Comments on: I remember September 11th

By: Suzanne

Suzanne — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 14:27:01 +0000

Thanks for this post, Eaves… That day was a watershed for many of us, and the effect was personal as well as collective.

I watched from inside the auditorium of the Environmental Sciences Division at the Lab. The television images were projected onto the full-size movie screen… There were men and women crying all around me, and it seemed more than anyone could bear. We all knew, when the towers were falling, that there hadn’t been time for evacuation. We knew that thousands were dying. We knew that additional airplanes might be heading directly toward us. We felt, maybe for the first time in our lucky lives what it is to be afraid on that level: We were being attacked. Things we’d taken for granted all our lives no longer applied.

I had just started back to graduate school that fall, and had an evening class. I remember showing up to class feeling shell-shocked. Bruised and raw, somehow. I didn’t understand, and still don’t, how people can be so consumed with hatred and self-righteousness… and it was all for what?

By: Allisone

Allisone — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:13:29 +0000

I was at work at the newspaper in Northwest Arkansas, driving into the parking lot shortly after the first plane hit. The entire staff packed into the newsroom for most of the day trying to process what had happend.

I adopted this area (Philly/NYC) as my home shortly after.

Thank you for remembering, Eaves. I have a tribute on my page as well.

By: oneutvol

oneutvol — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:32:23 +0000

I was on my way from Cincinnati to Charleston, WV and was about 45 minutes from my house. I had not turned on the radio until I stopped at a traffic light. That was unusual because I almost always tune the radio to the news when I leave the house.

For the next three hours driving south I listened to the drama unfold. I can still remember almost the exact location where I was when I heard of the second, third, and forth airplane crashes; when the fist tower collapsed; when the second tower went down. To this day when I pass those geographic locations along the highway I remember.

Half way to Charleston when the second tower went down, I almost turned around and went home…but I continued on and spent the night in the hotel alone. It was a surreal night…I think I stayed up half the night watching the news and talking to my wife.

I don’t think we should ever forget.

By: Atomictumor

Atomictumor — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:41:02 +0000

I said it all last year so I’m kinda loath to repeat it. The only thing that’s changed with me is the understanding of what loss really is, and as such it boggles me to consider it.
Which, I think, is why there are people who poo-poo the media thing. Because its so much easier to keep saying ’same as it ever was’ and just not make yourself understand the reality of life.

By: Jane

Jane — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 16:10:29 +0000

I worked for a while at the WTC in the late ’80’s. It took several visits to the site to really get it through my head that all of that was really gone. I used to get my hair done and have lunch and go shopping… all right there.

I was driving to Toys’R'Us to pick up flashcards for Rachel, listening to Z100. At first a caller said that a corporate jet had gone into the tower (That’s how big those things were to make the plane look so small.)

I sat in the car and then walked dazed into the store where I heard that another plane had hit. I remember thinking then, “we are at war.’ And wondering where my brother was. (He flies AWACS for the AF). Turns out he had already scrambled and was on his way to Washington by that time.

I went home and watched all those people die…

My world will never be the same.

By: wren

wren — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 16:36:59 +0000

I was stationed at Ft. Lewis, WA this time 6 years ago, and had just had my oldest daughter a few months before. I was actually driving to PT (it was 6 am on the west coast) and heard on the radio that a plane had driven into the tower, but there was not any real thought of terrorist activity until after PT when we all learned about the other planes. The post was completely locked down for a while. The roads totally gridlocked at every gate. The road to the area where all the ammunition is stored on base was guarded by a tank with live rounds and several soldiers fully armed, for a couple of days or maybe a week.

Dustmite was stationed in Korea at the time, and you can imagine the precautions a US Army base on foreign soils took that day.

I was not affected personally by the tragedy, but in a way we all were whether or not we knew anyone there. Our sense of security was taken away. I’m listening to reports about Bin Laden’s video release and am actually fearful because I know they aren’t necessarily empty threats. I guess that’s what they want, for reasons I don’t understand.

By: vixen

vixen — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 16:47:02 +0000

I resent the terror they inspire in me. I never had that fear before, but now it cannot be banished completely. Nice post Eaves, I did one also at my place.

By: The Bosphorus

The Bosphorus — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 16:51:29 +0000

I remember that two folks came into the library shortly after we opened at 10am. They mentioned the planes and what had happened so non-chalantly while they browsed for books. So very weird they weren’t awestruck like the rest of us.

By: Cormette

Cormette — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 18:06:19 +0000

On September 9, 2001 I turned 40.

I remember feeling rather sorry for myself as my youthful years seemed to be gone. Petulant, I was.

Two days later,I watched TV as the horror of that day unfolded and the world changed before our eyes. I remember the overwhelming sadness that lingered as our nation mourned.

Feeling sorry for myself because I was 40 seemed so petty. Now, I am glad and rejoice for everyday the good Lord gives me. I regained my youth because of 9/11 but our nation lost it’s youth. We will never again be innocent in the ways we used to be before those attacks.

I pray today for the families of those who lost loved ones on 9/11 and I pray everyday for our troops who are fighting a tough battle against terrorism all over this world.

By: Joel

Joel — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 20:13:44 +0000

I can’t say that 9/11 changed me. It has astonished me how much it revealed about some people I thought I knew. For example, a friend of mine who owns a goumet food and wine store ranted at me for over an hour the week after 9/11 about how we should deport everyone of middle eastern descent. I never thought of him as a hysterical person until that point. Since then, I’ve seen various degrees of hysteria.

America was changed by 9/11-mostly for the worse. More paranoia, more phobia, more irrational behavior, more intolerance, more unquestioned loyalty to authority. Sad.

By: babbling

babbling — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 23:00:12 +0000

I knew the first plane hit as I stopped at my husbands work to say good morning before I went shopping with a girlfriend. He and his co-workers were gathered around a waiting room television. We did not think it was terrorism, but some horrific accident. (denial is bliss I suppose) As we drove to the mall (one of less than 5 times I have been in 15 years), we heard of the second plane. We started to feel quiet and a touch of fear. At the mall we stopped into a Sears store and the electronic section. I watched on approximately 30 televisions of various sizes, and shapes, the towers fall. We were both just quietly stunned. Trying to process. Then I saw something that hit me in a totally different perspective, something that another person was far faster in understanding than I was. A woman of I can only assume, middle Eastern decent, had watched the same thing, from a bit further away. She had a look of complete and utter terror on her face as she grabbed her 4-5ish age daughter and literally RAN from the store. I believe in that moment? She was afraid for herself too, but in a much different way. She understood what had happened long before I did. She knew what it would mean to her and her family I believe. I felt reminded before I even understood what had happened to the US, that terrorism isn’t an act of an entire “people”.

By: Southerncharm

Southerncharm — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 23:20:32 +0000

My husband was in the Marines and we were stationed at Cherry Point, NC, air base, I was at work, he was on base, kids in school. We were sent home from work, school was locked down (due to being on base) and my husband was put on 24 hour alert in case his platoon had movement orders. Sad, sad, day.

By: timsan1

timsan1 — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 02:25:37 +0000

I remember — I was at Fort Sanders School teaching. I went down the hall to bother my coworkers as I was prone to do. They were all glazed over watching the TV. I walked in a cracked a stupid joke. They pointed to the tv and I came around to look — I said something like — “what the hell is that” as I am prone to do as well. I was back in the classroom and pulled up the video feed on the internet. Phone rang a few minutes later the phone rang and it was my wife of like two weeks in IL asking if I was ok. School went on lock down and the superintenedent said that it would be safer for the buses not to run until they knew what was going on — but the parents could pick up their kids if they wanted to. Most of them did. I just felt like I needed to get home and not be at work. Three days later I flew. I remember what the air port looked like. The guard was out in force — local bases were on alert.