9/11 Anniversary

[gangstaknitta]

I was working on a nuclear power plant at the time. We were in the field, screwing around playing cards and complaining about our boss. We kept hearing the words "national emergency" and "evacuation" on the radio. It was really vague because there are all kinds of key phrases that you can't use on the radios--like "terrorist", "bomb" etc. So our boss finally calls us in (the evac started an hour prior) and when we got back, we learned that there had been rumors that one of the planes was headed for the plant. My mom had heard the same and got freaked out, calling the plant--but all calls incoming and outgoing had been blocked. When I got home, I watched the news for 6 hours straight. We were back at work the next day and there were 9 million extra restrictions. For the rest of my time there, I got searched at least 4 times a day. And we were nowhere near the crashes or bombings.

[Stormwarden]

I was at Marshall University at the time as a student. I saw it just after I had gotten out of one of my morning classes and went to the student center.

 

I saw a huge crowd near the small TV near one of the entrances. I thought it was some sort of action movie, until I saw the channel numbers and realized it was CNN...

 

The Thursday after was when I questioned my religion after Pat and Jerry's little speech. I remember 9/11 not just as the day the Towers fell, but as the beginning of the end of my religious days.

[Vixentrox]

I was in a Solaris/Unix class that week. I was used to getting up earlier then becuase I normally was at work 90 minutes before the class time was. So i was playing Anarchy Online to kill time. Someone in the game announced that a plane had hit a tower. So I flipped on the TV, thinking it was a Cessna or something. Turned it on just in time to see the second plane smash. Needless to say we had a hard time learning anything in class. Evryone was glued to breakroom tv.

[Ro-bear]

I was in my classroom planning lessons that would be pre-empted. My supervisor from the downtown office walked in to give me my evaluation (he had observed my class the week before). John asked if I had heard about the attacks. I had not, and after the brief conference that detailed my brilliance in glowing terms *ahem!* we turned the TV set on.

 

Classes that day were a drag. I knew that lots of knee-jerk patriotism and hatred would follow. I had no idea, however, what kind of shit the attacks would be used to justify.

[Guest Neo-Agnostic - Vulgaris]

Taking LadyFeline's story and changing it to fit my day, since ours were similar...

 

I was in my Intro to Agriculture class at the time, fresh out of Chorus (funnily enough, we were singing "Joy In the Morning" that day...). I was sitting, studying the book and wondering what the hell I was looking at, when a student came in and told us that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. We had no clue what was going on, and didn't find anything out for some reason, but there was a lot of talk about it over lunch.

 

Then, in 3rd period Accounting class, we watched the newscasts. And saw the towers fall.

 

Some worked on their assignments. I just stared at the TV, wondering why. Why this? Why now? Why us?

 

I spent the next four days in a sort of shock, daring not to see what the world was like. I refused to use the Internet.

 

In the days that followed, I questioned everything I thought. I found myself admitting that I didn't think there was a god.

 

I still don't. I'm not afraid of the terrorists now, either - I'm more afraid of where my once-fine country is going.

[Lizard]

I was cashiering breakfast for about 250 middle schoolers that morning. Behind me, about 6ft, on the lower shelf of a table was the radio, softly playing the hits of the '70's.

 

I had to walk past it to get to the walkin for more juice, when the song was interrupted to announce a plane crash into the WTC. At that time, I had little idea of what the WTC was. I had no interest in buildings in NYC. I thought it was just some dumbass who didn't see the building.

 

My manager was from the NE. So, I told her about the crash.

 

After breakfast, we gathered around the radio to see what the story was..and learned the rest of it.

 

The day is a blur after that, for the most part. Our principal came to us and told us not to discuss it with the children. Parents were showing up to pull their kids out of class. They tried to convince them it was ok to stay, to not cause a panic.

 

The days following were odd also. I live in the flight path of the airport. Had grown quite used to hearing the planes taking off and landing. The eerie silence from the sky helped pound home how serious it was...that and the news 24/7.

 

When they did start flying again, I had a hard time looking at them as anything other than a rocket aimed at more buildings. It was hard to look at the Hemisphere Tower, which is about half the height of the WTC and not wonder "what if..."

 

I think it did polarize people. Some became more hardcore fundies..others shed their religiosity like a worn out pair of shoes. It took a couple of years after but, in the end, that is just what I did.

[Guest Neo-Agnostic - Vulgaris]

I was in my Art class at the time, fresh out of Chorus (funnily enough, we were singing "Joy In the Morning" that day...) I was sitting at my table with Vulgaris and another classmate, making handmade paper and talking about Beast Machines-era Megatron...

I just noticed this.

 

No you weren't. I wasn't in your Art class. I took Art I in freshman year and that was it.

[Dianka]

I remember that the news was bleak every day after the attacks unitl the Christmas holiday season came around.

 

After the attacks, I really thought W was going to snap out of the lazy rut simply becasue he was on stage in front of the entire world. No more fuck around. He had the tragedy of a generation fall into his lap - any half brain could turn that into the foundation of a heroic presidency. 2000 was the first year i was legally able to vote, and I planned on being there for local and national votes every time - have MY say. And my say was going to be educated.

 

In the course of 6 years, and under only one president, I've gone from voter to non-voter. It's hard to tell between either of the positions, which one is more neglectful.

[LadyFeline]

I was in my Art class at the time, fresh out of Chorus (funnily enough, we were singing "Joy In the Morning" that day...) I was sitting at my table with Vulgaris and another classmate, making handmade paper and talking about Beast Machines-era Megatron...

I just noticed this.

 

No you weren't. I wasn't in your Art class. I took Art I in freshman year and that was it.

That's right. My poor brain's a bit muddied lately, what with having a metric ton of shit scrambling it at work *cough* I keep mixing things up.

 

Next time I do that, just smack me upside the head, eh? Maybe you'll knock something back into place

[jjacksonRIAB]

I was supposed to be in court on seriously trumped-up felony charges, but it was cancelled that day, and later got reduced to a $100 something fine. It was an eye-opener for me, because I realized that the government was no more in a position to determine moral issues than I was -considering all the murder, theft, and plunder they have promoted in foreign nations.

 

The days since then -after witnessing our reaction as a nation and our newfound religious flagellations, have caused me more disappointment than 9/11 ever did; instead of working to solve the problem of terrorism we are just making it worse.

 

Even though terrorism has a very low statistical probability of killing the average person, the reaction to it has sent this nation into a flat spin which might be irrecoverable. People are stupid and afraid, and our government has done the most it can to keep the fear going in order to redistribute power in other parts of the world and bring about some of the worst social changes in the USA that have been my misfortune to witness.

[Taphophilia]

I was at work when one of my co-workers shouted out to everyone that one of the twin towers were hit. Everyone in the office huddled around her radio listening as the next tower was hit, then the pentagon, then the towers fell. We were all in shock.

 

Like everyone else, I was afraid of terrorism even though I lived in a town of 3000 people, and it was barely even on the map. I remember driving home from work a week after 9/11 and seeing a huge barn fire near my house. "OMG, it's terrorists!"

 

I jumped on the patriotic band wagon like everyone else, but jumped off a few weeks later listening to Bush's warmongering against Iraq. "What in the hell did Iraq have to do with 9/11?" I'm still asking this question.

 

I had even voted for Bush in the first election. I was fundy then and voting for Bush was the Christian thing to do. I became sorry that I ever supported him. The more I watched Bush on TV after 9/11, the more the man disgusted me. I was sorry that I'd ever supported him.

 

Patiotism, God, Country, Christianity they all became dirty words to me. It seemed in order to be a Christian you had to blindly support Bush and his war, I didn't. I was the only one I knew who felt the way I did. It sickened me to see flags proudly displayed on cars, porches, shop windows.

 

Four years later we are in a mess. My childrens, children are going to have to pay for this.

 

I saw a bumper sticker the other day.

 

"It will be a great day when schools get all the money they need and the Air Force has to have a bake sale to pay for a bomber."

 

The sad thing is, that day will never come, at least in my lifetime.

[LosingMyReligion]

I was getting ready for school.

 

My mom and I always watch GMA in the morning.

 

So as I sat there eating my bowl of Trix Diane Sawyer reported that a plane had "clipped" on of the towers...And not long after she said that did the second plane go screaming into the other one...

 

I said, "Oh shit!"

 

My mom didn't even reprimand me either. We were both stunned...

 

I can even remember what I had on that day too.

[Knightley]

My mom actually woke me up in the morning. We had gone to Manhattan in August of 2001, we visited the towers, dined at the restaurant "windows on the world." She woke me up said the towers had been hit and I distinctly remember thinking to myself "no that's not true" and for a second I thought they were going to say that it didn't really happen. I just couldn't believe what I was hearing.

 

After she woke me up we watched CNN, I had to go to my first semester of college back then and all the tv screens there were on. Everyone pretty much stayed glued to the telly. In class we talked a lot about what happened, then I came home and some family friends came over and we stayed glued to the tv screen. I remember that day very vividly, it was very sad.

[xrayman7040]

I had just dropped one of our cats off at the Vet to get spayed. My wife was waiting in the car and heard on the radio that a plane had hit the trade center. By the time we got home and turned on Bryant Gumble, the second plane had already hit. Then bam the Pentagon gets hit. It was a sureal day for sure. I got to work at 11am at the hospital where everyone had their faces glued to the many T.V.'s all day long.