9/11...RIP to the innocents...

[pavlovk1025]

Wow. It's been 8 years already...I cant believe it. I remember it still like it was yesterday...Brooklyn Technical High School...a straight line from my math class window to the towers was ~2 miles across the water. I remember being IN class, looking out the window...to see the first plane hit. I remember being stunned/shocked...as if I was still dreaming and not sitting in class the first full week of school. A double take revealed what I had feared, and it was evident that something big happened. An exclamation from me, some startled looks and everyone turned to see what it was that I was on about...shock, horror. Everyone at the window...not knowing what was going on but knowing something big happened. Watching, watching...and seeing the silvery streak of another airplane enter our field of vision...it couldnt...no way...the silver towers and the reflection of the morning sun gave way to an explosion upon impact. Someone is crying, their mom works in the tower. Phones are dead...smoke is billowing across the sky and over head. We stayed there, watching, and watching...the towers collapse. We are sent home....the trains are shut down...not going anywhere. Sitting in Fort Greene park and thinking the world is going to end. Rumors..Taj Mahal, White House, Space Needle, Pentagon...
Common thought amongst us all as we sit at the park and silently observe, in our minds, the end of the world. Trains running again...homeward bound...trains are packed, nobody speaks. All that is heard throughout a city are the sirens...

Where were you?

[ballpythonluvr]

I was sitting in my living room watching the television. They interrupted the show I was watching and were showing the towers on the news. I could not believe my eyes when I saw what had happened. I yelled up the stairs to my roommate about what had just happened. I was in utter shock and disbelief!

[JLC]

I was at home (San Antonio), getting my kids up for school that morning. They were just little ones back then, and my youngest wasn't born yet. It's astonishing how relentlessly time marches on regardless of heartache or triumphs. Anyhow...I turned on the TV to let them watch some morning cartoons with breakfast, and I saw a picture of the towers with smoke billowing out of one of them. Needless to say, no one watched any cartoons that day.

I just dropped whatever it was I was doing and stared at the TV...and saw the second plane hit. It was very surreal. Somehow, I numbly went through the motions of getting the kids ready for school and out the door to their bus stop. Then the rest of the day, I sat and watched all the stories unfold...saw the towers collapse...heard each new report of the other two planes going down....rumors of more planes headed for more targets... I don't think I'll ever lose those burned in images of people leaping from the upper floors of the towers.

For three days, I did little else but watch the news and cry. Then I turned the news off....and haven't watched it since.

[pavlovk1025]

I was at home (San Antonio), getting my kids up for school that morning. They were just little ones back then, and my youngest wasn't born yet. It's astonishing how relentlessly time marches on regardless of heartache or triumphs. Anyhow...I turned on the TV to let them watch some morning cartoons with breakfast, and I saw a picture of the towers with smoke billowing out of one of them. Needless to say, no one watched any cartoons that day.

I just dropped whatever it was I was doing and stared at the TV...and saw the second plane hit. It was very surreal. Somehow, I numbly went through the motions of getting the kids ready for school and out the door to their bus stop. Then the rest of the day, I sat and watched all the stories unfold...saw the towers collapse...heard each new report of the other two planes going down....rumors of more planes headed for more targets... I don't think I'll ever lose those burned in images of people leaping from the upper floors of the towers.

For three days, I did little else but watch the news and cry. Then I turned the news off....and haven't watched it since.

The world stood still on its axis that day.

[jglass38]

I lived and worked in Manhattan at the time. I was on an uptown bus from my apartment to my job. We stopped at light and I looked over to see the TVs in a bank tuned to the news and it was showing the video of the first plane hitting. It was really a surreal moment and something I'll never forget. I worked for a little while before leaving to go home. Pretty much all public transportation was shut down so I had to walk the 40 blocks home in the direction of the WTC. It was chaos. People streaming across bridges to get out of Manhattan. People crying and everyone in a state of shock.

One of the saddest things I notice, 8 years later, is that people seem to have forgotten what happened and the anger isn't there anymore. When people get upset about the treatment of suspected terrorists and the profiling that goes along with trying to keep our country safe, they should remember what happened on 9/11. We need to do whatever we can to keep this country safe from the savages that want to see us destroyed.

[Kryptonian]

I am in canada and its kind of eerie what happened to me. I was still asleep at the time it all happened. We are 2 hours behind. The eerie thing is I had a dream about twin buildings collapsing that night before. When I woke up and turned on the tv it was on and I thought I was still dreaming.

That was the third time in my life I had dreamed of something the night before it happened. The second time I dreamed of a tornado the night before and the first time was when I was 5 and dreamed of being kidnapped the night before. In my dream a man in a car pulled over and offered me my fav candy to get in the car. In my dream I got in and he took me away, Next day the exact car and man stopped by me on the way to school, he had the same candy, I remembered my dream and ran to school as fast as I could.

I still get the same feeling of shock whenever i see old pics and videos of 9/11, like it was yesterday. I sure hope I dont have any more disasterous dreams.

[DM1975]

I was not there when it happened, but 9/11 is something that has had a definite and permanently effect on my life and that of my families, one that has sent me half way around the world more than a few times, and has eventually permanently disabled me. None of that though is as terrible, or important as what happened on that terrible day.

I was in the reserves at the time, working as a police officer. I had gotten off of patrol the night before and was going to a remodeling job I was doing on the side when it happened. The next day my fiancé and I moved our wedding day up from November 10th (Marine Corps Birthday) to the 22nd of September, and the day after that I got orders to get activated. Since then it has been one heck of a ride.

I also can not believe how much people have forgotten about those events that day. I do not believe our freedoms should be infringed upon to secure those freedoms, but I also have a more real world view on what the soldiers should be doing, or able to do.

[Denial]

I was in science class and I was living in va at the time. I didnt really pay attention to the tv though I was talking to friends all I knew was that something happened in new york but they let everyone go home and I didnt think nothing off it at the time but I went skating with some friends because they closed the school so I didnt find out for sure what happened till late that night

[Spaniard]

I was in high school, senior year and in my gov't and eco class. I will never forget what happened that day; while I personally did not loose anyone there were many kids from my school that lost family on that day.

I actually just came back in from the rain; the company I work for hosted a re-dedication for the Freedom Stone we donated years ago for the cornerstone at ground zero.

http://www.innovativestone.com/BannerLandingPage.htm

Aside from the rain it was a nice ceremony and really brought back memories. There are many policemen and fire fighters that are still struggling with their health due to the service they put in on that day.

I think its important we all remember and honor those who lost their lives and the families they left behind as well as those who gave their services in the rescue efforts.

[MasonC2K]

I was at home still waking up. Laying on the couch watchign the Today show when they stopped to bring a report of a place crashing into a trade center tower. At that time they thought it was an accident. But then with the live feed on the first tower, I saw the second place hit and then it really set it that this wasn't an accident but an attack. I remember calling all of my friends and my pastor. A bunch of us gathered and prayed later in the day.

The biggest thing 9/11 did to me was it made me a murderer in my heart. Before 9/11 the thought of killing another human being was repulsive for any reason even self-defense.

After 9/11....when I thought of having a gun and the people responsible in front of me, I could see myself killing them. Not out of justice, but because I wanted to kill them. I wanted vengence.

The Lord says that when a man sins in his heart it is the same as if he has actually done it. So a part of my innocence died that day.