Remembrance

[puglover]

I woke up late. I was tired and walked into the living room. Mom and Dad were watching TV. I saw the Twin Towers collapse. I thought it was a movie of some sort. At that time, I didn't know what the World Trade Center was. Mom said, "Two planes crashed into the World Trade Center." "What's that?" I said. I soon learned that two idiots took over the planes and made a sucide attack. Dad said that he remembered when he grew up in Buffalo, they went on vacation to New York City. He saw the Towers. He remembered that the towers reached up past the clouds. Now they were destroyed. Thousands died. I was worried when I heard that a third plane hit the Pentagon. I was worried that some of our government died. But then I heard that it only caused minor damage to the building. But I'll always remember that day. The day some villans thought they could make America scared and cowardly. It only made us stronger. I hope the evil men burn in Hell.

 

[Kyborgi]

Hmm.. so my post got deleted.. I never thought this was a place where one can't say his opinion about things. I never said that the attack was justifiable and to tell you the truth I was also shocked. But what I said was 100% true. Maybe it's true that you don't see your own mistakes but you really should at least read your history books.

Moderator Action: This is a remembrance thread. It is not the place for these comments. You were warned. 7 days. col
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[bigfatron]

Kyborgi - you are of course entitled to your opinions. But this is a rememberance thread, an opportunity to show respect - if you want to - for those that died. It's not a political discussion, and your comments were out of place in that context.

There is a thread below on US foreign policy if you want to comment on that - just not here.

 

[worlddomination]

I remember this extremely sad and unfair day as it was yesterday. My wife and I expected our first child to be born on the 11th and we couldn't believe what we saw over the CNN all the while our baby was kicking in its mother's womb. We cried for hours and did not leave the television for two whole days. We thought then, and still think, where is the world going when sick people decide they are judges over innocent people's lives and rule thumbs down. My condolences to the victims, condolonces meant to last forever, in remembrance...

 

[gerryandersson]

I was just sittin at home and I turned on the TV just before the second plane.
But before the second plane I thought it was an accedent. When I saw the second plane just fly in to that building I just frose...

 

[lz14]

I have an Indonesian friend killed in the Bali bombing. Don't know if it has someting to do with 9.11. I was thinking if I wipe out all the terrorists is my job done? Or should I wipe out something ELSE. It's been two years, I haven't done my best to wipe out the THING. I would be ashamed to see my friend again.

 

[timtolley]

I was just getting to work and checking my emails and news when the first plane
hit. I called my wife and told her and as I was talking to her, the second plane hit
the other tower as I watched in shock. We decided to try to work since we have
kids in school and daycare and when they got out we went home early.

 

[Phantom Lord]

I was at work that day here in Germany. I was surfing the internet in the early afternoon, like my whole team did unless they were playing games. Our work morale was pretty low at that time, no wonder in a new economy company that was about to go down the drain - we simply had nothing to do.

Around 14:30 p. m. www.yahoo.de said that a plane crashed into one of the WTC towers. The type of the plane was yet unknown. I was wondering how this could happen and told my colleagues "damn, look at this". I changed to www.spiegel.de, the best news source in Germany. They had an article stating a big passenger jet crashed into the WTC. I couldn't believe it. Then things happened very fast, altough news sites troughout Germany went slow. Spiegel.de went down and instantly had a second server. Then came the second plane. GWB said it was terrorism.

I couldn't believe it and thought "OK, if this is real, the White House or the Congress is next. Whoever did this is absolutely crazy. This is not possible.". Then the first tower collapsed. Two women ran into our bureau (it was located next to our cafeteria and pretty much frequented because we always were in a good mood), cried and said "a WTC tower just collapsed". Nobody answered. We just couldn't believe it. Then the second tower came down. The name "Bin Laden" came into play, too fast for my taste. I saved every picture I encountered in the news. This was too surreal.

Around 16:00 I told my colleagues that I'd go home to watch TV and that they should feel free to do the same. I came home, my girlfriend was there, I connected the TV (I rarely watch TV, so it's usually standing on the floor, disconnected, covered with a sheet) and turned it on without saying a word. My girlfriend asked what the hell was going on with me. She hadn't heard it so far. "Hell broke loose," I said "someone who is really insane captured an unknown number of civil aircraft and crashes them into buildings in America and the world trade center is gone. It collapsed an hour ago." I realized I was under shock myself.

I thought they would capture some more airplanes and attack other prominent Places, Congress, White House, Statue of Liberty, Sears Tower, Camp David. I thought if someone high up in the US Airforce just lost his family in NY he'd go crazy and visit Afghanistan to retaliate instantly, without command or permission - I would have understood it. I may would have done it myself if I had lost my loved ones. Afghanistan was already mentioned in the news as the source of the attack.

TV showed NY in flames and dust.

People covered with ash and dust ran in shock. The Pentagon was hit, not so important to me, the pentagon is the central military facility of the US and they certainly know how to design and defend such a building, I thought to myself. But those civilians in NY, in their bureaus, especially those above the point of impact didn't have a chance. America will get angry, very very angry and god only knows, I thought. And they have the right to do so, no doubt about it. WW3 felt close that day.

Our chancellor found good words and called it a crime against the civilized world. And like everyone else he tried to calm down America, altough totally shocked himself. If America had retaliated instantly, I wouldn't have been surprised. No one would have been. This was too much to take, so many people dead, civilians, mothers, fathers, those who tried to help and lost their life, loved ones every one them. It reminded me of pictures of my place of birth, Hamburg, which was bombed to ash in 1943. I was born 25 years later, but I still freeze today if I see the pictures. And we were at war back then, we were covered with the blood of millions. America was not at war, at least not until that moment.

I watched TV with my girlfriend until late at night. They showed missile fire in Kabul at around 03:00 a. m. "They got there pretty fast" I thought, but things cleared up one or two hours later, it was a revenge strike for the death of Massud, performed by rebels of the northern alliance.

I remember seeing all those pictures, especially the impact of the second plane into the WTC over and over. That curve it flew, with the inhuman intent to hit the building. "How can someone do this?", I thought.

An acknowledged german political expert, Peter Scholl-Latour, was interviewed and said that this day would change the world as we knew it. He should be right.

And at least that one day my feelings were truly with America and its living and its dead, this was intolerable, a massacre of innocent people in cold blood. I was only hoping they would get some people out alive of the sceletons of the WTC.

 

[wvfoos]

I was getting ready to walk out the door, on my way to work, about 8:50 am. My normal time is an hour earlier, but because I was up late watching some movie or something, I called in and said I'd be an hour late, and to dock me an hour of vacation time. I actually don't need to leave my house, until about 8:10 to make it to my desk by 8:30. So, I was shooting for leaving the house at about 9:10, so i could be there about 9:30. I shave, shower, dress, etc, with the Today show on in the background. The nbc affiliate is my local channel, and they have the best weather, so i leave it on the today show basically for that reason..

Plus, my bedroom has a sliding glass door, that looks out into some woods, and down a hill, my house is at the top. So, nobody can really see in, and therefore, I pretty much keep the shades open, and in the mornings, just let the sunlight wake me up. This particulary morning, even though i was going to be an hour late, the sunlight was so bright, I ended up getting up a bit early, to be a full hour late (if that makes any sense). So, I was actually about 20 minutes ahead of schedule, and has just decided to go on into the office.

At about 8:50, i was dressed and ready to walk out the door, and had the remote in my hand to turn off the tv, when Matt lauer says "we've got some breaking news." I figure, I'm early, so i'll sit in my recliner, coat and tie already on and see what this is. I rememeber during the commerical, looking out the window, and think to myself what a beautiful day it was, with the bright early fall sky, where the sky is so blue, and not a spot of haze in sight.

Lauer comes on and says "a plane has hit the wtc." My first thought was "wow, that _really_ sucks." Plane crashes are bad, but to have one hit a building is worse. Then they get some footage of it, and I'm thinking "wow, looks like a bad scene." I couldn't really get the scale of the building from their footage, so i still figured it was a little puddlejumper some guy lost control of. Then Lauer starts talking to some chick down on the ground by the wtc on a cellphone. And she's saying, "No, it was an airliner." She was kind of out of breath, saying there was stuff falling from the building.

Then all of a sudden she's like "OMG!! THERE WAS ANOTHER PLANE CRASH INTO IT." At that point, stomach dropped like on a roller coaster, and I immediately knew what that meant. Lauer was like "Yes, I just saw a plane flying around a second ago, and now its gone." Then they they obviously had the 2nd plane footage.

My dad teaches college, and didn't have to go in to his office until like 10 AM. So I called him, and he was unaware, just getting out of the shower. We both watched in stunned silence, connected by phone. Then after a few minutes, I went onto work. Of course it was all over the radio, and now the other stuff starts coming in, bomb at CIA HQ, more hijacked planes, etc....

I get to work, and someone had rigged up a guy's 6 inch tv. We basically sat and watched tv all day. Needless to say, not much got done at work that day. I'll never forget hardly anything about that day. We watched in horror all day as those buildings come down, the wreckage at the penatgon, and the story of flight 93. I remember Bush doing his little hop/skip/jump thing and eventually making his way to the white house. For a good while, the ONLY government ANYONE saw, was Rudy. And the poise, calm, and dignity he exhuded that day, makes him as much of a hero, as anyone that day, given the circumstances. You never got the impression he was a politician those first couple of hours. Or the next few days, either. He was just a mayor of a city facing a huge, huge tragedy. I'd vote for him for anything because of the composure and compassion he showed those days.

The events of that day will never, ever dim from my memory. And they should never, ever dim from your memory, either.

 

[Civrules]

Back then, I was in 6th grade. I was in the school library checking out some books on some project that we were doing then. When we came back to the class my teacher said that “something very sad has happened in New York”. She went on to say that a plane has hit the World Trade Center. A few minutes after that someone came and said that a second one has been hit. When I got to my second hour class, my science teacher said that both were gone. I was kind of pissed because we were not getting enough information even though there were TVs all over the place. They were just so reluctant on turning on the TV no matter which class or teacher. When I got home I could really see the devastation in New York and the Pentagon. I could almost not believe it. The buildings were so large. It was surreal. I had a few bad nightmares a few days after that.

 

[JonathanValjean]

Thanks, Padma, for creating this thread; my respect for you, already high, grew even further with your most recent response. Also, I would like to thank the Off-topic moderators for removing the political vitriol of others, so that those of us who are mourning today might not have to endure the greater burden that would result from seeing such remarks. CGannon64, your post was beautifully written, and really touched me. I can't believe that you are only in the 9th grade; you express yourself so well, and you are mature beyond your years. Yankee, I appreciate your heroic spirit and attempts to help your fellow man that day, even though the police ultimately held you back. God bless you, and I only hope that I would have done the same. May God bless America, and we must never forget, lest this cowardly act in history be repeated. Words that raced through my mind on 9-11-01, and that I think appropriate now are these spoken by JFK at his inauguration in 1961:

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

 

[Mark Cutt]

I was on vacation, I switch the Tv on in the afternoon and .....
Even my 3 years old daughter felt that there was something wrong and stopped talking and playing.

 

[Ben E Gas]

thoughts & prayers to those who lost loved ones.

 

[Tathlum]

I was in work, with the local waterford radio station on in the background. The news of the two crashes came about 3 minutes apart. When the DJ heard of the first he interupted the program to say "my god theres been a terrible accident" and shared what little information he had. A workmate cracked a stupid joke about the pilot being drunk, that thankfully no-one else thought was funny. Everyone else was shocked, work stopped and everyone started discussing the accident and how awful it was. It hadn't sunk in when the DJ was back on the radio saying "oh my God a second plane has just hit the other tower, America has been atacked, America is the victim of a terrorist attack." The Radio station rang a guy they talked to on air in one of their programs. A taxi driver from New York. A line he said has stuck with me ever since " we will find out who has done this, and when we do THEIR HISTORY ENDS HERE ". The rest of my day was spent with loved ones, watching in horror as we were told of missing planes an attack on the pentagon, the downed plane in Pennsylvania. When I heard of people throwing themselves off the top floors I cried, I couldn't keep it in anymore and I didn't stop crying for hours.
The Irish President declared a national day of mourning. Waterford shut down. Everything was closed, everywhere was empty. Apart from the Churches and the two Cathedrals. Crouds filled the Cathedrals and the square outside. Everyone was united in greif. there were Irish, English, Nigerians and Chinesse, Catholics, Protestants and atheists, all these labels we use to tell each other appart, that when it came down to it meant nothing. We like mourners all over the world were just Human being numbed and shocked by the brutallity and inhumanity of this act. That day I refound the faith I'd lost as a hurt and mixed up teenager. The attack was an act of pure evil. And where there is evil there is good to fight it and ease the suffering of its victims and I knew which side I was on. The same as the thousand people around me. I couldn't see such an act and remain unchanged so I vowed to change for the Better. I spent most of this day Crying aswell.
I don't accept the view that some have, that America was ultimately to blame, that it somehow seeks to rule the world and impose its culture on all others. Democracy and Freedom are basic human rights, not Imperial American tools to suppress Muslims. Western culture is about freedom, education, the betterment of everyones lives. It is no threat to Islam or Arabs. Saudi's are not poor because the West takes their Oil their poor because Saudi Princes spend their money on Palaces instead of schools, roads and Factories. It terrorists kill thousnds in New York it is not the fault of American politcians or soldiers it is the fault of the savages who flew a plane full of innocents into a building full of innocents. Anyone who supports these actions is the enemy basic human ideals and deserves whatever they get from those brave enough to defend these Ideals.
The West have been apologists for long enough. The Westerners who owned slaves and conquered America and Africa are long Dead. The West is the most open-minded, justest part of the World. There were problems in Afghanistan in Alexanders times, problems in the Israel millenia before the US, the UK or Ireland ever even existed. Blame us all you want, we respect the freedom of opinion, but don't ever expect us to stand by and let you kill our innocents. We want no Crusade. The US and the EU promote our way of lives to all who want them. Who are the real enemies of the Arabs? The Westerners who want the people of these countries to be in power or the Sheiks who live in opulence at their peoples expense? You can choose to be our friends and we will help. Kill us and we will fight.
This is meant to be a rememberence and I don't want to take away from that, but if we don't learn from this that too many have died for the greed and cowardise of a few for too many years it will happen again and I never want to see another day this terrible. I don't think I could take it.
To the families and friends of all who were affected, know that you will always be in my thoughts and in my prayers. The world today is fairer and more humane than at any other time in human history. This attack was one of the last gasp of a dying philosophy. I hope that others are like me consoled by all the good I see around me. I know it will still be a long and hard struggle but love WILL conquer all. I promise.
Tathy

 

[WildFire]

*sigh*

It feels so long ago, but kinda seems like yesterday.

To be brief, I was in english class and I spent the next two periods watching everything on T.V. We did no work that day, just watched.

 

[Sir John]

I was at home. I was in the kitchen making food and I heard my mom tell me to get into the living room. There was something on the tv. I wasnt sure what it was at first. evrything seemed messy.. The the pictures of the plane half inside the wtc was shocking. I first tought that this was a terrible accsident. I didnt understand how this could happen. Then after a little while another plane charshed intoo the other tower.. Then I understood that this was certainly not a accsident... I had a terrible day that day so I cant understand how the americans felt it..

 

[Benderino]

I was in second period (Biology) in Freshman year, and we had to take a test that period (Aww man!). We all rushed through the test to go look online what had happened, because I was very skeptical/confused/disbelieving. Then in most of my other classes I heard rumors about this or that, or watched the live news in my English and World History classes.

 

[El gran capitán]

I remember that I was in my house, and my brother called me "hey, come here and watch that, quickly, come!" he yelled. I was upset. He was yelling me againg to see something stupid that was happening in an absurd TV show. Right? Unfortunately, not. What I saw really amazed me. My mother said "but these planes were empty, right?" "no, they were full of persons, they were kidnapped" we replied. I remember than there was huge shock for everyone here in Spain. Our govermente mobilised tanks in order to protect the American embassy on Madrid, fearing a a terrorist strike here in order to "complete the work". Thanks God it never happened.

Now I look back, and I remember that I had lot of mixed emotions whe nit happened. Sadness, anger, confusion. Now that I can see it more clear, with perspective, I see... a barbarian act. The same kind of stupity and fanatism that I see in the terrorist strikes in my own country. Death. Errors. Hate. I have never been very fond of the USA, and I know that the USA could have avoided it, somehow, but this do not justify what the terrorist did. Murder is never justified, no matter how much retoric you add to it. The persons that were trapped in these buildings didn´t deserved to die.

Sometimes, when I see all the sorrow that these events caused, I ask to myself "which kind of persons could be happy with this massacre?". Today I had the answer. I readed in the newspaper about a magazine of ETA sympatizants that had on its cover "we all dreamed about it, only Al Quaeda could do it". Today I also saw a graffity, painted in a wall. It was an hesvastica drawned and the paint said "heil Bin Laden, **** USA". No doubt about which kind of people felt happy this day.

But to all the sad persons, my sincerest wises.

 

[Siegmund]

When I first heard about it -- in the car on the way to work, when there was news on instead of Performance Today on our local NPR station -- one of the towers had already collapsed and planes were already grounded.

After I got to my office, I caught up with it all from the news websites, and got to hear the whole sequence of events without quite the suspense that people awake already as it unfolded had to endure.

It left me, and everyone, sort of numb. We didn't do much work that day, or even the next. We didn't really know what to think: it was obviously a huge tragedy .... and yet, in a place so far away it seemed almost like another world. I guess I was lucky to have lost no friends, or even friends of friends, that day: almost everyone who has posted here or who I have spoken to about it since has had some sort of direct connection to it.

The next few days after the bombing, with the country paralyzed, it started to sink in -- and to affect people's lives here. I knew friends who were stuck in the middle of nowhere running out of food. (Hundreds of Alaskans on fly-in-fly-out camping or hunting trips were simply abandoned for four extra days, with no way of finding out what had happened or why their planes didn't show up ... but all air traffic was grounded, no exceptions.) Mail quit being delivered; every one of my credit card and insurance bills got hit with a late fee in September. (Almost all of Alaska's mail used to move on passenger airliners, and was more than two weeks before the backed-up mail reached us.) My then-fiancee in Australia was planning to move here in November, and suddenly she was worried about flying, and worried about whether immigration would let her into the country.

We got our moment in the sun, when the first commercial flight allowed back into the air was a plane from here to Seattle, and within a few days, almost a full schedule was running in and out of Alaska again, with the planes packed full, even while the rest of the country had less than half its flights running and a lot of them nearly empty.

October was almost a month of Indian summer -- things reopened, life went on. It seemed like everyone would pick up the pieces and make it all better than ever before. (I flew again in October, and got the best treatment I ever had seen from the airlines .... going out of their way to explain everything going on, make us feel comfortable and cared-about.)

It was the end of October when I first had tears come to my eyes over it. Around the time of the Patriot Act and the start of planning for Afghanistan... one of Bush's speeches spoke of how we were determined to win the war on terror. And I thought to myself --- as I drove to work that morning, past the new barricades and barbed wire at the entrace to the military base outside town --- that we had let our way of life be changed so much by the events of that day, that we had already lost.

 

[GenMarshall]

It was my Junior Year in High School. It happened when I was in my Science class. Though I did not hear about the news untill later on when I went to PE class. At first they thought it was an accident or a movie. It was no accident when the 2nd plane came and struck the 2nd tower.

During the school day, I learned of a terrorist names Osama Bin Laden for the first time.