I still went to London that following spring.

I have that day so firmly burned into my brain...the kinds of details I recall are astounding. More accessible memories than any other day of my life.

I'm only 20 miles from Manhattan, and depending on elevation, could see the NYC skyline.

The frantic search for information after the first rumors of a plane accident, the confusion about what and where it had happened, then time slowed as the second plane hit the building. TV news was in their own panic, and web news sites were choked with traffic. No information was flowing, except more rumors - car bombs, dozens of hijacked planes, capitol on fire.

Phone lines were also hit hard - couldn't connect to any friends in NYC, couldn't call out of state friends who weren't up yet so that they could call their families.

I left work because there was nothing getting done. It was a shock that left most people dazed.

Hours later, I couldn't watch TV anymore. I sat on my balcony and drank beer after beer, watching the pillar of smoke on the horizon.

I was in middle school. The first tower was hit in school, then we went home, and I saw the second one hit at home.

I didn't know where New York was, but Mom was really shocked and I remember asking if Dad was working there...

My dad works, just so you know, in Lockheed Martin, which is in California.

As I said, I didn't quite understand where New York *was*.

And that's about all I can remember.

I was making breakfast for my kids before school when my youngest (10 years old then) said to me, Mom...this is a weird show. I told him to change the channel. He said, "I did it's on all the channels." Within about 10 seconds my daughter and older son started calling to me, in what felt like the oddest sounds. "MOM! Please, MOM...this isn't a movie...come!"

I stood and watched the replay of the first plane and then watched with horror as the second one collided into the Trade Towers. We stood frozen, with tears streaming down our faces. My children looked to me with terror for reassurance that things would be okay. My older boy ran outside and watched the skies. I followed and together we stood watching, listening and the skies over our city were silent. It was the most terrifying sound. Accustomed to the steady air traffic, it was eerie. Then by noon that day, we watched and listened as the military choppers circled our valley.

I held my breath while on the phone with my aunt who lives on Long Island. My cousin, Robbie, had been scheduled to work on the phones at the Towers that morning, he was also a volunteer fireman. He was missing. By three that afternoon we all felt like we could breathe again when we found out he was alive. He had gone into work late that morning but he was at the site helping with the rescue efforts.

That night, I heard my three children laughing quietly around midnight and I was relieved but you know as a mom on a school night went to scold them. There they were all three of them piled on my youngest boy's twin bed, in a huddle. He wiped tears from his face when I walked in the room and asked what was going on.

That's when I was told the story of how he was so scared in his bed he was crying and the other two heard him, so they went to his rescue. He said to his older brother, "Are they coming to get us next?" We have one of the nation's chemical weapons bases about 40 minutes from our home, so he figured we'd be targeted. My older boy in his usual wisdom told his little brother, "Nah, they'll never make it. We've got the airbase not far away AND, just think, they have to get past Area 51 and who KNOWS what we've got stashed there." That was all my boy needed to know, that someone was going to watch out for him.

I was at work at the time. I didn't understand at the time why everybody else in the office had stopped working until one of the other programmers emailed me a link to a live CNN feed. I didn't have any friends or family in NYC, but Manhattan is a place to which I always return, and it felt to me as if the people responsible for the attacks had defiled my city.

At first, I wanted to fight, and to put on a uniform and dish out vengeance for the destruction of the WTC. However, reason quickly reasserted itself and I realized that these attacks were revenge for US government policies that had offended many in the Middle East. Furthermore, even if I was deemed fit for military service and sent to the front lines, I would not be avenging the destruction of the WTC, as the people directly responsible were already dead.

Instead, I set about trying to understand why 9/11 had happened, and what role the US government's foreign policy played in setting the stage for the attacks to happen. I never became a Truther, or believed that it was an "inside job", but I suspect that there was more to the story than we were being told.

I was lying in bed when the telephone rang. It turned out to be my (then) father-in-law calling from Tokyo urgently telling me to turn on the television. I did, and saw my first images of the beginning of the end of many things.

Weird. I remember the sounds of birds singing outside my window.

On the Transmigration of Souls

Haunting images of that day.

MGraybosch said:

I realized that these attacks were revenge for US government policies that had offended many in the Middle East. Furthermore, even if I was deemed fit for military service and sent to the front lines, I would not be avenging the destruction of the WTC, as the people directly responsible were already dead.

Click to expand...

Dude. WTF? I'm pretty liberal, but that's just wrong. It doesn't matter what the U.S. gov't did or didn't do to provoke it, when your side gets attacked like that you retaliate. (Against the responsible people and only the responsible people, I hasten to add). Provocation on the part of the U.S. Gov't or lack thereof is completely irrelevant.

*Sigh*

• Sittting at my desk drinking coffee and opening the company mail
• Half listening to the radio until Bryant Gumbel's trembling voice caught my attention
• I remember how my heart started racing as I nervously called my hubby at his job to tell him the news
• Felt sick to my stomach for the rest of the day
• Very, very angry at the terrorists
• Angry at our boss for not closing the office

Just wanted to sit next to my hubby, weep for the victims and watch the events unfold on CNN

I'll never, ever forget!

shawkins said:

Dude. WTF? I'm pretty liberal, but that's just wrong. It doesn't matter what the U.S. gov't did or didn't do to provoke it, when your side gets attacked like that you retaliate.

Click to expand...

We've seen the consequences of that logic.

MGraybosch said:

We've seen the consequences of that logic.

Click to expand...

That isn't logic, that's an article of faith. I stand by it.

Seems to me that even in the polarized political atmosphere we're suffering through now, we'd be able to get through one small thread about remembering 9-11 without someone feeling the need to bash his personal agenda all over the place.

No such luck.

Basic country survival guide 101--When 3000 of your citizens die because of an attack upon your soil, you retaliate against the perpetrators or their supporters. Period.

Right now, I'm watching the history channel show 102 Minutes That Changed America--as I have done every year since 2001. As I will do every year in the future. Why? Because some things we need to remember. Some things need to be DE-politicized. Some things speak for themselves. Take a few minutes and watch it. Hopefully, it will help you to regain some serious perspective about the events of 9-11 and who exactly was at fault.

shawkins said:

Dude. WTF? I'm pretty liberal, but that's just wrong. It doesn't matter what the U.S. gov't did or didn't do to provoke it, when your side gets attacked like that you retaliate. (Against the responsible people and only the responsible people, I hasten to add). Provocation on the part of the U.S. Gov't or lack thereof is completely irrelevant.

Click to expand...

QFT!

The provocation is completely irrelavant...(and highly debatable might I add, but this isn't the time or place).

It's too bad that this has floated into such a well meaning thread.

I was at a business meeting in Reno, NV and we were scheduled to fly back home to TN later that morning. The phone rang at some God-awful early hour and it was the other woman from work who was with me.

She said, "Turn on the TV. Some plane just hit the Pentagon and the World Trade Center and we aren't going anywhere today."

I said, "No they didn't." I couldn't imagine why she would be playing a joke on me this early in the morning. My husband woke up and turned on the tv and there it was.

I said, "Well, I'll be damned. There it is."

So my husband and I spent the rest of the day watching the news. I just remember feeling sick to my stomach. I was really worried because my husband was Active Duty in the Army at the time and we were stuck in Reno. As sick as I felt over the tragedy, I will admit to some selfishness: my biggest worry was that now my husband and our friends would be put in harm's way because some bunch of dumb-asses wanted to make some grand freakin' statement.

I was so pissed and the entirity of the sequelae from that stupid act by a bunch of idiots still pisses me off.

It's weird. The further we get from that day, the harder I find to talk about it. I remember it all very clearly, worried for friends who were at the Pentagon and sobbing over the video coming out of there and New York and Pennsylvania. I worried about what would happen to my brother, who was active duty Army at the time, Airborne. I was not worried for myself, and I partly hoped I would be sent somewhere that I could do *something* besides cry and remember. But that is all I've ever been able to do.

So I don't watch specials about it, and won't watch the movies about that day, either. I only ever talk about it on the anniversary. I have it all in my mind, and that's enough for me. I haven't forgotten and will not ever forget.

On 9/11/01 my mom woke me up at an ungodly hour (I don't remember the exact time) shouting for me to turn on the TV because "America is under attack!". I don't wake up quickly and must not have fully understood what she'd said because I was more annoyed about being woken up than concerned. I eventually found the remote and turned on the TV. The second plane had hit the towers a few minutes ago (I believe that's what prompted my mom to wake me up). I thought it was a movie for a little while, since the WTC was such a popular thing to destroy in summer disaster movies prior to 9/11. I eventually figured out that it was real, and watched the towers fall live.

I had to work that evening and remember a kind of eerie hush hanging over my small town (which is in southern PA, so not too far from the places which were attacked).

I wasn't particularly impressed with the events on 9/11, and remember being confused by so many people's strong reactions (I'm talking about people who had no friends or relatives in the effected areas, of course). I should mention that I was a self-involved and rather naive teenager at the time. I got bored with the coverage quickly and put in a Star Trek tape so I wouldn't have to watch it. There were brief mentions of the attack with my friends, but their attitudes were similar to mine. We weren't being personally effected, and were all heavily desensitized to violence and tragedy due to watching such things unfold on TV since we were babies.

Then the aftermath came. There was a war. There was talk of a draft. My best friend was in the army reserves and his unit was called up (but sent to the midwest instead of Iraq, thank all the gods). A close friend's husband was sent to Iraq for over a year. He was military police, and on the front lines of much of the fighting. The man who left was very different from the man who returned. I remember it wasn't safe for him to drive because if an empty soda can rolled across the road in front of him he would freak out. Something about the bombs in Iraq, like he didn't understand he was back in America, where we don't have bombs rolling across the road.

There was serious talk of a draft. If that had come to pass, most of my friends would've been eligible. That frightened and angered me in a way nothing else has before or since. I don't remember ever feeling anger at the people who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks, but I was absolutely furious at our government. After all, it wasn't the terrorists who were threatening my friends' lives. It was the American government.

What I ended up taking away from 9/11 was the understanding that politics and current events over which I have no control can profoundly effect my life.

I now understand why those older and wiser than me were so upset on that day. And you can rest assured that I will never forget.

I was in study hall, high school. Third period. Our principal, who was a terrible public speaker, came over the loudspeaker. After morning announcements the loudspeaker was never used, so this was extremely unusual. She announced she had "a bit of world news to share with us." I remember thinking "Oh boy, world war III."

Instead, she announced planes had hit the WTC, another had hit the Pentagon, and a third had landed on the lawn of the White House. I can't remember what time it was, since obviously the last bit of information was badly incorrect, but I want to say it was after the second plane hit. We got the information on a delay, because the daughters of one of the pilots went to a nearby school and our school waited to tell us after the girls had been taken home.

I went through fourth period, my lunch, without learning anything new. I had a double period of Humanities next, where instead of lecturing my teachers just let us ask questions. It wasn't until seventh period when I saw a television for the first time. I walked in, grateful to see the news. It was on for all of a minute before my teacher turned it off and told us to take out our homework. I was livid. I suspect the teachers were told not to let us watch.

It wasn't until the last period of the day, my photography class, until I finally got to see the news. My teacher had brought in a television set and told us we could watch it if we wanted, or else we could continue with our projects in the dark room.

I remember on the bus home a lot of the middle school kids had no idea what had happened, and it was all the high school kids were talking about. My mom met me at the door that day--she probably hadn't done that since I was in elementary school.

By the time I got home all the news channels had stopped broadcasting the more graphic images. To this day I haven't seen footage of the towers falling.

On that bright blue morning of September 11,2001, I'd just walked back from watching my first grader get on the bus to go to school. I remember thinking that the sky was especially blue and clear as a bell that morning. I was laying on the couch flippin channels right about 8:45 and I might have just been on local stations too. Anyway I was watchin the coverage about some type of plane hitting the World Trade Center, Twin Towers with a really sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. (I'd been in the lobby on my only visit to NYC in the '70's. I knew the architect was M. Yamasaki.) I continued watching Cnn & ABC, flipping between the two channels, and I remember they were already getting live video or downloads from people's cell phones or videos from NY locals. The station was showing a live "chopper" view I think from the back side of the 2nd tower, because I saw that plane (the 2nd plane) come in from the corner kinda slow and so high and close to the building that I thought it might be a rescue copter for the people in the tower that was already hit, and then it disappered and I saw the fire and smoke blast out of the second tower. I started feeling really scared and worried about my kids at school. I called my husband at work but got his voice mail (not New Yorkers). I flipped between channels and actually saw a bit about a "Mayday' signal or something from a plane near cleveland, but by this time they were already reporting that all flights were being grounded. (I think this was the Shanksville plane.) Bits of Paper floated down from the smoking black holes and thick, black smoke blew against the blue blue sky. The MSM kept showing the moment of impact over and over again until I didn't want to see it again. And the silver and grey and white strength of the architectural landmark stood stark with a billowing black smokey wound against the cerulean blue sky.

Then on one channel there was a split screen of the Pentagon and the WTC in NY. The fucking Pentagon~!! Every WWII black and white movie I'd ever watched with my WWII-Navy veteran Dad flashed though my head. I found it to be an incredibly symbolic target. I started freaking out and thinking this was like Pearl Harbor and that the whole country (even the Midwest) was under attack.

I called my husband again and got through and he knew about it but was surprised when I told him about the Pentagon. I asked him to come home and he did about and hour or so later. I called the school to see if they were dismissing school. The secretary said they were not, but I was welcome to come pick up my child if I wished. I didn't. I did think that it was like the Kennedy asassination or Pearl Harbor day had been for previous generations, but this one would be the violent shocking memory, the "where-were-you-when" for my kids. I watched TV all day and made Pork Chops, Scalloped Potates and Green Beans for supper. We didn't know anyone personally in NY at the time, but 3 of my cousins were in London that morning and had to stay an extra day or so because they were supposed to fly out to NY on Wednesday, September 12.

I have a relative who's birthday is September 11.

A few weeks later a family from India (definitely Christians, they had a rather garish photo of Jesus in the living room, but otherwise rather nice decor.) moved in next door. They were Math Teachers and their son (they lived there about 3 yrs and then went back to their NY reatives on Long Island) loved to build Legos with my son, even though he was a few years older. We got to know Mom, Dad & three kids and exchanged a few cultural traditions (Saint Patrick's Day, Halloween and an Indian tradition, not holiday) that really made for better neighbors than even good fences supply. Just before they moved away they came over for a final "neighborly" visit ( I made 3 pots of Tea! and tried to politely find out about "caste" systems in the Huge and very-multi-cultural Country of India) and that's when they told us that they had flown into New York City, (I think LaGuardia) on that morning -- September 11, 2001 was their first day in America. Even so, they made a point of telling me they also thought it was the best country in the world, no question.

Cassiopeia said:

My older boy ran outside and watched the skies. I followed and together we stood watching, listening and the skies over our city were silent. It was the most terrifying sound. Accustomed to the steady air traffic, it was eerie. Then by noon that day, we watched and listened as the military choppers circled our valley.

Click to expand...

That night, as I was coming back from the laundry room, I heard an airplane flying overhead and went into a minor panic since all air traffic had been grounded for an indefinite time. I checked the direction it was headed and realized it was probably going to the air force base near Minot, South Dakota. After I got back into the apartment and closed the door behind me, the living room lights suddenly went out. So this is it. We're all going to die. Nope. My boyfriend had accidentally switched them off.

And after that time with no air traffic, suddenly hearing it again made me realize things were going to be okay.

BenPanced said:

That night, as I was coming back from the laundry room, I heard an airplane flying overhead and went into a minor panic since all air traffic had been grounded for an indefinite time. I checked the direction it was headed and realized it was probably going to the air force base near Minot, South Dakota. After I got back into the apartment and closed the door behind me, the living room lights suddenly went out. So this is it. We're all going to die. Nope. My boyfriend had accidentally switched them off.

And after that time with no air traffic, suddenly hearing it again made me realize things were going to be okay.

Click to expand...

Um, sweetpea, Minot, is in North Dakota. I grew up 12 miles away from Elsworth Air Force Base which is just outside Rapid City, So. Dak.

But yes, it was freakish and our circling military choppers made us feel like we were in a movie. It was just surreal.

Cassiopeia said:

Um, sweetpea, Minot, is in North Dakota. I grew up 12 miles away from Elsworth Air Force Base which is just outside Rapid City, So. Dak.

But yes, it was freakish and our circling military choppers made us feel like we were in a movie. It was just surreal.

Click to expand...

Oops. Maybe I misread Wikipedia.

*checks*

Well. That was a box of rocks moment.

I was thankful we at least had birds in the sky, just to have some sort of sound up there.

And after that time with no air traffic, suddenly hearing it again made me realize things were going to be okay.

Click to expand...

For weeks after, since Logan was still so messy, they rerouted a lot of planes to a small airport in my area. The airport wasn't terribly close, but the reroute was over my neighhborhood. It was bizarre to have planes going overhead all the time.

I was working at the music / DVD desk in the bookstore, crack of dawn shift, in SE Connecticut. Tuesday mornings is new release day and we would announce new titles coming out that week. At 8:47AM I was reading the list and one of the titles was Slayer: God Hates Us All.

We closed a few hours after the news broke. I went home and sat in front of the TV, numb and in shock. I remember even the cat looked at the TV and hid under the carpet.
You could smell it in the air for days. You would drive by the train depots late at night and see a plethora of cars abandoned.
My uncle escaped Manhattan with a busload of merchants (it's a long story ) My cousin, in a freak coincidence, quit her position at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter on the top of the tower a few days earlier. How do you cope with knowing that everyone you know at your old job is dead?
How do you forgive anyone who would do that? Why would you? Why would you forgive anyone who endorsed or celebrated that?

PS Our store in the first floor survived the initial attack - over a million dollars in inventory was lost but the store stood up. A little fun fact for you.

Well, I happen to be a Truther, so my views may not be welcome here. Nevertheless, the general views of the community were invited, and I need not reiterate the argument here. Suffice it to say that I was a Truther already on 9-11, that I wrote and hid a piece describing the false flag scenario just weeks later, and was rather frightened to be what appeared to be the only person seeing this pattern. At the time, no one was airing these views publicly without evoking hate and being labeled a crank.

What stood out to me was the rush to revenge. Sure, a certain natural anger at the instigators was warranted. But we were hearing sabers rattled before Al-Queda was even confirmed as the "culprit."

I thought the focus on vengeance was odd, considering the tragedy and uncertainty of the origin of the attacks. As far as anyone at that moment knew, all the attackers were dead. Hunting down their associates and prosecuting them seemed a far-fetched and fruitless endeavor, and has generally proved to be thus.

I don't accept retaliation as a useful response to aggression. This escalation and mutual destruction has not brought the world closer to resolving its issues. Defense and retaliation are not synonymous. One is intended to deflect attack. The other is guaranteed to provoke it. We are seeing a blurring of these distinct approaches to national security, the latter masquerading as the former for rhetorical purposes.

Revenge≠Defense.

In the end, the Bush Administration's response to 9-11, including the Patriot Act and the misguided Iraq war, was far costlier in terms of lives, real estate destroyed, and quality of life worldwide than the attack itself. To date, no one has been prosecuted except for one possibly insane French Morrocan...who Osama reportedly has vindicated of participating.

To my way of thinking, they could have spared the rhetoric and showed dignity before the world.

I maintain that we have many, many unanswered questions about these attacks and how they were actually arranged.

I had just dropped my daughter off at pre-school and was in my car, headed to the library for some research. The radio station broke in to local news to describe the first plane hitting the WTC. No one knew it was an airliner, yet. Then--amazingly--they got a phone call from someone on the street, who was saying that it looked bigger than a small plane when suddenly, they started screaming "oh my God, another one!"

I called my parents, who always watched the morning news, to find out what was going on, but they hadn't turned the TV on, yet. Today of all days. My mother did so, and relayed some reporting from there. I called my wife, who by then was watching it all with her staff.

The next thing I thought of was my sister-in-law's situation: she was in France with two friends. I called her to tell her. She was due to fly home the next day and I figured all flights were gonna be grounded, so she would need to make some other arrangements.

I listened to the coverage as I drove. When I was in the library parking lot, I stayed in the car for a good hour, listening.

During that time, I remember local leaders coming on the news, trying to calm people that feared more attacks in Miami, that were pulling kids from schools, acting like a world war was at hand, etc.

I don't remember every being angry that morning. Just very sad.

Oddly enough, my wife was due to fly out to New York the next day, where she had a meeting with AmEx in the building that later burned down, after the towers fell.