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#16 | Sunday, September 16th, 2001
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as soon as i woke up, i remember that i had forgotten to take out the trash the night before, so i grabbed the wastepaper basket and went outside.
my mom was standing in our driveway, i think getting the morning papers, and she just said 'something really huge has happened,' so i followed her inside and we sat at the television watching it all unfold on the 'today show.'
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kek | 16 | California
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#17 | Sunday, September 16th, 2001
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I am not going to write about my reaction when I heard the news, because it wasn't much of one. I never have feelings of revenge, because what's done is done. And the only action that would concern me is making sure that the source of a negative event is cancelled, to prevent them in the future. Only if they're intolerable, which this obviously was, because I don't want people dying, even though, honestly, I was glad that something happened. The mundane inertia to change and strict obedience of media advertisements was the alternative to killing us all. Maybe not physically, but surely most people are already dead inside from it all. It doesn't matter to me if they are breathing or not. I'll demonstrate this.
A lot of people decided that we should have a war now. Former Christian exemplars, who would claim to live by the ethics of "if someone slaps you, turn the other cheek," were now unlike their former selves. The bible didn't do their inner maniac any good, now they are foaming at their mouths, screaming on top of their lungs "kill all arabians!" This is not to speak for all, but there are more than a few people like the ones I'm talking about. So, we have ourselves prejudism.
Now, imagine, a war. In Saudi Arabia, say, there are plenty old men who actually stick to the ethics. They have shed tears over this, and prayed with their hearts that America would get through this well. What will happen to them in case of war? Well, the very people they prayed for will massively bomb them resulting in much higher casualties of innocents than have already been lost. This will only add on to unnecessary deaths. However, it will quench the fire of hatred in the hearts of those insane moral exemplars.
Another thing. There are many Arabian-Americans living in the states. Their families could have been here for a hundred years or more. They are already being descriminated against. I have already heard of store employees stating "if a damn arab shows up at the store, I will not help him with anything." In case of a war, as you can imagine, this hatred will only increase. Most, if not all, arabian americans will lose their jobs. They will be ostracized. They will be dealt violently with. They might be even killed. They might be ordered or urged to leave the US, however, no one would let an Arabian on an airplane, or even a boat. Of course, these people would still be americans, however for them the flag will not wave at that point. Great, huh?
Another thing, people keep saying that they wanted their lives to go on as typically as they have before. Every day was typical, you pull the lever, push the button. You come home and watch television commercials. You are told what to buy, you are given options (on tv) of how to live. Creativity and true potential are drained out of the window. Reciting one's typical every-day feelings over a common omnipresent crisis such "boyfriend or girlfriend break-up" put into rhymes is considered "art." People can't even draw stick figures correctly.
What's wrong with that, you may ask? Well, give me a modern pyramid. Or a modern cathedral. Even a modern house that is built not with straight planks of wood but with artistic carving of some sort. Give me anything that's built today not to just serve its function (badly, I might add,) but to give some kind of an artistic and unique contribution to the world. It's not like searching for a needle in a hay stack, but searching for a needle in 100 hay stacks. By the time you're done, you might not even be sure what is a needle anymore.
People no longer throw their pacifiers away. They always cling to them, throughout their lives. "Go to school, (so that your mom and dad don't have to worry about you breaking the house while they are at work,) get good grades, (so that you can impress idiots with empty letters,) go to college, (to keep down the unemployment of people between 18 and 22, and to get the chance to meet your supposed "loved one" whom you will half likely divorce or cheat on,) go to work, (it is easy to watch ants if all of them do the same thing,) get a loan, (pay three times as much and never save up money to do anything you could actually want,) keep working, (forget what life is about and adapt this newfangled notion that the media and your "peers" shove down your brain,) watch soap operas, (get amused by cliches because due to lack of creative minds nothing more interesting is actually televised,) and eventually die. " Any questions?
When we are all slugs crawling at the same speed, none of us will foresee the future and do anything. Eliminating odd events is not a good thing, people.
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Anton | 19 | Connecticut
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#19 | Sunday, September 16th, 2001
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I feel the anger and remorse of all other Americans, and am upset that it took something like this to bring America together...hopefully we will stay bonded through the upcoming war and for decades after the fact.
When I heard what had happened, I was in the middle of band rehearsal...we were playing "Stars and Stripes Forever"
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Lauren | 17 | Connecticut
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#20 | Sunday, September 16th, 2001
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I was chatting online with some school friends, arranging plans for the weekend. Just after 4pm (9am, East Coast of US time), my mom called from her cell phone. "Can you check this out for me? I was listening to the radio...it said something about a plane crashing into the World Trade Center?" I thought she meant a small plane, like a two seater or something. I immediately went to Yahoo and saw the headline. I confirmed that my mom was right, and went back to chatting with my friends. I told them the news and they both couldn't believe it. About 20 minutes later, I decided to go watch CNN to find out what was happening. Turns out I just missed watching the second plane hit. I was just in shock. I remember saying over and over again: "Oh my God, oh my God" when the plane crashed into the Pentagon too. By the time the towers collapsed, I was just stunned. Then I found out about the PA crash, and my heart stopped. By brother lives in Pittsburgh. I started crying, as I thought about what could have happened to him. I called my mom on her cell phone again to tell her, and she had pretty much the same reaction as me.
It was a long afternoon for me...I was glued to the tv for about 5 hours. I remember vaguely thinking something like "Oh, I'm missing 'Friends'." Odd, how something stupid like that came to mind. I also remember thinking that this was scarily like Pearl Harbor, which I just watched a couple of weeks ago.
I was all alone at home, so I had noone to talk to about it. Actually several friends called me up and asked if I was watching the news. My uncle in Canada also called me up to see how I was. I appreciated that they thought of me, but I wasn't in the mood to talk about it yet.
My uncle called a second time, this time to do a 'conference call' with my brother. He's ok. *RELIEF!* I called my mom to tell her.
Eventually, my dad came home from work, and we just sat there watching tv for ages. My mom came home shortly after.
Later that night, I remembered I had maths homework for the next day. I tried to do it, but I only got about half way through...
*thoughts and prayers for you all*
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Vicky | 18 | Bahrain
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#21 | Sunday, September 16th, 2001
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i was getting ready for school. my mother said, alicia, come here, you'll be talking about this in civics today. i said mum, we read the paper, we're not allowed to just grab things off the news. i didn't know anything about it, and i didn't know what they were talking about and why everyone was so tense and freaked out. well. i learned. i drove myself to school and tried to turn the radio dial several different times and i couldn't escape the news.
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alicia | 17 | California
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