9/11:Remembering that day ten years ago

I was 23, and the funny thing about it is that to this day I can't remember a single thing I thought or felt as the events were unfolding. I know I was aware of what was happening, I know I watched the footage, but I simply can't tell you how I reacted to it. I guess I just mentally checked out from the shock of it all.

I can echo what another poster said about being angry the next day, when I heard about an enraged old man in a nearby town trying to run over some guy dressed in traditional Sikh clothing as he was walking out of a Walmart. I remember hoping that they threw the book at the driver, because tragedy is never an excuse for bigotry or for attempting to harm innocent people.

What stands out the most clearly in my mind was how it affected my Mom, as I could see when I visited home the next day that she was a nervous wreck. I heard from her and my younger siblings that in the weeks to follow she remained glued to the TV, watching the footage of the towers coming down and people jumping out of buildings over and over again. She was never the same after that, and was later diagnosed with PTSD with the events of 9/11 likely source.

That's when I realized that for all the benefits a 24 hour news cycle can bring, it can also be dangerous for those who aren't mentally prepared for it.

edited 5th Sep '11 11:50:41 AM by Meeble

I kind of felt weird about Osama dying. Somehow things just feel.. Incomplete, not having a bogeyman to chase.

I guess to me that means that it's a decade later, we're still in Afghanistan, and we finally got Osama.

I think it's time for us to go home.

That would have been a ridiculously awesome mini-speech in real life. Barkey for President 2016.

I was in 5th grade walking to my next class where my teacher had the news on.

I didn't dawn on me just what was going on till sometime after. I mean, it's quite a shock.

You know, I know its an important day and an anniversy but I can't watch alot of my favorite channels (History and Discovery) because during this week they almost always air nothing but 9/11 documentaries, and I dont like watching the footage again.

I mean one commercial even showed a jumper.

I was 16 at the time (26 now, obviously) and in 11th grade (junior in high school). At the time, like many people have posted, I didn't understand the impact of it. I think I just made a sarcastic crack like "Sailor Jupiter won't be happy" (for non-Sailor Moon fans, she's scared of airplanes, so I was thinking that if she was real, that fear would become worse for her) and annoyed a friend of mine for being so flippant, which I know now I probably shouldn't have done that. I don't think I even knew what the Twin Towers were at the time, though, not having much interest in or knowledge of the classic NYC skyline imagery. I also don't think I realized why people were so upset and I'm not sure I even realized that a lot of people had died and that there might have been people at school who were worried about relatives or friends. I mainly remember wondering when people were going to stop making such a big deal about it. I may not have been so uncaring if I had realized about all the deaths or even what the Twin Towers were (I more associated NYC with the Empire State Building at the time, along with the Brooklynese accent).

Oddly enough, what more concerned me was people stereotyping all Arabs as evil because of it, which unfortunately did happen (and inspired me to make heroic Arab characters in my own stories to counter it). I remember being more upset that we went to war over it rather than the attack itself, especially with Iraq since Saddam Hussein wasn't even the person behind the attacks. I remember that I sent a letter to Bush that said not to go to war with Iraq. I am not sure what I would've wanted the government to do instead aside from the general idea of "talk it out peacefully" but I know I really didn't like the idea of living in a war time (that I was aware of, at least, I know that there was the Gulf War in the early 1990s but all I remember about that was my parents being against it and going along with them to something that had anti-war buttons). Some of it was that I may not have been aware of the potential danger the terrorists could cause or even that the attack was related to something larger than just some people crashing a plane into skyscrapers. And even now, after I have more information (and hindsight) I'm not sure what I would've wanted the government to do. It's something I have mixed feelings about that would be too complicated to get into and would involve discussion of wars in general.

edited 5th Sep '11 4:30:58 PM by Rainbow

I was 9 and in 4th grade and I was running laps for PE at the time the first plane hit. Most of the rest of the day went as normal, save for outdoor recess being cancelled. I wasn't really sure what happened until I got home, and even then, I wondered "What's a World Trade Center?" I don't think I felt much of anything emotionally, mostly because I didn't know anybody from New York. You know, monkeyspheres and whatnot. But more to the point, some tragedy in NYC was pretty far away from my frame of reference.

I was young when this happened. One of the students told me that war was happening and when I got home, my parents were glued to CNN, something my Grandfather watches.

I found it weird. I could recall them not letting me watch TV so I went up to my room to find that all the channels were replaced by the same thing CNN had or something.

I was in late middle school I believe. I don't remember that much about it. It bothered me for a little bit, and then it just stopped being an issue in my life. it happened, and I moved on, slightly more disappointed in humanity than I was previously.

edited 5th Sep '11 4:53:57 PM by Lanceleoghauni

I was in college. I was driving to school and heard about the first tower collapsing on the radio. By the time the second one fell I had arrived at my church's student center and could see it on the secretary's TV. Yikes.

Epic.

0:50 and onwards is the music that popped in my head when Barkey said it. No offense.

edited 6th Sep '11 12:56:06 AM by dRoy

Aye.

EDIT: Oh crap, double post. Sorry, people.

edited 6th Sep '11 1:02:48 AM by dRoy

I was visiting the Rock of Cashel on that day. When I came down to the visitor center, two locoal ladies were talking. I didn't understand their Irish dialect, I just took from their tone of voice and body language that something terrible must have happened. I thought it would be some local event, went back to my hired car and off to the highway. At some point, I switched on the news on the radio, and then I simply couldn't make myself stop listening or leave the highway, until I ended up in Waterford, which must be the worst industrial town ever. There I got into the next hotel that had tv. I simply had to SEE it, it was just too surreal, part of me just refused to believe it; and I sat before that tv set until late at night, depressed and lonely.

I was 12. When I woke up and wandered into the living room, my sister was watching TV. when I saw the footage, I asked "hey, what movie are you watching?"

She turned back to look at me without saying a thing. She was crying.

Me. "... ... ..."

Was 11, playing on a computer game while my parents went to visit my grandparents who lived down the road(walking distance). Got a call from my parents to come over to the house, that "someone declared war on America and they were bombing New York." I came into their house just as the plane crashed into the 2nd tower.

I figured out pretty quickly what it really was. My parents were in a bit of a panic; they were affiliated with an insane apocalyptic christian sect at the time, so they were mostly wailing and crying that "the day of tribulation had arrived" etc etc. Personally, I had a huge obsession with military technology at the time, so most of the rest of the day was spent wondering who did it, and how/what we would deploy to kick their asses for it. I don't think I spent much contemplating the casualties. At that age when something said something like "thousands killed" It'd think something like "Oh, that's terrible," but little else crossed my mind at the time.

Speaking of 9/11, the local assholes are really coming out in full force this year. One of the local doctors(a Lebanese immigrant) has received numerous death threats, and a nearby grocery store was burnt down yesterday because the owners were Pakistani. Had "9/11 revenge" "go home" "sand niggers" and other slurs spray painted all over the remains of the building. Local papers are getting anonymous letters stating crap like "reclaim our country from islam fascists" and such.

{Not the topic. Deleted —Tropers/Madrugada}}}

The racism is at least something the average person can do something about. My wife and I plan to spread love and respect to our Muslim neighbors on 9/11.

edited 9th Sep '11 9:11:00 PM by Madrugada

As a pony fan, I can't help but cheer for your wording.