by UnDisfellowshipped 39 Replies latest social current
E-man:
The Queen authorised the Guards to play the US anthem as a mark of respect for the American people.
THAT was one of the few positive things I remember from two years ago. It made me so proud of your Country.... a real tear-jerker at the time....
I was working at the middle school in Abliene Kansas. And after first hour, one of the paras came in and said something has happened in NY at the World Trade Center. Abliene schools are all wired for computers and cable tv. So we turned on the classroom tv, and were just in time to see the second plane fly into the building. It was the most shocking thing I had ever seen. Every classroom was turned to the news that day. And school pretty much stopped as everyone sat and watched tv. After a couple of hours, it was decided that the tvs neeced to be turned off. But one ran all the time in the library for the next two weeks, and staff members would go in there to get updates. It was such a wonderful, cool, bright blue sky September day in Kansas two years ago. It felt so strange knowing what was happening in other parts of the country. Pam
The night before, I went to bed very late. I almost never turned on the radio back then, and that night I was listening to a jazz station while I was reading in the kitchen. Finally, I took a drink from my beer, leaned back, closed my eyes and smiled, and I basked in the thought that life was pretty sweet... I had a lot of nice things in life to look forward to; nothing to mar the horizon... It was really hard to tear away from there to go to bed, it was a warm, woozy, happy night. To make it easier to leave, and completely out of character, I left the radio on overnight, so that I would be able to hear some more jazz as soon as I got up the next morning.
I didn't hear jazz the next morning. There was someone interviewing frantic people about a tower collapsing, and I was puzzled. International news? These were American voices, though. The only towers I was aware of were in NY, but I didn't spend a second considering them. It took a few minutes of watching TV to process what had happened. I have never been to NY, and don't know the skyline or anything about its architecture. I was trying to figure out why the anchors were talking about a tower collapsing, when there was obviously a tower standing there (albeit on fire). (I didn't know there were 2 towers originally!) The reporters were talking about up to 20,000 people being in the tower, and I was praying that they could all get out. Suddenly, the single tower began collapsing like a banana. I fell off the couch and onto my knees, horrified. A surreal moment, I had my hand clapped to my mouth. I was speechless. I was reeling. I had just seen (so I thought) 20,000 people die.
My husband did not see any of this, though he came in for a portion of the news afterward. He didn't seem to understand the measure of my upset, although he was still very disturbed. As each subsequent attack came (the Pentagon, and then the crash in Pennsylvania), it was like being dealt a body blow.
My JW neighbor came over. We just sat and watched. She didn't mention Armageddon. Like me, she had been crying. Another neighbor came over. We struggled for words to say.
But as stories came out later that day, and on subsequent days, of the heroism and twists of fate that prevented this attack from being 10x worse, I slowly, slowly began to feel thankful and hopeful again.
Today I am still squeamish about turning on the news: I actually pray for our country every time before I click on cnn.com. I still search for the stories of heroism that show that the human spirit is capable of overcoming evil even as great as what a terrorist can bring. I appreciate more deeply the hope of John 1:5... The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.
bebu
I was at work and my sister called me long distance from Arkansas. She was the first to give me any clue that something was going on. About five minutes later I was able to see a TV. That was before the second building was hit. It looked bad but not that bad. The radio had said that it was a little commuter plane that had most likely gotten off course, so I went back to work.
A little while later, she called back with shock in her voice. "T! The buildings are GONE!"
"Wait a minute, V. You gotta be kidding. There's no way in hell those two buildings are gone. Stop joking." I had read news articles and seen a couple of documentaries of how the buildings were built and had really thought they were indestructible.
"I'm not joking. I've watched the whole thing. those buildings are gone. What about all those people?"
I looked at my watch and realized that in NY it was way past the beginning of the workday in the middle of the week. It was hard to grasp the enormity of it... the possibility of thousands and thousands of deaths. "What are they gonna do!????????"
Then news reports came of a third plane; of the prez being whisked aboard Air Force One; of government buildings in D.C. including the White House being evacuated; of every single commercial flight being cancelled indefinitely; and on and on.
I remember being scared like I've never been scared; feeling like all of a sudden the world was going to hell and there wasn't anything I could do about it. A sense of foreboding that I have yet been able to shake.
As incredible as it sounds, I was at the gym the morning it happened.
I remember seeing one of the buildings on TV with smoke billowing out of it, but just figured it was a nasty fire. I didn't really pay much attention to it until we were driving home and listened to what was happening on the radio.
The whole day was surreal...
I was at home that particular morning and one of my neighbour called me
I ran over and we watched it together on T.V.
It just seemed so unreal.
I drove to school and got my kids and brought them all home.
I tried to call relatives around Boston for 24 hours and couldn't get through (they are frequent flyers)
I spent 2 days trying to explain to my 6 year old that this was real and not a made up movie.
It was horrible day.
sincerely
special k
I remember when my radio alarm woke me up at nine something in the morning, and I heard it announced that there had been a plane crash into one of the WTC buildings. I jumped up and turned on CNN to find out more. Early on, they were thinking that it was probably an accident, then some reporter/guy made the remark that maybe it was terrorist activity. The others didn't think so at the time, and neither did I. I thought it was just silly to assume that there would be from terrorist activity - not in this country! Then the second plane hit the building! That's when my heart sank. I knew it was no accident. Still watching the news, I picked up the phone and called family and friends. I remember feeling scared, angry, sad and sick all at the same time as the story unfolded.
I am thankful that this kind of tragedy hasn't happened again in the U.S since, but there's a possibility that it could. I'm so glad to see all of these 9/11 threads because i was beginning to forget.
Rita In Virginia
Thank you Englishman, That is one of the few videos of 9/11 I had never seen.
I too remember hearing about the crashes, but to me that wasn't the worst part. For hours we sat there at work glued to the only small TV in the office, (30 of us), secretly praying "get out, get out" , then the 1st building came down and news reporters were saying only the first 30 some floors had managed to escape, but shortly after they started interviewing people from higher floors and we were thinking, maybe just maybe more people had escaped than we thought and hey the second building hasn't fallen yet, maybe everyone will get out. All of a sudden you see the 2nd tower lurch and people started screaming then it fell. My knees went weak at that point, there was no more hope. We all knew at that point if people weren't out then, they weren't going to make it out!!! I worked with 2 people from New York. One had a sister in law that worked in the building, we sat with her waiting for a call or email, something. Her sister-in-law found a coffee shop several blocks away that had internet and sent an email confirming she was ok around 2. I think however I will always remember the buildings falling as well as the people jumping to their deaths more so than the plane hitting.
I remember thinking, hey Bethel is right there, I wonder how they are helping, Temporary shelter maybe for those who can't get home. Offering free clean water, something right. But in NY's biggest time of need, what did they do, print damn magazines. That was their f'd up way of helping. Can't tell I am bitter about that can you?
Something I really didn't like to talk about.
I was going into DC on some business. From where I was at the time, I took a highway (as I have done dozens of times) that passes right by the Pentagon. This highway goes right past the side that got hit.
I just missed it by a few minutes. When I heard the news, I just headed home. I could only imagine if I had been delayed a few minutes, I could have seen it happen. I'm glad I didn't see it happen though. I saw the aftermath a few days later. TV really didn't do it justice.
Also, that weekend, I had to attend a funeral in New Jersey, right across the river from NY. People were still in shock. Looking at the skyline from the Jersey waterfront, I could still smell the destruction in the air while watching that smoke rise up to the sky.
This is hard. Okay, I had broken up with someone I really loved and the wound was still fresh. I was feeling sorry for myself and slept late on my morning off. My mom called, I picked up the phone and I was like 'This better be good, you just woke me up'. She said, 'Turn on the TV, something happened in NY'. I was instantly awake. To put this in perspective, I grew up in Queens, I've been to the top of the Twin Towers twice. I love Florida, but I'm a New Yorker so when I turned on the TV and saw that black hole in the North Tower I can't tell you how scared I was. I've got family and friends in the city, I knew that 50,000 people worked in the towers, that each floor was an acre, that the WTC had it's own zip code. When I saw those buildings, I knew I was home - in good ol' New York. So I'm watching the Today show's live coverage and then the second plane hit and I lost it. All I could do is sit there and cry as people jumped and I thought how desperate do you have to be if jumping is the better option? When the first building collapsed I didn't know what was happening, I saw the smoke and I thought if those bastards sent another plane...Katie and Matt were at a loss for words so I turned to Peter Jennings. He said the South Tower had collapsed and I refused to believe it even though my eyes could see that it was gone. I said, 'no that's impossible' then the North Tower went and I start screaming. All those poor people did was go to work and they got murdered and I watched it happen. All day I watched the news. I dragged myself to the meeting that night and the 'friends' were so excited. This is it, they said, Armageddon's coming! I was so pissed off. One bro came up to me gushing, about the end of this system and I told him off. I said 'Gee, thousands of people were murdered today and you wanna celebrate?' He looked embarassed and walked away. I was shaking with anger. All they could talk about during the service meeting was how to turn this tragedy into an opportunity to preach. Three weeks later, I was on a plane to my city as an American Red Cross Disaster Relief Team volunteer. I was assigned to Ground Zero for a month and no, tv didn't do the destruction justice. Miracles happened on 9/11. Firefighters evacuated the buildings and saved thousands, New Yorkers and the nation pulled together like never before and love triumphed over evil. I will always be inspired by the courage of people and it gives me hope. - V Sky
