Defending the Truth

I was in the hospital, recovering from a life changing surgery. Was out cold when it happened, but when i woke up i saw it on T.V. the hallways in a panic. I won't forget that video that played over and over on those cheap hospital T.V.'s

I think he is pulling your chain.

Revenge is an empty thing, hon.

In any case who would we seek revenge against? We are fighting a ghost.

Wow. What a day that was. All of us went through the exact thing and yet no two of our experiences will be the same.

I was at work. A manager came by and said that one of the other managers had called him from home to say that a plane had hit the world trade center. He couldn't imagine such a thing unless maybe that other manager was "kidding." I remember saying "why would anybody joke about something like that? That's just not funny. So much of that day is a blur--and then again so much of it is crystal clear. I think when the second plane hit is when we began trying to find access to news. And of course the TV in the break room was broken, so we dug up a little 5" black and white TV radio combo one of the employees had left there. We also turned on all the radios we could find.

I remember saying something kind of stupid after that second plane like "there's something to this--we're under attack." I can't remember if it was before or after the plane hit the pentagon or even when the plane went down in Somerset PA that they began evacuating buildings in my city and sending workers home. I'm not one to panic at all, but that was VERY disconcerting.

And I remember seeing the smoke pouring out of those buildings on a grainy black and white TV and knowing it was a whole lot worse than what we could see then.

I was allowed to go home early that day--I left work somewhere between 2 and 3 pm. Of course when I got home the computer and TV were turned on and I couldn't believe what had happened. I remember watching news videos on my computer showing the planes hitting the twin towers. People running down a city street just ahead of a crumbling skyscraper, people jumping out of those windows 80 stories up and seeing them fall to certain peril. There was never a disaster movie created that could come anywhere close to approximating what people saw and felt and the sheer graphic horror of that day. In fact I know there is no real way of explaining that day to anybody who isn't old enough to remember living through it. My young nieces will never completely know how profoundly the world they now live in was altered on that single day--at least not on the emotional level that we know it.

And then the skies were deadly silent. Silent for days as our air industry was halted. I remember walking my dog one day about 4 days later and I saw a single jet stream across the sky and even that stood out. I realized that was a step back toward normalcy but also that 9/11 was a day that had changed the world forever.

And you know what--I cannot believe the raw emotion I still have 5 1/2 years later as I sit here and type this. What a senseless, idiotic thing for someone to dream up.

Truthfully--I was brought to tears many times during and after the event--and just now typing what my day was like. I've no desire for revenge--just to stop the maniacs. Killing everybody from the country/area that attacked us? That is killing innocents--just like what the perpetrators did to us.

I hope God smacks you in the back of the head sooner than later.

barlo,
my experience was similar to yours in the feeling of disbelief that I had... i was at work, and people were saying "a plane was flown into the world trade center!" People were scrambling like crazy to get to their computers and look at news websites and streaming video feeds, and it was hard to get into those websites because they were overloaded. I was just in complete denial. I remember saying (or thinking) "it's possible that there was a pilot error, or some problem with the plane's navigational system, or the control tower or some such thing..." I just couldn't wrap my brain around it unless I thought that it was just some sort of tragic mistake. The second plane hit and all I could think was that it was just a horrible coincidence. Then the news that another plane had flown into the Pentagon. Then there was absolutely no question was going on. And what was there to do? There was some frantic discussion with co-workers and then try to get some work done even as my frantic mind engaged in denial. In the days and weeks after, when I wasn't working, I was glued to the television watching the constant coverage but as many times as I saw the same footage and heard the same facts and names, it was like a horrible dream... it just wouldn't sink in, it was like an out-of-body experience, or like I was watching it all in some foreign language I could not understand. It was just incomprehensible to me. And then there was the completely impotent feeling that overcame me, like suddenly I would have absolutely no control of anything else in my life ever again.

In a way I feel a bit like an interloper contributing to a thread that is so personally American, but maybe it might be interesting to see how it was seen elsewhere in the world. I remember vividly where I was when I heard it on the radio, I was driving up the coast road in the North East of England on my way to visit a couple of prospective adopters in a little town called Whitburn. I have to say, even over here I was shitting myself. When panic stricken reporters were saying "we're getting reports that there's been an attack on the Pentagon" it seemed (to me) to have a direct connection with us over here, what was going to happen next?
When I got to the families house, they (Bless) were watching some PM pre recorded quiz show on telly, oblivious and anxious at my visit. I whipped through the session totally distracted by what I knew was going on in the US. Got out quick and started phoning my wife, she was watching the unfolding events on telly.