September 11th.... thoughts, memories and wishes

[Harkoliar]

i actually got a vcd of the real live pictures of the sept 11. there was a camera man inside the WTC with all the other firemen. it was a journalist who got caught in all the action. i saw the film where they were inside when the building fell. wierd and scary moment just watching it. more scary if your in it. i give my wishes and well being to all those who lost thier love ones.

[Ziroc]

Originally posted by skywalker: For those who were not here at Ironworks or those who want to revisit the original threads, look here: http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/cg...;f=24;t=002855 And here: http://www.ironworksforum.com/ubb/cg...;f=24;t=002869 I can remember calling my Mom and a just about crying over it. A very sad day, indeed. Mark [EDIT] Just reading through these thread fills me with such grief, I'd almost forgotten how horrible it was almost 2 years ago. These threads were a snapshot of the tragedy as it happened. They are so hard to read through again.

Indeed they are. I can't read them without tearing up.

I was home, asleep, and Donna came home before she had to go to the dentist, and in a very shaken voice, she said 'the world trade center is on fire!! a plane...' I got up, thinking ah, just a little plane, but we sat down, turned on the TV, and EVERY SINGLE CHANNEL was covering this. Even MTV, BBC, every channel. and I saw the huge hole in the buildings and gasped. "oh my god" was all I could say.. then, LIVE we see a second plane dive into the other one, and I think I was horror struck. OMG..OMG.. Instantly crying and lost it.

When they fell, I was shocked to the core. Same goes for the Pentagon.
All of this, and on top of that, my mom was with cancer in a hospital getting out of surgery/biopsy. She died Feb 22, at 2.22am. (weird timing)

But, in 2001, we got married, minus that, 2001 was the worst year of my entire life.. I KNOW people that worked in there, (they got out) but I've drawn those towers when I was little, and always loved them.

About a year later, I pulled out all my comic books that I drew, and one of them, from "Intruders on Earth" (about aliens invading earth), but I drew a picture of a large mothership shooting at the WTC and breaking it in half, and OMG, I turned a few pages, and I have a scene of 'Connie chung' reporting, and drew a TV in the background that said "World Trade center disaster - 214 dead" I got goose-bumps looking at this. VERY scary.. I'll NEVER draw something like that again.. I really made me feel guilty. in a weird way.. even though I drew it in 8th grade..

[Ziroc]

Originally posted by Harkoliar: i actually got a vcd of the real live pictures of the sept 11. there was a camera man inside the WTC with all the other firemen. it was a journalist who got caught in all the action. i saw the film where they were inside when the building fell. wierd and scary moment just watching it. more scary if your in it. i give my wishes and well being to all those who lost thier love ones.

I have that as well, but I bought the DVD, and the CNN and others for historical reasons-for my future children to witness what evil is, and what heroes are.

I think about it once a day or more.. mainly because we have local NY channels, and they show the skyline on Channel 4, NBC, and I close my eyes, and think how empty Manhattan is without our Two Towers.

I will never forget.

[*\Conan/*]

I would like to offer my thoughts and a prayer of Peace to this thread.

2 years ago the morning was just as cool and nice. Little did I know what was to come that terrible morning. To come out of my workplace and see the Pentagon billowing black smoke and the horrible feeling of the Towers reality.

People walking aimlessly wondering what was going on. It is still fresh in my mind also, a very sad open spot in my heart.

Conan

[mistral4543]

I admire the bravery of those who fought so hard against the terrorists, and am sorry for the deaths of those who had to die so senselessly.

It was indeed a terrible day, and this thread has reminded me not to take the simple things in life, for granted.

[Cloudbringer]

Originally posted by wellard: This is a thread to post your thoughts, memories and condolences to those tragic events in New York that seems like yesterday. This is NOT a political discussion, maybe that will be discussed on the currant events forum. This a chance to express our concern and solidarity to those in the USA, and indeed the world who suffered at the hands of evil.

Nice idea, Wellard. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I was at work when the chair of the department came in and told us he was on the cellphone with his wife, who had just heard the first plane hit the tower. Not long after that he was telling us the first one had collapsed....

My fiance was in Idaho and frantically trying to reach me, not knowing exactly how far the terrorism was spread out on the East coast. It was a very very sad day for all of us.

[harleyquinn]

It was a horrific day for me. I have a paper my younger cousin wrote about that day, I'll post it after I get home.
First off, reading all these posts have me crying again. Good thing I'm in a cube, so none of my co-workers can see me.

It started when a co-worker told me a plane had hit the WTC. I blew her off thinking she must be mistaken. I went off to a phone conference, no one in Minn. office knew about it since no one mentioned it. By the time I got out, it was obvious something big was going on. There were about 150 people stuffed in our office library (meant to hold maybe 20 people) watching the TV. I called my mom to make sure we didn't know anyone in the buildings. She told me my Aunt was frantic trying to reach my uncle, who works at the UN building. (he was ok, but she didn't get through to him until late in the afternoon)

Next call was to my boyfriend. He had no idea any of this was going on, and before I could even tell him, I started crying as I was getting out the words, "They've attacked the WTC and the Pentagon".
He picked me up at work, since I couldn't stop crying. I went home, snuggled with my cat and my then 2 week old kitten (even though mama cat was not happy about me holding her baby, I didn't care, needed the little one then). I spent the rest of the day watching the TV in horror.
The next week was painful as no one had been able to track down my cousin Karl, who's a NY Police officer. After a week, word finally got out that he was ok, and had been too busy with the rescue effort to contact us. He was lucky, when the attack happened, he had been off duty, had he been on duty, we probably would have lost him since his station was the closest to the WTC and they lost many men that day.

I grew up on Long Island, and the Twin Towers (WTC) were a big deal to me. They were always the first thing from NYC you could see when driving up the LIE (Long Island Expressway) to the city. They were the tallest, which immeadiately makes them cool when you're a kid. Everytime I went to the city, including a few years ago, I had to make sure I saw them, even if not go in. In fact, my last time there before the attack I was with a now ex-bf who had never been to NYC. He wanted to go to the top of the WTC and the Empire State Bldg. We went to Empire State, but not WTC, and I said "Don't worry, we'll go next time". Guess I took it forgranted they'd always be there. Even now, 2 years later, I still can't fully believe they're not there anymore.

[Bungleau]

I worked for a software company as the only employee in this city. The news came in on the radio, and I dialed in to news sites to find out what was going on. By 10AM, I'd packed things up and headed home for the day to watch on TV in stunned horror.

Two side notes.

First, my experience has been that the closer you are to ground zero, the more impact it still has on you. Six months later, people in the western US that I interacted with were treating it as a piece of history. For people in the eastern US, it was still a part of current news.

Second, I was scheduled to give a technical presentation at a conference put on by a California company in May of 2002. They took my presentation and someone decided to flippantly add "Let's Roll" as a title slide for one section. I told them it was a make-or-break decision -- if they put that in there, I wasn't presenting. They didn't see the big deal -- it was a cool marketing phrase to them. For me, even midway across the country, it was more of a dagger in the heart.

They took it out. Sometimes decency wins.

Peace.

*B*
Minister, etc. (ret.)

[ 09-11-2003, 10:24 AM: Message edited by: Bungleau ]

[Ziroc]

Originally posted by harleyquinn: It was a horrific day for me. I have a paper my younger cousin wrote about that day, I'll post it after I get home. First off, reading all these posts have me crying again. Good thing I'm in a cube, so none of my co-workers can see me. It started when a co-worker told me a plane had hit the WTC. I blew her off thinking she must be mistaken. I went off to a phone conference, no one in Minn. office knew about it since no one mentioned it. By the time I got out, it was obvious something big was going on. There were about 150 people stuffed in our office library (meant to hold maybe 20 people) watching the TV. I called my mom to make sure we didn't know anyone in the buildings. She told me my Aunt was frantic trying to reach my uncle, who works at the UN building. (he was ok, but she didn't get through to him until late in the afternoon) Next call was to my boyfriend. He had no idea any of this was going on, and before I could even tell him, I started crying as I was getting out the words, "They've attacked the WTC and the Pentagon". He picked me up at work, since I couldn't stop crying. I went home, snuggled with my cat and my then 2 week old kitten (even though mama cat was not happy about me holding her baby, I didn't care, needed the little one then). I spent the rest of the day watching the TV in horror. The next week was painful as no one had been able to track down my cousin Karl, who's a NY Police officer. After a week, word finally got out that he was ok, and had been too busy with the rescue effort to contact us. He was lucky, when the attack happened, he had been off duty, had he been on duty, we probably would have lost him since his station was the closest to the WTC and they lost many men that day. I grew up on Long Island, and the Twin Towers (WTC) were a big deal to me. They were always the first thing from NYC you could see when driving up the LIE (Long Island Expressway) to the city. They were the tallest, which immeadiately makes them cool when you're a kid. Everytime I went to the city, including a few years ago, I had to make sure I saw them, even if not go in. In fact, my last time there before the attack I was with a now ex-bf who had never been to NYC. He wanted to go to the top of the WTC and the Empire State Bldg. We went to Empire State, but not WTC, and I said "Don't worry, we'll go next time". Guess I took it forgranted they'd always be there. Even now, 2 years later, I still can't fully believe they're not there anymore.

Yeah, I too cannot believe those towers are gone.. BTW, for people that see images on TV of the twin Towers, the TV does NOT do them justice at ALL. They are 300 times larger in person, and take up 4 blocks each way!!

[Thoran]

Originally posted by Absynthe on 9/11/01: I fear this is only the beginning of the killing: whether it be further terrorist attacks or the retribution, there will be many more dead. And nothing will be any better.

I was living in CA with my wife and kids on a one year assignment, got in my car to drive to work as normal, flipped to KROQ as normal, and started to listen to Kevin & Bean as normal. They were talking about something happeing in NYC, but I assumed it was just one of their usual poor taste skits (which are usually pretty darn funny)... but then I realized they weren't goofing or trying to be funny. By the time I passed John Wayne Airport in Irvine I knew something bad had happened. By the time I got to work in Garden Grove I had the details, Towers hit, terrorists, fire in Washington. I went to my desk and called my wife... told her to turn on the TV... she did and said something along the lines of "Oh my God". I tried to call home (Upstate NY) where my sister was watching our house while we were gone... circuits busy. I tried to call my folks in Western NY... circuits busy. I went to talk to a buddy who grew up in Manhatten and went to school very near the WTC, he was gone home already, and after staring numbly at my computer screen for a while I did the same.

-rant mode on-
How many have died... from 9/11 when people from so many countries died, to the retribution... where maybe 10 died for every life lost on that horrible day, maybe 50, maybe 100... who knows. Afghani's, Iraqi's, US and British soldiers. And I doubt it's over yet. I watch the news from Israel and wonder if the radical muslims want to put the world in that situation, where they lauch a terrorist attack that kills our people, and we retailiate by killing 10x of thiers. They so happily sacrifice the lives... for what? To insure that their children will know no peace? To continue a cycle of violence that will eventually lead to their eradication? Is that what they want... to have their countries bombed into the stone age and their people treated with distrust whereever they go? I just don't get it.

I don't think I really got over what happened for weeks, everything felt somehow DIFFERENT... work didn't seem to matter after so many had died needlessly. In fact I don't think I've ever really gotten over it, I still feel a sadness. But life goes on, the Pentagon is restored to the point where it's hard to see anything ever happened, the WTC site is ready and will hopefully host the tallest building in the world, the planes are flying. The signs of the damage are fading... but there are still children missing their parents, and parents missing their children. Crisis hotlines are still getting calls from people who are having trouble holding it together, and the US is a different place. We (in general) don't have much sympathy for the Palestinians anymore. We supported wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that 2 years and 1 day ago would have been unthinkable. Bush asks for more and more money to fight the "War on Terror" and we think "well if it'll kill one more of those bastards it's well worth it". The news talks about how Al Qaeda may be concentrating on Iraq and we say "good, the more we kill there the less we'll have to deal with elsewhere". We don't have much compassion for them, we don't see their cause... we only see people who need killin. Bush IS a cowboy, and the US IS a big stupid puppy... with big teeth and a desire for some payback. The arab radicals are too used to the well behaved Israeli's, who use the tactic of measured response, you hurt us, we'll hurt you back about the same amount. The big stupid puppy gets a nosebleed and he squashes a country or two, and the arabs don't have many to spare.

Ok... angry rant over, it just pisses me off that those idiots think violence will beget anything but more violence. How do you deal with such a mentality, you can't ignore them, they'll just keep coming... you can't give them what they want, because they'll just want more... and then they'll know that violence will get it for them. What happens when these people get a nuclear weapon... IMO it's just a matter of time.

OK... angry rant now REALLY over, I guess I didn't realize how mad I still am about 9/11... even two years later.

[ 09-11-2003, 11:18 AM: Message edited by: Thoran ]