September 11th Will Not Be Forgotten

I was at work.  Scott, a friend of ours from the insurance agency upstairs came running down the stairs telling me that one of the towers had just been hit by an airplane. 

I didn't think much of it at first thinking it was just an accident or something.  That all changed when Scott came running down the stairs again a few minutes later with the news that another plane went into the other tower.  This time he told me he had it on his little B&W  TV in his lunchroom and it was all over the news. 

I ran up the stairs with him and watched in horror at the replay of what had just happened.  I remember I couldn't quite grasp what was happening at first.  Too many unanswered questions running thru my mind. 

I remember coming home later that afternoon and turning the television on right away.  I could hardly take my eyes away from the screen.  I remember tearing myself away eventually to go to x-country practice.   I remember not wanting to go because I wanted to find out why this was all happening. 

I still can't believe that all those people are gone in an instant because a few radicals decided it was their time to die.    Thankfully these extremists are now in the hands of a just God and not still roaming our planet. 

I knew we were under attack, even before the second plane hit.  I waited for my husband to return (he was training for the Boston Marathon and doing a long run that day).  The first thing I said when he finally came back home was, "We're under attack." 

He was supposed to be off that day.  He got right into uniform and reported to work.  I went and took Hunter out of school.  Just in case.

I remember at the school we had a Saudi Arabian Prince who was whisked out of school and sent home.  Don't know the details but his family had bought him a house that was from what I heard complete with maids and bodyguards.   We had the girls from Bulgaria who were scared and not sure if they would be able to go home. 

I thought it must be scary to be here from another country not knowing what the heck was happening and how this attack was going to play out.  It must have been just as scary being an American in another country wondering if they would ever go back. 

I was getting ready to take a test for my latest certification.  Fortunately, it was the easiest of the series.  My girlfriend at the time called and was extremely upset.  I comforted her and told her that we (the nation) would be ok.

i was home. asleep when the first one hit. i remember picking up my son, who was 4 months old at the time, and turning on the news, because my sister in law had called to tell us about the first plane.

that was the first day i ever payed any attention to the world. it drasticaly changed my life. at some point during that day i realized that my kids were going to grow up in a totally different world than i did.

Yes.  I think all parents had that go thru their mind that day and since.  It certainly woke alot of us up to the dangers that lurk outside our little bubble of life. 

I was in a computer lab at Free University Berlin. I think I first read about the attack on Steven Den Beste's then-new blog. He happened to blog at the very time it happened. It was a text terminal and I couldn't see pictures until someone else in the room sitting at an X-terminal (a graphical terminal) had loaded the first picture in a Web browser.

Not knowing what would happen next, I went home immediately and arriving at the local street corner I saw what I will never forget: The patriarch (oldest man) of the Turkish family who owned the restaurant and casino at the corner walked around on the street wearing a hat with an American flag, clearly showing solidarity with the side he had chosen.

I nodded at him and met with a friend whom I had called from the bus. He lived in the same apartment complex and we had decided to go shopping together in case this was the first of a series of attacks against several western capitals (including Berlin). Then I went home and watched CNN International.

It was also between then and 2003 that I became more right-wing. By 2003 I was convinced that fighting them was the only way. And by "them" I mean anyone who attacks people for political reasons.

"If you're not liberal when you're young, you have no heart. If you're not conservative when you're older, you have no brain." - Benjamin Disraeli

The most interesting stories come from those who were actually there. My sister was only blocks away when it first hit. She told me lots of details about that day that I didn't see or hear anywhere else.

Really hope this type of thing doesn't happen again, but it seems like the US has yet to take terrorism seriously.

I have yet to meet anyone personally there when this happened but I would imagine it went up a few notches for them compared to how we felt at the time.  For them it must have been like living in a horror movie. 

I remember when I was personally attacked in '97' how I felt.  I remember saying to my husband at the time I felt like I was in some sort of cop drama and I was the star victim of the show.  It's one thing watching and another being in the middle of it.