9-11 to 3-11: Six months after...

[Trent Lane]

It doesn't seem it, but it has been six months since we, the US, lost a little of that sense of secuirity we thought we had. Where were you that morning, and has all that's happened made you change the way you do everyday things or not?...

[James]

Speaking outside the US in the UK, it was afternoon and was just going to work at one of London's airports (I was a doing a job as a disabled passenger assistant - since been made redundant as result of 11/9). The live pictures on the TV screen were indeed shocking.

On the way to work the Pentagon was hit - I recall that one because I was beginning to wonder whether I should turn back home.

Silly as it sounds, but such a massive event were scary here right on the otherside of the ocean. Afterall, if Terrorist were attacking mulituple targets, no one could be sure how far this network was going to extend. The airport was on full alert and everyone working in there was tense.
Since there had been no word on how the terrorists were causing the crashes (I recall that rumour of special radio devices were being prompted by journalists - a concept they have quickly forgotten in the light of it been suicide missions) there was a slight paranoid uncertainty that a plane was going to go through the terminal.
All sounds silly now we know the extend of the disaster, but at the time no one had a clue what was going to happen.

Here's a question - and it's a serious one.

If your outlook has been changed in the US by the attack - do you see this as a positive? The US as a whole is country that has been fortunate to have been relatively free of external terrorist attacks - do you think as a nation that the event has made you more prepared for potential terrorism?
Do you think that if there is - god forbid - a next time, that as a county and as indivduals it will be handled differently? Are you left feeling afraid or determined to overcome such future situations?
In other words, have there been any positives to have come out of such a horrible event?

[Watagashi]

I was at school with atari in Health discussing with the class what wa should do for one of our classmates whose dad just died in that week. We decided to walk over to the locker rooms, where there was more space, and work on a huge card first. On our way, I noticed that the people in the workshop classes were all standing on tables, looking almost dumbstruck at the television. At first, I didn't think anything of it and kept walking on to the locker rooms, assuming that it was probably just a video on how to cut wood or something. Then, when the teacher called us to go into the workshop to watch the television, I couldn't believe what I saw. We walked in just as the first Twin Tower started to collapse and disappear in that overwhelming smoke. We couldn't really hear what was going on or see the picture clearly on the screen, but it still seemed as real as ever. During that moment, I felt such a rush of so many emotions, I didn't know what to do. The anger, sorrow, fear, and feeling of helplessness just swarmed up inside of me as I tried to figure out what was going on. I couldn't imagine or figure out how someone could do something so horrible.

It's hard to say if that day brought any possitive things out of it. If anything, it probably brought many people more together and probably converted more people to God. Other than that and the fact that it brought people more pride in this country, I can't really think of any possitive things that was resulted in this act. I'd like to say sorry to all the people who lost their loved ones in that day and I wish you happiness and joy in the future.

[Lucky Bob]

I was over here in Europe, and all my family in the States called me up and said "Turn on CNN, now!" Sure enough, the towers had been hit. Then the Pentagon was hit. That tore it for me. I had just recently taken a trip to the Pentagon for summer camp, and I realized that it could have been me in that building. When the towers collapsed, that was just too much. I just went back to my room and shut the door. I stayed in there a while praying and wondering.

One thing that did come out good, was that we finally got back our sense of being American. Just before the attacks, we were all worried about recession and how much it was going to affect our wallets. After 9/11, we started thinking about the things that really mattered. Our families, our freedoms, and our personal relationships with God.

[Joe Wagner]

I work with a government organization and had been either in the military or a military brat for most of my life. I was in the press office working when one of my co-workers came on and turned on the TV shortly after the first tower had been hit. I saw everything - the second hit, the Pentagon (where I have friends still in the military) and the collapse. I couldn't believe the events that had unfolded in front of me. I was worried that my dad could be called into action but at the same time I was angry at the cowards behind this dreadful act. To this day I can't understand how a religious book could become so distorted to the terrorists that did this act.

I think one major change though was a greater outpouring of patriotism that had been lacking in this country for a long time.

-Joe!

[Pilmedium]

I didn't see it live, because I was at school without access to a television. It hasn't really changed my life that much. Well, maybe a little.

- I never cared about Afghanistan until after the attacks.

- I started to care more about hoping someone would catch Bin Laden.

- My social studies class was altered for the rest of the week that week. I remember everyone was immediately taken back to "homeroom".

- I now have a real reason to refuse going on an airplane. I'm really not even the least bit scared of being attacked... It's just the security that I'm scared of and upset with.

- Most important: I still do things normally most days.

Also, I got a homework assignment today relating to this.

[Sumi_Masen]

I didn't hear anything about the attacks until I was walking to my third period class. One of my friends was standing right outside of the locker rooms and told me what happened. We spent the whole class watching CNN, and we did the same in my fourth period.

It doesn't really seem like it has been six months. I remember the next day in my World History class the teacher said the whole thing would be over in a couple of weeks.... Christmas at the most. I guess he was mistaken......

Like Watagashi, when I saw what happened, I couldn't believe how somebody could even think about doing something like that. And I too want to wish those who lost their loved ones happiness and joy in the future.

[Trent Lane]

I had just put my shirt on and was walking through the living room when they broke into a report on the Today show about the "hole in Tower 1", at the time they didn't know what had happened. I went to my dad's room to show him all this, and as soon as I turned it, the second plane hit Tower 2. A chill shot down my back and I felt something was wrong. One might be an accident; two was not. I went to school, but school was basically one class of watching everything unfold. Our campuses were shut down at 10:30 that morning due to the fear that our city was next to be hit, seeing as we now have the largest building for banking on this coast now...

If anything, I know this makes me look at things that really matter a lot more. What was the major story the week before? Anne Heche and her alien encounter... yeah, whatever. I'm still not crazy about planes, but if it's that or nothing, I'll go... and God forbid I'm on a highjacked plane, I'm going out like those guys over Pennsylvania... "Let's roll."

[Calhoun07]

I was about to open the bank when I heard the news report on the radio about a plane hitting one of the world trade towers, and they didn't know yet if it was an accident and they were saying they thought it was a military plane. I went to the break room and turned on the TV and saw the live pictures. I had to open the bank and my first customer was there before I even opened, so I explained to him why I had delayed a couple minutes in getting the bank open. When I told him the World Trade Center had been hit, he was shocked. He didn't know a thing about it and none of the other radio stations were yet reporting it. He told me he had just been there a few months ago and it was pretty hard for him to take it all in.

I have to say that it was very hard to work that day. I still believe that every single business should have closed for the day. I know they wanted to keep the banks open tho as some kind of message to the terrorits, but there were times when all of us were in the break room watching the TV then we would go out and there would be somebody waiting. Nobody complained if they had to wait a mintue or so while we tried to collect our thoughts and go on. There was just this understanding.

I did get to see the first tower collapse, tho. I was going back a little after 9 when I didn't have any customers to see what was going on. Up til that point, I imagined they would fix it and the there would be this massive construction job done on the towers to fix it much like how they re did the Statue of Liberty years ago. The moment I walked back there, the tower was swaying then just collapsed. It was pretty horrific to see that and I could not stand as I watched it.

I am not entirely sure how it has changed my perspective. All I know is that I thanked God every day for being able to live in a country where its home land has not been ravaged by the attack of a foriegn enemy. There was a certain appreciation for that. Now we became vulnerable, and our vulnerable underbelly was shown. But we allowed our selves to be vulnerable at Pearl Harbor as well, but that only served to strengthen us. I am not concerned that the terrorists will weaken our nation, I am convinced we will be stronger because of this.

[Alaskanbullworm]

I remember those few hours like the back of my hand. The day started out like any other day. School started recently and my first class was Math. I was writng down the date and I said, "Hmm, 911 that's like an emergency" I swear that I had a feeling about this day. Homeroom came around and the bell for the next class was English. That was exactly at 8:46. We had a normal class because we had no idea what happened. Then it was off to Gym. No one said anything yet, but it was 9:30. So the class ended at 10:16 and all of a sudden one of my friends came up to me and said "One of the two WTC towers just collapsed." I didn't fully comprehend what he meant until my Global Studies class when everyone was glued to the TV. I sat down and there was the one WTC tower. I thought to myself OMG who could have done this? Then after a few minutes the second one fell and evryone was sayng OMG. After that we basically tried to have a normal day of school but it was always on everyones mind.

[Singin' Stray Cat]

I remember getting up early that day. Later that morning, I would have to sit through a critique in Typography 2 (an art class). Hadn't even mounted my work for presentation yet. Wasn't proud of it. I remember thinking as I slid out of bed, "This day's gonna suck."

I should have kept that thought to myself. :(

About an hour and a half later, I was in the university's graphic design library, next to the classroom where the critique was, trying to finish matting my stuff on time. The professor found me there, and told me to come back to the classroom because he had something important to tell the class. Thinking he was going to give us our next assignment already, I finished up and followed him in. Once all the class was inside, he then told us - with the most pained restraint that I've ever seen on a person - that a plane had smashed into the side of the World Trade Center. Some other Art department personnel had set up a TV in the slide library, and we went down the hall to watch it.
For - maybe an hour, hour and a half, I don't remember exactly - we watched, dumbstruck, as a second plane hit the towers...and another hit the Pentagon...the towers collapsing... I remember thinking, "Oh...my...God...." at that moment. I remember having to go up to the computer lab for another class, and seeing my hands just shake as I tried to type and work on stuff. I couldn't work, so I actually came here, to Toon Zone, to see if anyone had any more news on what had happened. Which they did - that, plus the company of the others who were online at the time, relaxed me a bit. Hopefully, it was of some help to everyone who was there.
There were times I would mentally scream, "How could you do this?!?" at no one in particular - but most of the rest of the day, I was just numb. Shocked, maybe. Definitely glad to see all my family when I got home, even though we were thousands of miles from New York.
But what I remember most were bits and pieces of things, from that day and the ones immediately following it. The ROTC Color Guard at the university, lowering the flag to half-mast. A local controversy, prior to 9/11, over a car dealership that had a HUGE American flag in its lot - some thought it was way too big, for some reason. There have been absolutely no complaints since. The speeches from British Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush, along with a few songs, burned on a CD by my younger sister. Listening to John Stewart's speech and reading Dave Barry's article, both concerning the events of 9/11 - both moving and uplifting. Thinking about - lots of things. Mainly about how as loud, obnoxious, and stubbornly opinionated as many Americans are - yet when it really counts - they have the good sense to put aside their differences and come together.

[Fantasie117]

I live forty minutes northwest of the city. I know four places all within a ten mile radius where I could go and see the skyline. On September 9, I was at a party for my uncle at the Weehawken ferry, which, for those who don't know, is across from Downtown. It was a crystal clear day, and I could just look over and see the sun glinting off the towers.

That Tuesday was a Day 4 in my school. I had Gym first period followed by History. During Gym, we went off campus for a walk. I was outside at 8:46. When we came back inside it was about nine o'clock. I don't think the second plane had hit Tower Two, yet.

As I was waiting outside the gym, someone announced, "The World Trade Center is on fire!" We wondered what she was talking about. A tiny TV had been set up in the Athletic office. My teacher allowed us to file past the TV to see. The picture was grainy and black and white, but I could see the smoke billowing out of Tower One (which for that day was nicknamed "The one with the pointy thing"). They did say a plane hit the tower, but they thought it was a tiny one. No one knew it was a large jet.

The teacher allowed us to leave, and I ran down the hall to the labs. My friend was standing outside the Physics lab. I told her, "A plane slammed into the World Trade Center." At first, she didn't believe me. Then, she said, "Oh, it was probably just an accident. How could they not miss such a huge building?"

I walked on to History class. I told my two friends in that class and the teacher. We talked about it for a bit. The girl who sits behind me said, "Guys, I'm scared. My dad works in the World Trade Center." The girl in front of me replied soothingly, "Don't worry. You would have heard something."

At about 9:30, the principal came over the PA system and announced, "Teachers, at this time, I'd like for you to end class, and we'd like for all students to return to homeroom immediately." The girl in front (RV) and I exchanged nervous glances. We shared homerooms so we walked up together with my other friends behind me. I was shaking.

I sat in my desk in homeroom and waited. The girl who sits behind me class never made it to homeroom. The principal came on again and told us what they knew. If any students have family in the World Trade Center, they were to go to the conference room. The girl from my history class never made it to homeroom. RV and I kept exchanging scared looks. We told the people in my homeroom that the girl's father worked in Tower One. Everyone was terrified.

They turned on a radio, and a couple of girls called out bulletins as they were aired. I stood by my friend (the one who I had met by the Physics lab). We talked about it. We were both scared. Girls ran back and forth through the halls, trying to get to their friends or to the conference room. Girls in my homeroom stood by the window and tried to call friends with their cell phones.

Then, the administration announced they would be allowing students to be released. Classes were done with for the day. Too many people in my school have family who work in the City. I called my father and asked him to come get me. I was still shaking.

I can't remember when I got home. For the twenty minute ride, we listened to the radio. Q104 had gone from a music station to all news. I told him what had happened that day in school. He said to me, "What you're feeling is similar to what I remember the day Kennedy was shot."

I spent almost the entire day in my room. I never turned the TV, radio, or computer. I sat in a corner and read. My mom came home early and I cried on her shoulder. We went to the supermarket while my dad drove to the nearest blood center to give blood. The Bergen County Blood Center was full of people who wanted to give blood. They told my dad to come back four hours later because there were just too many people.

School was called off the next day. I spent that entire day in my room, too. I couldn't go near a television. I didn't want to see pictures. I was too scared. My dad had CNN/MSNBC on all the time. I would try my hardest not to look at the screen.

After typing this, I feel like crying now. I remember being in such shock, and then anger at those people who did it. We hung a flag outside our house. It's still there. I have a pin of an American flag on my backpack.

[Barb Gordon]

It's amazing that half a year has already passes. Today was actually kind of like the day when NYC was attacked. It was 5'ish in the morning and I was getting ready for zero period marching band. It was the time when I normally ate breakfast and so I sat down and turned on the news like I always do to see what the weather will be. And I saw this plane running into a building. I was like...what the hell? I checked to see if I was actually on a news channel. And then I started listening to the reports. I wanted to stay and just keep watching, but I went and got ready for school anyways. My dad came down to take me to school and I told him what was happening and he couldn't beleive it at first either. On that way to school we had the radio on, listening as reports started coming about another plane. When I got to school my friends and I immediately started talking about it, and so was everyone else. We had the tv on and we were all watching and talking. Rumours and reports and mixed stories flying all over the place. Then our band director finally made us get outside to practice. When we came back, the tv reported that the Pentagon had been hit. I was thinking, my god, what the heck is going on? I knew more than a few of us were a bit freaked out. I went to my next period and the tv in that class was on too, we were all quiet as we stayed glued to watching. Then an announcement came from the prinicpal that we had to continue with school, so we did, quite reluctantly. When I got home I turned on the tv again. Same stuff as that morning, and I just kept watching this replay of the planes hitting the towers. It was making me sick, I just couldn't watch it. I switched over to cartoons to try and take my mind off of what was happening, it was hard. All that day that was all that was in my mind, and the same for the next few days. It was all that the news reported, all the the newspaper's wrote about. I literally blocked it in my mind, I didn't want to think about what had happened, it seemed liked it'd consume me otherwise. My dad had the flag out above our garage for a pretty long time, and my mom and and I had those little flags on our car till we kept losing them. I've got an American Flag sticker on the car right now. And though, once the hype of wanting to look "american" died down and all those flags on all those cars slowly disappeared..it feels kind of nice when you still see a car go by with one, or with a sticker saying "God Bless America", or "These Colors Don't Run"....

Barb^-^

[JustJack]

Don't flame me, but none of this has changed me or my life in any way. At least no way thats clear to me or anyone around me.

Quite frankly, I don't care for any world government..no, I'm not very patriotic. Yes, I do love living in America. It's hard to explain how I feel, but ultimately...I look at things from the world perspective, & NOT from the American perspective..I'm sorry, but I'm open minded, & thinking in terms of "I'm an American" just seems way to close minded for me. I see what happened, & all I see is the death of many people. I don't care for slaughter. Natural Death, o.k...but taking away someone's life before their time..that's what I don't like. Innocent lives. And it's just going to continue. They kill our people...we kill their people..then they try to kill more of our people, and likewise..we kill more of their people. But, things like this were already going on in the world...this was just a tad bit more wide-scale. Anyway...all I'm saying is, lots stop killing eachother. Can you say "Apocolypse"? Sorry, but I vote that we try to postpone the end of the world...

Why can't we all be friends?! Oh yeah...we all have opinions..and 90% of the world is stupid...that's right.... :rolleyes:

[Galaxia]

Man, I was on my way to school when the first plane hit the World Trade Center. I didn't hear anything about it on the radio on the way to school though, which was kinda strange. It was a day exactly like today - clear, crisp, and sunny. Then I went to my first class at 9:30. I heard some kids saying "Hey did you see that thing with the World Trade Center?" I thought the were watching some special on it on the History Channel or something. Boy was I wrong! :( So that class ended at 10:50. My 11am class was next, so I go in and sit down. I noticed it was quiet in the room, but I figured that everyone was tired and they were starting to get used to going to class since it was the first full week of school. So everyone comes into class and sits down, then the professor walks in, looking frazzled. So he starts off by saying "So you all know what's going on, right?" I figured that he was talking about school matters - again, I was wrong. He told us what happened, and I was shocked. Then someone said that the Pentagon was hit, and the World Trade Center buildings collapsed. There was another plane crash in Pennsylvania. My jaw dropped to the floor. I remember saying to myself, "What the h*** is going on?" Then I got scared and upset because I have family that work in the city and I was afraid for them. Then my teacher said something about his cell phone not working and if we wanted to check our phones, we could. My mom saw the towers falling down. She said it looked "disgusting". I saw it later on in the day and I had to agree with her,although the words "horriffic" and "shocking" better described it. Classes were cancelled for the rest of that day, and the day after as well. My father and sister came home safely. Then our church had a special mass that night. The following day my sister and I stayed home, and my father went back to work - I begged him not to go. That day, I didn't even turn on the TV or flip on the radio. I sat in my room dumbstruck. I tried listening to some CDs, but that didn't work. I tried to watch a funny movie to lift my spirits, but that didn't work as well. My sister and I went for a walk around our neighborhood since we had nothing else better to do. I couldn't even fall asleep without seeing those towers come down... :(

Before 9/11, my sister and I went into the city to see a play on September 1st. I remember walking down one of the streets and looking to my left and seeing the Twin Towers in the distance standing proud and tall, like they always have been. Interestingly enough, the play that we went to see that night was called "tick, tick, boom!". Kind of ironic, eh? :(

[SilverKnight]

'9/11 sucks.'

September 11th sucks for me. It always has. It's the day before my nephew's birthday, for which there would always be massive parties, in which I would be expected, if not *demanded*, to get a present for him. I hated shopping. Despised it with a passion. The fact that I was horrible at it didn't help.

I had been thinking that from the moment I awoke. It's September 11th. It's gonna suck. Royally.

It was just after 10:00 in the morning. I was on fanfiction.net, attempting to write a review for a REALLY good story. All I had written was "Wow." I wanted to write more, but my train of thought was quite rudely broken when an IM popped up on my screen, written by my friend Flash with the simple words, "Holy sh*t, turn on your TV!"

Right then and there, I knew something was wrong. Who ever tells you to turn on your TV unless there's something big going on? My chest tightened up, already understanding from the moment I digested that sentence that this was going to be one hell of a crappy day. As I got up, I typed, "What? What's wrong?"

"Two planes have hit the World Trade Center!"

'9/11 *sucks*.'

I furrowed my brows, pacing over to my TV. Had I heard that right? *Two*? I flipped on the TV, rapidly replying, "Planes?"

As the screen came to life, my mouth went dry. I saw a far away shot of NYC, a plume of smoke so large that, at first, I thought this was some sort of miniature set I was looking at. My brain couldn't comprehend the fact that anything could make a cloud of smoke *THAT* large. It was impossible. Not even in *action* movies was something ever seen as that big. So what if the entire metropolitan area of DC and NYC was wasted by aliens in ID4? That was different. It didn't make smoke. (And, yes, this *is* what was running through my mind.)

My mental ramblings, non-sensical as they were, would have been much preferred over what I saw seconds later.

Tower Two crashing to the ground.

'9/11 sucks, dammit. It sucks, it sucks, it sucks.'

"Holy sh*t!" I shouted, my jaw agape. "Holy *****in' sh*t!" I ran back to the computer, typing in basically what I'd exclaimed, my eyes glued to the screen.

After that point in time, everything is something of a blur. I do recall saying, "That is *not* *****in' cool!" various times, sporadically interrupted by several, "Holy *****in' sh*t"s, and a couple of "Holy Mary, Mother of God" phrases. I do remember clearly that--unlike several here have stated--I didn't want to take my mind off of it. I didn't want to stop looking, I didn't want to bury myself in something else. I wanted to take it all in; to try with my feeble mind to grasp what had just happened.

The original death-toll, spoken only once by one anchor before any "official" estimate was out, was ten-thousand.

Ten-thousand. One with four zero's. Ten times the population of the town I lived in. Poof. Gone. With no goodbyes or last requests.

'Aw, sh*t, 9/11 *sucks*, man!'

I never realize I had a foundation, until it was badly shaken that day. It wasn't pleasant, and it wasn't wanted. To be blunt, it sucked. Plain and simple. It still sucks. You can never get innocence back. I'll never feel safe again. I suppose that's just as well, though. Only a fool would ever feel safe in the world today.

'9/11 sucks.'

'Nuff said.

[Elven Moon]

I can still remember it quite clearly...

I was getting ready to leave for college, and was sitting on my bed in my room watching TV when the news came that a plane had hit Tower 1. I thought it was some kind of crazy freak accident, but as I sat there I saw with my own eyes the second plane crash, and I knew then this was not right at all.

But the worst was yet to come as I was driving to school. The roads were pretty busy that morning and I even got stuck at a Railroad Crossing when I was already late. As I sat there a tearful Radio DJ announced that the first and then second towers had collapsed. I didn't know what to think. At school people were wandering around aimlessly, some frantically talking on cell phones, TVs on in several classrooms, no one knew where to go or what to do. In my first class we couldn't even concentrate, exchanging thoughts and informing people who hadn't yet heard the news.

That was the only class I would have that day. As I waited in the hall at the Art Center for my Drawing II class, the secretary approached us and told us to go home. The school was closing for the day and everyone had to leave.

I hadn't cried yet. But when I got home and saw my parents, I totally let loose. We spent pretty much the rest of our day watching TV. Even businesses were closed. People were saying "Go home and spend time with your family."

No, I won't ever forget. And when I think of those poor people jumping out the windows, I cry. I no longer feel safe in my country :(

[Stardust]

not to sound cynnical or anything, but i sorta feel some people forgot what the soldiers are out there fighting for. i feel that people "forgot" what the terrorists did, and the impact it left - because if they can do this much damage to one nation, what can they do to other countries? we can't sit back and not fight back; they don't care about looking like bad guys, they'll take the advantage of the pacifism and do the same thing over and over until the end result is in their hands.

i don't want to insult anyone, but there's been a lot of showing of patriotism by sticking an American flag sticker to the car window or wearing it on the shirt. not bad, but....the celebrities wearing the flag, wrapping it around them?? then it drags on the floor??! DRAGS on the floor....i think there should be something against people wearing flags. it aggrivates me when i see a flag being mistreated. for me, it stands as a symbol of the proud nation and to see torn and ripped flags hung in store windows, or flags out in the rain and inclement weather or draggin on the ground....=( i feel lenient about flags displayed at night without night lamps becuase i didn't know about that rule either, but inclement weather...come on. leave a flag out in the rain to wear and tear?


Where were you that morning, and has all that's happened made you change the way you do everyday things or not?...

i was in class when the planes hit the WTC and Pentagon, but when i got to the ROTC office, i couldn't believe what i saw. i'm from the DC area and my dad works in DC. the car bomb (a false threat now) in front of the State Department was what scared me the most. being far away from home, i just had to hear from them even though i knew he was most likely safe. for a couple months i couldn't read the paper or watch the news. i didn't even want to talk about the attacks with my friends, but then i went to see the Pentagon during Thanksgiving break and that was a little closure. it was more closure to be with my family.

this makes me prouder that i am in the Army. i won't ever be called out to fight until i graduate, and i'll never be in the front lines (females not allowed to fight front line), and i could never be a Special Ops soldier or be in the Rangers but it makes me proud to be doing something to help the nation.

i feel more patriotic, sad to say, because of the attacks. it made me realize our life isn't something to be taken granted for, and how grateful i am for living in a place where people can diss the army, where boys don't have to worry about being forced to join the military at 18 years old, where people are allowed to diss the government and not get shot for it....basically opportunities to live freely unlike many countries. i'm not saying that's what makes the country so great, but i often don't realize how lucky i am to be living in the US. :)

[Terminatah]

Well, it was a Tuesday morning.

I live in Florida. The only thing I had that day was a Math lab at 10am. I woke up at 7 and watched TBS all morning (Saved By The Bell, Family Matters) till I left and took the bus to the university. I might've heard something about it before leaving, had I been on another channel. The 10am lab got out in minutes (as always) and I went to the on-campus Chik-Fil-A to eat something, but they were serving breakfast until 10:30, and I hate the breakfast, so I went to the university's bookstore next door to sit and wait. I wondered why they had the news playing over the loudspeaker.

So I sat in a rocking chair and heard the President talking, and I slowly put together what happened without a TV around. It was pretty confusing. I sat there for a while, long after 10:30, before going back to Chik-Fil-A. I rushed through that and immediately went home to watch the news, which was of course on for the rest of the week. I'm not a very emotionally expressive person, and most of my reactions were internal.

So was this kinda thing really inevitable? Did the sleeping giant need another wake-up call? How many is it going to take? And until what?

I was surprised that it had been 6 months already. Significant dates usually carry an instantaneous feel, while this whole thing has been pretty sequential. It didn't so much end when we ticked into 9/12. We're still dealing. But we're slowly learning to make fun of Mariah Carey again.

-Terminatah

[Squall]

Unfortuantely, I slept through the entire morning the World changed forever.

Last semester in college, my first class on Tuesdays and Thursdays didn't start until 12:30 pm. And, I only live a block from campus. So, after a late night of doing homework, I usually slept until about 12:00 noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays... the Tuesday was no different.

I woke up about 11:50 am (Texas time; it was 12:50 pm New York and D.C. time), to my telephone ringing. It was my Mom calling. As soon as I answered and said, "Hello?" my Mom said, "I just wanted to make sure you were OK. Do you know what's going on???" (She knew my schedule.) "Not a clue," I replied. "Terrorists just attacked downtown New York City and Washington, D.C.!!!" she said in a frantic voice. "What the... are you SERIOUS?" I asked. I turned my TV onto Fox News, and there it was. Two commercial jets hitting the World Trade Center towers, the towers collapsing, a third commercial jet hitting the Pentagon, and a fourth commercial jet going down in Pennsylvania.

I was awestruck. I was in shock. I thought this sort of stuff only happened in the movies. But it was real.

My Mom had good reason to worry about me, though. You see, I go to the University of Texas at Austin... which has a large Muslim and Jewish population, AND has President Bush's daughter going there. Not to mention the fact that Austin is the capital of Texas, where President Bush is from, and Austin is the city where Bush lived as Governor of Texas for six years. This makes Austin, Texas, and U.T. Austin, prime terrorist targets... and when I left my apartment for class, I found this out first hand!

Austin, Texas, was in shut-down mode. The State Capitol and Governor's Mansion had been blocked off completely. There were police everywhere at U.T. Austin, and I had to show two forms of I.D. to get into the Electrical Engineering lab for my 12:30 pm class (I'm an Electrical Engineering major). I've never seen pandimonium, or so many "deer in the headlights" looks, on people before in my life.

And here's a scary thought: later that day I called my grandmother, and said to her "This will probably be the defining moment of my generation's lifetime." My grandmother replied, "I've lived through two World Wars. My friends and I once thought that the Duke's assassination which started World War I would be the defining moment of our generation's lifetime... that is, until Pearl Harbor and World War II came along." :eek: So I guess you never really know...

I think that the terrorists are starting to find out what Japan found out during World War II: you do not want to wake up a sleeping giant!

Terrorism is a plague upon the Earth. It must be eradicated like an infectious, fatal disease would be eradicated -- because both terrorism and infectious, fatal diseases threaten civilization as a whole, down to its core. We must fight. And we must win.

But others can explain it better than I can...

"Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it. But the temper and folly of our enemies may not leave this in our choice; the price of liberty is constant vigilance." --Thomas Jefferson, 1786

"Ignorance and bigotry, like other insanities, are incapable of self-government." --Thomas Jefferson, 1817

Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd President of the United States (1801-1809), faced a situation very similar to what we face today. A large, well-equipped band of Barbary pirates had been raiding American and allied seaships for years, usually killing all on board and stealing whatever was on board. Jefferson decided he had to fight back. He sent the U.S. Navy to the shores of North Africa, where they spent four years destroying the Barbary strongholds of Tripoli and Tunis. The lesson? The Barbary pirates NEVER bothered the U.S. again.

"As soon as a war starts, there's always some hippy genius who figures out that wars kill people and makes it their bumper stickers duty to put a stop to it. This never works. It would be nice if homicidal madmen took the advice of our fruitier citizens' fenders more often, but there are several historical examples of where bending over and being polite did not turn pure evil into delicious candy.

Fans of peace and harmony are usually quick to accuse the military of baby killing. Everyone knows that our nation's military can't wait to front a war just to get the chance to kill a few babies, the only fuel on which their magic gold making machines can run. Last month I actually saw a guy with a flag sticker on his car, and he had crossed out "PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN" and wrote in "PROUD TO BE AN AFGHANI BABY KILLER." This of course came with the small cost of several hundred foot-shaped dents in his car. Now, I do agree with him and the other crazies that killing babies is wrong, but the fact is, I think most soldiers are probably too preoccupied with fighting armed religious fanatics to throw an infanticide party. I'm not saying anyone should try to kill babies. In fact, if you're about to execute someone and notice there's a baby on the electric chair, go get that baby off of there. But we can't just stop a war and let the terrorists explode whatever they want because they have children. And you could also look at it this way-- if a baby is being raised in a terrorist camp, I have a feeling it's not going to grow up to be a volunteer worker.

Maybe some day we'll be able to build bombs that can fly into a terrorist camp and conduct extensive interviews to see if the person it's about to blow up is actually a terrorist or just a nun riding a unicorn who happens to be photographing baskets of kittens in a terrorist camp. Until then, the best advice I can give innocent people is to stay a blast radius away from anyone making video tapes about how much they want to destroy America." -- Seanbaby, 2002

Before Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. and the rest of the World was basically "playing games" when it came to terrorism. Terrorism wasn't seen as an act of war, it was seen as a criminal offense. A bomb would go off, or a plane would get hijacked, the main perputrators would get arrested, put on trial, convicted, and sent to jail. Well, after Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. changed terrorism from a criminal act to an act of war. In other words, the gloves are off, and we're playing for keeps now. It was a mistake to ever allow terrorism to be a simple criminal offense.

And what's the difference, you ask? A criminal offense occurs when a person or people have been threatened or hurt. An act of war occurs when an entire nation is threatened or hurt.

And I'm tired of hearing the argument that the War On Terrorism is somehow the U.S.'s fault, because of foreign policy decisions that the U.S. has made, etc. That's insane! That's like saying it's my friend's fault his apartment got robbed because he decided to live in an apartment that was within walking distance of the robber!

God bless the USA and her allies. Death to the social disease known as terrorism!

[The Guard]

It was said during WWII that they had:

"Awakened a sleeping giant."

With the atrocities performed on September 11, they awakened a sleeping giant, poked it in the eye with a stick, and PISSED IT OFF.

[Sandro]

I didn't even hear about the attacks until 10 o'clock! Before the attacks, the was in my Latin class where apparently Latin is the only relevant thing ( :rolleyes: ). Anyway, I walked out and went into my Chemistry class. It was there that the TV was on showing the horrific images of the WTC towers. I think I saw the collapse of the towers just in time. Man, that was a weird day.

[atf487]

Wow. Heres a mini story. I was in Social studies class (2nd period, or 3rd), doing home work. My teacher said in a very serious voice, not like it was important or anything "The twin towers have been hit. It is a huge tragedy, and will be remembered. I was one of the few that heard it. I was having a conversation with my friend that day, just talking about something. I really had no clue what the hell went on, but the funny thing was that he said "This is probably an even we'll remember for the rest of our lives". Also, i didn't see it until i got home, when I said Holy ----. I wanted to kill them. It took me awhile to actually calm myself down.

Also, when the president gave his speech about the even (9/20), it was my birthday.