9/11

[wadesworld]

Continued thoughts and prayers to those who lost a loved one on that awful day.

Where were posters?

I was in 7th grade at Christ King grade school. School was just starting so still in home room. Our computer teacher came in and whispered something to our home room teacher. She then turned on the TV. It was early on in the attacks. I might just be imagining that we saw the second plane hit and at least one of the towers fall but I think we did. Throughout the day some of our teachers had it on during class and others kept it off. There was an announcement that there would be indoor recess that day but then they decided to cancel that. I was hooked to the footage when I got home. That is my first memory of true evil in this world. It was like a fictional movie. Horrible.

Was in NYC this past December for the first time since then. Unbelievably surreal. One World Trade Center and the memorial are wonderfully done. The museum was heavy but worth it.

I did not know anyone that was directly affected.

Every year it's hard to believe another year has past. Does not feel like 16 years.

[brewcity77]

I was on campus, headed to a television production class. I first heard it was going on because there was a guy walking down Wisconsin with a boombox on his shoulder, like something out of a bad 1980s movie. Getting the gist of it, I ran into Johnston Hall and found Professor Ksobiech. I asked what bin-Laden did and he just growled "class is cancelled, get your ass in front of a TV!"

About 5 minutes after sitting down, the second plane struck. The most surreal moment came 4 days later when I saw a plane in the sky. It was a fighter jet, most commercial was still grounded, but just seeing something up there after 9/11 was frightening.

[Galway Eagle]

I was in 5th grade working out before school and used to have good morning America on while I did that. Watched the second plane hit live and heard my mom shriek from the kitchen.

[tower912]

Golfing with 3 other firefighters.  Just before we tee off, one drove up in his cart and said that a plane had hit a tower.  We talked about what a tough fire that would be and went out.  When we came in at the turn all the planes and buildings were down.   We agreed that we were probably going to be working double shifts for a while, so we went out and finished.

[StillAWarrior]

I had just gotten into work in Cleveland.  First stop, ESPN to see how bad Ed McCaffrey's injury from MNF was (as a Broncos fan, this has always stuck with me and I'll never forget when Easy Ed got hurt).  Next stop, CNN.  I saw it before the site froze up because of traffic.  Heard about the second plane.  Went downstairs to watch on a television.  In the early, confusing minutes/hours there were vague references to Cleveland because that's where the flight that crashed in PA turned around (if I'm remembering correctly), so that created a little additional anxiety.  My wife called and asked me to come home early, so I did.  I spent the rest of the day with an ear bud in one ear so that I could follow what was going on without having the TV on.  We didn't want our very young kids to see it.

One of the more interesting things to me was that my mom was in Arizona playing solitaire on her computer.  She was casually chatting with me on AOL Instant Messenger (remember that?!) about nothing in particular.  Finally, I said, "do you have the TV on?"  She said, "No."  I said, "You need to leave the computer and go turn the TV on right now."  It was odd because for those couple of minutes, my world had changed forever, and hers had not yet changed.

[jsglow]

Just arrived at work and heard 'small' plane had hit the WTC.  Remember thinking 'that sucks' and proceeded to look at my morning email for maybe 5-10 minutes.  This was before internet connections in everyone's office but word of something somewhat more serious started spreading almost immediately so I grabbed a buddy and we walked down to the little lunch place on 1st floor where where they had a TV. Watched for probably 20 minutes and I saw the 2nd plane hit.  By the time I got back upstairs, the big TV was positioned in our main boardroom and at any given time 90% of the company was in there watching.  Remember the CEO sending us home about 2 or 3 because of credible threats to the Sears Tower downtown.  Remember seeing fighter jets (and zero O'Hare traffic) occasionally overhead.

[tower912]

What did you learn from 9/11 or what lesson that you already knew did you have reinforce?      For me:
-There is great evil in the world.
-There is great good in the world.
-There are still heroes. 
-Death finds us all.   We know not the time or place.   So make sure you are being the best spouse, parent, person you can be, doing as little harm to others as possible.    You may not get that chance to apologize, to make someone smile or laugh, to be the person you really want to be but aren't because you are too caught up in other things.   Or, to borrow from the Shawshank Redemption, get busy livin', or get busy dyin.'
- If you get to pick how you die, choose to die a hero.   
- As has been reinforced with Harvey and Irma, when given the opportunity in the times of direst need, the majority of people will choose to help another, regardless of color, gender, or creed.      And then revert to their biases later. 
- What rarely gets talked about is what a successful evacuation it actually was from the towers.    20k+ people in the towers when the planes hit.    2600-ish deceased, 343 of whom were firefighters going in.     Nearly 90% of the people in the towers when the planes  hit made it out.    In a very limited time frame.     
-It is strange to get thanked for the sacrifices of others, simply because you are in the same profession.   
-I am more likely to be shot than die in a terrorist attack.   

[GGGG]

What did you learn from 9/11 or what lesson that you already knew did you have reinforce?      For me:
-There is great evil in the world.
-There is great good in the world.
-There are still heroes. 
-Death finds us all.   We know not the time or place.   So make sure you are being the best spouse, parent, person you can be, doing as little harm to others as possible.    You may not get that chance to apologize, to make someone smile or laugh, to be the person you really want to be but aren't because you are too caught up in other things.   Or, to borrow from the Shawshank Redemption, get busy livin', or get busy dyin.'
- If you get to pick how you die, choose to die a hero.   
- As has been reinforced with Harvey and Irma, when given the opportunity in the times of direst need, the majority of people will choose to help another, regardless of color, gender, or creed.      And then revert to their biases later. 
- What rarely gets talked about is what a successful evacuation it actually was from the towers.    20k+ people in the towers when the planes hit.    2600-ish deceased, 343 of whom were firefighters going in.     Nearly 90% of the people in the towers when the planes  hit made it out.    In a very limited time frame.     
-It is strange to get thanked for the sacrifices of others, simply because you are in the same profession.   
-I am more likely to be shot than die in a terrorist attack.   

I agree with all of this.  I will also add:

-People will use events like these to create enemies that are not there.

[Benny B]

On my way into work, second day of a new job.  Was listening to the radio when they broke with news of the first plane... immediate details/reaction was a small plane that hit the WTC, blah blah blah, just an air accident, no big deal; just as I was pulling into the parking lot one of the radio hosts (who were watching TV) gasped audibly that another plane just hit the second tower.  Went into the office and turned on the radio... we didn't have a TV, let alone the internet, so everything was being conveyed to us by voice and via a co-worker's wife over the phone.  I don't think anyone got any work done that day.

What did I learn?  Frankly, not much.  I already knew there was evil in the world.  I already knew there were terrorists and they liked to hijack planes.  I already knew that first responders take grave risks every day.  This just reinforced all of it.

What I did learn is the most important, eye-opening lesson anyone American could realize: our elected leaders are all full of sh|t; Democrats, Republicans, all of them.  Full....  of....  sh|t.  Not a single one of them cares about the common person, unless it's someone who votes for them.  For as much "solidarity" that we saw the first 72 hours, every year since has corroborated that politicians will do anything, say anything, and attempt to capitalize on any tragedy for their own gain if it means winning the next election.  September 11th should have brought this country together after an ugly election... instead, the politicians in Washington (again, pointing the finger equally at both political parties here) used it to cement the divide rather than repair it.

By the way, that wasn't the only lesson I learned.  What I learned was this... someday, history will likely look back upon the disheveled remains of American society and point to 9/11/01 as the day the terrorists finally won.

[GGGG]

What I did learn is the most important, eye-opening lesson anyone American could realize: our elected leaders are all full of sh|t; Democrats, Republicans, all of them.  Full....  of....  sh|t.  Not a single one of them cares about the common person, unless it's someone who votes for them.  For as much "solidarity" that we saw the first 72 hours, every year since has corroborated that politicians will do anything, say anything, and attempt to capitalize on any tragedy for their own gain if it means winning the next election.  September 11th should have brought this country together after an ugly election... instead, the politicians in Washington (again, pointing the finger equally at both political parties here) used it to cement the divide rather than repair it.

By the way, that wasn't the only lesson I learned.  What I learned was this... someday, history will likely look back upon the disheveled remains of American society and point to 9/11/01 as the day the terrorists finally won.

I tried to be more diplomatic and brief.  But this is exactly what I meant.  Well said!

[Juan Anderson's Mixtape]

I was sleeping in my apartment just behind Campus Foods.  Roommate woke me and said a plane hit one of the WTC towers.  I remember thinking, "Wow what an unfortunate accident."  I sauntered into the living room where he had the TV on.  It was either GMA or Today, don't remember which.  Saw the second plane hit live.  Next thought "Oh shyte! This wasn't an accident!"  Made the decision to skip class for the day and watched coverage almost all day.  Finally felt things were subsiding around 5 pm and I walked over to a friends apartment one mile away.  Milwaukee was a ghost town.  Not a single person or vehicle out.  Never seen Wisconsin Ave so dead and at rush hour to boot.  A surreal day.

[WarriorInNYC]

having breakfast and mostly procrastinating from school work with a few others.  Principal comes on the intercom near the end of first period and starts off with "There's been a tragedy in the Elmhurst community.  Terrorists have hijacked planes...." and immediately I thought, WHAT?!? In ELMHURST?!?  Completely terrible way to break the news.

Some classes had TVs on with it on.  Skipped lunch to go to the library and just glued to the TV the whole time.  Remember hearing rumors throughout the day of additional planes (for some reason I remember hearing that the Space Needle in Seattle was a target).  Football class canceled, as others noted O'Hare traffic not there and the occasional fighter jet was eerie. 

On another note, I've lived in NYC for the past several years but often travel for work.  2 years ago was the first time I happened to be in the city on 9/11 and I decided that I would go down to the memorial to just be there.  I got down to the FDNY 343 Memorial Wall and the streets there were packed full of firefighters from all over the country drinking beer.  It was quite an amazing sight to see all these guys.  Later on the FDNY bagpipes band played and marched through.  The FDNY Chief gave a big speech.  It was an incredible experience and I had no idea it was going on when I decided to go down.

If you do get a chance to visit the Memorial, do it.  And the museum as well.  As noted earlier, the museum is incredibly heavy and you don't leave there feeling like you want to go out and have some fun.  But its so incredibly well done and a must-experience at some point.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

What did you learn from 9/11 or what lesson that you already knew did you have reinforce?      For me:
-There is great evil in the world.
-There is great good in the world.
-There are still heroes. 
-Death finds us all.   We know not the time or place.   So make sure you are being the best spouse, parent, person you can be, doing as little harm to others as possible.    You may not get that chance to apologize, to make someone smile or laugh, to be the person you really want to be but aren't because you are too caught up in other things.   Or, to borrow from the Shawshank Redemption, get busy livin', or get busy dyin.'
- If you get to pick how you die, choose to die a hero.   
- As has been reinforced with Harvey and Irma, when given the opportunity in the times of direst need, the majority of people will choose to help another, regardless of color, gender, or creed.      And then revert to their biases later. 
- What rarely gets talked about is what a successful evacuation it actually was from the towers.    20k+ people in the towers when the planes hit.    2600-ish deceased, 343 of whom were firefighters going in.     Nearly 90% of the people in the towers when the planes  hit made it out.    In a very limited time frame.     
-It is strange to get thanked for the sacrifices of others, simply because you are in the same profession.   
-I am more likely to be shot than die in a terrorist attack.

Well stated.

I was at work and spend the day on and off going into a conference room where someone found an old TV and rigged up an antenna to get a grainy feed from one of the NYC local stations.

Felt for one co-worker who was freaked out that because his wife worked in the WTC.  He finally got a hold her an found out she bizarrely called in sick that day.  He was so relieved.

[LAMUfan]

Senior in High School in CA so it was early out there, watched the news in every class, totally thought I was going to be drafted at some point by 4th period.