# [OT] Sep. 11th was the day that I...



## ForceUser

Can you believe that it's been almost a year? I can't. A whole year.

Wow. 

I used to listen to the radio every morning at work. Music, sports, whatever...something to keep me awake and focused. That morning when I walked into work the office was already abuzz.

"Dude, did you hear?!" said a coworker.

No, I hadn't heard. I'd been riding the train on my morning commute. I read the paper on the train. 

By 9:00AM Pacific, an officemate had already downloaded and printed an image of an airliner plummeting toward a familiar skyscraper. The fuzzy picture, taken from a digital camera, depicted a jet-shaped shadow silhouetted against one of the towers.

I stared at that image for several minutes. It looked like Hollywood magic, but it was real.

Reports rolled in all day long, and I didn't get much work done. 

But that night, I gamed. I'd be damned if I was going to let terrorists control my actions. Sep. 11th was the day that I gamed anyway, because the only other option was to sit around and stare at the TV in disbelief. 

Sept. 11th was the day that I gamed.


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## Hejdun

*Well, as long as I'm in the mood*

I woke up earlier than normal, and for some reason, turned on the TV and watched the news right after I got downstairs.  It was the first time I'd ever done that.  When I turned on the TV, there was a lot of coverage on some sort of explosion in the WTC.  I watched a little bit, and CNN had some people talking about what could have caused it, if it was terrorism, etc.  At that time, they didn't know that it was because a plane was flown into it.  

Anyways, they had a guy talking about the likelyhood that it was a bomb or terrorism, when I saw the massive explosion in the television screen.  Before I left for school, they were showing clips of the second plane hitting the second building.  I got to school and started talking to my teacher before school, and I asked him if he saw what was happening.  He hadn't, so I filled him in and we watched the TV until school started.

Sometime around then, there was a school-wide announcement about what was happening, and they promised to keep us up to date (they didn't), but specifically forbid us from watching the TV.  Well, in first period we... watched TV.  Not a whole lot more than that.  The next period my friend and I tried to come up with how many people were killed, and came up with around 2,500-3,000 (I look back on that now and think that it was in callous taste).  

School went by as normal, and I heard rumors about the other towers collapsing and the Pentagon getting hit.  I thought that the last plane was shot down when I first heard about it, before anyone knew what really happened.  When I got home I watched the TV pretty much endlessly with my family.  I called a few friends, and when I couldn't watch the TV anymore, I gamed.

Yup, gamed.  I guess it's the default method of breaking away for a little while.


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## BOZ

i was stuck at work all day.  i was the first one in my section to hear about it, as my friend in another department was e-mailing me about it.  at first i, like most of the rest of you, didn't beleive it and thought he was BSing me.  i looked around at my co-workers, and none of them was acting oddly so i wondered how i should react.  at some point, i wandered into the breakroom where a few dozen people were huddled around the small TV watching the news.  no denying it now, all hell had broken loose.  i went back to my desk, and maybe less than an hour later everyone had stopped working.  we were all at least a little bit scared, wondering in some sort of shocked daze what was going to happen next.  downtown chicago was being evacuated (a current fellow worker of mine was in one of those buildings, and went home that morning like everyone else) and we were told to keep working until we heard otherwise.

so i did, even though my heart was in it even less than usual.  it was odd that the management didn't let us go home, especially as we later found out, that over 100 employees from our corporation died that day (and we don't get it off this year either - very very odd considering how big a deal the corporate heads made of it in the months following last september).  i called my girlfriend (now fiancee) to see if she was ok, but i couldn't reach her and i was worried.  i called my parents' house too, but they weren't home yet either.  i had planned to go there after work, as my dad's birthday is september 11th (yeah, beleive it) and i wanted to see him.  i wasn't going to let the tragedy stop me, so i went.  it was pretty somber there - the usual 24/7 sports viewing was temorarily replaced by 24/7 news.  i wished him a happy birthday despite everything.  i called my girlfriend, and yes she was ok of course.  her school had let out early just like many others had done that day and she just wasn't home yet when i called from work.  after a couple hours at my parents' house, i went home and did my best to sleep.  i guess, in the end, i had a pretty typical day - when you compare it to everyone else's in the nation, outside of NYC and DC.  i was pretty depressed for awhile, but time heals all wounds i suppose.  i think i'll go see my dad again this coming wednesday the 11th.


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## android

I was in Costa Rica believe it or not.  My parents took me and my girlfriend as a graduation present for the both of us.  We were staying at a place called Lapa Rios on the Osa peninsula at the time (www.laparios.com -- if you go to costa rica, go here.)  We had gotten up early and gone out hiking.  As we were returning to the lodge, the manager greeted us at the door, which isn't strange in and of itself, but what he said was quite odd.  He said to the 4 of us in his costa rican accent: "I've got some very bad news.  There's been a tragedy in the United States."

At this point, I thought that perhaps there had been an earthquake or a plane crash or maybe something had happened to the president or something, just by the way he said it.  Then he started telling us about the planes.  It was a shocking feeling.  

Normally, there are no TVs anywhere in Lapa Rios.  However, for this occasion, the manager had violated the rules and brought his personal television up to the lodge for everyone to watch.  We all sat there all day and watched the news.  In spanish, of course, switching between a Costa Rican station and a Panamanian station.  Occasionally, we'd ask the staff to translate what the newscasters were saying.  Mostly we could just watch the pictures and recognize words like "Casa Blanca" and "presidente de los Estados Unidos."  

Of course, we eventually made it back to San Juan in preparation for our leaving where we were able to get CNN in english and get on the internet.  But until then, we were very clueless as to what was happening.  If i remember correctly, our flight was scheduled to leave to return home on the 14th.  And we actually made it.  Ours was the first flight back to the states that they had not cancelled.

Upon returning it was strange to learn of all the things that we had missed while out of the country.  Everyone here seemed to know so much more about everything than we did.  It took us all some time to catch up.  We all had someone to worry about.  Not too many people didn't know someone in either NYC or DC.

Anyways.  Just my story.


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## Grazzt

I was sitting in one of my Comp classes that day. One of our students came into class a little late and said something about a plane hitting one of the World Trade Center towers. My first reaction was "What a dumbass!" I figured some idiot in a single engine had flown off course and slammed into the side of the building. (Its happened before with the Empire State Bldg).

A few minutes later the director of the school burst into the room and said "They just hit the other tower." Then I knew it wasn't some goof in a single engine.

Me and one of my fellow classmates cobbled together a cable hook-up and spliced into the cable lines in the room next to ours (apparently those classes paid off ) and we turned on the news.

All the students gathered around from our room as well as a few other rooms nearby and even the Admin peeps came in and sat down.

The room remained quiet as we heard "A plane just hit the Pentagon." And then "A plane has gone down in PA."

We all were thinking and some of us even said "Jesus Christ! How many friggin' planes did they get?" We all waited to see if the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Bldg, Sears Tower in Chicago, White House, or LAX were next.

When we saw the first tower fall, some people in the room started crying (I think I was one of them- I had friends and a cousin that worked in or near the towers).

We watched as the second tower went down. Nobody knew what to say. Nobody said or did anything. We all just sat there..not believing what the hell we just saw.

Not too long after that, school was dismissed and I went straight to my house to check on my loved ones. I also called my brother (in Chicago) to see if he was OK.

We spent the day with my parents trying to figure out what the hell we saw and what the hell just happened in front of us. My dad (retired, 20 yrs in the USAF) said "Somebody picked the wrong country to f**k with today." 

I did find out later that my cousin was near the buildings when they were hit. I also found out that one of my friends that worked in the towers was actually walking in the buidling when it was hit. She said she heard a roar and felt a tremor like an earthquake. Well, she said (to us later on) her dad said if she heard something like that in any place BUT Los Angeles to turn and run like hell....don't even look back...just run...and she did. And she made it.


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## BiggusGeekus

I live in Washington, DC.  I won't discuss the 11th in this thread.

On September 8th, I met a girl.  We made plans to see each other that Thursday, September 13th.

"Out of bad things, baby, good things sometimes come."


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## VorpalBunny

9/11 was the day that made me hope I never have to experience anything like it again.  I work in a NYC hospital between 5 and 10 miles (in a straight line) from "ground zero".  I didn't have to be at work until 11:00 AM, so I dropped my daughter off at day-care around 8:45 and drove back home.  On the way back, I heard on the radio that a plane just crashed into the World Trade Center.  I remember the "personality" I was listening to say "It was bound to happen will all the civilian air traffic around Manhattan... stupid drunk pilot".

I got home and turned on the TV to see what was happening.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  I saw a gaping hole in the north tower, then I saw the second plane hit and the south tower explode.  I immediately called my mom to let her know what was happening - she retired from a brokerage firm located on the 85th floor of tower 2.  Her firm would end up losing thirty people.  

I put on my scrubs and headed into work 2 hours early.  All hospitals in NYC and the surrounding areas were put on disaster alert.  My hospital was set for a "code major" - a major disaster with greater than 50 people injured.  I got into work to see that stretchers and gurneys were lined up along the walls in the hallways ready for patients.  Our ambulances were heading into the city with physicians to assist.  A minor league baseball field close to us was set up as a makeshift morgue.  I remember someone saying "A plane crashed into the Pentagon, and another crashed in Pa.".   I remember wondering what was happening?  Who is doing this to us?

People had started showing up to give blood.  The hospital's trauma team was waiting on the ambulance bay outside for any causalties that came our way.  I was screening and taking the vital signs of prospective blood donors.  During a lull, I'd run to a TV or to the top floors to try and see what was going on.

The most horrible thing about the whole day?  Knowing that we weren't going to see many casualties after watching the towers collapse.  My hospital received around _five_ patients from the attacks.  Our sister hospital in Manhattan got around a hundred.

(_edited for grammar and syntax_)


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## Talvisota

Honestly, Sep 11 was the day that I knew that overweight, ignorant-to-the-world Americans would be breaking out their "Patriot: Scud Buster" T-shirts again.  

Yes, I am bitter, for our country has still not realized that we are hated because of jealousy, not for some religious rage.  Just plain jealousy, disguised by political leaders as a movement.  The people who hate us cannot emulate us, even though Israel can, with rule of law and democracy.  So, their leaders push this hatred of the west and Jews on them.  

Why is this so, and why would a humble EN board fan know this to be certain?  Because I see it every day.

I was in Kazakhstan at the time, as I am now, and, of course, it was evening for us.

We were on high alert, and I saw the Israeli embassy militarize across the street.  Once we realized it's scope, we stood down some.  One thing I will never forget is that the Russian/local news was claiming all sorts of wacked-out crud, like 10 planes were still missing at EST noon and such.

Since, I have seen the US pump even more millions into this area as foreign aid.  You would be ashamed how it is spent!  Neither creating democracy nor rule of law.  I have watched FOX news commentators (I get cable) write on maps John Madden-style and misname countries apparently because they can't read an atlas.  I have heard the same commentators say rediculous things like "Afghanistan and other Arab nations."  

And, attack me if you will, I am glad that I will not be in my great country during the one-year anniversary.  Just can't take the jingoism.

The "War on Terrorism" is an ephemeral idea, yet it is as ideological as the eastern front of WWII.  It is the Lexus and the Olive Tree finally coming to blows.


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## Vaxalon

Looking back...

September 11 was the day the American people began to allow their last shreds of freedom to be torn from them, not by a foreign invader, but by internal parasites pretending to serve them.


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## Selganor

On this day, my boss called my from a train he just boarded, he had caught the first glimpses of CNNs report at the station in Frankfurt and would be on this train for at least 3-4 hours but he wanted to know what it was that he just saw...

I tried to get to the usual news sites but must of them were already down, due to the enormous amount of hits they took from people worldwide who wanted to be as informed as they could.

I called my mother at home and asked her if the tv was already reporting and she called me back a few times, every time with some more horrible news...

Meanwhile some coworkers gathered and clung to my monitor as I tried to pry as much information from a rapidly dissolving internet as possible (more and more servers went down).

ENWorld was one of the prime resources I got, with people putting up every bit of info they were able to get to. (Thanks TrippleH and everyone else who put up info)

Even here in Germany people were shocked and quite afraid, as noone knew what would happen next...


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## Ravellion

I feel that as a non US, but still western, citizen my view on the events might shed some light on certain things.

I just had a class (Dutch English translation), and it was 3 in the afternoon, Central European Time. At five I needed to be at my very first "Philosophy of Science"  class, in the biggest lecture hall of the University of Amsterdam.

A friend called on my cell as I stepped out of the university building: "A plane crashed in the WTC!". I thought a single engine plane rammed into one of the three 12 floor buildings of the Amsterdam WTC. He clarified the situation, and then I thought it was just an incident, as did he.

In the next two hours he continually gave me updates on the situation, and an accident had been ruled out as I took my seat at the lecture. I think 300+ people were present.

The professor started talking through his microphone: "I hoped I wouldn't ever have to start a lecture like this, but here goes. For those of you who have not yet heard the news: Four planes crashed in the United States, Two of them in the Twin Towers, one on the Pentagon. These plane crashes are, according to the media, most likely terrorist actions."

After the lecture, we (about 50 students) watched CNN at the university. Most of the others went home to do the same. After tony blair's emotional speech I rode my bicycle home on the deserted streets of Amsterdam, accompanied by a few friends and fellow students (we still needed to get dinner) .

After we recovered from the shock of seeing so many people die when the towers collapsed, we started thinking about what was going to happen. The next emotion almost everyone of us felt was fear. What were the United States going to do?

Images of Japanese people being put in concentration camps in 1942 came to someone's mind. Extreme Right wing "patriotic" US citizens harrasing Muslims (or doing worse things to them) came to mine.

A few weeks later I was pleased to find that we were wrong about those assumptions, but now, a year later:

Edited out political commentary. Apparently, I can't say how I *feel* . This thread has a nobler goal than political discusson, I apoligize if this would lead to a hijacked thread.

Rav


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## BigBastard

I was at the unemployment center to apply for my unemployment benefits. They were about to wheel in a tv for us to watch while waiting and the supervisor runs out and wheels the tv back into her office. There was a lot of hushed whispers but no one told us anything. 

Once I finished my paperwork I left and as I was leaving the unemployment center I saw six guys run out of a Chinese restaurant into an electrical appliance store. When I went to see what was up I came in just in time to see the first tower collapse on a large screen tv. I was in complete shock.


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## Furn_Darkside

Rav said:
			
		

> *
> The US used to be the only pillar of democracy and freedom. It still has those traits, but it now shares them with other countries. US isolationism towards those countries just doesn't make sense to me.
> *




Argh, please keep your political opinions to yourself. 

I am losing too much blood biting my tongue.

Or go to nutkinland or 
Closed threads at EnWorld 

FD


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## Storm Raven

edit - removed my angramainyu - Rav was kind enough to remove his comments to which this responded.  I'd like to keep this thread open if possible, but that mean no political commentary.


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## Ravellion

Storm raven, I don't want a political discussion. I stated how I *felt*. It just feels that way, that not taking place in any of those things the US *feels* isolationistic to me and lots of my countrymen. Please edit out your political commentary, as I did mine. This thread has a different topic. To me, sptember 11 conjured up those feelings.

Rav


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## Vaxalon

edit - removed my angramainyu


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## Tsyr

edit - removed my angramainyu


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## buzzard

On September 11th I got married. Mind you that was back in 99, but it certainly makes for lousy anniversaries. OTOH, I suspect I will have an easy time with dinner reservations in the future. 

Buzzard


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## ColonelHardisson

Rav said:
			
		

> *Apparently, I can't say how I feel .  *




Yes, you can, but the editorializing is inappropriate to this thread.


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## Tsyr

What was september 11th?

I was in college waiting for a class on Shakespeare to start. The prof came in and told us that a plane had crashed into the WTC. I was horrified, but at the time, all we knew was that it had happened... our class started only a minute or so after the news first went out.

I wrote my essay and left, in the hall were people gathered around televisions set up wherever they could find a cable jack. I gathered around one and asked a friend what I had missed.

From there the day went strange.

I left college after that; most profs cancled their classes for the rest of the day. I went home and flipped on the television and alternated between that and EN-World for most of the rest of the day.

When it became clear that it was terrorism we were dealing with, I remember I was in basicly a cold rage for the rest of the day... I was outraged, but there was nothing at all I could do to effect anything in the slightest, and that was the hardest pill to swallow.

*edit*

My group still gamed that night, but the mood was subdued. I remember the DM kept putting us up against easy little assassin type characters that we mowed our way through, as sort of a stress outlet.


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## angramainyu

Sorry for the slash-job on the posts above, but this isn't the place for political commentary.  I did however want to keep the thread open if possible, so a quick clean-up seemed like the best solution.

For me, I'll always associate Sept 11 with the message boards.  I spend most of the day trying to help the people here who had access to news sources pass along information to those who didn't.  A lot of places on the internet fell into chaos, but I was proud to be part of a community that really showed how much caring and compassion there can be.


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## ColonelHardisson

My brother-in-law called me, and I got to a TV. I started watching just as the plane hit the second tower. 

I kept thinking - "they can repair those towers, but the loss of life is unreal..."

When the first tower fell, I remember thinking, oddly - "well, the other tower is still standing." And then it fell, too. It made me sick and angry - the loss of life, the loss of two of our most recognizable buildings, the marring of the most famous skyline in the world, the sheer destruction right in the heart of our largest and most famous city. The last thing on my mind was political ramifications.

The Pentagon attack also made me angry, but it also baffled me in a way - I kept thinking that nobody could possibly believe that destroying the Pentagon would cripple our military. I guess the symbolism of it didn't occur to me at the time.


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## Furn_Darkside

> *edit - removed my angramainyu *




That sounds painful


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## angramainyu

> That sounds painful




Only the fiirst time


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## Furn_Darkside

I had come to work a bit late, and was irritated that the internet seemed to be down- again. A regular occurence at my work place, but I did not pull the pieces together til later.

I was about to leave for a programmer meeting when one of my coworkers had come in: "Did you hear a plane hit one of the trade towers?!"

I immediately thought of the plane hitting the empire state building long ago- and shrugged it off. I hoped as few people would die as possible, but I figured the incredibly high near collision rate of air planes in NYC had finally led to a disaster.

At the long boring meeting, we saw other people rushing by the building to the main building on campus. One of the other geeks asked what was happening, and I casually mentioned the "accident" .

We decided to leave the meeting and go to the faculty parlor and watch television. I spent the rest of the day there watching to ABC. That was when the truth of the situation finally hit me- and I watched the fall of the towers.

That was probably the first night I had ever felt lonely in my whole life.

FD


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## Chromnos

I was interviewing in DC for a job with the Diplomatic Security Service. Needless to say, my cell phone was going off like every firework in the whole goddamn Chinese New Year. 

Three days later, I got a job at Janes editing their Terrorism, WMD, and Public Safety material. Been swamped ever since.

-C


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## Tsyr

angramainyu said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Only the fiirst time  *




Curse you. My monitor is covered in vannila coke because of you...


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## angramainyu

> Curse you. My monitor is covered in vannila coke because of you...




That's okay... Apparently I can't make a post with-out making a typo.

Damb.


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## Dr Midnight

angramainyu said:
			
		

> * That's okay... Apparently I can't make a post with-out making a typo.
> 
> Damb. *



I'll bet you intended to type "Michael" or something when you registered your screen name. 

Sorry, I needed to make this one OT post.


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## Storm Raven

Rav said:
			
		

> *Storm raven, I don't want a political discussion. I stated how I felt. It just feels that way, that not taking place in any of those things the US feels isolationistic to me and lots of my countrymen. Please edit out your political commentary, as I did mine. This thread has a different topic. To me, sptember 11 conjured up those feelings.*




The commentary was edited before I looked back in the thread.

But let me just say this: you stated several things as facts (not feelings) that were facially incorrect. In the future, if you want to avoid responses that correct you on things like this, get your facts right the first time.


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## Storm Raven

angramainyu said:
			
		

> *Sorry for the slash-job on the posts above, but this isn't the place for political commentary.  I did however want to keep the thread open if possible, so a quick clean-up seemed like the best solution.*




Of course you can clean up stuff like that.

But I will point out that my comments were mostly legal. As in, providing accurate legal information about government processes.


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## shouit

I was at the gym, riding an exercise bike before I go into work.  At first, I thought they were showing scenes from the previous attack on WTC, then I saw the other plane come in.  I was amazed and shocked.  I came into work and told my boss, who didn't believe me, and then the whole plant, I work for IBM,  was told to stay off the internet and that they will give us news updates via intercom.  Did we stay off?  Nope.  They had turned on all the plant monitors to TV stations and we just watched all day long.


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## Terraism

I was... yeah, I was here.  Our school refused to give us any information, and actually went so far as to turn off the TVs from the main something-or-other.  (No, I don't pay too much attention to where and what.  That's not the point.)  They also blocked just about every website they could think of that was related to news - the New York Times, the LA Tribune, etc.  (Why they didn't just turn off the 'Net, I'm not sure.)  But, they didn't block EN World - and I managed to come up with more news than just about anyone I encountered in the school; first - and only - time I've spent a class with permission to be reading the boards.  I remember having a conversation with my Model UN advisor about what exactly the conferences this year were going to look like; I remember our crosscountry coach absolutely wild that the meet'd been called off that evening.  It's kinda odd - I remember almost the entire school day, but once I got home, I don't remember anything.  Hmm..


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## Grazzt

Terraism said:
			
		

> *and I managed to come up with more news than just about anyone I encountered in the school; first - and only - time I've spent a class with permission to be reading the boards.  *




Terra- I remember that. Whilst we sat around my class watching the news everyone was trying to get to CNN.com or MSNBC.com and of course, those sites were down.

So- I came here, and I played the role of news reporter to the class as I was getting info from the boards here. I think I got more info from here before it was even reported on the TV or anywhere else.


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## King_Stannis

9/11 capped off one of our busiest times at work. some of our investment people have bloomburg terminals and we watched everything on bloomburg TV. i checked in on the boards, too. one thing i'll remember for a while are the experiences of our dearly departed chairman_kaga, who got to witness the horror firsthand. of all the firsthand accounts i saw on tv, it's his written testimony that painted the vividness of that day.


since then it's been a fairly rotten year. my neighbor, my grandmother and the chairman have all died since 9/11. my back has pretty much totally given out during this past year, leading me down the road to surgery very soon.


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## Furn_Darkside

King_Stannis said:
			
		

> * my back has pretty much totally given out during this past year, leading me down the road to surgery very soon. *




Ugh, I am sorry to read that. I hope everything works out for you.

FD


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## tarchon

buzzard said:
			
		

> *On September 11th I got married. Mind you that was back in 99, but it certainly makes for lousy anniversaries. OTOH, I suspect I will have an easy time with dinner reservations in the future.
> *



My (American) cousin got married that day too, to her Tunisian boyfriend.  I don't expect forgotten anniversaries will be a problem.


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## King_Stannis

Furn_Darkside said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Ugh, I am sorry to read that. I hope everything works out for you.
> 
> FD *




thanks, FD. i see the neurosurgeon tomorrow to discuss options, but with one of my disks herniated it's looking like surgery is going to be the only solution.


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## Roland Delacroix

I was sleeping in my dorm.  I woke up and moved to the large common room where what looked like a party was going on around the TV.  A friend told me what happened, but being a wacky college student I thought he was joking.  I wandered over to the couch in my PJ's just in time to see the second plane hit the towers.

After I realized it wasn't a joke i was pretty much slack-jawed all day.  Mournfull I couldn't help, angry and wanting revenge, but the primary thing going through my mind was:  There are still 2 planes missing, one headed vaguely north.  They arent hitting symbols of freedom, but symbols of business.  My dad works at the John Hancock building in Chicago.

I retreated to my room and opened up the ENworld chat.  TV was playing the same speculations over and over, but in the chat room all the international news was flying.  Having friends to talk too helped.

I was nervous all day because of the confused reports of how many planes were hijacked.  The only good part of that day was the way my heart soared when those brave American civilians decided they would rather die than be a part of another attack.

Oh, and I changed my oil.


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## Bubbledragon

September 11th?

It's my birthday.

Wheeeeeeeeee.


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## Paka

I woke up next to my girlfriend.  We had spent the night together for the first time that night after a long, awkward courtship.

I kissed her on the cheek and went back to my apartment.  My roommate's mom called and told me that a plane went into the first tower.  The television went on just in time for me to see the plane hit the second tower.

Growing up on the Jersey Shore you get to know the Towers as facts of the horizon, like mountains or stars.  Watching them fall was a terrible thing.

Working as a Youth Advocate, I had to go take a kid to school.  He told me that he didn't want to get out of bed and I told him, "Yeah, you and everyone else in America.  Get up."

School would be a good place for him to talk with his friends and his teachers.  Also, he hadn't wanted to wake up the day before, so perhaps this was just an excuse, neh?

On his way to school we talked and he shared his fears, "I don't want to be drafted.  We're going to go to war and I'm going to be drafted."

"It isn't going to be that kind of war," I assured.

September 11th was the first day I kissed a woman I loved in the morning and then went to work.


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## Buttercup

I was at work.  The husband of one of my staff members called to say that a plane had hit one of the twin towers.  I went into the staff lounge and wheeled the television out into the area where all of us were working.  We heard about the pentagon, saw the footage, and then watched as, live on CNN, the second plane flew into the other tower.  

We wondered if it was the beginning of the end.   I called my husband, and told him that I loved him.  I thought about my dog, peacefully sleeping in her crate at home.  I got out the emergency handbook for my organization, and reread the part about civil disasters.  I watched more TV.

By the end of the work day, we no longer feared that WW3 was about to start, but we were all weepy and horrified, and filled with a cold anger.  I was never so happy to see my husband & my dog as I was that night.  Both safe, warm, alive.  

It took me at least 3 months to be able to think of that day without shedding a tear for all of our dead.  I think that, for the rest of my life, I will be able to close my eyes and see that second plane fly into the building, and the bright orange flames blossom like a giant, hellish flower.


----------



## BOZ

the political ramifications hit me as soon as i realised what had really happened.  as my friend kept sending me more and more details e-mails, i went from believing it was a joke on his part, to thinking it was an air accident, to seeing how it was probably terrorists, to mentally preparing myself for war - all in the space of about 15 minutes.  at that time, both planes had hit the towers, and as i kept up with yahoo.com's news page i saw the devastation unfold.  i even printed out the news page every 15 minutes or so, to get different stories as they happened.  i discussed it with my manager and my supervisor, knowing full well that some sort of military action would happen - and when it finally did, though i wasn't a bit suprised i was definitely still shocked.  we might not have really solved anything in afghanistan, and now we might be baiting an old enemy into who knows what.
that is scary, but the part that really makes me sad, was how i could not think about all those people without getting choked up for so long.  if i thought about it, i had to stop thinking about it.  even now, when i see a commercial or TV special intended to tear the heartstrings, i will get mad and change the channel thinking "how dare they force me think about that again!"  most people are largely recovered a year later, but i think there's some lasting damage in each of us.


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## Vargo

I live on the West coast, so I was just getting out of bed when the first plane hit the WTC.  I stumbled out of bed, did a bit of morning routine, got my wife up, then made my way out to the living room to feed our cat and turn on the news.  I turned on the TV, and the anchor was reporting that a plane had hit the WTC, and that they had no further info at this time.  They had a camera live at the site looking at the burning building - it was surreal.

I yelled to my wife that a plane had hit the WTC, turned back, and as she yelled "what?" saw the camera tilt back and follow the second plane directly into the tower.

I didn't say anything back.

She came out, and I managed, somewhat numbly, to tell her to watch the TV, they knew everything I did.  We started trying to get through to various news websites, but nothing was accessible.

My wife panics easily.  She was afraid that this was going to happen everywhere, and I had to take some time and calm her down a bit - I'm fairly well versed in the political structure of How Crap Like This Happens - and explain that while the WTC is a "good" target for terrorists, a small 2-floor building that counsels at-risk youth in a second-rate town probably would not be a primary target for a terrorist attack, at least not at this point.  I then had to make the same point again for my work - slightly harder, considering I worked at the time for a major corporation, but the structure of the buildings on their campus made me feel like they weren't a major target either.

And then we had to go to work.

Work for me that day consisted of repeatedly checking any website that was relaying information - in my case, hardocp.com and arstechnica.com served as my primary newspoint.  I was picking up what I could from my local NPR affiliate - listening as the Pentagon was hit, then the PA crash - and watching my work roommate freak out.  He had been Special Forces in the Persian Gulf Skirmish, and apparently was suffering some serious PTSD.  I tried to talk him through the worst of it. (For the record, my wife has a Masters in Psychology, and I do computer work, but I read most of her Masters-level books, and helped her with her papers, so I've got a fairly good understanding of what counselling is) He was vaccilating back and forth between wanting to find the bastards responsible and removing their spleens through various orifices, both existing and newly generated, and being totally unable to comprehend how somebody could do this.

Not too much work got done that day.  Still, nobody was sent home.

Since then, I've been wracked by a major depressive episode, laid off, spent seven months unemployed, and started a new job about two weeks ago.

And celebrated my 3rd wedding anniversary on 7/11/2002.


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## Rel

September 11th was the day that I knew for certain that the world was about to change dramatically and that I had not a clue as to how.

What I probably remember most was holding my daughter, who was then a month and a half old, late late into the night while watching the news channels.  I cannot really describe how having my newborn child in my arms at that moment was somehow an immeasurable comfort and the source of a seemingly bottomless pit of fear.

I just wish that she could grow up in a world in which that never happened.  But I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure that it is not the focal point of her childhood.


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## Feliath

I'm a Swede, so I was comfy and far away. But I used to live in north NJ when I was younger, though I'm born in Sweden. The thing I remember most from NYC is being eight and not being able to bend my head far enough back that I cound see the top of the WTC. I remember that on my grandmother's burthday, she had come over to visit us in the US, and we ate at the restaurant that was at the top of one tower.

Anyhow, this is September 11th, 2001:
I was sick. I had had a cold for two days. I was in my dorm room at school, and another guy in the dorm came and knocked on the door. (I always kept it locked.) He said "Holy BLAP! They crashed a plane into the WTC!" This guy is an annoying joker, for the most part, so I looked at him skeptically. But I heard sincerity. "Seriously?" I asked, slightly taken aback. "YES!!"  So we ran off to the coomon room, where the good TV was. The short way there, the only non-expletive in my syddenly brimming mind was "*Can not be happening.*" 

Many of the others in the corridor were there already. (The others filtered in as they came back from school; the time gap made it early afternoon.) So I sat there, completely numb, seeking solace from people I mostly disliked, and we saw the second plane hit the second tower in real time. I said it out loud: "What if it falls?" Soon after, one tower was completely obscured by smoke - or so it seemed - and one of the others sensed it had happened. "Oh my god. It's GONE. It FELL." Sure enough, seconds later they showed footage of it going down. And from there on it's just a jumble of numbness, aside from calling my dad, who had flowen to Boston on a business trip that morning, and my mom, to see if they knew already. The next thing i actually remember is the next morning in school, saying to a classmate:

"I just hope I never have to start telling a true story with: 'Once, there was a city.' "

Seeing it is still unreal. I don't think it'll _ever_ become real. I saved all the newspapers from the following day I could.

/Feliath

Edit: this puts it best of anything I've seen so far.


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## Bragg Battleaxe

I was in a classroom teaching 25 ninth graders English. I had been teaching less than a month and suddenly, I found myself trying to explain to kids who probably have never heard of the WTC and couldn't point to NYC on a map why they should care about this at all, and why their lives would never be the same, whether they knew it or could understand it. I will never, ever forget that day.


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## Gadodel

I had just got back from my morning run.  I saw it on the news as the story unfolded.  I immediately called a buddy who works for the goverment.  He was already packing.  He couldn't tell me where he was going and didn't know when we would talk again.  He asked me to call his parents for him and tell them he loved them.  I told him to that he already knew what he had to do and if he did it, he would come home alive.  After hanging up, I called my mom and said that I wished that I could enlist in the military.  Health problems would keep me out.  We talked as we watched the news, for the next two hours.  Then, I called and talked to other people before I went off to work that afternoon.

I have only heard from my buddy once.  He told me that everytime he felt tired and weary, he would think of all those times how we would sit around a campfire, drink beer and tell stories.  He wanted to live so that he would have more stories to tell.  I told him to keep doing the wetwork the gov surely has him doing and to remember he was not alone.  

I could ramble on about goverment policy, but won't.  I would rather take the time to thank all those whom serve and do the work that needs to be done.  And I hope as many of them as possible come home, alive and free.


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## Leopold

I was at a job interview of all places at a government facility. Needless to say the interview stopped once we heard the news. 


Another thing about living in florida was that the president was in town giving a speach. Once he heard the new he boarded the jet air force one and took off.

Now being as that i was 20 miles from the airport i saw this puppy take off. Air force one is a monster. It's like a dragon taking off, it's huge, it's big, and it's damn fast. I saw it go off and saw the fighter escor from McDill air force base shadow it.

I knew the country's leader was in good hands then. After that I was glued to the TV to see the towers fall.


Needless to say I didn't get the job but they always remembered me for that day...


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## NoOneofConsequence

Living in Australia, September 11 was almost over for me when I heard I found out.  I was flicking channels before going to bed when I saw the towers smoking. I thought, "Wow, that's the WTC on fire. How did a fire get into both towers at the same time."

The commentator said that it was a plane crash. I couldn't understand how a plane crash could set both towers on fire.

Then the comentator said it was two plane crashes. I found that hard to believe, I mean what a fluke, that two separate planes would crash into each tower on the same day.

Remember, this was live and the second crash had happened only minutes before.

I needed to have the comentator spell it out for me - that this was a suspected terrrorist act. The sheer audacity of such an act astonished me. Watching it live was an indescribable experience.

I wept and prayed for the dead and the dying.


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## blaster219

Sept 11 is going to be one of these days where everyone remembers where they where when they first heard the news.

I was at home, on my computer writing a module for a Conspiracy Horror game. I was only have listening to the radio in the kitchen when the announcer said they were getting reports that a plane has flown into the WTC in New York.

When I heard this, I laughed. I pictured a drunken cessna pilot getting lost in low cloud and smacking into the building. Heartless I know but back then, I could'nt concieve that anyone would purposefly fly a plane into a skyscraper. In hindsight, its a bloody obvious way of perpetuating terror.

I continued on writing. About 30 mins later, I overheard an announcer saying that a second plane had hit. I again thought of a small plane. Perhaps a sightseerer got too close and lost control.

I went into the living room and turned on the TV to BBC24. They were just replaying THAT image. The one of the second plane crashing. I was gobsmacked. I watched mesmerised as the events unfolded 5000 miles away in the states. Later that afternoon, I went to the weekly roleplay club held in town. The city just felt strange, people were walking around with a glazed expression on their faces and I listened as even more events happened over my walkman.

When I got to the club, that was all anyone was talking about. We gamed anyway. Of course at the back of our minds was the knowledge that 9/11 was close to events that we had portrayed time and time again in games.


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## robaustin

Was sitting at my PC at work, like millions of Americans.  Got an IM from a friend who told me what happened.  Like millions of Americans I headed right to the CNN site, which was down.

The rest of the day was spent switching from various internet radio stations to different web sites trying to get the latest info.

Working in New Jersey, having gone up to the WTC numerous times, it was very weird.  Folks in the office, people I knew, all wondering if they knew someone in the WTC. My cousin worked across the street in the World Financial center.  My friends lived and worked in midtown - were they downtown today?  My dad sometimes had meetings in NYC -was HE downtown?  Gradually everyone came on the IM and let me know they were OK.  We discussed.  I have never IM'ed so many people as I did on that day.  The PC was my connection, not the TV.

Than I realized:

A friend and I had planned a scavenger hunt in NYC two years previous.  Our scavenger hunts were more than that, they were events.  It was he first time, and only time we had done one in NYC.  It was more of a "rally" type scavenger hunt, where you read a clue and have to figure out the next place to go.  We generally had a theme with each hunt, to keep it interesting and to give the day a plot.  The theme that year?  Terrorists blowing up the WTC.  Each team was a team of spies trying to stop it from happening.

We put clues all over the city.   In Port Authority, in the NY publc library, on the bull down on wall street,  in Rockefeller center, in CHinatown at Confucius circle.  And yes, at the top of the WTC.  It was then that I realized that one of thelast times I had been up there - and probably the last time any of my friends in the scavenger hunt had been up there - was that day two years previous.  It left me dumbfounded.  We had made a game of this, a mere two years pervious.  Now it was no game.  Now it was real.  I had a sinking feeling in my stomach.

But the next day, something left my wife and I even more dumbfounded.  You see - she had dropped off pictures to be developed on September 10th.  We had forgotten what was on the roll, and it had probably been in the camera for months.  The due date for the pictures was September 11th.  Well, my wife didn't get there on the 11th to pick them up.  She got them on the 12th.  She opened up the pictures.  The first picture was a picture of her and her niece - at the top of the WTC.  Six months before - we had taken her niece to the top of the WTC.  There were the pictures, clear as day.  Their due date, 9/11.

You can see the pictures here:

http://robaustin1701.tripod.com

--*rob


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## Ziona

I was the first person at work that morning. I had turned on the lights and unlocked the door, and just when I was turning on the postage machine, my boss Bob ran in and said "A plane just hit the World Trade Center!"

I couldn't figure out what he meant. Bob isn't the type to run around and shout things, so I knew he wasn't joking.  We went into the break room and turned on the crummy little black & white TV with tin foil wrapped around it's antennas. They replayed the first plane smashing into the building.  We were amazed...what was someone doing flying in that area? Was it an attack? It couldn't have been a freak accident...could it? 

As we continued to watch, we saw a second plane hit the building. I thought I was going to be sick.  More people starting showing up for work, and we all just huddled around this tiny black & white tv with crummy reception the whole day, watching it all unfold.  Mind you, we live only a few miles away from the airport here in RI, so many businesses around us were closing down.  (I work for a charitible non-profit org, so we didn't leave.) 

A short while later, another plane hit the Pentagon, and another crashed. We were terrified...what was happening? And what would happen next? None of us got any work done that day, (I'm sure that was the case all over America...)

I remember going home and just clinging tearfully to my husband. Tragedies like that really make you thankful for what you have.

My husband's aunts were supposed to be flying back to CA, and TX and OH that day, so we were pretty shaken.  My mother-in-law was at the airport with them, watching it all take place on the news! I can't imagine how sickening it must have felt to see that when you were about to board a plane.  Of course, no one was going to fly that day, or for days later.

I remember being at work when we heard a plane over head for the first time after Sept. 11, and everyone just stopped...it was a scary sound to hear.  Being so close to the airport, the airplanes sometimes sound as though they are landing in the parking lot. To hear that sound again gave you chills.  

All I can say is that I can't believe it's been almost a year already. It's sad and scary, and my heart goes out to all those who have to grieve at the 1 year anniversary of their loss.  Hopefully, they can take comfort in knowing that the world grieves with them.


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## Grim

I was just getting up (Pacific Coast Time) when my mom started screaming after turning on the TV. We watched in horror, and then I had to go to school. Meanwhile my family was calling our reletives, making sure they were safe. School was morbidly calm. All we did in class was watch TV, debate, whisper rumors (most of my classmates were convinced there was a 5th plane at larger), and watch the skys as the air traffic ground to a halt. 

Living in the bay area, where there are 3 major airports, planes are a common, common sound. Those 7 days after the 11th were deadly quiet. When the planes started flying, I was almost afraid to leave my house.

My school started seriously cracking down on lax policys for disaster scenerios. We had a "lock down" drill, in case there were terrorists or shooters in the school. (it basically entailed the teachers locking all the doors and us hiding under our desks, even though every classroom has big clear windows along one wall.) We had an "emergency drill", a fire drill, and earthquake drill, etc. All within days of the 11th. 

Our drills were basically pointless. Lowest bidder constructed desks were not going to protect us from an earthquake. No one would really stay calm in a fire, and no one would sit through a school shooting. But they were all the administration could do to protect us
The things men cling to in uncertain times...


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## Qlippoth

That morning, last September, I woke up a tad late (normally I take an 8:30 am commuter train out of Boston, but I took the 9:05 instead). I got off the train, hopped into a cab, & gave my destination. The cabbie started his car, and looked at me and said, "I can't believe they did it! They bombed the World Trade Center!"  I had no idea what he was talking about until I got to work (after the cabbie mentioned what methods he'd like to use to "get back at" those responsible.

At work, it was impossible to log on to any news sites (unholy server loads), so I stuck with online radio. My co-workers kept sending little snippets of news over our network email...I don't think anything got done that day. The bosses (around 3pm) said if anyone wanted to leave & be with their family, that was OK. I stayed.

Afterward, I saw all the oft-repeated tape loops, commentary, speculation, & polemics on TV, but didn't get much of a grasp of what TV was like that morning, until I stumbled on this site:

http://tvnews3.televisionarchive.org/tvarchive/html/index.html

I didn't lose anyone that day (I had 3 friends in NYC at that point--1 saw the 2nd plane hit the WTC from his office 8 blocks north, 1 who watched the collapses from the roof of his Queens apartment, and the third? He had just delivered some office supplies to the WTC (had parked his truck by the service entrance) when the first crash happened. He was hit by "debris" (he refuses to describe it) and lost his truck under the rubble). I still can't fathom how terrible this event must have been.


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## Imhotepthewise

I was also at work.  To this day I have a yellow stickie note taped to my computer with 8:46 and 9:03 written on it.  I have thought of throwing it out many times, but just can't reach up and do so.  I remember feeling the same sense of sadness and helplessness when I saw the Challenger explode.  We knew people who worked in and near the WTC who got out alive.  Many of their long time friends did not.  Being a defense related employee, our computer net was shut down almost immediately to be locked down for some time after.  Blind and virtually deaf to the outside world, we went through the motions to finish the day.  That day I went home and kissed my wife and held my children close.  Thanks to Chairman Kaga (rip) and others, I was able to get the non-spun version of went on that fateful day.  Being a Scoutmaster at that time as well, I felt responsible to help the boys I was charged with some comfort in the confusion that followed.  The camping trip we were supposed to go on 2 weeks later was cancelled for security reasons.  We planned an alternate one closer to home, determined not to live in fear.  I counseled them all not to be afraid.  If they were afraid, be sure to talk to their family or someone else they trusted.  They continue to camp and enjoy scouting.  I have my family to hold tighter.  And I am employed in a job that may help to discourage this kind of attack from happening again.  Never forget or be afraid.  Fear is the enemy.


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## Tiefling

﻿At the time my family was living in a house on a little "farm" (in reality it was about 10 acres of pasture where a couple people boarded horses). I came inside around noon, hot and sweaty, after helping my sister groom her chesnut-colored Morgan-Quarterhorse cross, Wishbone, and sat down on the couch. My grandmother was visiting at the time, and she and my mother were chatting. My mother mentioned to me off-hand that two planes had crashed into the WTC (my brother had called from our other house, which had TV, and told her). I pressed her for details, of which she had few. I was pretty surprised, and I contemplated the possible responsible persons and the political ramifications for a few minutes. I dreaded the inevitable jingoism, bandwagon-patriotism and little American flag bumper stickers that were to come. Then I pretty much went on with my daily life, which in the summer involved vegetating.

Later that evening I got on the Net and filled myself in on everything. I was confused that so many people who were obviously completely removed from danger were so terrified. It seemed that a lot of people had lost their grip on reality. I kinda got to wondering why Americans were so angered by the deaths of 3000 people when most of them hadn't shed a tear to the million+ people who had starved to death in Afghanistan over the past few years, or the thousands upon thousands of people who die each year due to natural disasters in third-world countries.

September 11th was the day that I realized that to most of my countrymen, the lives of people from America are worth more than the lives of others.


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## Chrysoula

My housemate banged on my door early in the morning (PST). He came in. He told me, "Both the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have been attacked."

I fell out of bed. I didn't understand. I thought a military force had attacked.

I went to the living room. I saw the south tower of the World Trade Center collapse. I might have collapsed, too. Hell of an image to wake up to.

I went back to the bedroom and woke up my boyfriend. The three of us watched footage of the plane crashing into the tower.

Then I called each of my two best friends. I woke them up; told them incoherently that the tower /fell/ and made them turn on the TV.

Eventually, my housemate and I both went to work. At work that day, I was numb-- I wrote journal entries and talked online with friends.

That night, my friends and I went out to dinner at an empty Japanese restaurant, where we all huddled together for comfort.

My friend Neil commented at the time that the two towers were heroes, holding up as long as they did. But that just made me want to cry more. I've always been attached to symbols, and like somebody else, when I was a child, I once failed to see the top of the WTC from the bottom because I couldn't crane my head enough without falling over.

I got in touch with my two aunts who live in New York City that I hadn't talked to in a handful of years. I'd thought I remembered my cousin was a fireman... turns out he's actually a cop.


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## Deedlit

September 11 was the day they took First Gundam off the air, because it was too war-like, and the Zeon forces were thought of as terrorists by the Feddies.(The worst thing that happened to me that day.  I didn't know anyone in the towers or anything like that.)


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## Greatwyrm

Well, on September 11th, my wife and I had been married for exactly a month.

Before then, I always remember my parents and grandparents talking about how they could remember exactly where they were when they heard about Pearl Harbor or President Kennedy's assassination.  Times, places, people around them, everything.  On that morning, I began to understand.

I'll never forget that I was in the living room, watching Fox News before I headed out to work.  I was tucking my shirt in and checking to be sure I had my wallet and keys.  The news anchor was still speculating about an instrumentation failure or pilot error when the second plane hit.  I didn't hear about the Pentagon or Pennsylvania until I actually got to the office.

Sometimes, things just never seem real on TV, even when they're on live TV.  I'm not sure I'll ever accept the fact that I watched several thousand people die on TV, for real.


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## Rashak Mani

When I lived in London, two floors above me there was an american family. They were very nice people. They all took the same plane to visit family in the US... the plane was the PANAM flight that crashed due to a bomb over Lockerbie, Scotland.

    That was end of the 80's. Still remember seeing that.  Very sad. The anger gives way to sadness and eventually only a bitter taste in the mouth is left.

    I hope eventually people get tired of these silly power games.


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## Fenes 2

I was in the courtroom when the judge came in and said that he had just been told that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. We checked on a website for 5 minutes, then started the session. It was afternoon here in Switzerland. After that I went home, watched a bit of tv in my sister's appartement - I myself only use my tv for DVDs and my cable connection for the internet - then went gaming as usual.

I saw no need to spend the evening watching tv - give me newspapers for information any day, and it is not as if my presence in front of the tv would have served either me or any victim anyway. And I would not give the terrorists the satisfation of changing my way of life because of their actions.


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## ColonelHardisson

Tiefling said:
			
		

> *﻿At the time my family was living in a house on a little "farm" (in reality it was about 10 acres of pasture where a couple people boarded horses). I came inside around noon, hot and sweaty, after helping my sister groom her chesnut-colored Morgan-Quarterhorse cross, Wishbone, and sat down on the couch. My grandmother was visiting at the time, and she and my mother were chatting. My mother mentioned to me off-hand that two planes had crashed into the WTC (my brother had called from our other house, which had TV, and told her). I pressed her for details, of which she had few. I was pretty surprised, and I contemplated the possible responsible persons and the political ramifications for a few minutes. I dreaded the inevitable jingoism, bandwagon-patriotism and little American flag bumper stickers that were to come. Then I pretty much went on with my daily life, which in the summer involved vegetating.
> 
> Later that evening I got on the Net and filled myself in on everything. I was confused that so many people who were obviously completely removed from danger were so terrified. It seemed that a lot of people had lost their grip on reality. I kinda got to wondering why Americans were so angered by the deaths of 3000 people when most of them hadn't shed a tear to the million+ people who had starved to death in Afghanistan over the past few years, or the thousands upon thousands of people who die each year due to natural disasters in third-world countries.
> 
> September 11th was the day that I realized that to most of my countrymen, the lives of people from America are worth more than the lives of others. *




People naturally react more keenly to the deaths of those with whom they feel a common kinship. We don't all attend every funeral of every person who dies, but that doesn't mean we feel those people are unimportant. We simply feel it more strongly when it's family that dies, no matter how far removed. And fellow countrymen are family. 

Sorry for the editorializing. EDIT: I'm also taking this discussion off the boards.


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## Tiefling

I dunno. I understand why you'd have a stronger emotional reaction to the death of someone you know than to the death of someone you've never met. But it seems quite silly to me to have a stronger reaction to the the death of one person whom you've never met than to the death of another such person, even if the former is from the same country while the latter is not.


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## Furn_Darkside

Tiefling said:
			
		

> *I dunno. I understand why you'd have a stronger emotional reaction to the death of someone you know than to the death of someone you've never met. But it seems quite silly to me to have a stronger reaction to the the death of one person whom you've never met than to the death of another such person, even if the former is from the same country while the latter is not. *




I think you would be surprised by the number of americans who pull together and send good will packages to people who suffer through natural disasters in other countries. 

FD


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## Jaws

All my friends and family know I have a rule that you don't call me before 10 am or after 10 pm.
I didn't have the news on because I mostly watch for the weather report. It was a nice day so the radio and the TV were off.
I get a phone call just before the second plane hit. My friend tells me that I should quick turn on the TV in a nervous way.
My first thought before I turn on the TV and know what is going on: That India and Pakistan are in a nuclear war.

The rest of the morning I sat and watched the developments. Then at noon, my girlfriend and I went for a walk. She got off of work (an university) early. We talked about how this will change the world.

Peace and smiles 

j.


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## Theron

It was one of the first nice days of what passes for fall down here in Houstopolis.  The air was dry and clear, the temperature was only in the eighties, and there was an actual northern breeze.  It was, that rarest of things here in America's fourth largest city - a pretty day.  Funny how that seems important for some reason.

I was at home.  Checking my e-mails and puttering around in the quiet time between dropping the kiddo off at day care and going in to work.  The phone rang - it was The Missus calling from her office saying that someone had crashed a plane into one of the towers.  Being a history geek, I immediately thought of the B25 that hit the Empire State Building in the forties and flipped the TV over to Good Morning America.  Initially, it was hard to tell the extent of things because of the camera shot. Was it a private plane?  How stupid do you have to be to hit something that big.  Couldn't tell.  

Then the camera pulled back just in time to track the second plane in.

After a milisecond of wondering if the air traffic controll system for New York was completely down, I realized what I'd just seen.  Oddly enough, the next image in my head was straight out of the premiere of "The Lone Gunmen".

When I got my jaw off the floor, I called The Missus and told her it was obviously no accident, it was two ******' airliners, and it looked bad.  And then I left for work.

By the time I stopped for gas, the Pentagon had been hit.  I tried to call the Missus with an update, but cell traffic was shot, even in Houston.

Just before I got to work, the announcer on NPR said, "One of the towers has fallen."  I nearly crashed the car.  The notion of such a scope of disaster was beyond my ability to process at that moment.  I wish it still were.

I work at a medical clinic, so the waiting room TV was on.  Most of the staff were in on time, but no one was working.  We were all just watching the rest of it unfold.  Another plane down in Pennsylvanian. The Pentagon on fire.  Along with the rumors.  All planes grounded.  Twelve planes still unaccounted for.  Local businesses shutting down for the day left and right.  We stayed open because our patients needed us, and HIV doesn't care about what happens half a continent away.

I spent the day in a numb haze.  I distinctly remember eating lunch at a Vietnamese place I never go to because it's always too busy at lunch time.  Not that day.

I finally went home around 3:30.  I just couldn't focus on anything.  I hugged the kid for what seemed like forever (and probably confused him to no end, since he was only a year and a half old at the time), went upstairs and cried for about an hour, while my wife took the kid over to her folks.  I called my Dad, who's the only person I know who remembers Pearl Harbor, just to see if what I was feeling was anything like 1941.

When The Missus got home, she told me her dad's best friend, a crack USAF pilot and former astronaut (really), had been ordered that morning to fly to an airbase in El Paso and assume command of a fighter squadron and await further orders.  He's never said anything about it, but we all assume he was part of the fighter escort that took Air Force One to Nebraska and then back to Washington.

At any rate, for about a month, gaming was the last thing on my mind.  You see, at the time the first plane going in, I was writing a big, loud, city-shattering superhero setting along the lines of The Authority.  The only game I was playing in was a monthly Champions campaign.  Suddenly, the thought of knocking down a skyscraper lost all its appeal.

Almost a year on, I still can't look at tall buildings (and Houston has its share) without envisioning planes hitting them. I still remember the eerily silent sky for those days when all flights were grounded, and remember seeing a pair of F16s circling Johnson Space Center, all alone.

Well, that rambled on a bit, didn't it?  At any rate, I'm planning on taking the day off from work.  I'm not sure why, but I know I won't feel like going in.


----------



## Tiefling

Furn_Darkside said:
			
		

> *
> 
> I think you would be surprised by the number of americans who pull together and send good will packages to people who suffer through natural disasters in other countries.
> 
> FD *




I hope so. 

Anyway, sorry to editorialize and all. I'll shut up now.


----------



## Greatwyrm

Theron said:
			
		

> *Almost a year on, I still can't look at tall buildings (and Houston has its share) without envisioning planes hitting them. I still remember the eerily silent sky for those days when all flights were grounded, and remember seeing a pair of F16s circling Johnson Space Center, all alone.*




I remember looking up at the sky over Peoria that afternoon and seeing 5 jet trails.  No clouds or anything else, just the trails from the four fighters and Air Force One.


----------



## ColonelHardisson

I live under the landing pattern for the local international airport. When I was younger, I enjoyed sitting out on Friday nights and watching the planes coming and going as people came in or headed out on the weekends or holidays. So, I'm used to hearing jets go overhead, sometimes fairly low. That morning, I remember hearing a jet go by that seemed louder than usual. Or maybe it just didn't sound right. I didn't think much about it until I found out that the jet that crashed in Pennsylvania had flown over the area I live in. Maybe what I heard was that jet, or maybe it was one of the jets that were being grounded at that time. I don't know. I can't exactly explain it, but it still feels weird to me that I could have seen that plane fly overhead.


----------



## Drayan

September 11 started off as any other tuesday for me.  I woke up to my alarm clock, which was tuned in to a local radio station.  For a while, i just lay there, listening to the djs talking about Jordan's return to basketball.  

I had a class at nine that morning, so i got ready and headed off to the community college. 

English dragged by, as it normally did, without the slightest clue as to what was going on many miles north of me.

I was glad to get out of english, because i had an hour break before my next class.  I made my way to the student lounge to play some pool.  As i stood contemplating my next shot, i noticed a rather large number of people gathered around the TV.  I was a rather apathetic person at that time (i've since lost that apathy), and noticed that it was all guys, so i figured that they were just watching something on Micheal Jordan.  I finished my game, and went outside to read, as there was way too much noise in the student lounge.  I heard a couple of the instuctors mention a pipe bomb, so i figured i'd go check out the news.

By this time both of the towers had fallen.  Still oblivious, i noted that the student lounge could have been legally declared a fire hazard for all the people.  I walked over to a friend, and asked what was going on.  Needless to say, i was floored.


My thanks to all of those who helped keep us updated here, and and also help us remember Chairman_kaga who made it out alive, only to be killed in a car accident.


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## WayneLigon

I get to work pretty early in the AM. We were installing new PC's in many of the offices, so iwas going to and fro. One of things we produce are infom,ational videos, so there are a lot of TV's around so peopel can quality check and fact check, etc. I was installing a PC in one office that had such when people came in to turn on CNN.

It was totally out of curiosity, really. At the time the TV was turned on, nobody knew what had happened or was happening. The news was just treating it as 'hey, there is smoke coming out of the tower, what's up with that'. Nobody knew about the first plane then. 

Vague impressions begin to drift in, and soon it's apparent that a plane has indeed hit. 

I'm installing the PC, look over, watch some, etc. Then we see the second plane hit the other tower. Things get really really quiet then, because no way that that's an accident. We get to watch it several times at that point.

Then the Pentagon. Then we sat and watched the building just collapse. I never thought such a thing could happen, a building just..implode like that. But I do remember everyone saying 'Thank goodness it didn't fall outward'. The damage would have been immeasurable..

We'd decided it was some sort of terrorist act, then, but we were sure it was Saddam. Or Iran. We kept waiting for things to actually get worse. We talked about the Japanese subway nerve gas attacks, and how NYC would be the perfect place to do something like that. Or put it in the ten-story-tall towers that feed air to the various tunnels, makign them impassble to emergency vehicles. We waited for bridges to go. We waited for LA to be hit, next. We waited for riots. We waited for war. We waited for the first non-test nuclear explosion in more than 50 years.

I was one of the few people with an offsite online access: my various MUSh games and so i logged on tere to see what everyone else was hearing. The Net was intermittant. We have almost 90%% usage on the massive intranet we use, so when it gets full it shuts off. So i'd get a few tidbits, then things would go down again and I'd head back to the office with the TV. Nobody did anything for a day or two. 

It was shocking. It still is in many ways. 

I'm in the American South, and have not been able to travel much for some time now, so I don't know what it's like in other places. We still have flags lining the major streets. Almost every store, every eatery, every business either has a flag in the window, or a 'God Bless the USA' on it's signage somewhere. Many cars have 'Never Again', flags, or variations on 'remember' on them. 

A number of things have remained the same. Some things did not change. Others are subtle reminders that things will either never be the same, or will change only very slowly. The hospitals only let so many people on the Obstetrics floor, and then only with a visitor pass. I have not flown since that day (not that I did a lot anyway, it's not unusual that I have not, and i would get on a plane now if needed) but i have gone to pick people up. My car is searched each time, but only in a cursory manner, since I guess I look tame enough. But then we're only a major military stopover, and center for the Air Force computer systems. 

A year later, we still wait for war but we know that 'war' as we normally think about it will not, cannot, happen against a group like this. A whole new generation of people hear about the Iran Hostage Crisis at the barber shops, and discuss how we'll rearrange the world maps. Life goes on.


----------



## Dagger75

I was unemployed at the time.  My roommate work me up when he went to work saying that a plane hit the World Trade Center.  I watched the whole day.  I also watched what unfolded for the next 2 days. I don't remeber going to sleep.

 As a side note, I got a temp job at the end of September at a Nuclear Power Plant here in Florida.  There were helicopters flying over and lots of people walking around with machine guns looking at ID's every 10 minutes.


----------



## Daiymo

Ive been thinking of this two. I was at work as well-I drive around all day, and was out of touch for most of the day. I had heard that a plane had hit the WTC-but b/c of lack of info I too thought it was a single engine plane.

Funny but like many things pre 9-11 I thought that an accident of a single small engine plane while unfortunate for the occupants of the plane was bad, but I gave it little thought. However, I soon got more and more details, and found myself glued to radio and TV when I had a chance till I got home that evening.

Also, I live in the Midwest, Indiana to be exact. We midwesterners are a funny lot ,liking to be prepared. When trouble brews over the horizon, like an approaching blizzard in the winter or tornados in summer, the first thing Midwesterners do is make sure their cars have full tanks of gas and the shelves are stocked with food.

The days leading up to 9-11 I had let my car run low on gas. On 9-11 I had to get fuel. The  surreal sight of seeing my local gas stations(3 to be exact) in a town of perhaps 5,000 people  each having lines of 30 to 40 cars awaiting to get gas is one that is seared in my mind. This was of course a natural reaction to the threat (at the time) of war, oil shortages, and of reports of price gouging around the country. 

It is a sight I will never forget of that day, along with the other more famous ones.


----------



## Kilmore

I have never felt real sad or shed a tear, or was even terribly shocked by the WTC terrorism.  The only thing I have ever felt about that is madder than hell.  I am not a fighter by nature, but on and after Sept. 11, I wanted to kill people:  both the people responsible, and the people who support them.  I know that this may not be the best response, and I really do feel a little weird about it, but anger is the only word to describe what I have felt.  I'm sorry if people think I'm terrible for this, but I'm just being honest with myself and my esteemed comrades in this message board.


----------



## Morrus

My reaction, from the UK, was a little different.  

My first feeling was one of pity for the families of those involved, and for those who would have experienced the terror of the event.  Especially those trapped in the building.

I didn't feel much "shock" like many people here; partly, I guess, because it wasn't in my own country, and partly because I'm a bit more used to hearing about terrorist activity.  But I was appalled at the actions - I found it hard to believe that someone would actually _do_ that.

I remember being remarkably impressed with the way it was handled here; people stuck to pure news reporting instead of offering opinions and lashing out, and I think the boards proved invaluable to many people, especially when sites like CNN were down due to the traffic.  The threads were archived, for those who remember - you can see them in the archive forum.

My girlfriend refused to go to London for about 3 months after the event, although, fortunately, those fears proved unfounded.  I also remember some silly situations - upgraded security at ridiculous places which would never be targeted for terrorist attacks, and felt that people were giving in to fear a little too much.  The best thing anyone could do, in my opinion (especially those in the US) was to go about their daily lives.

I also remember being dreadfully concerned about nemmerle.  Luckily, he wasn't close enough to be affected, but he did tell me a bit about the event and how it affected things where he worked.  Now I've been to Manhattan and stood outside his workplace, I realise just how close he was to it.

One thing that does surprise me is that everyone asks about my recent visit to the US "Did you go to Ground Zero?".  No, of course I didn't.  The very thought of going there like a tourist or spectator struck me as sick and macabre, no better than people who stop at the scene of a road accident.  We went past it once on a bus, but I paid little attention.

Anyway - thanks, angrymanboobs, for keeping this free of political discusson.  It'd be a real shame if it got heated and had to be closed.


----------



## fett527

One thing I've enjoyed seeing here are the reactions from posters from other countries.  I understand your detachment Morrus, as I am sure others do.  I was very moved by our National Anthem being played at Buckingham palace as I hope were other Americans.

I was in a meeting planning a rebuild of a customers server and the first we heard were radio reports of a plane crashing into the Pentagon.  We watched the TV the rest of the day as events unfolded.  

My wife and I had a walkthrough inspection that afternoon of our new home we were having built .  We live near Wright Patterson Air Force base in Dayton, OH and we are used to jets flying over, except this day.  We looked up every time a jet would fly by; fighters were taking of from the base.  One of them broke the sound barrier and the sonic boom shook the house.  We were pretty frightened by that.  Even around the base we hadn't heard a sonic boom in a long time.  That will always be one of my most vivid memories.


----------



## Henry

9/11/01 was the day I KNEW for a fact that ENWorld was a strong community.

My day started at work, where at roughly 8:30 we had JUST gotten back up and running smoothly after a server crash from the day before. It bugged me that certain replacement parts weren't available, and most of my morning until about 9:00 was preoccupied with that.

My attitude rapidly changed after 9:00 am. When the first reports started rolling in, Everyone in the company was transfixed. I solved a few issues, but by and large was not that busy. I used the time to catch up on news - which NO one was getting other than by TV - and by ENWorld. 

I used TripleH's threads to keep the news flowing. This community meant a lot to me that day - everything from the messages of support from all over the world, to the flow of info, to the concern and offer of prayers and concern from most everyone here.

One other thing that needs mentioning - 9/11 is a day also to toast one of our own. The good _Chairman Kaga_, whose harrowing report which came about a day later, is a chilling one I will not forget. He was _just stepping off the subway_ when the first plane hit - he said he looked up to see the whole thing. His other statements I will not relate here due to content and vividness, but they will stay with me forever. His joy of escaping alive, his progress over his hurt knee, I remember following. His tragic recent passing makes it an even stronger memory for me.

9/11 is a day to count your blessings, to be happy about the health and life you possess, and to be ecstatic about the friends and family and relationships you have. Count all your blessings, because they can be fleeting.

Love to all.


----------



## Brown Hood

My Sept 11th experience was much like most peoples'.  I was at work, etc, etc.  What I wanted to say was how much I love NYC.  I had never been there until February 2002.  My wife and 3 of my cousins and their spouses all went together.  We stayed at a red roof inn 2 blocks from the Empire State building.  It was uncommonly clear and you could see the Statue of Liberty way out from the observation deck.  I didn't realize that, even though I had never been there, I could pinpoint the exact location on the skyline that those building used to occupy.  We didn't go to Ground Zero.  Like someone else said, it would have been morbid.  

Instead, we just soaked up the city.  We had drinks at the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center.  The view of the Empire State all lit up in Red White & Blue was one of the greatest things I've ever seen.  Then we went to eat at the 21 Club.  Some ritzy place one of my cousins wanted to go to ($40 steak!  best I ever had though).  We tried to see the whole city in 4 days.  We came pretty close too.  We hit broadway (saw Urinetown), the museums, the park, Soho, the Village, the Intrepid, pizza....I just have to say that New Yorkers were some of the friendliest people I have ever met.  Always willing to point some bumpkin North Dakotan in the right direction.

So, as Andrew WK says: "I love New York City!"


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## CrimsonScribe

*Where was I?*

Seeing as I live in Australia, I was sound asleep.  All of a sudden, my mobile phone rings and wakes me up - it's midnight.  The person on the other end asks for someone I've never heard of, and I tell them they've got a wrong number.  Before I can hang up they say something about turn on your TV, someone's flown a plane in the WTC.

So I go out the lounge room and turn on the TV and tune in, waking up my parents on the way.  We sit in disbelief for about 2 hours - mostly watching the same footage over and over until we decide to go back to sleep.

Somewhere along the way, we got a call from my sister who lives in Japan, apparently their news agencies were reporting that there were planes headed for DisneyLand/World as well!


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## Wormwood

I was at work when we heard the news about the murders. I spent the morning glued to the radio for updates, I used a month's worth of minutes on my cell phone consoling my hysterical wife, and I nearly got into a fistfight with a thoughtless* co-worker. 

I was shocked and angry at the time; shocked and angry at the scope of the crimes and the tragic deaths of so many of my innocent countrymen.

I'm no longer shocked, but I'm still as angry as I was as year ago. 

Maybe angrier.

*Edit: No need to get into specifics.


----------



## robaustin

I know people personally who have been to ground zero, gone downtown even months afterward.

I don't think they went in a morbid way, nor to stare like at a road accident.  They went to say goodbye to a place.  It was done out of grief, for the fallen towers, and the fallen men and women who lost their lives down there.  It makes it all that more real for them, easier to accept, actually having been there.  SOme folks need to be there to say goodbye. My friend who had moved to california only 4 months before 9/11 - came to NJ for CHristmas.  He went to see it - not out of morbid curiosity - but t make it REAL.  For most people, it's no more real then a movie, seeing it on TV, on the internet.  But when you're there, it's real.  And when you've been there before it happened, and see what it is now, you can grieve for it.

I personally have no desire to go down there.  I know the reality of the situation.  Most of us in the NY metro area have lived with it day in and out.  But, I'm sure that at some point, in my frequent trips to NYC, I will end up downtown walking by it.

I'm also glad to hear about others taking trips to enjoy NYC despite what has happened.  A lot of folks feared NYC before this happened - feared it because they thought it had too much crime, was unsafe, etc...  This kind of thing could instill more fear.

I can tell you this - I feel safer now then I ever did.  When I drive through the Lincoln tunnel, and go up the ramp to park at port authority, and the PA police ask to see my driver's license, write down my name and driver's license # and open the trunk of my car to check it - I KNOW that NYC is safe.

I hope more folks come to visit.  It is one of the greatest cities in the world.  And my favorite.

--*Rob


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## WayneLigon

Morrus said:
			
		

> *My reaction, from the UK, was a little different.
> *




That was something I forgot to mention.  I just don't know if anyone has told you, Morrus, how grateful we all were for the support the UK showed. I have absolutely no idea how Blair is viewed in your country, but he certainly seemed very sincere in his support.  Many, many countries lent their support in the aftermath and we all remember that.


----------



## ColonelHardisson

WayneLigon said:
			
		

> *
> 
> That was something I forgot to mention.  I just don't know if anyone has told you, Morrus, how grateful we all were for the support the UK showed. I have absolutely no idea how Blair is viewed in your country, but he certainly seemed very sincere in his support.  Many, many countries lent their support in the aftermath and we all remember that. *




This is something I'm glad you brought up. I also want to say that Blair was a comfort during that time, and really exuded an aura of determination and friendship. So, too, the British people. I looked to Blair and what he said and did as much as I did with our own leaders.


----------



## Morrus

WayneLigon said:
			
		

> *
> 
> That was something I forgot to mention.  I just don't know if anyone has told you, Morrus, how grateful we all were for the support the UK showed. I have absolutely no idea how Blair is viewed in your country, but he certainly seemed very sincere in his support.  Many, many countries lent their support in the aftermath and we all remember that. *




Well, despite the fact that we make jokes about Americans continually, I think the British people as a whole pretty much regard you guys as friends (unlike the French!  Poo! ).  We're all so interconnected these days anyway, especially with mass media and the internet.  We share the same history to a large extent.


----------



## blaster219

*Airport Security*

If evidence was ever needed against relaxing security measures at airports, its what happened yesterday at Stockholm airport.

It just makes me shudder to think about what that guy may have been planning.


----------



## Tar Markvar

Apologies if the therad has moved away from the "Where were you when..." topic, but I'm just now seeing this, and I wanted to toss in. 

I was driving to work at the time. I work for a national video gaming publication, located in California, so we're on Pacific time. I was listening to Howard Stern as I droove to work, and Howard is always on a 3-hour recorded delay each day, so we don't have to get up at 3am to hear his show.

He and his folks were talking about how he made out with Pamela Lee at a club, or something equally inane. Then Gary Dellabate came in and said someone crashed into the WTC.

Now, the fact that a highway sign had announced that all flights from SFO (San Francisco Int'l Airport) were cancelled didn't make me think of anything. I saw it and figured, "Heh, SFO sucks, it always has."

As the Stern show progressed, everyone thought it was some drunken pilot crashing into the WTC by accident. I was surprised it hadn't happened before. I mean, the WTC was BIG, and planes fly through there all the time, right? Then the second plane hit.

Now, mind you, I was hearing this three hours after it really happened. But to me it was happening as I listened. The reactions on the radio and in myself were as real time as anything.

I rode on the train to work, and no one spoke. Howard, upon hearing that a second plane had hit, had decided it was a terrorist attack. No one on the train wanted to do anything but think of what it meant. Should we all go home and gather canned goods? Will those of us whose eyes hadn't been destroyed by computer screens have to go off to Boot Camp? We would definitely go to war over this. One thing was for sure: Nothing would ever be the same.

I went in to work and found out that the CEO of my company had asked everyone to stay home, but because of my commute, I'd left before the message got there. We were expecting a visit from Microsoft to show us the then-pre-release Xbox and some games, so I figured I'd wait it out. Scared out of my wits. Knowing deep down that, if there were going to be more targets, San Francisco could have been one of them. 

Two other people from my office showed up, out of the entire staff--one of our senior editors, and our editor-in-chief. At the appointed time, the MS reps showed up. They had landed in SFO that morning, before it all happened. I couldn't imagine having landed moments before hearing the news.

So the rest of that work day we played Xbox. We played Fuzion Frenzy, Bloodwake, and Halo. We scrounged the local neighborhood for a deli that was open. We played more Xbox. We didn't talk about the WTC incident at all, except at the end of the day, to say, "Thanks for braving terrorism with us." To this day I'm proud that we were there in the city, and I'm glad that I wasn't at home all day watching horrible news footage of people leaping to their deaths and of landmarks crumbling to the ground with thousands trapped inside. 

The work day over, I rode the train home, called my girlfriend, and cried. I was already mourning the carefree feelings of September 10th, when the worst I had to worry about was what I was going to eat for lunch, whether I could afford to take my girlfriend out to eat, and other similar "problems." I just knew that things would never be the same.

Now, a year later, things are just about back to normal. Americans are free to hate each other again. Drivers shout at pedestrians, spam fills up my emailbox, and yay, Oakland has toped the national charts again for the nation's per-capita murder center. 

It's odd, but in some ways I now look back at the first few months after 9/11 and wish that the human spirit we Americans discovered during that time could have lasted. Now we're arguing about whether or not there should be nudity in a new BMX game for PS2, when months before we as a nation were helping families build lives out of the rubble of the WTC. Now we're arguing over what sort of memorial should stand there, as if the hundreds of bodies still trapped at the site weren't enough.

Anyway, like the original author of this thread.... Sept. 11th was the day that I gamed.


----------



## Gargoyle

I was working at home, doing pre-sales network engineering and writing in the evening.   Business was just beginning to pick up for me, as I was new to the day job.  Customers were beginning to call me back, and things were looking up.

I had the radio on and heard that a plane had crashed into the WTC.  Like many, I thought it was a Cessna, maybe someone showing off who got too close.   A few minutes later, the reports of the second plane came in.   I knew immediately that it was a terrorist attack and ran downstairs, telling my wife to turn on the TV.  We watched the reports of the other two planes, and saw the towers collapse over and over.  And we walked outside that week amazed at the empty skies that normally have 4 or 5 planes visible, heading to the nearby airport.  

I didn't get much done that whole week.  My 3 year old was afraid.  He wondered why we were so sad, and the hardest thing I've _ever_ done was to explain to him while keeping my composure that "some airplanes hit some big buildings and a lot of people died".  My wife had to leave the room.  I should have seen the next question coming.   "Will the airplanes fly into our house?".     Inside I was suffering, but I kept a straight face.  I assured him that they would not.  He relaxed visibly after that.   He didn't know where NYC was or even understand what dying was, other than it was a bad thing.   He ran off to play, and later when I was alone  I cried like a baby; the first time I had cried since I felt him kick in his mother's womb for the first time.  God I love my kids.

I feel great sympathy for those who had to explain to their children that a parent wasn't coming home.  I know I couldn't have kept my composure in such a horrible scenario, and I wonder if I could even hold on to my sanity. 

Now, I'm working a different contract; my customers simply stopped buying after 9/11.   But things are slowly getting better, both emotionally and financially.  I used to think that NYC was a far off place that didn't affect me on any level.  Now I know better, and for the first time I hope to visit it someday; not to see ground zero, but to enjoy the rest of the city.  My wife and I, and our two boys, aren't living in fear.  

We're still shocked, sad, and angry.  But we are not afraid.


----------



## jester47

I was in the middle of a lake rowing when the first plane hit.  I get up real early.

Aaron.


----------



## BOZ

wow.  only a week from today...


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## Spindel

September 12 for me (Australia) and after reading most of the other posts it jogged my memory and I can only smile at my own... ignorace.

I heard about it on the radio on the way to work, it's only a 10 minute drive, but it was halfway through the report, so I had no idea what was going on, just something about planes crashing and something about how something had collapsed.  When they summerised the repoty at the end (I listened to the radio in the car part for a while) they said that two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center and that they had collapsed.  

All I could think of was "World Trade Center?!"

It wasn't too much longer before I fould out what it was.  But that evening I was stunned by the footage of the towers collapsing and marvelling at the way the 70's engineering had done it's job.  Not knowing that there was a WTC that morning kind of made the whole situation very surreal.


----------



## Ralts Bloodthorne

9/11/01 was an excersize in surrealism for me....
The night before, I'd gotten in a fight at the bar with a loudmouth, who, coincedently enough, was saying that terrorists fought because they had no other recourse, and never hit an innocent person.
  I was agitated when I got home that night, and in a mood my wife had not seen for years.  I stayed up late, brooding over that jackass (I was a bartender), and got up early.  I had suffered one of my recurring nightmares, and my wife was having one too, where she was kicking and moaning in fear.
  All I caught was "plane" and "hijack"  I shook her half-awake, and went in to work on something to take my mind off of reliving my past while I slept.
  I was online when a friend IM'd me and told me to turn off my TV.  I told her in a second, I was busy.  I was monitoring something wierd.  The system I was doing remote overwatch on was tripping out.  (I used to do contract computer work)  I was getting alerts across the board.
  She told me to turn on the TV NOW!
  I turned on the TV, but no reception.  My sattallite was down.  no biggee.
  All of a sudden I got flooded with IM's.  It took me a minute to sort them out.  Old military buddies, family, friends.
  I still remember one of my friends saying:  "Think it's terrorists?  We warned about that, didn't we?"  We were on webcam, and I nodded, watching pirated TV feed in another window.
  My stomach started hurting.
  My kids were crying.
  My brother called me, and asked me to get ahold of his wife, he was getting deployed.
  Two of my brother's in law called.  Deployment.  Since, one has died in a training accident.
  A friend called to tell me that Nancy's mother had called.  Three weeks later, confirmation came.  Training accident.
  I watched the Pentagon burn.  A place where I had been more than once.  I wondered how extensive the damage was.
  The phone rang.  I was on standby.
  My kids were crying.
  The phone rang.  My boss wanted to know one thing.  Would I go if asked, or had I already volunteered.  I numbly told him that I was on standby.  He told me he wanted to kill them, kill them for his friend.  I had the night off.
  I woke up my wife.  She thought I was joking, or watching a movie.  She told me to beat it.
  "Get up, I'm on standby, Karbide and Lurch are gone, Platehead is being deployed."
  She got up.
  My kids were crying.
  I called the school, told them that my kids would be gone for awhile.  My wife started crying.
  I was filled with rage, and a strange numbness.  The same way I had felt in Fulda when the discoteque had blown apart and thrown me across the street, my boots staying behind.
  Nancy.
  A call from one of my cousins.  Another family confirmed.  Two months later, confirmation.  Training accident.
  I had to get out of the house.  My wife needed her best friend.  My kids needed thier friends.
  I watched the towers collapse, and dimly recall going outside.  I stood, looking up at the clear blue sky, and was filled with the urge to hurt someone.  I felt rage, and helplessness.
  I had failed.  I took an oath, like all the other men in my family, and more than a few of the women, to protect those who could not or would not defend themselves.  To protect America.
  Had I missed something?  Had one of my brothers told me something, and we blew it off?  Was it Al-Queda again?  Was it another terrorist outfit?  Was it Soviet hardliners or KGB diehards using terrorists as cover to start WW-III?
  We went home.
  My boss called.  I had messages.
  I went to the tavern.  I got my messages.
  One was a phone number and POC.  Another was from Platehead.  "Business is booming.  Expecting many customers.  Pray for my clients."  That note was enough to nearly drive me to my knees.  My boss looking like a calf in a slaughterhouse.
  "Is it hard to do?" he asked, his finger touching the scar on my cheek.  I knew what he meant.
  "Not for me."  He nodded, shook my hand, and I left, to find a cop car waiting out front of the bar.  It's a small town, what's the sherriff doing leaning on the hood of my car.
  "Busy?"
  "Not really." I answered, sitting down next to him.  He offered a cigarrette, and I took it.  My hands weren't shaking.
  "Remember much training?"
  "A little."  My stomach hurt.
  "Can I call you, if I need you?"
  "I'll be there, unless I'm needed somewhere else."  I got in my car and drove home.  Every house that someone lived in year round, I could see the TV on.  I stopped by the side of the road, and looked up at the clear blue sky.
  Had we missed a clue, years ago?  What was the next wave?  Please, God, don't let my skills be needed.
  My kids were crying.  I hugged the baby, who was deaf as a post, and confused.  The images on the TV weren't bad to her, they were exciting, and I cringed at the urge to yell at her when she clapped at the towers collapsing.
  Email from everyone.  Mostly my old crew.  Roll call.  Out of 13 of us, only 3 of us left.  I was the only one untapped.  I felt old, useless, and helpless.
  The boys called me.  Meeting at the tavern.  Low vioces and shaking hands.  Haunted eyes and steel spines.  Exchanged info on kid allergies, meeting places, ammo.  Prepare for the worst, that way you are never surprised.
  "What kind of chemical weapons can they get, Frag?"
  "I can make something in the sink that could kill everyone in Portland."  My stomach hurt.
  "I didn't ask about you."  His hands shook as he lit another cigarrette.  He had quit 5 years ago.
  "It'll be Sarin if anything.  Mass target.  Probably NYC again.  If this is very well planned, there should be another explosion tonight, along with multiple chemical weapon releases.  Let's hope for sloppy, and no followup punch."  I finished my drink and ordered another.  I realized, I had 3 empty mugs in front of me.
  The boys broke up.  The kids were asleep, exhausted.
  My wife held me.
  I had denied having any use for that knowledge.  That it was all in the past, and the insanity of the Cold War was over.
  I had a message.  I called.  Confirmation.
  I was to give a lecture.
  On Biological/Nuclear/Chemical Weapon Warfare in an urban environment.  Dispersion, deployment, protection, recovery.
  My retirement was over.
  Anthrax or Smallpox will be next.  I knew it.  Deep down, I knew it.  We had presented evidence, and were laughed at.  The threat was discounted.  I was told I was paraniod, and retired early.
  I was a relic of the cold war, of a time best left forgotten, with no place in this new world.
  I was asked if I would be willing to co-ordinate with local authorities in case my skills were needed.
  My nightmares had overwhelmed reality.
  I wondered if the answer to this would just be a placating, or, if in our rage, we would kill thousands who wanted no more than to live thier lives, and could not care less about politics, or the insanity of powerful men.

9/11 was the day that I realized that we all lie to our children.
There really was monsters.
Nightmares can be real.
And worst of all.....
I realized that my fears, as exotic as they were, were now everyone elses.  I would now see the same looks on other people's faces that I had seen on my crews.

We gamed that night.  We played Gamma World, immersing ourselves in horror, to remind us that all was not lost, and it wasn't as bad as it seemed.

After all, none of us glowed in the dark, and I hadn't suddenly sprouted antenna.


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## Melkor Lord Of ALL!

When I returned from school, I have seen Towers collapsing in 
TV. I was really excited, , it was like one of The Clancy`s books, but it was real! I was curious what will be the consequences, what resulted in myself watching News Channels all the day( and an excuse not to do any homework ) I didn`t care for the death of some people I didn`t know, aren`t thousands meeting their demise every day, many before their time has come?


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## Henry

Warlord Ralts.

That was powerful. Thank you - both for your service, and for your story.


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## rinesin

*From DC*

I work in Washington, DC, at L’Enfant Plaza, directly across the river from the Pentagon. I was just arriving at work when the first plane hit.  I got into the elevator and a co-worker told me, “A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center!”  I thought, “Well crap!  That sucks!”  Thinking it was an accident and that was horrible, but not too concerned about it.  I get up to my office and a large group of people are watching the big screen TV on in the conference room.  I go in and we watch the news.  As we are watching the live feed from New York we see the other plane hit.  The room breaks out into hysterics.  There is shock, anger, confusion, tears and more all around me.  I’m numb.  I can’t think beyond what I had just seen.  Time stood still... I didn’t know how much time had passed when we heard and slightly felt a giant BOOM.  We had thought a bomb had gone off in a nearby building and panic set in… The next thing we know the news is talking about the Pentagon.  I run downstairs for a better look, and there it is.  A giant ball of fire and smoke rising from right across the Potomac.   So close we can almost touch it.  The city was in panic; people all tried to get on the subway and the bridges but the authorities closed them down temporarily.  We wanted to go home.  Wanted to leave the city, get back to our loved ones.  I tried to call my family and friends but all the phone lines were jammed.  I tried to reach people via the internet but it had gone down as well.  A (very) pregnant co-worker of mine said that she needed to get home to her husband, but she didn’t know how to get out of the city.  I lived near her in Virginia and told her I’d help her get home.  So we started.  As we went up to the path onto the bridge back to VA we see a car parked with all the doors open, the radio tuned to the news and a large crowd of people around it.  That’s where we heard about the PA crash.  I had had enough.  I was sick, frightened, and nervous, but mostly I was pissed off.  I was going to get home and god help anybody who stood in my way.  This was a time to be with my family, not to be sitting impotently staring at the wreckage of the Pentagon.  We headed for the 14th Street Bridge, which links L’Enfant and Arlington, VA.  

Myself, my co-worker and about a hundred others started the slow trek over to the other side.  As we approached the Pentagon a state trooper pulled up next to me and told me I had to get off the bridge.  I stared him right in the face and told him, “No.  I’m going home.  You want to stop me?  Arrest me.”  With that I turned and kept going.  The trooper just looked at me for a second, then drove off.  We got to the other side; I was carrying her bags and supporting her at this point, one of her arms draped over my shoulders.  It looked like something out of a war movie.  Smoke and dust so thick you could barely see 50 feet, a sick burning chemical taste in the back of my throat, solders with M-16’s pointed at my face yelling at me to move to where they wanted us and helicopters screaming no more than 20 feet overhead.  I looked around me and noticed that we all looked like refugees, trudging through this supporting each other, people crying, some screaming but most with a blank look on their faces like they were expecting to wake up at any moment, that this couldn’t be happening.  It felt really surreal, this sort of thing didn’t happen to us!  We’re America!  REM’s “It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” started playing sarcastically in my head.  I laughed ironically and realized just how sheltered a lot of us are from the horrors of the world.  It had finally come to us, struck us in our very home.  We couldn’t ignore it any longer and I knew our lives would never be quite the same again.

Needless to say we both made it to our respective homes and spent the rest of the night watching the news.  One week from today we will see just how much this country has changed, and how it affected us.  What was the right way to feel?  Saddened, angry, scared, numb, all of the above?  I think all are valid, I know I felt them all.


_Edit: fixed grammatical error._


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## Katerek

I cried.


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## Bendris Noulg

_Sep. 11th was the day that I..._

...Sat in the Chicago counterpart to the WTC (The Merchandise Mart) waiting for the sky to fall on me.

Thankfully they decided to evacuate the building (after they made sure all the Kenedys were already out to avoid the rush).


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## Talaysen

I woke up to the sound of my mother (I was still living at home at the time) moving through the house talking on the phone. I got up, went downstairs, and saw what they were showing on television. By that time they were pretty sure the crashes were deliberate.

I went over to the kitchen, I shut the door behind me, and I started crying.

There's this Calvin & Hobbes strip...I forget how exactly it goes, but I think Calvin finds this piece of trash on the ground and starts ranting about people who litter. Hobbes listens for a while, then says simply "You know, it's times like these that make me proud I'm not human." Calvin blinks, then takes off his clothes, says "Me too" and walks off with his friend.

I don't get the human race. Period. Sometimes - and these days, those times are coming with greater frequency - I refuse to consider myself a part of it.

Nevertheless...I was raised to love and respect everyone. I was raised to choose peace over war and civil disobedience over violence. Violence was a last resort, if anything; in fact, under most circumstances, it was not an option. I know that's not how it is for a lot of the people in this world, but when I see you hurting one another...it still hurts my very spirit.

September 11th and the hatred and prejudice that followed very nearly broke my spirit once and for all. Fortunately, there was enough good left in the world to counter that.


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## ghoti69

*It's...*

...the "Where were you when Kennedy was shot?" of the new millenium...

I was at work.  I had just found out that nothing in the server room in our other building was responding.  I went over to find out the electricians had turned off power to it to do some repairs.  My tech and I were yelling at him when his boss walked up and told us the first plane had hit.  I got back to my office and turned on the tv just in time to see the second plane hit.

We were let go early, but I was damned if I was going to let those bastards cow me.  I went home and worked remotely while watching the news.


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## National Acrobat

*Sept. 11th was the day that I...*

Walking past the waiting area where I work, I saw everyone huddling around the T.V. They were following the news of the first tower hit, while watching we all saw the second tower get hit. I tried to work that day, but really couldn't. When I got home, I tried to explain to my daughter what had happened, and because it was gaming night, my friends and I gamed. We gamed so that we could be together and talk about things as the friends we have been for 15 years. We watched some news, but we really needed that dose of fantasy to temporarily take us away, so we gamed. That's what we did.


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## Wormwood

*Re: It's...*



			
				ghoti69 said:
			
		

> *
> We were let go early, but I was damned if I was going to let those bastards cow me.  I went home and worked remotely while watching the news. *




You know, I find that interesting. My company also gave us a half day, but I decided to get some work done while at home. 

I thought I was the only one.


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## Vargo

Given the day, I figured it would be appropriate to bump this thread, so that those who missed it earlier could read and add their own experiences.


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## MEG Hal

I am purposely NOT watching TV today, I know what happened, and I do not need to rewatch that day. I was off on 9/11/01 but got paged and told I may need to come in to work ( I am in law enforcement for the state of Florida-full time), my ex-wife called me (knowing I was sleeping) and told me to turn on the TV, the president was in my area where I work (Sarasota) and I was glued to the TV, could not believe it and watched the drama unfold for the whole day, I was relieved I did not have to work that day because it was a mentally draining experience, but now thinking about work and all the warnings for 9/11/02 I also am acutely aware that something may happen again, the good news is we are better prepared and ready to do something. 

Now come visit Florida so tourism increases and they stop threatening our jobs 

To all of those that lost loved ones (I had close calls but no losses here) I am thinking of you. And to those that had something to do with it......I have good aim, step a bit closer.

I will never forget!


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## toberane

*Sept. 11 was the day I...*

I was in the car taking my son to school when I heard about it.  Most of the rest of what I did that day is similar to what so many others have posted here.

So I want to take a different angle at this.

*September 11th 2001 was the day...:*

-That people, not just in New York City, but across the country, decided to treat each other a little nicer, at least for a while.

-That Americans remembered why we are proud of our country and our freedom

-That Americans remembered what our flag stood for.  Call it jingoism if you will, but I see nothing wrong with millions of Americans not only deciding they were proud of their country, but wanted to go out of their way to display its symbol to show that pride.

-That policemen and firemen got a little bit of the recognition they have always deserved for the difficult and dangerous jobs they do.

-That friends remembered friends, that relatives called each other up to say, "hi," that people gained a little perspective on the things in their lives that are really important.

-That I saw all the best things that make us Americans--Courage, Compassion, Determination, Love, and Support, to name just a few.

America may have its drawbacks, and it will always have its detractors, both from within and without, but it's my home, and I love it.  Most of us here do.  And many of us had begun to take it for granted, that it would always be there and that nothing could threaten us.

September 11 was the day that I learned what it meant to be an American.


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## Vargo

Here's a poem I wrote on the 11th, as details started to come out about Flight 93:

Scared terrified
_i want to see my_
Knowing I will die
_one more time_
Knowing we will all die
_i want to hold my_
We charge to the front
_one more time_
Not for us
But for those that will come after.

At the time, I was thinking about what must have gone through their minds as they charged the cockpit - how they might have held false hope that somehow their plane was different, that they would see their loved ones again - but knowing, ultimately, that they were as doomed as the others, and took their own destiny back from the hijackers.

A hero is somebody who stands up against tyrrany, no matter the personal cost.


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## hammymchamham

September 11th 2001 was a day I cried a lot. September 11th was also a day I was worried about my father, since once I found out about it, at about 8:30 AM Central, I tried to call my mother and got a busy signal. After class (which started at 9:00 am) I found out the towers have fallen. I was shocked and saw a replay on TV, and was still shocked. I borrowed a friends phone, got ahold of my mother, and found out my dad was safe in Washington DC and could see the smoke from the Pentagon.

September 11th was the day I realized who the true heros are: not my dwarven fighter in DnD or the Luke Skywalkers of movies. But the firefighters, the police, the military, and those on Flight 93 who decided to prevent the cowards from carrying out their 'divine'* mission.

Just thinking of what those cowards did one year ago makes my blood boil and tears fall. I have never personally been to NYC, but I did see the towers 10 years ago when my family visited the Statue. I vageuly remember it. And its sad for me that I will never be able to visit those monuments. And sad for the world that those people are no longer with us. Those police no longer protecting New Yorkers. Those firefighters rescuing more people.



* I am sure this is how they saw it.


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