[stmercy2020]

I was driving home from a linguistics class at the University of Akron.  I was pretty sleep deprived at the time, and I remember thinking at first that it seemed like a pretty tasteless joke for the radio DJs to be playing on an otherwise unremarkable weekday morning.  It was the kind of horrible thing that seemed almost plausible coming out of the Bob & Tom show or whatever it was back then, but it didn't stop.  And then the second plane hit, and there was no laugh track in the background.  It took forty-five minutes to drive home, and I spent pretty much the entire time numb, wondering about friends and family living in and around New York.  Ironically, the people I knew who were most directly affected by the attacks- my at-the-time brother-in-law and father-in-law- both worked in D.C. in sensitive jobs that frequently had them travelling to-and-from the Pentagon, but I didn't think of them at all until much later, when it was discovered that my brother-in-law had been on a plane that was grounded and couldn't be located or reached.

Emotionally, I remember being first sad, then angry, then both together.  I'm ashamed to admit that for a moment I was among those who entertained visions of turning the Middle East into the worlds largest magnifying glass, although I recoiled from that sort of reactionary view pretty quickly.  I felt and feel a strong desire to see those responsible for these attacks brought to justice.  I also have a pretty uncompromising view of what constitutes responsibity- I don't believe that murder and genocide are ever justifiable, no matter how you have been wronged in the past.

[sacul]

i was in school near the downtown Los Angeles Area and the principal ordered all the students to go home and since school just started a week ago, all my friends had no idea what was going on.  then we heard rumors that there was a plane that crashed into one of the twin towers and i thought that it had to be a joke, but when i finally got back home and turned on the tv, i found soon ehough that it was no joke, every channel i flipped through were all talking about the twin towers.  and then a few min later, i saw the second plane crash into the south tower and before long it had collapsed just like that, and soon after the north tower went down as well.  and as you could imagine (i was not yet an adult at the time), seeing four planes crash and thousands of lives lost in just a short time and millions around the globe devastated,  i reallised i was just numb, i just sat there and just watched the whole thing.  since then i have been praying that our government would capture those who were responsable so something like this would not happen again, and during my speech at graduation, i reminded everyone how much we as a society have to go and how much that now more than ever, we have to stick together and cooperate with each other. 

may the souls of those lost rest in peace.  Amen 

[TC2]

I was in my last year of school, sitting in study hall.  Well, my temporary study hall until it was time to move to a new location; and then the PA intercom system came on with the principal telling us all that the planes had hit the towers.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing, but knew it was real once they started sending the buses to take us home.  As I was walking home I just was in complete shock as to what was going on and sadly received a bit of flak afterwards.

Since there are a lot of ignorant people in this world, many folks mistake my spanish heritage for being "muslim" which is not even a race.  Some pricks associated me with "terrorists" and sought to cause trouble, but unfortunately for them I don't take lashings like that without putting up a fight and though they never really learned to shut up it kept them in their place.

I personally don't need these "reminders" of what happened, seeing that big giant hole in downtown NYC is reminder enough.  I don't believe in holding a grudge and though those responsible need to be brought to justice, keeping hatred in my heart is not in my agenda; as all it will do is defile it with poison.

Ah well…

[demented20]

I had just gotten dressed to go to work when my roomate came in and told me to turn on the news. At first I thought it was an accident. I mean I had read that a plane had hit the Empire State building way back when. I just thought some pilot had gotten lost on the way to the airport. I was watching the news as the second plane flew in. I just remember thinking to myself that things are going to be different, nothing was ever going to be quite the same again.

[Delmo Walters Jr.]

I was asleep, and a friend of mine who lives in Texas and works for AA called me. He said he thinks one of his company’s planes may have just flown into the WTC. I got up after his call and turned on CNN. At first I thought it was an accident, then I saw the other one fly into the other tower. I knew it wasn’t an accident then. I called the job(I work for a newspaper)-they wanted me to come in as soon as possible. I would have to wait for the subways to go back into service. Got in touch with my family. I actually voted in the mayoral primary-nothing else to do. When I got back to my apartment I noticed that one of the towers was missing. It never occurred to me that the towers would collapse. When I eventually got to work, it was the busiest day before or since. Saw photos that didn’t get used-body parts, people jumping, stuff like that.

[Tigersan]

I was still back in poland getting back from the school at the bus, when my friend called me up saying that US is getting attacked. When i got home i thought its some kind of movie, i didnt believe it.
BTW if someone wants to watch a good movie…go to http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com – one of the best movies that covers why 9/11 had to happen… or just find "ZeitGeist" on google videos…
Best movie of this kind ive ever seen, Loose change , and coincidences are nothing compared to this one…

[Lingster]

I was still back in poland getting back from the school at the bus, when my friend called me up saying that US is getting attacked. When i got home i thought its some kind of movie, i didnt believe it.
BTW if someone wants to watch a good movie…go to http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com – one of the best movies that covers why 9/11 had to happen… or just find "ZeitGeist" on google videos…
Best movie of this kind ive ever seen, Loose change , and coincidences are nothing compared to this one…

Don't be an idiot.  Two planes brought down the towers.  I was in the World Trade Center that morning, down in the lowest level of the basement where the PATH station was, and up through the concourse where the shops and tower lobbies were.  Everything was normal.  There were no explosives, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

Why it's so hard for people to believe that flying two commercial airliners into skyscrapers would cause mass devastation, I have no idea.

[Bo Inaka]

I was working a retail job and the first I heard about it was on the BBC on my car radio (NPR).  I remember distinctly the announcer, Robin Lustig, saying that things were happening very fast in NYC and that apparently a plane had flown into the WTC.  While listening, the other tower was hit and reports started coming in about the pentagon.  Everyone just walked around in shock all day.  Customers came in, but all they could do was watch the TV we put on our front counter.  Everyone looked physically sick.  After a while, I couldn't watch TV any more–CNN overload.  The most powerful bit of TV I saw was actually Jon Stewart's monologue on the Daily Show on 9/13.  I hadn't considered how hard it would be to be funny that soon.  I'm glad that show was serious that day.  It was cathartic for me to laugh the next day when they made fun of how flags  and anything patriotic were showing up in ads on TV.  I guess nothing is sacred.
It was two years later the next time I was in NYC, but I felt absolutely compelled to go to ground zero.  I'm glad I did, though it was really hard.

Bo.

[iceman75]

I was at school, Silver Lake College, in the library, on the computer. It was a Catholic school, where nuns are teachers and part of the staff, I was on the computer when two nuns come into the room and turn on the TV, I was shocked to see the second plane flying into the second tower. It was before class began and I was devastated, the rest of my first class was just as devastated as I was and the teacher let us out early to try to get ourselves together mentally and emotionally. In the second class we trying to discuss our thoughts of the situation, I said "It just doesn't seem real, when I saw it I thought I was watching a movie like Independence Day, I mean I just didn't believe I was seeing what I saw." And it was true pretty much, it took a long time for it to set in, I was watching the news channels for most of the night into the next week pretty much before things went back into what was seemingly routine.

[GTSKate]

I believe I'll set us back on track and share my recollection about that day.

It was my first day as the new store manager of the art gallery I'd been working at in a mall in Southeastern Michigan.  I was at the bank, dropping off the morning deposit and getting change, when a television that was in the bank for a giveaway suddenly switched to news coverage of the first plane hitting.  The tellers and I stared for a few moments in disbelief, but I returned to the store and turned on a radio (which we weren't supposed to do, but I figured, I'm the manager, who's going to know today?).

So, I was back in the store, listening, by the time the second plane hit.  The mall was not open yet, though there were plenty of elderly "mall walkers" about.  My store gate was down, but a few people stayed near the entrance listening to my radio.  Shortly after, the phone started ringing all morning.  Each of the six stores in the malls in the area were calling each other, trying to figure out what was going to happen.  Remember, in the first hour or so, before people really started figuring out what was happening, suddenly everyone thought that a large gathering of people might become a target. 

My mall was near the federal building of the town I reside in, and I had just gotten off the phone with the panicked manager of the mall near Selfridge Air Force Base, which had scrambled fighter jets to take off on intercepts.  The area near her mall had gone into total lockdown, with the mall being evacuated and citizens being told to go home and stay there.
Mine was the last mall to be told to close up, as suddenly no one wanted to be in crowded places.

With nothing to do but go home, I suddenly realized a cousin of mine worked in the towers every so often.  It wasn't regularly, but I prayed she wasn't there that day.  With phone service in New York overloaded, I didn't get word until later that night, thanks to the internet, but I remember the sick feeling watching the towers fall over and over on television.

Helluva day.  That afternoon, my roommates and I hung our American flag on the side of the house and were encouraged when our neighbors came out to do the same thing when they saw us.

-Kate

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