NationStates Jolt Archive

I cannot really remember mine....I really didn't care much. Seeing as how I was 11, and very ignorant of the world. (I war pro-Bush because of his tie a year earlier :lol: )

Although when I saw the TV and watched the towers burning like that, I forgot about school and skipped it. I wanted to watch the burning towers fall....fall...fall....

Then I wondered if another plane was headed for the White House?

I was numb--I had just finished teaching a class when a guy from the next office asked me if I had heard. I went upstairs to the media room and watched CNN for the next 15 minutes before I went to my next class. I don't remember what the teacher talked about. I taught my class that afternoon, cursed at the idiots lined up at the gas stations paying a dollar more a gallon then they should have been--I was living in BFE Arkansas, for Christ's sake. The only terrorists we had to worry about were PETA types who were pissed off at Tyson or Wal-Mart. And I watched CNN for the next 18 hours or so. I have a daughter slightly older than you, Colodia, and I forced her to watch some of the coverage with me and my girlfriend. It wasn't pretty.

I was numb--I had just finished teaching a class when a guy from the next office asked me if I had heard. I went upstairs to the media room and watched CNN for the next 15 minutes before I went to my next class. I don't remember what the teacher talked about. I taught my class that afternoon, cursed at the idiots lined up at the gas stations paying a dollar more a gallon then they should have been--I was living in BFE Arkansas, for Christ's sake. The only terrorists we had to worry about were PETA types who were pissed off at Tyson or Wal-Mart. And I watched CNN for the next 18 hours or so. I have a daughter slightly older than you, Colodia, and I forced her to watch some of the coverage with me and my girlfriend. It wasn't pretty.

Unfortunatly, it's scarier when people remember your own age :?

well, i was eating breakfast somewhere when somebody ran in and said "holy shit some airplanes just crashed in to the WTC!!!!1" the i finished eating and went home. then i slept for 12 hours, and took the rest of the week off to spend with my family and freinds

The incident which will always stick in my mind is when my daughter (9 at the time) turned to me and said "Daddy, I wish they would stop showing this on T.V., it's upsetting my budgie".

It was then that I was startled into realising that what she meant, of course, was that it was upsetting her.

I suggested we watch some videos (No DVD in those days) of some of her favourite cartoons.

I naturally grieved for the loss of so many innocent lives, but I grieved also, both then and now, for the loss of some of my child's innocence.

I would love to see those responsible hunted down. But I am so disappointed that the Iraq war is consuming the very resources needed to do so (and not just men and material, but intagibles like international goodwill and co-operation).

"What's a WTC?"

Seriously though... it was more like:

Friend: "Terrorists bombed the World Trade Center"

Me:"Omg!"

Friend: "Yeah, they reckon'it was Arabs!"

Me: "You know what we should do? Bomb them all! Send a whole bunch of missiles in that general direction"

Unfortunatly, it's scarier when people remember your own age :?You've got promise--I tend to remember people like that. I was a little surprised that you're as young as you are. I knew you weren't an adult early on, but I had you pegged in your mid-teens. Keep the mind open and be willing to experience all life has to offer and you'll turn out fine.

"What's a WTC?"

Seriously though... it was more like:

Friend: "Terrorists bombed the World Trade Center"

Me:"Omg!"

Friend: "Yeah, they reckon'it was Arabs!"

Me: "You know what we should do? Bomb them all! Send a whole bunch of missiles in that general direction"

President Bush? Is that you?

I was like "that sucks" then I wondered why they made such a big deal out of it. I watched all the americans with their flag waving on TV and I didn't really understand their reaction. I'm kind of used to terrorists acts in my country and I've never seen people react like this, but actually I've never seen people in my country waving a flag anyway. In my country the people tend to forget about it because we don't want to give oil to the fire.
Now I understand it was the first time the US has been hit in their soil and I understand their culture a little more after talking with some of them.

Unfortunatly, it's scarier when people remember your own age :?You've got promise--I tend to remember people like that. I was a little surprised that you're as young as you are. I knew you weren't an adult early on, but I had you pegged in your mid-teens. Keep the mind open and be willing to experience all life has to offer and you'll turn out fine.

:P thanks

"Oh, that's what the World Trade Centre Towers look like, er... looked like."

Seriously, I didn't know what the WTC towers were really. My first reaction was curiosity and then fascination- this was History happening in front my eyes! It's a landmark in World History, just like Guernica or the seige of Leningrad. A few days later when I saw the videos of inide the towers as they evacuated I remember wanting to go there to see the buildings and see the view from the top, then remembered that that might be a bit difficult now...

I was also a bit annoyed that whoever did the filming saw people who were actually on fire (I think it was their clothes and hair) and chose *not* to film it. That's one of those details that goes down in History and really stands out to show the suffering, and he just turned away! Then again, he was a fire fighter and not a journalist. Only a journalist could have taken a photo of Kim Phuc (http://www.doublestandards.org/kimphuc.jpg).

Aidan

I was in the Singaporean Army at the time. My battalion was on a training exercise in Taiwan and we weren't too happy as we predicted it would mean a major inconvenience for us.
As expected, it did. We spent a whole month providing security to singapore's international airport once we got back form Taiwan. I had it pretty good though as I was a medic- we managed to swing it so that we got a duty roster with two days on, one day off duty which was quite cool.

So you could say that my intial reaction was irritation followed by sadness and later indifference I suppose.

I was in the Singaporean Army at the time. My battalion was on a training exercise in Taiwan and we weren't too happy as we predicted it would mean a major inconvenience for us.
As expected, it did. We spent a whole month providing security to singapore's international airport once we got back form Taiwan. I had it pretty good though as I was a medic- we managed to swing it so that we got a duty roster with two days on, one day off duty which was quite cool.

So you could say that my intial reaction was irritation followed by sadness and later indifference I suppose.whoa, why were in the singapore army?

When I was told I said Who cares and went to bed.

whoa, why were in the singapore army?

National Service. 2 years if you stay below the rank of Corporal. 2 1/2 if you get promoted to Corporal or higher. I was a combat medic in an infantry battalion and ended as a 3rd Sergeant. I've actually still got one more months of service I owe them which I'll complete after I'm done with uni.

Maybe I should start up a new thread based on this. Then people can give their views on military service.

When I was told I said Who cares and went to bed.
Harsh.
I was sad, then concerned that the US would over react and that Two faced Tony would try a sneak in more big brother type laws on the back of it.
But if one posative thing came out of it, it was that many in the US realised how bad a thing terrorism actual was.

"What's a WTC?"

Seriously though... it was more like:

Friend: "Terrorists bombed the World Trade Center"

Me:"Omg!"

Friend: "Yeah, they reckon'it was Arabs!"

Me: "You know what we should do? Bomb them all! Send a whole bunch of missiles in that general direction"

President Bush? Is that you?lol, someone actually suggested I become Presindent of the US because: "At least I would do something"

"What's a WTC?"

Seriously though... it was more like:

Friend: "Terrorists bombed the World Trade Center"

Me:"Omg!"

Friend: "Yeah, they reckon'it was Arabs!"

Me: "You know what we should do? Bomb them all! Send a whole bunch of missiles in that general direction"

President Bush? Is that you?lol, someone actually suggested I become Presindent of the US because: "At least I would do something"

no no...we already got a good guy for that

Now...for someone who thought with the same mind that Rotovia had on September 11, 2003....

I was the office manager for a group of doctors at the time. When we heard one of the doctors burst into tears and ran out of the office, only later to find out he had family there. I spent most of the morning rescheduling appointments and then the rest of the afternoon I was just numb. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, but I also couldn’t believe how someone could have so much hatred. I remember crying over just looking at all the pictures and the reality of it all in front of me. I remember praying for them all. Finally, I got to the point that I couldn’t watch any more. I couldn’t stand to see all the hurt, the sadness, the pain.

When I was told I said Who cares and went to bed.
Harsh.
I was sad, then concerned that the US would over react and that Two faced Tony would try a sneak in more big brother type laws on the back of it.
But if one posative thing came out of it, it was that many in the US realised how bad a thing terrorism actual was.

I was sleepy, and assumed it was a light plane or something :D.

When I was told I said Who cares and went to bed.
Harsh.
I was sad, then concerned that the US would over react and that Two faced Tony would try a sneak in more big brother type laws on the back of it.
But if one posative thing came out of it, it was that many in the US realised how bad a thing terrorism actual was.

I was sleepy, and assumed it was a light plane or something :D.
Funny that. Because when some one told me that a plane had crashed into them I assumed it was a light aircraft.

Actually there was an accident in Toulouse, France on 9-21, which destroyed half the city. No media ever talked about it (except for 1 minutes or two).

what?

Want to here about my 9-11 day? (http://www.nationstates.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=142114)

I thought, at first,

"Has someone made a Tom Clancy film I aint heard of?"

And then when I got home in time to watch the second plane all I felt was .... nothing. Numb is probably the best way to describe it. Even as I saw the whole thing unfold in front of my eyes, I couldn't quite believe it.

I was numb too. But a better word was "Desensitized"
So I wasnt all that horrified.

Actually there was an accident in Toulouse, France on 9-21, which destroyed half the city. No media ever talked about it (except for 1 minutes or two).

The fireworks factory?

In Sydney time, it happened in the middle of the night. I found out the next morning when my mum told me that there had been a 'huge terrorist attack on America' and that the WTC and the Pentagon had been hit. The whole family watched the news until we each had to go. I can still remember seeing the towers falling for the first time. I just felt nothing. No rage. No anger. Just numbness. I didn't understand how this could be happening.

That day at school, no-one could do any work. If we got a chance to, everyone just watched the broadcasts on every channel. Most free-to-air channels had continuous live feeds.

Later on, I realised that this was a truly significant event. It was like how I had been told that 'everyone remembers where they were when Pearl Harbor happened'. People will always remember where they were, what they were doing when this happened.

I think for many people in the UK it was shocking but we were pretty much used to this kind of mindless murder as we had suffered acts of terrorism against civilians, men, women and children for years.
Let's hope the funding for these murders has dried up now.

I was very tired and watching TV late, when it came on. It initially didn't click and I thought it was a movie and when it repeated I thought it must be like the "War of the worlds" transmission. Eventually it clicked and I was just so shocked I spent hours just tuned into hear any other developments.

Actually there was an accident in Toulouse, France on 9-21, which destroyed half the city. No media ever talked about it (except for 1 minutes or two).

The fireworks factory?The AZF chemical factory. My sister was there sleeping and the roof fell on her.

I remember finding a message board similar to this and updating the whole office as one of the guys on the board was a runner at the bbc. We basically stopped working and watched the events unfold.

I remember when I first heard that a plane had hit the twin towers and they thought it was a terrorist attack that it was the buildings in Kuala Lumpa, cos things like that don't happen in America.

Harking back to a previous thread, I remember in the following months being sent a link that we thought was a joke until we found out it was serious, to the NorAid site that had a link to support the victims of 9-11 on it. And people say Americans don't get Irony.

I found it scientificly facinating. To see that the great WTC buildings were not as stong as everyone thought... I knew the buildings were gonna go 12 minutes before they did...

It was a shame, But I felt nothing... (I'm an ignorant little brit-with a facination for science.)

This is going to sound somewhat cruel.

September 11 is Catalonia's National Day. So I was on holiday. When I saw that, my first thought was "fake". My second thought was "Those USans had to get into the terrorism problem by the BIG gate. They cannot have some cars blown up and so".

My third thought was "may be this will teach them what the rest of the world feels about terrorism". Specially knowing that USan people financed IRA terrorism in the British Isles. I felt sorry for the individuals, innocent as they are, but for the country? Serves them right.

Steven Spielberg made one kid on "ET" dress as a "terrorist" for Halloween. The revised version, after 9-11, changed it to a "hippy". Hypocritical. Cowardly, even. When terrorism hit other people, it was OK. Now it is not.

I was sitting at work in charge of the office whilst my boss(mentor and mum of my best friend) was on holiday in new york and due back that day.
I got a phone call late morning (early afternoon?), it was my boss sitting on the plane just about to take off (obviously it didn't) when she told me that it looked like a plane had just hit the first tower and I had to phone her son who was working at an office up the road to tell him that she was okay. However her other son was still in manhatten staying at a hotel very close to the event. She was unable to get through to him and didn't know her sons number at work. I then had to get through to the hotel to tell her son that she was okay, ironically he'd slept through the initial events lazy sob...
My initial thought was "Shit" followed by numb until I'd sorted out all the calling and "yep there fine, yep yep yep" then... *shrugs* "All the kings horses and all the kings men... can't keep the castle safe from the demons they made" and "You reap what you sow"

We were all really disappointed at work that we didn't get to go home early. Working in London at the time Canary Warf was closed and we were hoping to go home too. We all watched the second plane crash into the tower and realised that it was no mistake. It was exciting, and on the way home many eyes were turned to the sky.
Couldn't care less about the people involved though.

I was watching the late night news and was about to go to bed when it was announced that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Centre. Despite the fact that a lot of smoke seemed to be coming out of the tower I figured that it was just a small plane that went off course, although it seemed unusual that it happened on a bright sunny morning. I decided to watch the news for a few more minutes to see what had happened.

A few minutes later, the newsreader was talking to a CNN correspondent while live images were being shown of the tower. I thought I was watching earlier footage of the plane crashing but I realised there was smoke coming out of one of the towers already. I knew then that this was not an accident. About 20 minutes later, Bush gave a speech about the incident. Immediately after the speech it was announched that the Pentagon had been hit. I thought that this was madness, was every major landmark in America going to be hit today?

I stayed up until about 2 AM, shortly after the second tower collapsed. I was thinking that either Bin Laiden or a bunch of Arab terrorists were going to be blamed for all of this and that the conspiracy theorists were going to blame the government for all of this. Both came to pass.

It was interesting to note that Ian Thorpe had gone to the towers that day and was about to enter an elevator in the tower when he realised that he had forgotten to take his camera and decided to walk back to his hotel room to get it. Had he not forgotten it then he may of very well been on one of the floors where he could not have gotten down.

My immediate reaction: "...it's time for another drink."

The German bartender's reaction: "How long until (expletive deleted) CNN tries to blame it on Saddam?" (About five minutes).

My reaction the morning after: "Oooh boy, that layover in Dubai's going to be fun."

I got the horrific gut feeling, yeah, but far worse things have happened in my lifetime so I didn't see why the fuss was so disproportionately huge about this one.

At first I thought, "Oh wow, it's just like the Towering Inferno, isn't it? This is going to get airtime . . . "

Then when I realised it wasn't an accidental fire, I thought (and these were my very first words on the subject) "Wow, so someone actually went and did it!" I wasn't shocked about what was happening, or that someone would do such a thing, I was only amazed that someone had actually succeeded so spectacularly.

The idea that eventually the US would be attacked on such a scale had always seemed so obvious and natural to me, that when I was watching it unfold, it was like ticking a mental box. Like, yep, here it is. I didn't really think about the victims until a few days later. At the time, I was thinking about it in purely political terms. What it confirms, what it would mean, etc.

As for my thoughts at that moment as to what would happen to the world, I never for a moment bought into that whole "The World Has Changed" BS. What I was seeing represented a logical next step of geopolitical continuity to me. I knew full well that the US and the other big players in the energy and theology market were slowly colliding. This sort of thing was to be expected. As was the idea that Sudan, Afghanistan and Iraq would get flattened all over again. Though the US never did bother going after Sudan.

At the time I was a street campaigner for Amnesty International (not so affectionately known in the UK as 'charity muggers', or 'chuggers'). I was in this little town in Leicestershire (central England) called Melton Mowbray, a very parochial little town with little to recommend it (it's the home of stilton and pork pies, if you like those sorts of things). I finished a failed attempt to persuade someone to join Amnesty then happened to look in the window of the electrics store next to me. The first tower had been hit. I went to the team leader, who remarked that it was a horrible accident but we should carry on, nothing to do with us.

Half an hour or so later, the second tower has hit. One by one, we stopped and went into the shop and watched the coverage on the BBC and Sky News. People jumped out of impossibly high windows, knowing they would die. Yasser Arafat made a speech stressing that it wass nothing to do with Palestine. He looked terrified. A Palestinian liberation group made a statement in response to an accusation in their direction, begging people to believe that they weren't responsible. Americans ran aorund, died, cried, tried to save their friends and family and people they'd never met before and then the towers collapsed. I think that was one of the most horrifying things I've ever seen, the fall of the first tower and the death of all those within. And the firefighters on the ground. And then the second tower fell.

There were five of us, all cynical and anti the US administration. Two cried, two stood speechless (I was one), the other (the team leader) commented that, given the choice between US imperialism and religious fundamentalism, he would support the former. A couple of drunken guys walked past and cheered the destruction. The team leader swore at them. We were in Amnesty clothing but no one cared about or identities any more. We were individuals reacting to what we had seen, protocols were left behind.

Yes, equally appalling events have taken place, relatively unreported. Yes, 11/09 (or 9/11, whatever) is also an equally heart-rending date for Chileans. Yes, one can argue that certain US actions have encouraged such terrible attacks. Yes, I fervently oppose subsequent actions by the US. But none of these detract from the fact that this was an appalling event, that guiltless and guilty people alike lost their lives, that the consequences are daunting, maybe horrifying.

I think the most astonishing aspect of it all was the reaction of New Yorkers. They had suffered most, yet they campaigned in their thousands for peace. Remarkable and tragically glorious.