Where were YOU 2 years ago?

[Martin Blank]

I was in bed, being awaked by my alarm clock. At the time, the radio came on at 6am, timed perfectly to start about 30 seconds before Mark & Brian came on the air. The bumper music cleared, and the first thing I heard was Brian saying something like, "It's an eery sight, like something out of a movie." Kelly (the news girl) then said, "They're saying that a plane crashed into the World Trade Center." My eyes shot open, and I dashed into the livingroom to turn on the TV to the morning news on KTLA (local channel 5). I flipped through a few stations (CBS, NBC, KTLA again, ABC, Fox, CNN) before settling back on KTLA. The first plane had hit just a few minutes before, and I stared wide-eyed at the scene. I caught a faint glimpse of motion before the fireball in the second tower erupted.

I don't recall any conscious thoughts that morning, though I started to get ready for work. I was brushing my teeth and wandered back in to watch the news while brushing, and looked at the screen about three seconds before the first tower collapsed. I felt completely helpless and empty, and for a minute or two, I didn't move. I finally managed to finish getting dressed and went into work.

That day, I was the central information center for the department. I was pulling a lot of news from VoodooExtreme, which was updating almost by the minute. I had other windows open to pull information from Google Groups and to keep trying a dozen or so websites. I provided periodic updates to people around the country via IM, too.

It was on that day that I became more aware of how disconnected some people are from the rest of the world, how they live in their own little universe. One person contacted me and mentioned things she was going to do that day, including painting her nails and a few other things. I asked her if she was paying attention to the news.

"No. Why should I?"

"Because the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, DC, were both hit by suicide attackers that crashed airliners into them."

"What's the World Trade Center?"

"Twin skyscrapers in New York."

"Oh."

"Oh? That's all you can say? As many as 50,000 people dead [this was still early hours and nobody knew how many had gotten out] and that's all you can say."

"Well, it doesn't affect me, so I don't care."

I blocked her for the rest of the day.

My dad didn't handle it at all well, though that didn't turn up for a few days. A high school friend had been in the towers, and nobody had heard from her since the attack. I don't recall whether she ever turned up on any lists, but he suffered a near-breakdown. But I was nervous, too, because a friend of mine wasn't online for more than a week after the attacks. Turns out that she was across the street from the WTC, and found herself covered in dust as she ran. Took her a while to get back across the country.

It was a defining moment of this generation, nay, of all who lived at the time and watched the events unfold, and one which I and billions others will never forget. I rate it up there with the loss of the Challenger, my first kiss, and my first true love as moments which changed my entire perspective on life. Seeing the outpouring of grief, sympathy, and respect in the following days -- the German destroyer flying the Star and Stripes at half-mast with a banner of support, the candlelight vigils around the world, the words of support both from the usual and from unexpected corners (like Libya -- which made me do a double-take) -- made my heart swell. I held out hope for days, even after it went from a search and rescue mission to a recovery mission.

Today the work goes on to identify the remains. There are some 12,000 remains left, many of them too damaged to be able to perform DNA testing, and only about 1250 identifications have been made. One more may be added to the list in the coming weeks, though, as new remains were found on a scaffolding that had been erected before the attacks on a building a block or so away from the WTC. Workers are just now getting to it, and they found several bones and scraps of some other tissue remains. It's a grisly mention, but it might just bring a bit of peace to one more family.

[AuroraMystic]

I was asleep, and my mom woke me up and said "Something is happening that you're never going to forget" and she turned on my TV and I saw the plane hit the 2nd tower and I thought "It's Armageddon, I hate this movie" and then I realized that it wasn't a movie.

[Jedi_Vader20]

For me, my mother woke me up on Sept 12 (In australia) at around quarter to five in the morning, and told me that the world trade center had been destroyed.

I sat there thinking, "Is this a dream?" for about 5 minutes, before wandering out into the living room to see the second plane hit the tower (replay).

Well, that just about screwed me over. So I went to school, shocked (clearly) that this had happened....to get busted for hacking the school network.

So yeah, I have more than that reason to remember this date from two years ago...

(Odd, when I started reading this thread "Krwlng" from Linkin Park's "Re-Animation" came on...)

[Phong]

I had just woken up, and eaten a quick breakfast. I wandered back up-stairs to my room and logged onto AIM, and MSN messenger. I said good morning to my dad (who was already at work), and he told me to turn on the TV, that one of the Twin towers was hit by an airplane. I honestly thought he was joking, how would something like that even happen ?

I turned on the TV (via my TV tuner card), and tuned into Fox just to see a rather sureal image. The cameras were pointed directly at the burning tower, they were talking about it, theorizing, when a second aircraft rammed into the other tower.

[amlthrawn]

I was in my school's campus information center ready to do a flyer posting for an organzation I was working with. Someone using careless language said that a plane had hit the Board of Trade building, which is next to where my mother is employed. I quickly rushed to call her...

Having just brief reports from second hand sources (I was not near a TV or radio and hardly anyone was around), I had just assumed that it was a small twin-engine jet that hit a building... tragic, but nothing to dwell over.

And then I found a TV...

[NotQuiteDead]

I was still in the military, in the 82d Airborne Division at Ft Bragg. My boss and I had gone to breakfast across the street from our office, just a normal day, chatting about the stuff we had to get done. We got back to the office at about 8:40--we had just sat down at our desks when the first plane hit....there was a TV in the waiting room, everyone local sat down to watch. We thought that it was just a horrible accident, until we watched the 2nd plane hit. Then we knew something was horribly, horribly wrong. I don't remember much of the rest of the day--we kicked into high gear and got really busy with post security procedures.

The worst part, I was married to a soldier (she was an MP) at the time, and Sept. 11th was our anniversary. Needless to say, reservations got cancelled.

The big thing I remember is after all was done and we sat back down to watch CNN again, the question going through our minds wasn't 'why', but more like 'how the hell did they pull it off?'

[Blaze]

If anybody was interested, this was the poem I wrote that afternoon.

Actually, now that I think about it, it was a week later or something. After a lot of "facts" had come out about it. I don't remember exactly when. It was fairly soon after the attack. Doesn't matter.

WE WILL STILL BE PROVEN RIGHT

In nineteen seventy-six we built two sprawling towers.
Made from steel and solid concrete, they emanated power.
And glass as well, where the sun, did gleam bright.
We filled these with our best, black and yellow, red and white,
And we will still be proven right.

For freedom they stood,
Showing that freedom could
Work if we work together
Toward a common interest and a common goal,
From which no man could take a toll,
And we will still be proven right.

September eleventh of two thousand one,
When the day had just begun,
There became and awful sight.
It raised my ire,
That in that fire,
Thousands had died without a fight.
And we will still be proven right.

A man filled with sin,
Dark and Black deep within,
He hated all those different with all his might.
He brainwashed others, forcing his desires,
Polluting their minds with muck and mire.
And we will still be proven right.

Now it’s our turn to go after him,
This Osama Laden of bin,
And all his allies run in fright.
He cannot hide, he cannot flee,
There is no mercy on bended knee.
And we will still be proven right.

I do hear people say, “This cannot be the way!”
“Don’t let might make right! Just let there come what may!”
But this evil man and his evil band,
They cannot feel the hand
Of love and forgiveness.
No! The longer we tarry,
The more he will weary,
Of waiting and strike the innocent again.
So to those who say, ”Don’t take away my light”,
I say only this.
Like the men in World War II,
And those who combat evil old and new,
WE WILL STILL BE PROVEN RIGHT!


To be honest, it still feels very relavant.

[Minako-chan]

*stands up and claps, and nothing more*

[RadicalDreamer]

I was in my first period science class. It was just beginning, and my teacher walked in and turned on the tv, saying "Guys, a plane just crashed into one of the Twin Towers." We saw one of the towers smoking, heavily, then we saw another jet, swoop in and slam into the other.
It was like watching a movie in a dream. I knew what was going on, but didn't quite comprehend it yet. He switched off the tv after about ten minutes, saying that students in other classes were gettig upset. I was thinking "So?! They're not in here! Turn it back on!"
I remember later someone said that it was the Chinese, because this was aroun te time there was that whole U.S. plane crashing into a Chinese jet. Moron. Somehow my friend and I knew it was an Arab country.

[Seir]

When it happened I was waking up at home, I decided not to go to class for some reason that day. When I woke up and walked into the hallway, my dad was on the phone with someone saying "What? A second one struck the towers?" In my head I was wondering what the hell was going on. I go over and look at the television which was on, there in letters at the bottom Special Report: World Trade Center Target of Terrorist Attack.

I was shocked, my mind went dumb. I just plopped down on the couch and proceeded to watch. It was so unreal for me because I love right across the river from NYC here in West Orange. From the NJ Turnpike you can see the NYC skyline. When I found out that both Towers were hit, I went from shocked to angry; anrgy that someone could do this. I was even more angry because NYC was RIGHT THERE, the Towers were there all my life, as long as I could see. Now some asshole(s) decided to attack us, attack something that was part of my "home".

I found out that it was my sister on the phone, calling from college to make sure that my dad was ok because he worked in the city as a doctor. Fortunately, he too was home with me.

Later that afternoon, I went to Eagle Rock Reservation here in West Orange since it had a nice view of the city. When I got there, there were lots of people there already, looking across the river. Even from there you could see the smoke that was comming from Manhatten and the WTC. To see something like that felt like a violation of someone's living space. It was as if someone walked into your house with a sledgehammer and broke a hole in the wall. After a long while of standing there and watching I decided to go home because it was starting to get dark.

One note, West Orange is a heavily Jewish town, and while I was driving home, I saw the Daughters of Israel center drape a cover on it's sign. Most likely out of fear, some other Jewish businesses did the same as well, and I don't blame them because at that time we had no idea if there were more attacks to follow. I live right across from a National Guard Armory and there were guards posted with full armor and gear. It was the first time I saw someone standing right in front of me with flak and an M16 variation.

Something that also creeped out my friends was that I showed them Jin-Roh for the first time on the night of Tuesday, September 10th.

Finally, to this day, the hole in the NYC skyline is a gaping reminder of what happened two years ago.

[Killer-Rabbit]

I remember I was in psychology class. The admins had waited til after both towers were hit to decide it would be a good idea to have the teachers turn on the TV.

One of the strongest remaining emotions from that day is hatred. No, not towards terrorists or anything like that. Its towards the major news stations who managed to get fairly accurate estimates right away, but then as time went one they kept "speculating" about what could happen. Although it was a big event, they play it out to be even bigger than it really was. Seems like they were trying to cause panic so that they could have more reports about how much people are panicing. i.e The most accurate death toll estimates I heard (before an official count) were those given within the hour of the second tower falling. Shortly after that it was "20000 could be dead", "30000 may have been in the towers", "40000 might have died", "its possible that theres a chance that up to 50000 people are now dead".
Yeah...I havent really liked them since...

That mixed with the 2000 election coverage just about crossed the line...

[Doc Giggles]

I had just woken up and was trying to make myself breakfast when the first news reports started scrolling across the tv. I quickly changed the channel to CNN and watched everything. When I saw the second plane hit, I nearly had a nervous breakdown. I had arrived home from my trip to Australia less then 6 hours earlier. September 2001 was the greatest and worst time of my life.

[UrzaPlanezwalker]

school, and when i first saw the video feed of just the first plane hitting, i thought it was a movie and said "woah! cool!" and then realized it was live and just watched the chaos ensue. teachers tried to teach, but everyone was glued to the tv...

[Teranfirbt]

Hmmmm, your poem brought a tear to my eye blaze.... not much can do that.

[Kirstie]

/me hugs blaze

that was an... i dont have the words to describe it.. but ti was very.. that...
you're very talented
i'm at work and almost crying, its very good -claps-
(edit: the poem was the good thing, not the crying...)