What were you doing on September 11, 2001

[Butterfly_Lady]

Where were you the day the world stopped? 9/11/01

I started this thread here because, to me, it is very serious. I always take time out of my day every year to think about what happened on that day 11 years ago now. I can tell you exactly where I was that day but as the day went on it sort of becomes a blur. I was wondering if I was having a nightmare. I was wondering if I had died and gone to hell. So many things went through my mind in disbelief, wondering if this was really happening! Even though i never met any of these people, it sometimes still brings me to tears.

I was sitting in a GED class to help me go take my test. I had gotten a diploma but because of my learning disability I had gotten a special diploma. I wanted to take regular college classes but couldn't without also having a GED. While sitting in class that day, one of my classmates got a phone call on their cell phone from a family member or a friend (don't know which) and when he got off the phone that is when he told us about the first tower being hit. My teacher then told us all to go home for the day to be with family and friends. At the time, my mom was also taking college classes. We always met at the same place every day so I headed over there. It was in the middle of a court yard. One side had the library and the other class rooms with glass windows and TV's. That is where i watched the second tower get hit. We raced to go get my brother from high school and went home to watch the rest of the terror unfold. People jumping, both towers falling, the pentagon being hit, the plan crashing in PA. After that, it's all just a blur. I certainly had to have fallen into a state of shock at what was going on in the world.

So, if you feel up to it, where were you that day?

 

[RubenX]

Re: Where were you the day the world stopped? 9/11/01

I was on my way to work. My commute at the time was a 60 mile trip each way. I was carpooling with a coworker that was also a neighbor. It was his week, his car and he was driving. We were listening to the news and got the report of the first plane. "Must be a horrible accident" we thought. Later, still in the car, we heard about the 2nd plane... "oh boy, that can't be an accident" we thought. We arrived at the office and went straight to the mayor news sites. But all major news sites were down due to the heavy traffic of a whole nation/world trying to get information. A major feeling of "we gonna be at war with somebody real soon" was in the air.

 

[Butterfly_Lady]

Re: Where were you the day the world stopped? 9/11/01

wow a 60 mile commute each direction? atleast you had someone to carpool with to share the cost. I'm sure many people, after hearing of the first plane, though that it was an accident. That though didn't last too long though before we knew someone was doing it on purpose. That was a time that my family actually had cable. we stayed glued to the TV pretty much all day (as i'm sure many other Americans and people around the world did).

 

[Geordie]

Re: Where were you the day the world stopped? 9/11/01

I was at home, crying and thinking America will be less free, as a 11 year-old boy - well, it used to be the case that you can come into the plane cockpit where you can watch the pilots fly the planes, without much security controls. And you can get around American airports really free, it seems, because there are no nasty body checks and so on... I read all these from books.

I was in despair. I remember watching, crying in my heart and staring, motionless. I wonder why people would want to fly planes, hijack aircrafts and ram into a symbol of capitalism... What is their vision? Anarchy and chaos for all? Do they want to die being hated by billions around the world, and murder thousands of people with their minds?

Looking at the 11 years that has passed by, some things do change, others don't. For 11 years, the economy stagnated and there's little growth - the growth in the real estate and financial markets are fluff to me. For 11 years, America spent tons of money in wars just to repay the debt of the bloodbath in New York City, making a debt that needs many more years to repay, unless President Obama really does what he needs and raise taxes to pay the debts incurred on the War on Terror.

I feel it is not just security, oil or even political issues that made 9/11 so hurtful, despite the great effects 9/11 had effected on us. It is more in the pain and sorrows in life, for those of us who have to deal with 9/11 while reading the papers or watching the news, that we all have to deal with.

 

[Kelly]

Re: Where were you the day the world stopped? 9/11/01

I was in work, inputting some invoices on to the system, can't remember who heard about it first but someone called someone in my department from another department and she freaked out. Then another woman in the accounts department was frantically dialling trying to find out about one of the sales reps who was in New York at the time and was supposed to be going to the towers at some point during his trip for a meeting.

My opinion about it all goes along the same lines as what Thierry Meyssan wrote in his books 9/11 the big lie & Pentagate.

 

[smith2267]

Re: Where were you the day the world stopped? 9/11/01

I was taking a bath, in preparation for going to class at vet school. I had the TV on in the next room and I heard the news. I took my handheld TV to school with me, and I played it in the computer lab which I would ordinarily never do. But everyone wanted to know what the latest report was. We didn't know what was going to happen next, where the next attack might be.

I hate conspiracy theories, I think they are ridiculous.

 

[Butterfly_Lady]

Re: Where were you the day the world stopped? 9/11/01

I hate conspiracy theories, I think they are ridiculous.

I agree.

So you guys all got stuck at work/school away from your families? I'm glad my teacher let me go home to be with my family.

 

[Kelly]

Re: Where were you the day the world stopped? 9/11/01

Well my opinion is that not ALL theories are ridiculous, just look at the Hillsborough disaster, 23 years us Liverpudlians have been saying that it was a coverup, that the police lied, the media lied and people could have been saved and it's taken 23 years for the truth to come out.

 

[King_Oni]

Re: Where were you the day the world stopped? 9/11/01

I'm probably totally blunt here; but...

I didn't hear of it until the day after. That's how disconnected with the world I sometimes am. My tv is off most of the time, as is the radio. And I didn't visit forums, nor chat with people either back then.

I did have a newspaper route, so that's how I found out the next day when it was frontpage news.

And for the record; the girl I was dating back then... same story... she didn't know until I told her the next day.

So where was I? Probably doing whatever... in my room, writing, gaming, listening music... any of those I guess

 

[smith2267]

Re: Where were you the day the world stopped? 9/11/01

I agree.

So you guys all got stuck at work/school away from your families? I'm glad my teacher let me go home to be with my family.

I was living alone at the time. They issued a plea for people to stay off their cell phones, so I limited myself to a quick call to my mom to tell her to turn her tv on

 

[Margaretha]

Re: Where were you the day the world stopped? 9/11/01

I just woke up and turned on my TV and it was on the news. It didn't seem real. It took a while for the reality to sink in. It reminded me of when I was in high school and a teacher came into the room and announced that president Kennedy had been shot. Sometimes things can shatter you reality so much that it leaves you with a numb feeling until your brain can process the reality and horror of what happened.

As for conspiracy theories, sometimes they are ridiculous but sometimes they turn out to be the truth.

 

[Butterfly_Lady]

Re: Where were you the day the world stopped? 9/11/01

Well my opinion is that not ALL theories are ridiculous, just look at the Hillsborough disaster, 23 years us Liverpudlians have been saying that it was a coverup, that the police lied, the media lied and people could have been saved and it's taken 23 years for the truth to come out.

I have read some of the conspiracies surrounding 911 and i just can't wrap my head around why that would be done like that so for me, until the truth does finally come out, i will pay my respects to those that died and those trying to save people from the rubble. I just can't bear to think of it any other way for now.

 

[Soup]

Re: Where were you the day the world stopped? 9/11/01

I remember exactly where I was & what I was doing. It was a splendid sunny cloudless day. I'd sent the kids both off to school (both buses stopped right by the corner). My husband was starting later than usual & I'd just put our breakfast on the table. I had the kitchen TV tuned in to CNN. They interrupted their ongoing story to show the surreal & grotesque spectacle of a passenger jet approaching then crashing directly into one of the twin towers. I froze in place. My husband emerged from the shower in a robe, with soaking wet hair. He saw me standing there frozen to the spot & he asked me what was wrong. I couldn't even explain what I'd just seen (a horrific accident? pilot error? A targeted attack by some disgruntled American nut-case? A terrorist attack?). I just pointed numbly at the TV. A short while later, while they were still talking about the 1st plane, the 2nd one hit the other tower. At that point, there was no doubt in either of our minds that this was a deliberate attack, the nature of which had yet to be definitively determined.

Since NTC is only a short flight or 5 hr drive from where we live, I'd been there many times & have memories going back to my childhood of riding up the elevators to to top of the towers as well as eating in the restaurant there. These bldgs were architectural marvels when they were originally built. Mohawk Indian steel workers (aka sky walkers) from nearby Khanawake had worked diligently on that skyscraper (& virtually every other one in NYC) http://www.canada.com/news/Mohawk+skywalkers+continue+help+shape+skyline/5314325/story.html <--- This is a little known but fascinating relationship Canadian Natives from Quebec & New Yorkers continue to share.

The loss of life in this combined vicious attack is devastating & continues to impact families that lost members as well as the traumatized rescue workers & 1st responders & other witnesses who are suffering from mental illnesses (PTSD, Depression etc.) & physical ones (injuries, cancers from the toxins in the fall-out, respiratory problems from the dust, cardiac problems as well).

Whether one is willing to consider conspiracy theorists' arguments (as I am) or not, there's no arguing with the fact that this attack changed the way Western people think. It also, unfortunately, caused many to subject any & all Muslims to unfair blame & stereotyping regardless of whether or not that person was even remotely involved or they were as disgusted & outraged as anyone else.

Like Geordie, who was an extremely astute 11 yr old, we too were concerned about the impact this would have on freedom in America. Security checks & limits on personal freedoms were tightened. Crossing the border is not as pleasant as it once was & we must bring a passport to show each time. Due to invasive body searches, I avoid flying in the USA like I used to. Regardless of what security measures are put in place, unless every man & woman & teen is subjected to an exhaustive background check & search, these terror attacks will prove impossible to prevent.

The evil spectre of racial profiling has done nothing to stymie terrorist attacks either: the 911 terrorists were Arabs who looked like businessmen. Timothy Mc.Veigh (2nd biggest terror attack in US history) was a white Anglo Saxon looked like any other clean cut young American. The shoe bomber, Richard Reid, was 1/2 British & 1/2 Jamaican & looked like a disheveled homeless crazy person whose age was difficult to guess at. The underwear bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, is young, Black & the privileged son of a wealthy African businessman whose own father had reported him as a potential terrorist menace. He looked young for his 25 yrs & could be a high school senior or college freshman. He was clean-cut & looked harmless. Anders Breivik, who was the 'mastermind' (I HATE that term!) of the unspeakable 2011 terrorist attack in Norway looks like any other prematurely balding pleasant looking Norwegian man: a little chubby but again, harmless. Remember, too, the young veiled female Chechen terrorists in the Moscow theatre attack & the men who seized the elementary school in Beslan & the IRA terrorists in Sinn Fein responsible for many deaths in Ireland & England.

Who IS a terrorist? What does a terrorist do? Is he a lone nutter, a case of folie a deux like Mc.Veigh & whats-his-name, a sympathizer with some group's agenda or a card-carrying member of such a group formally trained to carry out evil (from the victims' perspective) missions, a depserate woman with no options & nothing left to lose but martyrdom in death to gain? Does he have green eyes, red hair & a freckled nose? Is he a child? The answer is YES to all of these & there are many other possibilities as well that we have yet to consider.

The scary truth is that he or she looks just like we do. He lives in a home, went to school, has family members who love him & whom he loves back. Is he crazy? Some of them are ill, most are not. Their attacks are religiously & politically motivated: few harbour any personal grievances with the victims who die in their attacks. They are usually agenda driven. This is where we see that our beefed up security measures will do little to prevent such attacks. The shoe bomber & the underwear bomber were only caught accidentally (having your @$$ spontaneously combust at the airport definitely will attract security!). Attacks planned over time are also almost impossible to avert unless a co-conspirator decides to advantage himself by reporting the others. The gov't has provided people with a false sense of security.

 

[Dara]

Re: Where were you the day the world stopped? 9/11/01

I was at a party to celebrate my uncle and aunt's 25th wedding anniversary.
I found out later, when we got home and my mum switched on the TV.

 

[Spinning Compass]

Re: Where were you the day the world stopped? 9/11/01

I was in a training session at work. I can remember exactly what room I was in and where I was sitting. It was an inside room with no windows. Someone came in and said a plane hit the World Trade Center. We were all shocked. Then they said another plane hit the WTC and one hit the Pentagon and another was missing. They brought in a TV in the cafeteria and we all came down to watch it. Finally management said, "get back to work . . ." Then we heard about the plane crashing in Pennsylvania.

My brother was living in the Northeast at that time and said that he could have been on one of those planes as he was doing a lot of traveling at that time but they didn't have any trips for him that day.

 

[NoxNocturne]

Re: Where were you the day the world stopped? 9/11/01

I was in one of my university's computer labs, chatting online. Someone mentioned that the Twin Towers had been hit by two airplanes and that the Pentagon had also been hit. I remember thinking, "Is this some sort of joke?", but I left the lab and went to the Catholic Student Center and overheard some of the other students talking about it, after which I went to the bookstore I knew had a TV in there. I got there and saw the towers smoking; I'd just missed seeing the second plane hit. I got dizzy and had to hold on to a nearby rack to keep myself from passing out.

I will never forget where I was that day.

 

[Douglas_MacNeill]

Re: Where were you the day the world stopped? 9/11/01

I was working at the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine that day when reports
came in about the Twin Towers being hit. Oddly enough, I had nothing to
associate with those attacks while I remember much more clearly the night
Diana, Princess of Wales, and two others died in that car crash in Paris.

 

[Laura]

Re: Where were you the day the world stopped? 9/11/01

I remember it very clearly. I was standing with my grandad in front of the T.V in my school uniform (I was 9), I saw the footage of the planes hitting on the news, and I remember my grandad saying to me "Laura, this will mean war." And he couldn't have been more right.

 

[Nolan1971]

Re: Where were you the day the world stopped? 9/11/01

My ex wife and I were living in Pittsfield NH and I had the day off. We just finished breakfast when we saw the news both choking back tears.
I was in shock but also very angry at the heartless cowards that did it. I do remember for a time how much closer it made everyone people that
never said hello where that much more friendly.

 

[LikeyouToMe]

Re: Where were you the day the world stopped? 9/11/01

I was in bed as it was my day off work and after gonig to bed really late, my girlfriend and I at the time finally got up at what was around 9 / 9:30am odd odd in New York (I'm from London, England) and the first plane had already hit.

It felt like a very bad dream / movie and couldn't believe it was happening.