1. Taylee91

    Taylee91 Carpe Diem Contributor

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    Where were you on September 11th?

    Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by Taylee91, Sep 10, 2011.

    Tomorrow marks the tenth anniversary of another date in history that will forever live in infamy. To think of those who died in the World Trade Centers and even those who died trying to save them makes my heart just weep. But at the same time I remember that day with an indescribable feeling of Patriotism for My Country and My Nation.

    God Bless America. And God Bless those who died on that day.

    This doesn't exclude of course those who don't live in the USA. Where were you?

    I was just minding my own business at home, working on my school work. The TV was on in the background and one of us kids (I was eleven at the time) switched the channel. The first thing we all saw was the huge outline of one of the World Trade Centers, shimmering in the morning smog. It was smoking too. And I distinctly remember reading the, "Breaking News" headline at the bottom.

    All of use kids didn't even know what was happening. But something in our gut told us it wasn't good. I said so myself. "Something's not right." And one of us ran upstairs to our parents' bedroom and told our mom. It wasn't until later that day when we found out bits and pieces of the truth from our mom who just stayed glued to her TV set up in her room.
     
  2. CMacgregor93

    CMacgregor93 Member

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    I was in my classroom when the teacher turned on the TV at the top corner of the room. We all watched in shock and horror. But then again, We were only 8 when seeing what was happening.
     
  3. Taylee91

    Taylee91 Carpe Diem Contributor

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    Wow. That's crazy. You were eight? I had school work to finish and couldn't really tune in to the whole newsfeed.
     
  4. Quezacotl

    Quezacotl New Member

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    I was eight, the TV came on in the classroom and I was just completely confused. The first thing I remember seeing was what looked like a funeral procession, so I assumed that something happened to President Bush. By the end of the day I had the story straight. However, I really did not understand it.
     
  5. VM80

    VM80 Contributor Contributor

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    I had a lecture at Uni in the morning and got home around lunchtime. My brother was off school and watching something on TV.

    We stayed up late into the night, watching the news.
     
  6. Trish

    Trish Damned if I do and damned if I don't Contributor

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    I was home, with my 5 month old son. My sister was there with her 5 month old daughter. We watched in horror, all day (neither of us had to work that day). I wasn't living in NY at the time, but my mother, stepfather, and grandmother were. My Stepfather was called to NYC, as were his brothers and one of his sister-in-laws as they are all cops/firefighters. It was terrifying.
     
  7. madhoca

    madhoca Contributor Contributor

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    I was just returning from dropping my youngest daughter off at school here in Turkey--her first day. Everything had gone well, and it was the most beautiful sunny morning. As I passed the bakkal (corner/grocer's shop) I saw a crowd of people gathered there by the TV. It was live coverage, and they were at the same time trying to get through to one of the neighbour's sons, who was about to complete a traineeship in a company with offices in one of the buildings. When they finally traced the boy--who was unharmed, in fact since it was his last week, he'd not been there that day--someone just said, "But all the mothers waiting for news...God bless and help them." I will never forget the awe, anguish, and sympathy of everyone present. It just makes me well up thinking of it.
     
  8. Flowerfairy

    Flowerfairy Member

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    The whole news came as a shocker. I was working in the basement when my work colleague called. I guess the time was about 4 p.m. in the evening.
     
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  9. WriterDude

    WriterDude Contributor Contributor

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    I was at home and playing some stupid computer game when my brother called me and said I should turn on the TV. I thought he was joking, but he -never- calls. We always text each other. (we live far away from each other, btw.) At first I wasn't sure what I was watching, but thought it was a crappy movie. Then I realized it was the news. This was just before the first tower fell.

    I live in Norway, and if I can be brutally honest, I don't think it was as bad as you Americans think. (without going into that discussion again.) But I felt really bad when I watched the news, and I hope I never have to see anything like that again. Then we had 22nd July... :(
     
  10. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    I was twenty-six hundred miles from home. The company I worked for sent me to Phoenix, Arizona for four days of training in a software product I would be supporting. I arrived Monday night around ten at night, and the temperature at the airport was in the nineties. So after I reached the hotel, I cranked the air conditioning and went to bed.

    In the morning, I flipped on the TV to the Today Show. They had a breaking news item that a small plane had apparentlly lost control and crashed into the World Trade Center. They were beginning to state they weren't sure it was a small plane after all, and then they switched to a camera view showing a second plane crashing into the towers.

    The first thought that I had was, "Damn, this is no accident."

    I finished getting ready, in automatic mode, and drove to the training center. I was in a state of shock, but there was nothing I could do but follow the plan. My classmates arrived, and then the instructors. The first instructor took a poll whether to continue with the class. By then, the airports were already on indefinite lockdown, so the consensus was to stay busy and go ahead with the training. No one would be going anywhere anyway.

    We finished the class on Thursday instead of Friday, because we decided to get down to business and do it service. There was an air of defiance. We weren't going to let a bunch of hate mongers to run our lives. Some people who were closer to home decided to drive home Thursday night. I decided to wait for the airports to reopen, which was expected to be on Saturday.

    I spent Friday exploring the desert with my camera. One of the erir things was the absence of any aircraft other than the occasional military craft.

    Saturday, I was able to fly home, except Logan International in Boston was still closed, so I had to go to T F Green in Providence instead. It was Sunday moring by the time I stepped through my front door. I was impressed on the trip home, the way everyone went out of their way to support one another. The drivers weren't acting like enraged animals for once, and strangers were taking the time to assist others who looked confused or had baggage or children to manage.

    Americans were showing their very best side under conditions of duress. It made me proud to be one of them.
     
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  11. colorthemap

    colorthemap New Member

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    No it is not that "bad" comparatively to other disasters(like say Hiroshima) in the world and in history.


    But it is still the largest terrorist attack in history. Around 3000 people died, and really I think the media coverage needs to tone it down majorly.
     
  12. prettyprettyprettygood

    prettyprettyprettygood Active Member

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    I was working at my part-time job, which was in a very minor regional government building in the UK, and people were going bananas about becoming a target. I wasn't worried about that, the chances of such a minor building being targeted was roughly 0, but I couldn't get over the footage on the TV. I still can't watch it now, in fact; I can't imagine what it must have been like in NY or for those with family there.
     
  13. LaurenM

    LaurenM Member

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    According to my mom, she was driving me to preschool. I was 4 at the time, so I don't really remember anything at all, even my mom being upset. My brother remembers, though. He was 9 at the time, I think, and with my grandfather. He said he remembers walking into the room that had the T.V. on, asking what was going on, and Papa telling him to be quiet.
     
  14. Cosmos

    Cosmos New Member

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    I was getting ready for work when my brother called me into the room to see it on TV. It showed the first tower being struck and then I stuck around to see the second one being struck. I honestly couldn't concentrate at work that day, and hardly anybody was around. There was a moment of silence spoken through the intercom at work and I hurried home as fast as I could. I thought we were going to war (well, war did happen but not in the fashion I thought of) and that this might be my last day on earth.

    Yes, I was that shocked by it. It was a horrible tragedy, moreso because it wasn't arbitrary nature or some whim of the gods. It was human beings that executed a terrible plot to kill innocents and it showed me that humanity is not yet entirely out of the Dark Ages.

    But as was said earlier in this thread, it also showed how human beings can band together in a crisis and show compassion, care and courage.
     
  15. Banzai

    Banzai One-time Mod, but on the road to recovery Contributor

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    I was, I believe, walking home from school. It was my first (possibly second) week of secondary school, a very hot day, and when I got home Mum was watching it on the news. She explained what had happened, and we watched it in silence.

    So weird to think it was already ten years...
     
  16. Lydia

    Lydia Contributor Contributor

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    I was nine, and I was at home. I remember my parents and some of my older siblings all standing around the tv, so I went to look what was going on. I don't think I understood right away, but it became clear what happened in the following days.
     
  17. Gigi_GNR

    Gigi_GNR Guys, come on. WAFFLE-O. Contributor

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    I was maybe 6, and I came home from school to see my parents watching the TV, crying and looking... shocked, stricken, worried. They replayed the footage of the towers falling over and over and over, and by this time it was 3PM so it had happened a while ago, and the first thing I thought was "This is going to change everything." Even at 6, I knew we'd been attacked, by someone who didn't like us or our way of life, and I knew the impact would be huge.

    And it has been. A decade later, what happened on that day is still felt. I pray the victims are resting in peace, and that their families have found closure. The people of that day were heroes -- the ones who stopped the plane from hitting the White House, the ones who sat there and told their families goodbye on the plane, the firefighters and cops who ran in when everyone else ran out, the people in the towers...
     
  18. CosmicHallux

    CosmicHallux New Member

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    I was sleeping an a hammock in my living room. When I saw the news it had already happened.

    My first thought was, "this is going to be bad." I was shocked at the media treatment of the event, with blurbs like "War on America" and graphics of the American flag flying. The American people were sad and shocked--I felt like the media was exploiting the natural emotions of the grieving.

    Then the president declared a flag day and I couldn't understand why the American flag was supposed to commemorate the dead civilians. I mean, the crime was against people, not a flag. The people who died were more than Americans--just like we are all more than the nation we live in.

    I felt like the American people were being treated as a bull in the bull ring, encouraged by the pain to go after the red flag. People were so blinded by grief, but instead of politicians and the media properly honoring the dead innocents they seemed to be rallying nationalism. It was sickening.

    Then news blurbs started showing up, about hate crimes against Muslims. An Indian man with a turban got shot and killed exiting his liquor store because someone thought he was Muslim.

    I remember bush saying that the pilots couldn't have willingly flown into the towers because they were American--and I thought "What about McVey?"

    I was really worried about the rising emotion--and what it was being channeled for. I was worried about what would happen to innocent people if America, the superpower, felt justified to unleash itself. I was worried that the American people were so blinded by emotion that they could be manipulated into hurting more innocent people--like a wounded animal who attacks out of its pain.

    I knew that if America retaliated against the people who "waged war on America" that the people who died in the trade center bombings would only be a fraction of the innocents who would come to die.

    It was like a horrible, horrible, unstoppable snowball--and that's what I remember about that time.
     
  19. Mercurial

    Mercurial Contributor Contributor

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    I had turned ten years old the day before. I remember sitting on my dad's shoulders while he carried me to the bus stop so I could go off to the fourth grade. That must have been around 8:20 or 8:30AM. I remember we walked slowly that morning because it was so sunshine-y and the air felt just perfect. My dad commented on what a wonderful day it was outside. It is really horrifying to think that while he said those very words, we were totally unaware that a plane had been hijacked and was going to cause so many deaths and destruction and change lives only fifteen minutes later.

    Around 11AM, my teacher had stepped out and when she came back, she was pale and her eyes were red. She had us all gather in the reading area of the classroom. Usually, when it wasn't time for reading hour and she gathered us there, it meant we were in trouble and she was going to lecture us. I remember a few of us, including myself, even asked her if we were in trouble. She shook her head and had to recompose herself. She told us, as delicately as you can tell a group of ten years old, that two planes had hit some very big buildings called the World Trade Center in New York City, and that everyone was very concerned and worried about their loved ones. This was before anyone had really learned about the plane hitting the Pentagon and the plane that had been intended for the Capitol. I remember a little girl started crying because her grandfather was one of the architects for the WTC.

    We were sent home early that day with a letter from our principal. I remember watching the news and knowing that it was really bad. I remember hearing the newscasters wondering if this was some crazy malfunctioning equipment. Even at that age, I knew that wasn't right. Airplanes don't just hit buildings.

    Some critics have mentioned that you cant win a War on Terror and that more people are killed by lightning each year than killed in a terrorist attack, but I don't think that's the point. Aside from not standing next to a flag pole or taking a bubble bath during a storm, there's not much you can do to avoid that kind of thing. But a terrorist attack... At age ten, I couldn't really grasp the violent evil that it was rooted in (and at 20 years old, ten years later, I still cant), and I think that is the scary thing. People hurting other people for political motives and holy wars. That's just not right. No matter how rare it is, the fact that it's people killing people --no matter who they are or what they stood for, causing so much death and destruction and forcing over 3000 children to lose a parent in one violent boom (followed by a second, a third, and a fourth --which was horrifying in and of itself; no one knew when it would stop), that is what is scary. That humans have the potential, and that some humans have the desire & drive & capability to commit such a horrible act of violence.

    I'll never forget the feeling of tension, unity, shock, and pensiveness that totally altered our country's attitude. People told loved ones how much they mattered; neighbors were more friendly; so many people donated blood and so many firefighters, police officers, and military personnel traveled to NYC and DC to help in any way they could. It sounds cheesy, but I felt very proud of my fellow citizens around the country and proud to be an American, seeing all of the come-togetherness and how amazing the response was from everyone in our country and around the world.

    :love:
     
  20. WriterDude

    WriterDude Contributor Contributor

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    Depends what you think of as 'terrorist attacks', I guess. Kill five men from your own country, and it's murder. Kill five men from the wrong country, and it's war. But I'm not going into this discussion here, sorry.
     
  21. suddenly BANSHEES

    suddenly BANSHEES Senior Member

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    All I remember was going into my mom's room before leaving for school, and she was sitting at the edge of her bed, watching it on the news. When I asked what was going on, she told me, very quietly and simply, and then she didn't talk for a while. I was about eight, and didn't quite understand what was going on. It until much later that I realized my mom had been in total shock - she'd grown up in West New York, and had gone to the World Trade Centers dozens of times as a child. She told me how surreal it had been to watch the footage of the towers falling, because of how enormous they'd been.
     
  22. Lost_in_Thought

    Lost_in_Thought New Member

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    I was five and it was my second week in grade one, my teacher told eveyrone before lunch what happened (We were all very quiet for the rest of the day if I remember right) For most of the class this attack seemed far away (in alberta). But for me it was harder, for I knew that my auntie worked for the american goverment (I didn't know where though, I was only five), so all day at school I felt worried. Then when I asked my older brother about it when we were walking home he reasured me. But still I felt sick for the rest of the day (especialy after seeing it on the TV). Then two years later my little sister was born on that day. Now we have no excuse to forget her birthday.
    Also my dad met a lady who was spared from the attack on the towers(she worked there) because she went into labor on that day.

    Also I do believe Hiroshima was a horrible thing. My grampa told as a kid when he heard of it he didn't know what to think of the states anymore. He wishes that the US would of chosen a different root to stop the war. But I'm sure that Japan mourns and has ceremonies and stuff on Aug. 6 too. Like as a Canadian, Life still goes on on this day, we have no anniversary stuff about 9/11. The only thing we have her is some news channels (american associated ones) showing anniversary fotage and some suff on ground zero. And since it on a Sunday I'll probably hear some stuff by are pastor. But really thats all. (Plus I'll get some birthday cake cause it my sisters birthday. Its okay to mourn on this day but you shouldn't forget that life oes one. I know for families of victoms its probably hard to say that, even after ten years. But its the truth, and theres nothing we can do about. The lost will always be lost. And I know that from experience.

    Well may God bless you guys on this day, and for those who have losted love ones, I am sorry for your lost. And let all the world be at peace.
     
  23. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Happy birthday, Mercurial!
     
  24. Mobhit

    Mobhit New Member

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    First Happy birthday Mercurial!

    I was in NYC at the time of attacks. Working in the false stage under the stage at one of the Broadway theaters, to this day I still can't remember which theater. I could see the panic in the faces of the people even as far north as 43rd street when I stepped outside to smoke a cigarette. I asked what was happening and I was told that a plane had hit WTC One. At first I thought oh that sucks, build a tall building five miles from each of the three major airports it's bound to happen.

    Then the explosion rocked the ground and I thought something along the lines of a gas explosion from the WTC. Then I heard the shouting and immediatley the world went slow motion, a man started running up 43rd yelling "a second plane in WTC Two". The rest of the day was a blur. All I wanted to do was get out of the city and get home to my family in PA.

    I will never forget the sounds of that day on 43rd street, in NYC standards 29 blocks is a world away. The other thing making want to get out was being only 11 1/2 blocks from the Empire state building.

    I was one of the last groups of cars through the Lincoln before the closed it. And I can still vividly see WTC North begin to Collapse, as WTC South was already a smoking pile of rubble. The last thing I remember was a police officer pulling up behind 18 miles up the road. I had pulled over and just broke down in my car.

    I eventually made it home 3 1/2 hours later.
     
  25. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Damn. Sounds like you were lucky to escape the immediate devastation.
     

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