Where were you on 9/11?

[Disgruntled70sHab]

I remember the day well. Mrs Dis was home nursing sores from an accident she had on September 7th and I had some time off to be with her.

I was in the local diner, just a short walk from the house, ordering a coffee and muffin when I noticed the first tower burning. I asked what had happened and someone sitting at the counter told me a plane had flown into it.

I was paying for my stuff when the second plane few into the other tower. The entire diner was silent.

I went home and found out that my neighbour was working in the USA that day. They closed the borders and it took him quite a while to get home. For the remainder of that day Mrs Dis and I watched the TV non-stop. In fact, it was hard not to watch.

The next day I went back to work because I couldn't spend any more time at home. Mrs Dis understood that I had to get to work and see what was going on. We had just started our annual battle refresher training, which was conducted every fall. Needless to say, training was stepped up after 9/11.

Even today 9/11 remains a confusing time. And the guy tagged as the mastermind of the attack still remains a free man. Why the hunt for him has lost momentum is something I simply don't understand.

[HABsurd]

Actually that morning I was on a flight to San Francisco.

Didn't go too well.

I received a call just before the plane took off so I knew about the attacks. Actually, I seemed like I knew more than the flight crew.

[Skilly]

I don't think anyone will ever forget what they were doing that day.

I was home for my scheduled "turn-around" (I was working in Labrador, and we went 6 weeks on then 2 weeks off). I was scheduled to return to Labrador on the following Monday morning.

My wife (who was my girlfriend at the time) was getting ready to go to university and I was suppose to drive her. I turned on the TV after getting my morning coffee and the channel was on "Regis and Kathy Lee" (or was it Kelly?). The TV wasn't on for more than 5 minutes when it cut away .... I was at the kitchen counter and thought the TV turned to another channel by itself ... I got the remote and changed the channel and noticed that it didnt turn over. My wife came out and said "why aren't you watching sports" and I pointed at the TV .... we both looked at each other as if to silently say "that's got to be a movie" ... we watched the plane fly into the second tower and the first tower fall down.

Then my wife said she was going to be late, and as I was putting my shoes on in front of the TV I mentioned to her that the second tower looked to me like it was less stable than the first one ... when I got home the second tower had fallen. I spent the entire day glued to the TV.

The next day my mom (I was living alone but went over to my mothers) and I tried to contact the Emergency Services and help the stranded strangers somehow. They told us they wanted to keep all the people from the plane together until they could register them all ..... we didnt get a chance to help, (which is ok, but I wish somehow we were more persistent) but that whole week was really crazy here in Newfoundland. Towns tripled in population in one night. Hundreds of planes on the tarmac .... hope we never have to experience anything like that again.

[BadCompany]

I was at work, in my office, when a friend of mine sent me an email saying that two planes had flown into the World Trade Centers, and that experts were saying it was extremely unlikely that this was an accident. I initially thought they meant a couple of Cessnas, or something, I had no idea it was a couple of airliners. I immediately tried to log onto CNN, but there was so much traffic on the internet that everything was slow, and staggered, adding to the confusion and chaos. Almost at the same time word started filtering through my office, and the chatter started to get more and more excited. We had a bureau in Washington, and nobody could get through to them.

Gradually the severity of the situation became known to everyone in our office, and needless to say all work stopped. It was so confusing… planes seemed to be going down everywhere… New York, Washington, Colorado, Pennsylvania… Planes everywhere were suddenly “missing.” Or being escorted by fighter jets, or even shot down. There were car bombs going off at the state department, on buses, around the world. Nobody seemed to know what was going on, and the rumors, even being reported on the news, were rampant.

A co-worker who lived near the office ran home, and came back with a TV, which we all crowded around. The first tower had already fallen, but the second was still standing. It was so surreal… all of us watching this little TV, nobody saying anything. Then… as we watched, the second tower fell… “Jesus” was the only thing anybody said. I was the one who said it.

Most of us continued to watch, fascinated. One of my co-workers however, did not, and went back to his desk. Not to work, but I suspect to mourn. He was a Muslim, and he knew… he knew that in all likelihood this was the work of Muslim extremists, and he knew what was coming for moderate Muslims like himself. I’ll never know exactly how he felt, but I suspect that at that moment he had never felt more alone.

Eventually we all went home. Work had been cancelled anyways, and we still couldn’t reach anybody in Washington – what else were we going to do?

[Gogie]

I was at work on the 59th floor of First Canadian Place (downtown T.O.) and heading into a 9:00 am meeting in a meeting room which just happened to have a TV. A co-worker came in and said there had been reports of a plane crashing into the WTC. We turned on the TV to CNN and commenced to watch the drama unfold. We actually were watching as the second plane crashed into the WTC - at first the announcers were speculating that an engine in the original plane had exploded, not realizing that a second plane had actually hit the WTC. Shortly after they began showing replays and it was quite clear that a second plane had hit. I distinctly recall turning to a co-worker and saying to him that one plane hitting the WTC might be an accident but two certainly wasn't.

I was supposed to be flying to Halifax later that day - needless to say that flight was cancelled. Later in the morning, as the magnitude of what was happening began to become clearer, some of us began watching for planes heading towards FCP or the CN Tower, figuring that if there were to be any attacks on Canadian soil these would be two prime targets. By noon nearly everyone had cleared out of the building and I was at home, watching CNN for the rest of the day.

I still remember how erie it was over the next few days not seeing a single aircraft in the sky. As you are all probably well aware, the sky around T.O. is virtually crammed with planes all day long. Not seeing planes or vapour trails was indeed a weird sight.

One final comment: I recall reading that scientists actually were able to estimate the impact of aircraft vapour trails on the earth's climate by taking measurements during this time and comparing them to the days when aircraft littered the skies.

[Cranky]

We were at work like any other normal day. Around the beginning of break time (9.45), one of my guys runs into the plant to tell me that there is something very serious going on in the States. Fifteen minutes later, my entire company is up in arms. I calm them down and tell them that I wil find out what is going on and if need be, we will shut down at noon.

So I head home (about ten minutes from work). Every station is carrying what happend, I call back at work and tell them that there is no immidiate concern for us here but if they want, we can shut down at noon. I'm heading back to work......

.....you are not going to believe this.....

I hit a chicken on the road. Yes, a chicken. With feathers. A white chicken. I'm driving along and out of the corner of my eye I see a white chicken run right in front of my car. Now what is wrong with this picture is that I live in the heart of the city and if someone was to tell me that I would hit a chicken at 11.45 in the morning, I would have them committed.

I get to work, scratching my head, wondering what the hell is going on. I neither religious nor superstitious but hitting a chicken, in the middle of the city? On this day? I send everybody home, locked up the plants and headed back home to find out what the hell was going on.

Anyway....

The "Chicken Attack" would of been a hilarious story....on any other day other then THAT day. THAT day, I cried when I watched people jumping out of buildings, I had two phones constantly on the go trying to find out if my cousins in New York city where okay, checking to see that my people were okay (the single mothers), checking on my relatives and friends, telling them not to worry and if something was going on, they could come to my house, having to pull out and check over my "defensive precautions" that I will not talk about, preparing "what if" scenarios with my wife.....

....that day I WILL NEVER FORGET.....

[habmeister]

i was in las vegas, me and my cousin drove down the coast from vancouver. it was our checkout day and when i woke up i put the tv on as i was packing, i thought it was a movie at first and then when i realized it was real i yelled to my cousin "dude wake up and turn on the tv, world war III might have just started".

we packed up quick as they were talking about how las vegas the center of capitalism was a target and we wanted to get in the car and get driving to LA, our next stop. well i had to cashin a sports bet from baseball games the night before. went into the casino and was shocked to see 90% of the people in there sitting at their usual spots saying "hit me", or pulling on the slot machine. the sports book had all 7 or 8 screens on CNN and it was larger than life and kinda strange to see this happenning in their country and the gamblers were more interested in the next card than what was happenning in NY.

so we cashed the ticket, jumped in the car and didn't know what to expect driving to LA. we turned on the radio and the host was going crazy, calling bush gutless after his first speech when bush wasn't showing very good leadership, i don't remember what bush said in the first speech but it was followed by another one not long after in which he said they would find who did this and make them pay. so the radio host is screaming his head off and he's being pulled off air in certain markets, i had a pocket tape recorder on the trip for some reason and taped probably 10-15 minutes of his ranting and raving. i have to find that tape.

next thing they're talking that gas is going to $5/gallon in mid west and we're like oh Saperlipopette its going to cost us a fortune to drive home, and wondering if when we get to LA is a bomb going to be dropped on us.

needless to say we spent 5 days in LA in a hostel, where most of the people watched CNN all day and americans didn't seem to ask questions like "why did they attack us?". heard many many racist things said at small gas stations in the middle of nowhere. one was some old fat lady "we never should have let them people in here in the first place"

[franko]

Nothing dramatic for me. I was driving to my office listening to the local sports radio station when one of the commentators/announcers said “I’m looking at the TV and a plane just flew into the WTC” . . . then he went on with sports interspersed with comments about the crash. Got to my office, turned the radio back on, and heard that a second plane flew into the tower . . .then it was all news all the time. After a couple of minutes I just drove home (no TV here) and watched for a while until I’d seen every clip what seemed like a million times and heard nothing new.

Now ask me about August 10 . . . that’s another matter (not that I’m discounting 9-11): we were getting ready to fly out of Gatwick back home. Woke up early for our 10:00 am flight and put the BBC on only to hear of chaos at the airports. Repacked because no carry-on luggage would be allowed (good thing we did: once at the airport we saw scads of people having to repack). Drove our rental car to the drop-off site and were driven to the airport, which was already a driving nightmare – the driver let us off at arrivals because of the line-up into departures. In fact, within an hour no one was allowed into the airport because it was too crowded. Made our way through the hordes of people – line-ups were non-existent, it was all just a crush of people. 4 hours later made it through security, then waited around for a couple more hours before our plane took off. Pretty good attitude all around – people for the most part took it in stride.

All I can say -- at least we weren’t at Heathrow!

[PTH]

I was a student, so I was sleeping in, obviously.

I heard the radio mention something about a collision in New York, and wasn't too sure what to think yet, then they mentionned a second collision and it seemed awfully confused, so I headed to the common room to watch it all on TV with other people, we were all stunned....

I must have stayed there until both towers had fallen, though I can't remember the details.

I do remember going to a friends place for dinner and doing the math of how many people would've died, my estimate was in the 10 000 range, thank heavens I was off by so much.

[Cranky]

badcompany said:

Gradually the severity of the situation became known to everyone in our office, and needless to say all work stopped. It was so confusing… planes seemed to be going down everywhere… New York, Washington, Colorado, Pennsylvania… Planes everywhere were suddenly “missing.” Or being escorted by fighter jets, or even shot down. There were car bombs going off at the state department, on buses, around the world. Nobody seemed to know what was going on, and the rumors, even being reported on the news, were rampant.

Anyone I talked to that afternoon and evening had two emotions in them, anger and fear. My neighbors a couple of houses down are also Muslim. He told me he cried that night, half from the sorrow of those dead people and half from the pain of having people whose actions heaped hatred on him and his family. "I came to Canada to get away from the hatred in my country and they are following me here", "I want to kill them with my bare hands"....he meant it and I believed him.

What really stunned me was the slow and inadequate response of our civil defense. One of my plants is a stone throw from two critical utilities, of which one, if penetrated, would make the Twin Towers look like a picnic, and yet, I did not see the heavy police presence that they deserve. If it was up to me, I would have those places surrounded with shoot to kill orders. Now, 6 years later, those utilities are back to relying on cameras and hope........the Canadian way.

[Disgruntled70sHab]

Another good opinion.

Fickle memories



By SALIM MANSUR

On the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, I am reminded how fickle is memory and understanding of events that shape history in a liberal democracy such as ours.

In a remarkable little book from a generation ago -- The Book of Laughter and Forgetting published in 1979 -- Milan Kundera, a Czech writer fleeing his native home from Communist rule for Paris, France, reflected on the fragility of memory.

Kundera wrote: "The bloody massacre in Bangladesh quickly covered over the memory of the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, the assassination of Allende drowned out the groans of Bangladesh, the war in the Sinai Desert made people forget Allende, the Cambodian massacre made people forget Sinai, and so on and so forth until ultimately everyone lets everything be forgotten."

Forgetting is a means by which people seek escape from the nightmares of the past and look to the future for redemption, transcendence and happiness. The liberal idea of progress and of an implicit faith in transforming human nature for the better is future oriented, and the past is deemed best as archived if not forgotten.

Six years is a mere blip in history, yet that morning in September 2001 has faded from memory and with it an understanding of what brought the Islamist terrorists to strike America's heartland.

The attacks on that September morning were not the first shots fired as a declaration of war by Islamists against the United States and the West.

This war started much earlier, most notably with the 1979 revolution in Iran and the taking of American diplomats in Tehran as hostage for 444 days by the followers of Ayatollah Khomeini.

Khomeini, an Islamist Lenin, raged with the memory of both recent and distant past.

For Khomeini the overthrow of Mohammed Mossadegh, Iran's prime minister, in 1953 was the work of the CIA and America needed to be punished.

But beyond vengeance Khomeini sought re-constituting the past for Iran driven by the memory of the pre-modern power and glory of the Islamic civilization, and with a burning hatred of all things modern or originating in the West.

For Khomeini and the Islamists -- Osama bin Laden and his followers -- the past is their future, and any deviation from that past needs to be expunged by making war in the present.

It does not matter to Islamists how anachronistic pre-modern glory of Islamic civilization would be today, how repulsive the practice of segregating women in society or discriminating against religious minorities.

Liberal democracy, however, recoils from the past for it sees only its faults. It imagines instead a future as a clean sheet on which to imprint its ideals.

But if that future is to remain protected then those who are its sworn enemies -- as are the present day Islamists as were the German fascists of the last century -- need to be decisively defeated.

Liberal democracy is no less an armed ideology than Islamist ideology, and liberals forgetting this elementary fact disarm themselves for an eventual surrender to those who reject a liberal future and make war against it in the present.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Americans awoke to a war in progress.Six years later the question hanging in balance is whether Americans and their allies will end this war on their terms or concede defeat to Islamists.

The Link.

[FormerLurker]

I was living in Vancouver at the time. I was wakened by 6:45am phone call; my best friend blurted, without saying hello or apologising for the wake-up call: "Ross, please tell me that Darren and Peter don't work in the world trade center!" I told him that they did. He asked me which tower, and I told him the south tower. He paused, and told me to turn on the tv.

I spent the next few hours watching tv and furiously trying to contact my friends in NY. Everyone in the world was trying to phone NY, so I couldn't get through. At about 10:00am pacific time I got an email from Darren; he was safe, at home with his 18 month old daughter, and waiting to hear from his wife Deb, our good friend Pete, and Pete's wife Mer, all of whom also worked in the WTC. We never heard from them.

This year's anniversary was special. Darren was surrounded by friends, myself included, as he remarried on September 8th in California, where he now lives. What a happy day that was, what a sad day at the same time, especially for those that had attended his first wedding twelve years ago.

The pain has subsided, and I'm left with fond memories. Pete, Mer, and Deb: I love you and I miss you.

[CrocRob]

I was living in Australia, my Dad called me into the living room just as the second plane crashed, then I went to bed. It was all on the TV the next day at school, people were all going crazy. To be honest, I didn't really pay much attention to it all when it happened.

[princelh]

On the telephone with Clear Observer, when the planes hit the buildings.