9/11, Ten Years Later

[Gandalf]

The attacks happened at about midnight in my time zone, so I didn't know until about seven hours later. I saw footage from inside the building and such I assumed it was the tenth anniversary of that last attack. Then I saw the plane footage.

When I got to school, each period had the teacher discussing the events, presumably to help us deal with what had happened.

I still have the newspaper. The morning headline was "Act of War", the afternoon edition that I got had "Act of Terror".

[Havok]

Also on that day for the sake of perspective:

Children who starved to death that day:41,000
Children who died from Malaria that day:2,880
People who died from AIDS: ~6200
Children who died from diarrhea: 9,863
People who suffered under the bonds of slavery: 20,000,000

Exactly.

OH NO IT HAPPENED TO RICH AMERICANS!!!

Sorry, but to me, making such a big fuss about it EVERY year, like we have, just validates the attacks to the people who orchestrated it. I'm sure they are celebrating, and view our over abundance of patriotism as just a masking of our fear.

I mean we act like Manhattan got nuked.

Don't get me wrong, it was an emotional and impactful day and event, but unless you lived in NY City, had someone that was killed or directly effected by it in your family, we, as a country, disgustingly overreact every year.

[Lord Zentei]

You guys overreacted in the year it happened. But that doesn't mean that remembering a bad event of that sort 10 years on is bullshit, regardless of people putting it into perspective. I'm not sure how many of those victims were "rich" in any case (as opposed to being cubicle workers), nor what difference that makes.

[Guardsman Bass]

I was in 9th Grade. I remember it was my mom's turn in the school carpool, and my neighbor told me about it as he got in to go to school with us.

I fortunately(?) got to watch the news following it live because my first period teacher (the Geography Teacher) told us that this was "history live", and let us watch it on the classroom televisions. I saw both towers fall live.

[FSTargetDrone]

I was working from home, got a phone call about it and watched TV for the rest of the day.

You are absolutely correct about the over-reaction. That is why I have largely turned off the news these past few days. Yes, I mark the date. Yes, I have some thoughts about it. No, I do not want to see a loop of that horror play continuously for days on end. It serves no constructive purpose and life goes on. I have too many real, immediate concerns to dwell excessively on what happened ten years ago. If only the rest of the country could come to the same conclusion, but I guess they find masturbating with coarse sandpaper and spiky objects too appealing to stop.

I have also purposely avoided watching any coverage of the anniversary. I watched all day on TV when it happened and over the days after, but I never need to see it again.

Yesterday we walked around for a few hours at our town's Community Day on Main Street (food booths, classic cars on display, games, music, etc.) and today I went to another car show at a local church and spent a pleasant afternoon taking photos. There was surprisingly little organized remembrance in town aside from some church services and one of the local firehouses set out flags and a sign displaying the number of firefighters and emergency personnel killed. People around here at the events I was at seemed to be talking about everything but the date, perhaps preferring the distractions.

[Flagg]

9/11 was the single deadliest attack on American soil and the largest loss of life in a single day from violence in the US ever. And it was mainly civilians who were targeted and killed. It led to 2 economy destroying wars and changed the face of the US around the globe. It's not just because "rich people died".

[Prannon]

Then, I was in ninth grade, second period, in art class working on a project. The teacher, Mr Rankin, spoke up suddenly and said that there had been an attack on the World Trade Center, like a bombing or something. I remember seeing the initial picture and being...somewhat awed. The only pictures like that I'd seen had been in movies up to that point and this was all too real. Rest of the day went by and I was rather distraught, somewhat dismayed that the towers had gone down. I didn't understand how it could have been that way since the planes hit so high up. Pretty much every class was spent watching the TVs using jury rigged antennas on our cheap Computers On Wheels (COWs). That event launched me on my several year conservative, nationalistic streak.

Now, 10 years later, I'm liberal, plan on moving out of my country as soon as I finish my second degree, and see this event as a tragedy to be remembered, but not as the nationalistic orgy that it usually ends up being.

[Gandalf]

Pretty much every class was spent watching the TVs using jury rigged antennas on our cheap Computers On Wheels (COWs).

That was one of the more fascinating things about the whole day; the scramble for every piece of information. When I arrived at school that morning, every computer in the library was occupied and they were all on CNN. Periodically in between periods someone would have dredged up some information from a friend of a friend. Someone said that US cruise missiles had hit Syria in retaliation, or that Israel was ready to do stuff. My mum said that seven planes were unaccounted for, and it was being kept quiet.

In an information age, it was an interesting spectacle to see how people act when there isn't enough information to satisfy demand.

[Havok]

9/11 was the single deadliest attack on American soil and the largest loss of life in a single day from violence in the US ever. And it was mainly civilians who were targeted and killed. It led to 2 economy destroying wars and changed the face of the US around the globe. It's not just because "rich people died".

Uh, no. It led that fucking idiot wanna be cowboy we put in the White House starting ONE economy HURTING war. Place blame where it is due. If we had just stayed in Afghanistan like we should have, the cost would have been mitigated greatly. The housing bubble collapse was going to happen regardless.

And in comparison to the list of dead and downtrodden Alyrium posted, yes, they were "rich Americans". Last time I checked, starving children, people who die of Malaria, diarrhea and are fucking slaves, pull up the rear of the economic scale.

[Alyrium Denryle]

9/11 was the single deadliest attack on American soil and the largest loss of life in a single day from violence in the US ever. And it was mainly civilians who were targeted and killed. It led to 2 economy destroying wars and changed the face of the US around the globe. It's not just because "rich people died".

And as long as we relive it by showing the images on continuous loop and think hard to remember what we were doing before the attack, all we will do is enter new economy destroying wars against the next Muslim Menace (tm). We will also continue to debase ourselves by torturing people, persecuting muslims etc. So, Americans need to stop acting like Rome with respect to Carthage, or Captain Ahab in search of his fucking whale, and get the fuck over it. Put it in perspective and move the fuck on. Maybe channel that energy into PREVENTING TERRORISM instead of murdering millions of poor brown people.

[fgalkin]

Given its the 10th anniversary of one of the worst terrorist attacks in human history, please post where you were when you first heard the news of the attacks.

I was at school, in the middle of class.

I was in class when the Assistant Principal came on the PA and said that a plane hit the WTC. We continued with the class, however, and at the end of the period, we heard that another plane had hit the WTC and that terrorism was suspected. I remember telling my classmates that it had to be Osama Bin Laden. Then, the class was over and we all rushed to the windows on the other side of the building facing Manhattan (the school itself was in Downtown Brooklyn). They wouldn't let us into the classrooms, so we had to crowd by the windows in the stairways. I saw the second tower go down.

The school was put under lockdown, and we couldn't leave. We couldn't have gone home anyway, because none of the subways were working. So, we kinda shuffled from class to class afterwards, but nobody actually taught anything that day, people were just talking, the teachers trying to calm the kids down. People rolled out the TVs, but the broadcast antenna went down with the WTC, so we weren't getting any reception. Rumors flew about a working TV in this or that department or teacher's lounge, and I think there was actually one working, because I remember seeing glimpses of CNN talking about it That's how I heard the details about the attacks on Washington. Most of the cellphones were down, too, and anyone who had a working one lent it out for people to call.

Ironically, I was more worried about my father, who was in Russia on a business trip. I thought that if they pulled something like that in the US, one could only imagine what they would do there. Fortunately, I was wrong.

Eventually, around 4 pm or so, they got the subways working again, at least in Brooklyn, and they let us out. There was a guy in the subway station, ranting about how the Jews did it.

When I got home, I found out that my mother was on a train to Manhattan that was stopped on the bridge when the first plane hit. Had she been on a train 5 minutes earlier, she would have passed under the WTC right when the planes hit.


Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[JME2]

I was getting breakfast at my high school cafeteria when I saw the news on the cooks' television. I was in disbelief and, while never a jingoistic person, I remember being disgusted by news footage of celebrations in the Middle East.

The resulting debacle of Dubya and his cronies -- combined with what was going on in my family -- changed my politics and outlook.

[Tolya]

Considering that I live in Europe, the first plane struck several minutes before I came home from school. Upon entering my house my dad told me "there's war". I changed the channel to CNN and after a few minutes the second plane struck the towers. I can't imagine how New Yorkers felt that day, since just watching tv coverage was an absolutely horrifying experience.

I also remember how swiftly Jaser Arafat declared that PLA has had nothing to do with the attack and that he sends his condolences to the people of the USA. At that time I imagined that Israeli tanks were on the border revving their engines and waiting for the green light as if it were a race.

My sincerest condolences to the families of the lost and killed.

[Havok]

Everyone and their mother's said they had nothing to do with the attack and sent their condolences as fast as they could. The rest of the world isn't stupid. They knew who we had in the White House and what our country could do when we get all shocked and pissed.

Even if they hadn't taken responsibility, and we didn't already know, everyone else would have ratted on Al Qaeda and Bin Laden right quick.

[Netko]

I had just gotten home from school and was flipping channels on the TV. CNN had something about a plane hitting the WTC, it seemed like a pretty big incident but still fell mentally into the "plane crashes, media are vultures" category so I flipped over to the next channel. In the end, I left it on CNN as background noise and went to check something on the Internet. As soon as I turned around there was something like "There is another plane" and I turned around just a moment before the second hit. Had the thought "Oh fuck, please let this not turn into WW3, I don't want to live in wartime again". Called my mum, told her what happened and that it was deliberate (she was an assistant principal at a school at the time). Stayed glued to the TV for the next 6 hours or so. Mum called me two hours into it to tell me that they've cancelled classes and that some teachers are staying with students to watch CNN/BBC on classroom TVs and in their teacher's lounge. Had a lot of anxious thoughts during that time, having been to the US that summer for a competition; the plane ride over was my first. Had dinner with my grandparents that evening and grandpa (who I think I already mentioned here spend his teenage years in the partisans during WW2 and was a career officer after) was extremely gloomy (I haven't seen him so gloomy ever before) mentioning over and over again that the only thing he hoped for that nobody goes for the nukes because if they do we're all dead, which probably scared me almost as much as the event itself. The atmosphere was almost '91 again when we feared Serbian tanks were going to come rolling into Zagreb and kill/smash everything except this time the fear was the nukes were gonna fly. Thankfully the atmosphere dispersed by the next day.

[charlemagne]

I was on summer break from university, I remember browsing cds or dvds in a big electronics market. They had big TVs hanging over the checkout, and when I left CNN was on. This was just after the first plane hit I think. I remember two guys watching and one told the other "I bet it's Palestinian terrorists".

I got home just in time to see the second plane hit. It was a pretty surreal day all in all. I think this was the first time I was aware of being witness to "history happening". When the Berlin wall fell e.g. I was only 9, way too young to actually understand what was going on.

[Ahriman238]

I was twelve, my mother and I were in the car, waiting for my kid sister to get out of band practice. Suddenly a friend-of-a-friend of ours calls mom's new cell phone and says to turn on the the tv, or the radio, anything. So we turn on the radio about five minutes before the second plane hit, and my first reaction was to run in and see if my sister was okay. Yeah, we live about a four hour drive from Manhattan, but the world was falling apart and I wanted to know my baby sister was okay, logic really didn't enter into it.

Afterwards, mom drove us home and left us there telling us not to worry and get some schoolwork done (we were homeschooled, but did some activities, like band with the local middle school.) So we got to hook up with my other sibling and spend three hours speculating on what happened, who did it, why, and what was going to happen now. We turnedo n the radio a few times, but didn't hear news so much as newscasters doing the exact same thing we were. We didn't hear about the Pentagon unti the next day.

I admit, at the age of twelve I knew only two things about Muslims, they had invaded and occupied large portions of Spain until the fifteenth century, even pushing into France until the battle of Tours, and they destroyed the World Trade Center. In the days following 9/11 I though and even said a few things I am ashamed of. That lasted until my mother caught me doodling a missile with 'Islam or bust' written on it. Well she called me out on my ignorance, gave me a lecture I'll never forget, and assigned me a two page essay on the history and beliefs of Islam.

This year, a bunch of my sister's friends drove up to NYC for the memorial. There were some pretty huge crowds.

[Highlord Laan]

I was in my Senior Composition class when the first plane hit, the principal got on the intercom and told us that an airliner had struck the WTC. At that moment, I just thought it another air tragedy and spared a moment for all the people. Then we heard over the intercom again that a second plane had hit, and Principal Cunningham said the same line that flash through my head "We're under attack." Everyone got up and made their way to the school library to watch the news. I remember saying "We're going to war."

Gods, we were all angry beyond belief. You can imagine the reaction we had to our Theology teacher when he said that then would be a good time to learn about forgiveness and turning the other cheek. After we all but shouted him down it struck me how something ugly had come alive in us and the rest of America. I embraced it, then. We were all too angry and bloodthirsty to care.

Later that day, an Army recruiter came by the school on his scheduled rounds to drop off pamphlets and speak to what few interested people there might normally be. Instead, once he set up hit little table in a corner of the gymnasium, the entire senior class showed up. From Ryan, the starting quarterback on the varsity team that already had an near free ride to UNL, to myself to Sarah, possibly the gentlest, quietest and most soft-spoken girl on earth. I remember his looking pretty grim when he looked at us and said "I understand, but I want all of you to go back to your classes, and think this through first."

I never got in thanks to a bad knee. Ryan went on to play football. Sarah went on to Irag and Afghanistan.

[Erik von Nein]

You know, it's interesting that I've seen a thread like this nearly every year since the attacks, including the "Where were you when it happened?" question and answers. I feel it appropriate now that 10 years have passed. Well, I would, were it not for the 9 years of similar stories. I don't know how much it adds to the discussion of the event. But then nothing can really add to it, anymore.

I'm sick to death of the "remember 9/11" tributes, not because I'm some emotionless monster, but because it nearly always ends up quoting Bush or some other tool, playing audio from the first responders or the people on the flights, attempting to be as emotionally manipulative as possible. It doesn't help that the radio station that plays at work started these tributes three days before 9/11. It's worse when the Times cover story is about "The Children of 9/11." What can we learn? That they love their parents and are proud of them, that they're suffering without parents? Can't we just leave them alone?

It doesn't help that the response to these attacks, the wars, just made the country worse, made the countries attacked better in some respects and worse in others. So these tributes just remind me of all the wonderful atrocities we've been committing since.

EDIT: That's not to say that many of what I talked about wouldn't have been appropriate 10 years later, but being hammered with the same message continuously for 9 years destroys any punch that isn't just overwhelming antipathy or disgust.

[PeZook]

I actually think these sorts of threads and discussions are good, because it makes many people do some introspection about their attitudes and stances at the time of the attacks. I don't have anything about memorial ceremonies on the day - it was a world-changing event, after all. Some of these ceremonies are of course tactless and tasteless, basically masturbating to the US and its glourious crusade against the eebil muslims. Others actually make you think about the context, and how the attacks changed America and the world at large.

[Havok]

I actually think these sorts of threads and discussions are good, because it makes many people do some introspection about their attitudes and stances at the time of the attacks. I don't have anything about memorial ceremonies on the day - it was a world-changing event, after all. Some of these ceremonies are of course tactless and tasteless, basically masturbating to the US and its glourious crusade against the eebil muslims. Others actually make you think about the context, and how the attacks changed America and the world at large.

And how did the attacks change America?

Aside from having a memorial every year, they didn't. Oh right, airport security.

And the only reason it was a world changing event, was because we had a dill hole in the White House.

[PeZook]

And how did the attacks change America?

Aside from having a memorial every year, they didn't. Oh right, airport security.

What, providing a justification for a sudden explosion of executive powers, the return of rampant use of torture, two major wars and massive assassination programs, gigantic increase in military spending, alienating half your allies...that's not change?

And the only reason it was a world changing event, was because we had a dill hole in the White House.

No, it was a world-changing event because of all of the above which affected people across the world and shook up international relations and revived fears of terrorism and gave a burst of new life to Al Quaueda...the fact your president was an idiot did not exactly help, yeah. But so what? Obama embraced all his policies on the really heinous bullshit anyways.

[Gandalf]

And how did the attacks change America?

Aside from having a memorial every year, they didn't. Oh right, airport security.

It made Americans feel vulnerable and paranoid. While you can argue that the real changes came about through exploitation of this new mental state, that change itself is pretty big.

[Oni Koneko Damien]

And how did the attacks change America?

Aside from having a memorial every year, they didn't. Oh right, airport security.

What, providing a justification for a sudden explosion of executive powers, the return of rampant use of torture, two major wars and massive assassination programs, gigantic increase in military spending, alienating half your allies...that's not change?

But how much of that was due directly to the attack, and how much was due to the character and goals of people who were in power then (and now)? If the justification for what is largely a once-a-year media circlejerk is how it 'changed' America, why not call it 'Opportunistic Political Assholes Day'?

[PeZook]

But how much of that was due directly to the attack, and how much was due to the character and goals of people who were in power then (and now)? If the justification for what is largely a once-a-year media circlejerk is how it 'changed' America, why not call it 'Opportunistic Political Assholes Day'?

All world changing events are world-changing because of people acting in reaction to them, that's nothing special. History is written by people, and outcomes of events are shaped by the way they interact with perceptions and opinions and the gut-instincts of everyone involved.

Well, except massive asteroid strikes and the like. They change the world on their own

I actually agree with you here that memorials for 9/11 should include learning about how reacting impulsively to a perception of an attack let heinous shit happen across the world. You can in fact do memorials of events without celebrating them, even though it usually takes time for the broader context to even be acknowledged (see memorial ceremonies in 2002 which were nearly universally of the "WE WANT REVENGE FUCKERS!!!!" kind).