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#1475 | Tuesday, July 16th 2002
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I got off the R train in Times Square and headed for work. At that moment the first tower was hit but I had no idea till I reached work and saw it on tv. The first thought was a terrorist attack. I was in the Trade center in 1993 missing the first attack by 1/2 hour. At that point I called my wife who was working on the east side and told her we have to get out of Manhattan. I calle my brother who worked a few blocks from me and told him were going back to Queens. Let my Mom know at her home everyone was ok.
I picked up my wife and we statred walking up to the Queensboro bridge about 11am. By now the towers were gone. As we walked over the bridge into Queens you no longer saw the towers, just thick black smoke. It was an erie sight I will never forget. You had to think to yourself is this really happening. At that moment NYC was in bad shape. I remember as we walked over the east river almost three hours after the attack why there was no military presence in the air, no fighter jets or military helicopters and it was such a clear day visibility was nothing less than spectacular. I finally made it home which is just accross the east river. It was on the warm side that day temps were around 80 degrees. With no trains running we walked about five miles till we caught a livery car in Long Island City, Queens who was kind enough to pick up my wife and I. As we reached our block thats when the thunderous sounds of the fighter jets passed over our neighbor hood.
For the next week or so our neighborhood was filled for what it seemed twenty four hours a day with sirens,helicopters and fighter jets. I am born and raise in NYC and this was truly the first time sirens bothered me.
I think the next four weeks or so most of us living and working in NYC where in a state of shock. I attended several Funerals at St. Patricks on 5th ave so the events continued for many months for us here.
Now we are approaching the first anniversary and I have not been to wall street since the attacks. I dont know when I will be able to go there. For me it is not a tourist attraction. The towers wher apart of my NYC life from a kid to my adult life. I have worked in them and traveled through them on my way to work, I still can picture inside and out vividly in my mind. I can say now that I miss them.
I wait for the day we can bring closure, but we should as a nation never forget that the enemy still lives among us. liberty and Freedom have a cost and should be defended.
For a brief moment in time I felt it was in jepordy. I never want my children to have that feeling.
SWS NYC
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SWS | 36 | New York
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#1465 | Thursday, July 11th 2002
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On September 11, 2001, I sat in the band room at school while the jets crashed into the World Trade Center and later the Pentagon. I vividly remember the peacefulness I had felt that day while practicing, the bright sun outside, the only sounds being my music and the tapping away of my teacher at his computer. I had no idea that terrorists were attacking only 25 miles from my school and my house.
At about 10:30 I walked into American history class to hear my friend talking about a plane hitting a Twin Tower and knocking it down. I had no idea what he was talking about, and asked him to explain it to me. A crowd gathered around his desk and soon we realized that he was talking about something that actually happened, not a movie or story. The information he gave was slightly wrong because the events were still going on and reports were mixed, but it was enough to terrify us. He had been getting food in a store down the block when he saw the news on TV and had been among the first of the students to hear about what had happened. We spent the rest of American history class discussing what little we knew of the events, living out, ironically, the enormous part of American history that was being made as we spoke.
The rest of the day was a blur of rumors and emotion, students and teachers crying because friends and relatives worked in or near the World Trade Center and no one knew how many people had made it out alive. The school was put on lockdown, meaning no student could leave until further notice. The day wore on and we were brought to the gym, where it was announced that all students had to be picked up by a parent, and teachers were in the process of calling them all. Students took out cell phones and called parents themselves to make things go quicker, and also to hear how loved ones were.
I'll never forget watching the footage of the jets hitting the towers or of the people jumping from windows. I'll never forget the footage of the children in Afghanistan celebrating our tragedy. I'll never forget the stories about my friends' parents walking home from Manhattan because there was simply no other way to get home, arriving here covered in soot. I'll never forget the terror I felt that evening as I heard a plane flying overhead, when I knew planes weren't allowed in the skies, until it was announced on television that it was only a military plane.
Several days later I went to a park near my house and I could still see the smoke. I used to be able to see the towers, but instead I saw grey soot where they once stood. It was the first day planes were able to come back to America, and there was a continuous line of foreign jets going over my head.
The 9/11 aftermath continued for a long time for me here in New York. One of my teachers was absent many times because her husband was a fireman and she had to attend the many funerals of his fallen friends. Luckily, her husband survived, and he was part of the rescue/cleanup crew. Little things continued to remind us here of the tragedy, and still do. We will never, ever, forget.
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Erin | 17 | New York
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#1455 | Tuesday, July 9th 2002
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On September 11, 2001 I had only been in high school for a few days. I was in my third period class, writing, when someone came in and whispered something into my teacher's ear. Apparently the administration as usual was trying to shelter the students from any important information. Things were going around in the hallway about 'the wtc got attacked', etc. etc. By sixth period, choir, everyone knew what happened. We sat around and listened to the radio. Everyone was devasted. I can understand that people were afraid if there loved ones were in the building, but otherwise, I just don't understand why people were SO affected. Yes, it is extremely sad that over 5,000 people perished over such a trite, trivial thing as cultural differences. Things like this happen all the time in Isreal. People seem to ignore the fact that there are constantly suicide bombers in Isreal. Living in America does not make you immune to things. I am also shocked by people's inibilities to understand that, yes, there are absolutely horrible people in the world. People have built walls up around themselves, and lived in a fantasy world. This is a sad sad awakening. This is a sad awakening that ANYWHERE, people kill eachother over disagreements. It is not a happy safe world. Another thing that bothered me about some peoples responses to the WTC attack was that they blamed all Arabs. I was watching the news, and I saw that a man who was HINDU, not even Muslim was shot. I believe this shows the true sorrow of the whole 9/11 situation. We were attacked because of cultural differences, and then people in this country have the nerve to be racist against muslims, and people who look remotely like muslims, and persecute them becuase they are different. This reveals the blatant hypocrisy of the whole situation and it is sad.
Though this entry is cynical and shows a different view point, it doesn't mean that I'm completely anti-America or anti-government. It also doesn't mean that I don't think that what happened on 9/11 was absolutely sub human and barbaric. Because it was. Anyone who kills anyone is subhuman. My heart goes out to all of the people who lost someone on 9/11. Maybe one day we can understand that we are all equal. Only then will we be able to function as truly the great creatures that humans are made out to be.
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Julie | 15 | New York
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#1454 | Tuesday, July 9th 2002
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What started as a beautiful morning evolved into the very same day that would change the rest of our lives forever. That morning my girlfriend of 4 years and I got up to a bright and sunny new day, with rejoice I got up myself to take her to work, but couldnt help but ponder the beauty of just being. I dropped off my love to work and began to glance on my outlook in hopes of unraveling my next adventure towards spiritual abundance. Later on that day I had planned to withdraw my overpriced ****** stock and cash in on an engagement ring. As I head on to the parkway to continue on home, I turn the radio dial, only to hear that a freak accident occurred. A prop. jet evidently may have landed into the WTC tower 2( north tower). After dismissing the like as just that a freak accident I continued on. But, had an erry feeling that foul play was at hand, we had actually been attacked. I got off the parkway immediately and called my girlfriend, family, et all in hoped of calm. Then, got news that the South tower was struck. The illusions of grandier were no more. We had been under attack for sure. That's when I broke down to ponder the why's who's and how's. That day was the beginning of the rest of our lives, a vision and experience that will torment and bind the remainder of our lives forever more. Life will be the same no more. The new world began on that very day, September 11th 2001.
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yabyum | 28 | New York
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#1428 | Sunday, June 30th 2002
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SEPT 11,2001 IS A DAY I WILL NEVER FORGET, I WAS AT WORK WITH THE DEPT OF SANITATION TRAVELING ON 95 NORTH IN NEW JERSEY AFTER DUMPING A GARBAGE TRUCK IN NEWARK, AROUND 8:45AM THEN ME AND MY COWORKER NOTICE EVERY ONE ON THE HIGHWAY WAS PULLING OVER TO THE SHOULDER TALKING ON THEIR CELL PHONES I NEW SOMETHING WAS WRONG BUT DIDNT KNOW WHAT THEN WE HAD HEAVY TRAFFIC OUT OF NO WHERE, I TOLD MY PARTNER I WAS GONNA ASK THIS TRACTOR TRAILER DRIVER WHAT WAS GOING ON SINCE I DIDNT HAVE A RADIO ON HAND, HE TOLD ME THE WORLD TRADE CENTER TOWERS WAS HIT BY TWO PLANES AND THEY HAD COLLASPED I SAID OH MY GOD I TOLD MY COWORKER, WE WAS IN SHOCK, IT DIDNT DAWN ON ME RIGHT AWAY THAT WE WAS ATTACKED BY TERRORIST THEN FINALLY IT HIT ME WHEN I HEARD ABOUT THE PENTEGON, AS WE APPROCH THE GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE IN FORTLEE NJ WE WAS TURN AWAY BY THE POLICE THEY HAD FLASHED A SIGN ON THE BOARD THAT READ "STATE OF EMERGENCY" WE HAD TO STAY IN FORTLEE FOR 5 HOURS, SO WE FOUND A BURGER KING AND ATE THERE AND THE REST OF THE SANIATIION TRUCKS FINALLY ARRIVE ALSO WITH US SO IT WAS 7 TRUCKS NOW AND WE HAD TO PLEAD WITH THE OFFICERS FOR THEM TO LET US CROSS THE BRIDGE, IN THE MEAN TIME I HAD BROUGHT A PORTABLE RADIO TO LISTEN TO THE NEWS, THE NEWS WAS ON EVERY STATION AS EXPECTED, THAT DAY WAS LIKE A DREAM I COULDNT BELEAVE THIS HAD HAPPEN, MY CELL PHONE DIDNT WORK AT ALL DUE TO HEAVY TRAFFIC FROM WHAT HAD HAPPEN, THEN FINALLY AFTER PLEADING WITH THE POLICE THEY AGREE TO LET US CROSS THE BRIDGE, WE WAS A CONVOY THE ONLY TRUCKS THAT WAS CROSSING THE BRIDGE AS WE APPROCH NEW YORK CITY,THE CITY WAS NOT THE SAME PEOPLE WAS CRYING AND IN SHOCK, I GOT TO MY GARAGE AND LOOKED ON THE TV THEY WAS SHOWING THE PLANES HITTING THE BUILDINGS OVER AND OVER IT WAS LIKE A MOVIE VERY SHOCKING,I FINALLY REACHED MY FAMILY MEMBERS AND LET THEM KNOW THAT I WAS OK,I SIGN OUT AND WENT HOME LOST, COPS EVERY WHERE PEOPLE CONFUSED IN THE STREETS, I HAD TO GO HOME LAY DOWN AND TAKE ALL THIS IN AND HOPE THAT IT WAS ALL A DREAM BUT IT WASNT ITS A DAY THAT I WILL NEVER FORGET GOD BLESS AMERICA.
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RANDY | 46 | New York
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