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[side_show]

I can't believe the five year anniversary is this Monday.  I think it's going to take another 5 years before we fully understand how 9/11 changed the world, our lives, who we are.

Here's a place to post your "where I was" stories and the like.

Where I was:  I was lying in bed, and I had to get up really early for a job interview.  I lived alone at the time, and I was lying in bed, and the radio kicked on about 15 minutes before the first plane hit.  The announcer was talking about an accident.  An accident involving a plane and the WTC.  I got up and turned on the T.V. and watched live as the second plane hit.  I sat there, alone, in my apartment and cried.  It was too early to call anyone, so I just sat there and cried.  Then news about the pentagon getting hit, images of people jumping to their deaths,  another plane crashing in a field came on.  Every channel was telling me something was very wrong.  I wasn't sure if I should still go in for my job interview or not, but I needed a job so off I went.  In the car the news was panic.  I went in for the interview, and I waited a really long time.  The woman who finally came to interviewe me was in tears when she came to meet me in the lobby, two hours late.  I wondered if in the two hours I had sat there if something even worse had happened, but I didn't want to ask.  I didn't know it then, but since the call centre I was interviewing at was mainly for FedEx and there was a FedEx depot in the WTC she and my friend who got me the interview had lost coworkers that morning.  That people were calling and screaming about their packages, and that the employees were screaming back that no, their package would not come today, and no, they didn't know when, if...  I was hired, and two weeks later I met my SO at that very job. 

I remember how, for days after, when a plane passed over head, everyone paused and looked up.

I remember seeing flour spilled on the floor at a grocery store, and for a moment the word"anthrax" flashed in my head.

I remember how I was at one of my bestfriend's apartments the night of 9/11, and that there was rotating footage on every channel but one a children's station - we flipped to the Power Rangers and they were blowing up some building, and for a moment we thought another actual building was going down.  But it was only the Power Rangers.

[Pimp_skitters]

  I have rather complex feelings towards the event, which I won't go into detail in order to avoid controversy. My main feeling about it is this: the social and political after effects were far bigger and more important than the event itself.
  As for the day itself, it felt more surreal than anything else to me. It was like watching a movie even though it was real.

[Drygioni]

I remember getting off the bus from school, and finding a lot of people and cameras around; they were filming a movie in the village. I stayed a-while to pester the crew, during which I heard a rumour that there had been a plane crash in America. I remember leaving the set, walking home thinking that two planes had collided; this is what I understood at the time.

When I got home, my Mum hushed me and brought me into the living room. With my family (barring my Dad who was in New York at the time) I just sat and stared for a while at the unfurling reports from the BBC. I couldn't identify with the horror, and I couldn't quite take in what was happening beyond the basic events. In that peculiar way that occurs, I still sat, glued to the TV.

The towers collapsing finally kind of hit the nail in. I wasn't a particularly bright 11 year old, but I could understand that this was more death and destruction then I could ever imagine witnessing. I didn't cry; I just sat with my family and felt terrible for all the people but glad that my Dad was safe. (He had called earlier.)

Without really understanding the significance, I'd witnessed '9/11'. Those two numbers carry so much power now; rarely can I ever see, speak or hear them without the image of the BBC news report burning through my mind. They've come to define an era in which terrorism is ever more global and far reaching: think of the Madrid train bombs, the London underground bombs, and the countless acts of terrorism throughout the strife-ridden parts of the world torn apart by religious conflict, violence and civil war. 

Either way, 9/11 means a lot to me because it was the first time I really understood the horror that can sometimes be inflicted in the world. It was something that haunted me for days, and it hadn't even affected me directly. Call it an awakening of empathy. But even more so, 9/11 has defined the start of the 'War on Terror' which has led seemingly only to war with Iraq and more terrorism.

I apologise for the length of this post, but I've never really talked about this before. Lot to get off my chest.   

[V-Adore]

It was my senior year of high school. I was walking into my third-period class, daydreaming about my previous class -- Wood Shop -- and which wood I was going to use for my end-table project. Mahogany was nice, but walnut was definitely tempting; one of those two -- and then suddenly someone is yelling "they've hit the Pentagon!" and the TV is on and I spend the entire period watching. My most immutable memory of that day will always be the sudden, jarring juxtaposition of the first news interrupting my daydreaming about wood shop, as stupid as that sounds.

I spent about half of that third period crying, because my SO was in Boston and I was paranoid that every major city in the eastern U.S. was going to detonate. Then... I kept going to classes. What else was I supposed to do? It felt a little dreamlike, really; the entire thing sounded like the plot of a bad action movie or of a conspiracy theorist's pseudo-"speculative fiction" novelized screed. It just felt unreal. Just goddamn unreal.

[pmcd9]

I was at work doing my job when my sister called and said that a plane had crashed into the WTC.  I asked some questions, like what kind of plane was it and was it an accident, but she didn't have much detail.  I tried to get on Yahoo, but it was crashed due to excess traffic.  A few minutes later my Sister called back and said that another plane had crashed into the WTC.  I remember saying Oh my god, that can't be an accident.  I still couldn't get any news on the internet, but then my Sister called back a third time in tears saying that the tower had fallen.  I was in shock, my face got very hot and I could hardly speak.  I just sat there in shock not knowing what to do with myself.  A short time later one of my co workers informed me that there was a television set in the lab.  So I went down there and watched in horror at what I was seeing.  The first tower was in rubble and the second tower was in flames.  Dan Rather was litteraly in tears as he spoke, but he didn't say much.  No one in the room was speaking.  A couple of minutes later the second tower fell and I was just paralyzed with fear.  All I could think was how easily those buildings had come down.  I didn't think it was possible to knock a skyscraper down.  My mind was racing with the thought of those airplanes crashing into the building.  I pictured being inside the building standing beside the window and seeing the plane approaching and standing powerless as it made a direct impact where I was.  Remembering that day I am remembering that horror.

The aftermath was heartening to see such a strong outpouring of support for New York City by the rest of the nation and America in general by the rest of the world.  Of course it wasn't long before our President squandered that good will, but that's a subject for another thread.

The one good news was when we learned that the passengers on Flight 93 twarted the fourth plane which was almost certainly headed for The White House or Congress.  I was very proud of those brave men, they are heroes.

~Paul

[linnea]

Holy shit. I can't believe it's been 5 years.

I was in college at the time, in my junior year. I got out of bed for a leisurely shower before class. As I wandered back into my room, I noticed that I had a voicemail on my phone. My boyfriend at the time (the crap dude to whom I later became engaged) left me a very, very terse message: "Babe. Call me. Bye."

All snottily, I thought, "What-EVER! Why is he being suck a dick?" and called him back. I said, "What's wrong?" He swallowed, paused, and said, "Turn on the TV."

I was shocked. Couldn't believe it. At first I thought it was the World Trade Center in Denver, where I lived. He said no, it's New York City. We're under attack. He had to go up to the unit, which was about an hour away where he normally reported once a month for Army Reserve training. I said I would go with him. He said to meet him at his brother Ryan's house which is close to his unit.

I stared open-mouthed at the TV. I started crying when I saw the second plane hit. I started shaking in fear when I realized that this was The Big One, likely the start of WWIII, and that I might never see my boyfriend again. They were sending out messages to all military personnel to report to their bases immediately. People were covered with blood and ashes, people were jumping out of the Twin Towers to their deaths because of the fires and they couldn't get out.

In shock, I called my parents with whom I had a very strained, angry relationship at the time. Just like they teach us in EMT-Firefighter training, people tend to regress age-wise when they are in shock, fear, or under a great deal of stress. I felt like a little kid and I instinctively called my mom and dad because I thought they could help and make it better. Helplessly they said that they loved me too, that they didn't know what was going on, and they didn't know what was going to happen. I hung up and felt desperately sad for what was happening to all the people at the crash sites, and I felt desperately unsafe.

I got in my car and headed up to Ryan's. I was trying to get my sobs under control as I listened to NPR and drove fast. Everyone was in shock. I saw lots of other drivers crying. When I got there, I saw my boyfriend and his brother leaving the house. He had to go, and I gave him a hug goodbye. We watched them drive away. I wanted to grab him and hole up in a bunker somewhere in Canada. I did not want him to have to put his military training to any sort of use.

Ryan's girlfriend and I couldn't handle just sitting at home and feeling helpless because there was so much suffering and we wanted to do SOMETHING to help. I said, "Let's go donate blood, there's nothing else we can do." People were already queuing up at the petrol stations. By the time we got to the hospital the line was 8 hours long, the nurse told us. She said that since whole blood can't be kept very long, for us to come back in a few days or weeks. She said that there was a crush of people right now, but that we need to maintain the supplies later on. 

The town that we were in had a relatively large Muslim population for the Midwest. Once news broke that it was a terrorist move, folks who wore traditional Muslim scarves or who looked Arab were hiding. And with good reason too, some racist fuck in Arizona killed a Sikh (dude, he's from India! Not Arabian! Stupid fuck!) gas station owner because the man wore a turban. Ridiculous. Some people were calling for retribution, and they were calling for Muslim or Arab blood, which I thought was awful. There were a few voices that said we needed restraint, and the rest were screaming for blood and revenge. I was terrified, I felt very vulnerable, and at the time I'm ashamed to say that at the time I wanted to bomb the shit out of the entire Middle East regardless of who was guilty of orchestrating the attack. The comparisons were being made to the earlier WTC bombings in the early nineties, and Al-Qaeda had claimed responsibility. I wanted law and order restrored, I wanted safety and medical care for everyone at the crash scenes, I wanted to donate some of my O-POS blood in the hopes that it could be sent out to NYC, and I wanted most of all to feel safe again. It was terrible.

Anyway, I coudn't handle watching the news. It was a nightmare. They kept showing the same footage over and over again. I tried to go to sleep because I was drained emotionally and physically, but every time I woke up it was like being jolted back into the same nightmare. I remember the boyfriend and I having a scared conversation in my car later that we should get married before he gets deployed.

[theinevitable]

goodness. I was in 8th grade, in art class. a teacher of some kind came in, asked one girl to come outside. she came back in, sobbing. I'm still not sure what happened, as I don't remember hearing that anyone had died (that I knew)... I suppose her relative must have gotten out alright. My art teacher walked over and turned on CNN. I remember seeing the towers fall, but I suppose it wasn't live footage. My art teacher commented that the burning tower was one of the most striking images he had seen in his life. the rest of the day was kind of crazy. my mum came and picked me up from school, because she'd heard that school was going to be cancelled, but it wasn't. my brother and sister didn't know what had happened. I recall making a rather tasteless joke, which I will not repeat. It wasn't something actually offensive... it was just rather poor timing. I went home. Watched footage on the BBC, I was sick of hearing the same voices on CNN. but it was all the same anyway. went to a hobby shop to pick something up for a school project, but they were closed. terrified all day of hearing that something new had happened.

I think I remember when the pentagon was struck. Wasn't it about an hour later? I don't know. the timing is all very hazy. in the following days, I remember having the urge to punch a large number of people who joked about nuclear weapons (ie: retribution. turning the middle-east into a glass desert. "Lake Iraq.")

[Limmo]

Our phone rang at 7:45 a.m. It was one of the partners for my wife Laura's firm.  I remember thinking why the fuck are you calling us at 7:45 on Tuesday morning; if this has anything to do with work, I'm going to drive over there and kick your ass, partner or not.  Laura took the phone, and her end of the conversation went "Hello?  What?  What?  Oh my GOD!"  Laura worked in the ABC Towers in Century City, which are known locally as the Twin Towers.  So the partner was calling to tell her not to come to work in case a similar plot was underway for Los Angeles.

She motioned for me to put the TV on, and there it was, the huge cloud of smoke over Manhattan.  Where my father lived at the time.  It took me a while to get hold of him; he told me that he had seen smoke coming from the WTC when he was driving out of the Jersey side of the Lincoln Tunnel, but that was it. 

Bad stuff.  And since I live next to Al Qaeda Target #2, I'm not looking forward to the anniversary.

[jough]

I usually set my alarm clock to play music in the morning.  I remember waking up and wondering what was up because no music was playing on my clock radio.  Someone was talking and sounded agitated and they said that a plane crashed into the World Trade Center.

I got up and turned on my TV, and within a minute or two saw the second plane crash live.  I had thought it was probably terrorism when I saw the first plane crash - it was a clear day and it's not like you can miss the towers.  When I saw the second plane hit I heard the newscaster say the words "coordinated terrorist attack."  It reminded me of the "airborne toxic event" from White Noise.  I believe I said "Holy fuck*ng Christ!" out loud.  It was surreal.  I kept thinking to myself "This is something that happens."

I woke my dad to tell him that two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center.  I was angry and sad all day.  We watched TV for the rest of the day, completely glued and not sure what would happen next.  Those first couple of hours were surreal, especially watching the towers burn, watching people jump from the upper floors rather than burn to death, and then we heard about the other crashes into the Pentagon and the United 93 crash in western PA.

We watched the towers collapse and were comforted by Dan Rather.  We called our family and friends.  I left messages for those friends in New York City that lived or worked near the towers and hoped that I wasn't leaving a message that no one would ever hear.

By the end of the day I was exhausted, drained, still angry and upset, alternating between anger and tears for many hours straight.

I went out later that night and we noticed that there weren't any planes in the sky.  Then we heard one or two - military jets cruising overhead. 

As the events wound-down I felt another emotion other than anger and sadness: disappointment.  I was disappointed that the "coordinated terrorist attack" wasn't harsher, broader, more deadly.  It's not that I wanted more people to die or be hurt, but I couldn't help feeling "so that's it?"  If the rapture came I'm sure I'd be thinking "I've seen better."

At the time we couldn't have known how 9/11 would affect history, or what would be coming.  One thing I didn't feel was scared.  I never felt like I was in any danger (it helps that Philly is such a shitty target), but I think I knew the world had changed that day.

Now five years later our government has given us more reasons to be angry and frustrated than the terrorists ever did.  Osama Bin Laden ran the fuse, but the Bush administration pushed the bomb lever.  The government used 9/11 to turn the United States into a fascist nation, and people are too etherized to do anything about it.

In the meantime, we invaded Iraq and are funding the decimation of Beirut in the name of ridding the world of terror, while producing more terror than any terrorist could ever have hoped for.

We can't win the war on terror because we've already lost.  Visit any airport and you'll feel the terrorist effects personally.

[sailor]

I was a junior in college and my firends birthday was the 10th, so we were all crashed out on couches and floors at her house. the phone rang and rang and we ignored it for at least half an hour due to hangovers. When we finally answered it, we were all up and gathered into the living room around the radio. I remember a reporter from NPR talking to some airline official. The reported was really frantic and angry; "What do you mean you're missing a fuck*ng plane?!"

When i got back home i went right downstairs to the bar, where there was a huge TV. I saw the towers fall and all everybody running all that dramatic footage and was amazed at the whole thing.

At the time I had an upside-down american flag hanging in my apt. window and i remember wondering if somebody might put a rock through it. I also remember looking out my window and seeing an Indian guy wearing a turban riding a bike down the street.  I thought he must be pretty brave to even be out of his house.

[linnea]

We can't win the war on terror because we've already lost.  Visit any airport and you'll feel the terrorist effects personally.

Yes, flying after 9/11 sucks ass, but to be fair, I think that Americans were plenty naive about security for a long-ass time. Up through college, it was fun to go to the airport, like going to a mall (anyone who's been to Denver International Airport will know what I'm talking about, it's big and shiny and pretty like a mall). You could walk up to the gate, people didn't give much of a fuck, and they always asked you those silly, meaningless questions about if your luggage had ever been out of your sight. Not a big deal. Before September 11th, I had personally never heard of anyone getting molested by an Argenbright security guard, or about people having to take their shoes off to be searched, or even having their luggage searched unless they were going through security in a foreign country.

Prior to September 11th, friends of mine who went places like Italy were shocked that when they got off the airplane, there were soldiers standing there with assault rifles. Friends of mine who are Jewish and went to Israel were plenty used to arriving 5 hours early for an El Al flight. They don't fuck around in other countries that have been victims of terrorist attacks, and now we have to live with heightened security, and going to the airport is no longer a magical fun journey but one where you get searched and hassled for your ID.

I am hell of pissed about the liquids rule, now I'll have to pack my Marmite in my checked luggage and risk having to go a brekkie without it if my stupid ass suitcase gets lost.

[jough]

Yes, because if you have ONE BREAKFAST without Marmite then truly the terrorists have won.

The Israelis have been dealing with heightened airport security for years and they move people through Tel Aviv pretty quickly.

The no liquid rule is really stupid.

I didn't really talk about the anthrax scare (which really had nothing to do with 9/11 other than it happened shortly afterwards) or the idiotic Homeland Security Rainbow Alert system, which tells people that we're at a heightened state of alert but doesn't say what heightens it or what we should do differently.

Also, Arabs/Muslims don't wear turbans, people.  Sikhs wear turbans.

[linnea]

Yes, because if you have ONE BREAKFAST without Marmite then truly the terrorists have won.

Heh! That is why I <3 you, jough.

Also, Arabs/Muslims don't wear turbans, people.  Sikhs wear turbans.

People are retarded, aren't they? I still can't believe that guy in Arizona shot another human being for the perceived sin of being Muslim/Arab, but it's just ridiculous to target someone simply because they have a turban. That just painfully highlights the stupidity for which Americans are renowned. I wish that we could stop living the Ugly American stereotype and disprove it. I wish there could be some kind of sea change for peace, as naive as that sounds.

[Doc]

It alway amazes me how affected people were by those attacks. This is a good sign of human nature I think.
Personally I was getting ready to go to school and sit my year 11 physics exam that day, my best friend caled me and told me what had happened, I called him a a damn liar and turned on the tv. My family had visited the WTC a few years earlier so it was fairly real for us but after about 10-20 minutes of watching it we turned it off and just went about our day.
Everyone at school knew about it but we were busy with the exam y'know?

One thing that really depresses me is that your government seemed determined to be difficult regarding the attacks, just the length of time it took to release different information, just shipping a lot of the rubble away without a proper investigation (so I understand).
I realise it was terrible and people wanted to move on (and not have thousands of corpses in the middle of a city) but it just fuels the conspiracy machine.

[Pimp_skitters]

   Reading Jough and Linnea's comments reminded me of something I experienced as a kid that is probably impossible nowdays.
   Me and my mother were on our way from Amsterdam to Toronto in 1998, when I was ten. My mother was desperately afraid of planes, so she spent a good deal of time freaking out and using the air stewardesses as counselors. Anyway, after a certain point my mother started fixating on what kept the planes up and who was flying them. So, one of the air stewardesses decided that the best thing would be to show her. Me and my mother went to the cockpit and spent about twenty minutes there, talking to the pilots about how the plane worked and about flying in general. It was great fun for me and it did have a calming effect on my mom, but I really can't imagine this happening now. For all they knew, we could have been terrorists: if we had had guns and know how, it would have been possible.
   Of course, people felt more relaxed on planes back then. I can't help think that if, for example, all drive by shootings happened at once in events a few times each decade instead of incident by incident, we'd be paranoid about who we let in cars.