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#177 | Saturday, September 29th 2001
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I'm a journalist, and I'm recovering from a bout last year with a potentially deadly disease. So I'm back living at home, but I live in a seperate apartment from my family, so no one bothers me and I generally have all of the privacy I need.
On Tuesday morning, my mother ran into my room. "I know you're a news buff... I think you need to see this." Now, I have games with many of my media friends -- games where we'll Instant Message or email each other, with subject lines like "NEWSFLASH!" and such. In the desperate search to out-do each other over the years, the NEWSFLASHES had ranged from the mundane to the impossible. The Concorde crashed? Oh my God. David Wells was traded? Big deal.
My mother had never done this to me before. And since she lived through VietNam and men walking on the moon and Kennedy being killed, I knew it was serious.
The news started off by saying "something must've gone wrong with the navigation systems." No, no way, man. I've lived in New Jersey all my life, and everyone just KNOWS... planes don't fly that low, that close to the city.
So where was I? In bed, feeling unbelievably numb, holding on to my pillow and praying to God that everyone would live. It was a stark change from the past year's worth of my praying -- hoping that *I* would just live.
I've been numb ever since. Somebody stole my friends, my freedom and my skyline. And America will never be the same again.
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Jon | 28 | New Jersey
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#106 | Thursday, September 20th 2001
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I woke up at 11:00 a.m. in New York's Lower East Side. I never turn the television on in the morning, and only listen to NPR if I'm working that day. (I wasn't working that day) So I wake up, make coffee, wash my face, and then check my email.
After logging on to the Internet, I opened my email program. I was completely confused and shocked at what I was reading. I must have received over 30 e-mails that morning which read: "We're at World War 3, call me when you get this!", "Are you okay?!!! Where are you?", "The Pentagon was hit also!", "CALL ME! CALL ME! CALL ME!"
I immediately turned on the television, and that's when I first became scared. Since my roommate and i don't have Cable TV, I couldn't find a single television station that was working! I finally came to one station which was just a blue screen with big white letters that read, "DUE TO THE CRISIS THAT HAS RECENTLY OCCURRED IN NEW YORK, OUR BROADCASTING IS BEING SUSPENDED." Okay, that freaked me out!
I found CBS finally and the images I saw on the television were truly horrifying. Not only was it horrifying to see, but when I finally came to the realization that we live 2.1 miles (5 minutes) from the WTC and my Father works for the Pentagon, I just fell numb.
I moved to NYC from Washington, DC on September 1, 2001. This is all I really feel like talking about right now...
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Tada | 28 | New York
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#81 | Tuesday, September 18th 2001
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I hardly ever watch television in the mornings as I get ready for work. On the 11th, though, for whatever reason, I decided to turn on the television after I got out of the shower. I grabbed the remote and turned the set on (it was already tuned to ABC) then walked back towards the bathroom without even looking at the screen.
It was Peter Jennings' voice that made me turn back around. Why the heck was Peter Jennings on Good Morning America? Then I saw it - smoke coming out of both WTC towers. Then they replayed the video of the second plane's impact. I was... numb. I stood there unmoving, just watching the events unfold.
Work! I still had a job, so I had to get dressed! Hurriedly, I finished dressing and left my apartment. I got in the car and tuned in to the local AM talk radio show just in time to hear that the Pentagon had also been hit. I couldn't believe it... after the horror I had just seen on television, yet another attack had occurred in the few minutes it took me to walk from my apartment to my car.
I don't really remember much of the actual 20 minute drive to work... I spent the entire time listening to the ABC Radio broadcast, still in total disbelief. Even now, one week later, it's all too surreal.
God be with those still searching, those grieving, and the rest of us who feel a mixture of grief, anger, and relief. Above all, God be with those now making decisions that will affect the future of every last one of us.
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Kevin | 28 | Texas
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#70 | Tuesday, September 18th 2001
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I was sitting at my desk, just coming back from lunch, when a colleague told us a plane had crashed in the WTC. "What???" was my reaction, I thought it was a freak accident. A few minutes later, we learn about the second plane. And then it kept unfolding, like a surreal horror movie: the Pentagon, the 1st tower collapsing, the 2nd one... Unbelievable. I was frantically trying to connect to the Internet to have more info, but it was hard to connect. I am a Frenchman working in London, with strong affective links to the U.S. and this tragedy has affected me in more ways than I thought. I hope the people responsible for this carnage will be caught. I just hope that all this won't degenerate in a massive new war. At the moment I just watch the news and I hold my breath.
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Yann | 28 | United Kingdom
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#54 | Monday, September 17th 2001
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On a normal morning, I would be frantically preparing myself for a hectic day. Preparing for meeetings, finishing drawings (I am an Architect)and sipping my morning brew, but the morning of the 11th, I walked into the office to find our receptionist asking where she could find a news source on the web. I asked why and she said that a plane had struck one of the WTC towers. My first reaction was, "What a strange thing, someone at AA is going to get hit hard for this...the BOOM! The radio reported that the second plane hit the towers, my second thought was that the air traffic controllers were unknowingly leading planes into tall buildings. Then it began to sink in. This innevitable gloom that there was foul play involved.
I am normally a workhorse. Going about my day in an orderly fasion, but after hearing the news I was emotionally shut down. I could not think, much less work. The rest of the afternoon was spent reading reports on the web, and a mad dash to the closest TV at lunch to watch CNN. I was literally mortified. Downtowns all over America were being closed, and panic was beginning to set in. My girlfriend was sent home from her office in downtown Dallas, and all I could think about were my friends in New York, so I began sending e-mails. Luckily all have come back successfully, but I am now left with a sense of anger and fear. A strange and potentially reactionary mix.
Now I am unsure of Americas future. We will strike back, but at what cost? That is the question looming over many of us in Dallas.
I am still mortified, and still have lingering fear.
Thoughts go out to everyone suffering today, the world over.
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James | 28 | Texas
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