Do you remember where you were....
I saw many flags out today, in different neighborhoods. It's nice that people remember. Has it really been 5 years? Yes, I suppose it has.
I remember that moment when I heard about it. I was in Houston, on my way to work, listening to talk radio as I did every morning. They said a plane had just flown into one of the WTC towers. I remember thinking, my god, was the pilot drunk? Air traffic control on break? Malfunctioning equipment on the plane? The thought of terrorism never even entered my mind. Why would it?
They were trying to get people out of the buildings, emergency crews were screaming towards the scene. The station I was listening to had a NY correspondent on the phone, giving details about what was going on. He was explaining how the wreckage looked, how he was close enough to smell the jet fuel, the burning. Then suddenly, he screamed and dropped the phone. A few minutes later he picked his phone back up and said that a second plane had just crashed into the other tower. Suddenly I felt nauseated. I had an eerie, chilly feeling.
One plane, pilot error. Two planes, there's something very, very wrong.
I got to the office. My boss was in the conference room with the TV on. She's in tears. More reports were coming in - from DC, from Pennsylvania. More planes had been hijacked. More people are dead. Other staff members of our company arrived and we all huddled together in that room and watched as the tower collapsed and crumbled into pieces. We cried. We hugged. We tried to go about our work day, but that was futile.
Just after noon we got a visit from our building management and security. There's a bomb threat in our building, and we have to evacuate. We gather our things and leave. No work will get done today.
I race home, but I stop at my kids' schools first and take them out for the day. "Mommy, what happened? Why did those planes crash into those buildings?" How do you explain that to a child?
The strangest thing to me that week was not seeing any planes in the sky. When every flight in the entire country was grounded. It was so surreal. There have been planes in the sky as long as I can remember. Sometimes you can even see what color they are, if you're close enough to the airport. But not that week. One of the people I worked with was on vacation in Jamaica at the time. He and his wife got stuck there for an extra week because there were no flights. I could think of worse places to be stuck.
The ensuing patriotism was massive. But so was the hysteria. Anyone with a dark complexion was labeled a terrorist. People were profiled, unfairly. People minding their own business. Legal, hard-working citizens of this country, were harrassed, beaten, and in some cases, killed, for something they had nothing to do with. The zealotry that occured in the days after 9/11 is still unmatched, in my opinion. Our president took us to war, and never even found the man responsible for planning these attacks. But someone had to pay, right? Someone had to pay.
Tragic events are no excuse for racism. But do those kind of people really need excuses for their ignorance? No, they are ignorant with or without excuses.
I found a timeline of the events, link below. The photos made me sad again. I hope I get to visit New York one of these days. I'm just sorry I didn't get to visit when the towers were still standing.
http://www.september11news.com/AttackImages.htm
I remember that moment when I heard about it. I was in Houston, on my way to work, listening to talk radio as I did every morning. They said a plane had just flown into one of the WTC towers. I remember thinking, my god, was the pilot drunk? Air traffic control on break? Malfunctioning equipment on the plane? The thought of terrorism never even entered my mind. Why would it?
They were trying to get people out of the buildings, emergency crews were screaming towards the scene. The station I was listening to had a NY correspondent on the phone, giving details about what was going on. He was explaining how the wreckage looked, how he was close enough to smell the jet fuel, the burning. Then suddenly, he screamed and dropped the phone. A few minutes later he picked his phone back up and said that a second plane had just crashed into the other tower. Suddenly I felt nauseated. I had an eerie, chilly feeling.
One plane, pilot error. Two planes, there's something very, very wrong.
I got to the office. My boss was in the conference room with the TV on. She's in tears. More reports were coming in - from DC, from Pennsylvania. More planes had been hijacked. More people are dead. Other staff members of our company arrived and we all huddled together in that room and watched as the tower collapsed and crumbled into pieces. We cried. We hugged. We tried to go about our work day, but that was futile.
Just after noon we got a visit from our building management and security. There's a bomb threat in our building, and we have to evacuate. We gather our things and leave. No work will get done today.
I race home, but I stop at my kids' schools first and take them out for the day. "Mommy, what happened? Why did those planes crash into those buildings?" How do you explain that to a child?
The strangest thing to me that week was not seeing any planes in the sky. When every flight in the entire country was grounded. It was so surreal. There have been planes in the sky as long as I can remember. Sometimes you can even see what color they are, if you're close enough to the airport. But not that week. One of the people I worked with was on vacation in Jamaica at the time. He and his wife got stuck there for an extra week because there were no flights. I could think of worse places to be stuck.
The ensuing patriotism was massive. But so was the hysteria. Anyone with a dark complexion was labeled a terrorist. People were profiled, unfairly. People minding their own business. Legal, hard-working citizens of this country, were harrassed, beaten, and in some cases, killed, for something they had nothing to do with. The zealotry that occured in the days after 9/11 is still unmatched, in my opinion. Our president took us to war, and never even found the man responsible for planning these attacks. But someone had to pay, right? Someone had to pay.
Tragic events are no excuse for racism. But do those kind of people really need excuses for their ignorance? No, they are ignorant with or without excuses.
I found a timeline of the events, link below. The photos made me sad again. I hope I get to visit New York one of these days. I'm just sorry I didn't get to visit when the towers were still standing.
http://www.september11news.com/AttackImages.htm
posted by Jenn at
12:04 PM
2 Comments:
I am also glad to see so many people still show support and remember the lives lost that day. I know I will never forget it. and all their families are in my prayers.
Me, I'm a little more self absorbed. I thought that it was a preview for a new action movie. I was just laid off from the tech crash at the time. Once I heard it was real I remember thinking "Dammit! Now I'll never get a freaking job." It sucks anytime someone dies but other countries live with this every day. We have open borders. Why do we think we're immune?
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