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Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 6,120
Registered: ‎03-29-2019

My Thoughts on the 9/11 Anniversary

[ Edited ]

I'm sure that everybody remembers where they were when the horrible attacks happened.

 

 

I am no different.

 

 

I woke up to start getting ready for work, and I turned on the news.

 

The main story was that a plane had crashed in to the World Trade Center.

 

 

I immediately turned to CNN.

 

By that time, the first tower had already collapsed.

 

 

I sat on my couch, stunned by what I was witnessing.

 

 

I couldn't believe my eyes. It was like I had woken up to a world gone mad.

 

 

When the second tower fell, I screamed.

 

 

I can still hear myself screaming when I think back to that moment.

 

 

I knew that I had witnessed the moment of death for who knows how many innocent people.

 

 

 

I still had to go to work, even though all I wanted to do was just stay home.

 

 

 

 

At that time, I worked at Sears, and believe it or not, the store stayed open, even though we had very little traffic that day.

 

 

I didn't agree with that decision then, and I don't agree with it now.

 

I remember seeing people crowding tv cameras with "Missing Person" fliers in their hands, begging, pleading for information on their missing loved one. They were saying "If anybody can survive this, he/she can!" The faces on those fliers were the names and faces of the innocent who were killed. 

 

Anyway, I did not know a single person who lived in New York City, but still the images haunted me for a very long time.

 

The images of people jumping out of the buildings.

 

 

 

I would often lay in bed and wonder what was the moment where they decided to jump?

 

Were they so filled with panic that they didn't realize that they were jumping?

 

Or, did they decide to die on their own terms, by going out a window, since they couldn't get out any other way?

 

Also, I would wonder what it must have been like to see this airplane get closer and closer to your window, and you know that it's going to hit?

 

 

I don't think those thoughts any more.

 

 

 

As of next year, we will have the first generation born after 9/11, (not counting those born between 9/12 - 12/31) who will be graduating high school.

 

 

For them, the events 9/11 is a lesson taught in books and in class.

 

They'll never know what it's like to experience that horror first-hand.

 

 

To them, it'll just be a lesson.

 

 

There are wives who have lost husbands on that day.

 

 

There are husbands who lost wives on that day.

 

 

There are some who have never re-married, and never will.

 

 

Then there are those who did re-marry, and out of that new union, brought forth children, that would not be here, if not for the tragedy of that horrible, horrible day.

 

 

 

Eighteen years ago.

 

 

 

Seems longer than that, yet, also seems like yesterday.

 

 

Life has moved forward, as it tends to do. 

 

 

Just because lives have moved forward, doesn't mean that we have forgotten what happened on that awful, awful day.

 

 

 

Anyway, just my thoughts on the Anniversary of 9/11.

 

The Sky looks different when you have someone you love up there.
Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,196
Registered: ‎03-30-2012

Re: My Thoughts on the 9/11 Anniversary

@Anonymous032819

You summed it up really well. I have to say, eighteen years later & it still feels raw to me.
Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,402
Registered: ‎03-13-2010

Re: My Thoughts on the 9/11 Anniversary

Yes, 18 years later I can still account for every minute of that horrible, horrible day.  I was suppose to fly out at 8:10a to Los Angeles (from JFK) with my friend Gina on September 12.  Obviously we never went.  We kept going back and forth, should we leave September 11 or September 12?Woman Sad

 

This is the first year that I will not be going to a local memorial in my home town as I have recently moved.  It's really bothering me.  I'm looking to see if there will be one near where I live now.  If not, I'll go to mass instead.

 

I'm not sure where I heard/read this:  the young children of those firefighters who died that day are now eligible to become NY firefighters and many have applied.  What a tribute to their dads.

 

With all the c%ap going on around us, it is very important that we do not forget that day.Woman Sad

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,040
Registered: ‎09-12-2010

Re: My Thoughts on the 9/11 Anniversary

@Anonymous032819, I was struck by your comment about the first generation after 9/11 and how they are learning about it. I honestly wonder whether that horrible event is even discussed and taught in our schools. I'd be really interested to hear from anyone (teachers) who know if it is or isn't.

 

Personally I'll never forget those images. I was at work early and a friend came into my office and told me that the major networks were reporting a plane that crashed into the World Trade Center. Like most people, we thought it was most likely an accident, but there was something in the back of our minds that said "no'....this was more than that, especially when we saw the videos. After that 2nd plane - we all knew what it was. The images that we'll never forget: people throwing themselves out of the buildings; the audio of the FDNY going into the buildings, and then both buildings just imploding and crashing down - the enormous cloud of dust that enveloped anyone and anything in its path; and then the soulful funeral services for so many firefighters....the bagpipes.

 

We must never forget what was done to our country that day.

Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,067
Registered: ‎03-11-2010

Re: My Thoughts on the 9/11 Anniversary

I was with a close friend and coworker, on a home visit to a family. The tv was on...the plane hit the building...we half paid attention, thinking it was a horrible accident. Then the second plane hit. My coworker was Iranian...she grew up under a dictatorship and her family fled. She looked at me and said, we have to go. In my naievete, I asked why. She calmly said get in the car.  Then she burst into tears and told me this was no accident...it’s terrorism. I will never forget the look on her face. My comfortable world was about to change forever and I had no idea how much.  That day is indelible in my mind, as it is all over the world.

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 7,341
Registered: ‎03-11-2010

Re: My Thoughts on the 9/11 Anniversary

My story...my husband a CWO2 and my nephew just out of Basic Training were stationed on the USS Carl Vinson already patrolling the area on a six month deployment one month in. My son in Basic Training. Watching the Today show and Katie Couric announcing the first plane, then the second then the Pentagon plane. I had other Navy wives, my son’s girlfriend, my sister and parents all calling at once. We all knew that life was changed. When I had to pick up my son from elementary school they escorted the military kids from the school gate to the housing gate with long guns instead of the short guns. Sobering. Then I was glued to the tv for a good month after that.

Wrong is still wrong just because you benefited from it.
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Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,632
Registered: ‎04-03-2010

Re: My Thoughts on the 9/11 Anniversary

I was at work during the time of the attacks.  I had heard thru word of mouth a plane had flown into one of the World Trade Towers, and I assumed it was an accident by one of the single-engine airplanes used to provide tourists with an aerial view of the City.  Then it was a second plane.  A third.  A fourth. 

 

After I got home from a full work day and saw what had happened on the news, I was stunned and in disbelief.  It was awful.

 

Coincidentally I was working for a large insurance company at the time, who was the first insurance company to declare that this was an act of terrorism, and not an act of war, which thus meant that all insurance claims would be handled and served.  My insurance company happened to insure some of the big companies housed in those towers so began the task of assembling the lists of names, contacts, ages, personal data.  All very distressing.  Was a very bad time in our country's history.

 

Also about a week or two after the Towers fell, a friend and I went hiking in an area not far from NYC and when meeting up with other hikers passing by, you could just see the look on the faces of people trying to deal with this tragedy.  Sort of a look of helplessness, sadness, loss, yet a resolve to go on, as we have no choice but to do so.  We must never forget.

Flowers are nature's way of laughing
Trusted Contributor
Posts: 1,168
Registered: ‎10-23-2011

Re: My Thoughts on the 9/11 Anniversary

Being a native New Yorker, I'll never get over 9/11.  It's in my DNA.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 12,887
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: My Thoughts on the 9/11 Anniversary

[ Edited ]

@Nancy Drew wrote:

My story...my husband a CWO2 and my nephew just out of Basic Training were stationed on the USS Carl Vinson already patrolling the area on a six month deployment one month in. My son in Basic Training. Watching the Today show and Katie Couric announcing the first plane, then the second then the Pentagon plane. I had other Navy wives, my son’s girlfriend, my sister and parents all calling at once. We all knew that life was changed. When I had to pick up my son from elementary school they escorted the military kids from the school gate to the housing gate with long guns instead of the short guns. Sobering. Then I was glued to the tv for a good month after that.


@Nancy Drew Our son was on the USS Enterprise and I believe the Vinson was relieving them.  The Big E battlegroup had just left, but told to turn around and head back to the Persian Gulf.  I was so stressed--and I can imagine yours!

Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,054
Registered: ‎06-14-2010

Re: My Thoughts on the 9/11 Anniversary

I will never forget 9/11.  I lived in a city across the Hudson River from Manhattan .  I worked in a high school not far from the river.  I saw the tragedy unfold and it was so frightening and horrific, people lined up all over  witnessing the towers fall.  Everyone was in shock to say the least and for weeks on end we were glued to the TV crying and feeling sadness beyond words.  The Pentagon and plane crash added to our horror and sadness and the affect these disasters had were felt deeply and left emotional scars and pictures of the Towers burning and falling.

 

Every year when the Memorial is held at ground zero I watch family members announce names of loved ones who died, I still cry and feel sadness.  We will never forget .