September 11th Remembering 19 Years ago, Where were you and what have we learned?

[D3thray]

I was walking into the student union after my morning chemistry lecture and found a large group of students gathered around a CRT TV on the wall. One of the twin towers was on fire and the news anchors were discussing the possibility of an accident. Moments later I watched as the second tower was struck and the realization flood over the faces of everyone in the room that this was no accident.

After that I got used to being pulled aside at every TSA security checkpoint for enhanced screening. Never got mad about it, I could understand why (I’m bearded with dark hair and look vaguely like a lot of different possibly middle eastern ethnicities to the untrained eye), and it became a story I could relate to people about minorities being treated differently in not intentionally malicious ways.

I suppose I learned that some people really did hate America and it wasn’t just something that crazy people said. I also learned that security and freedom are at odds with each other and you cannot improve one without taking from the other; That the job of anyone tasked with balancing the two would necessarily be difficult and thankless. So I try not to be too hard them as a result. Still I later learned not to let that lead me to support another Bush. But then I learned that a silver tongue disguising another Bush was just as bad. So I ended up settling on a dude that spews diarrhea from his mouth who is the first president since Carter not to involve us in any new foreign armed conflicts. You take what you can get.

[lonely zergling]

Was playing at home and noticed that my parents were weirdly focused on the tv. Sucks that stuff like this happens in our world, rip to the innocent people who lost their lives.

I was suprised by the amount of people who believe in stupid conspiracy theories surrounding this event. Soo many people who think this was an inside job just so murrica could attack the poor muslim countries. Yikers. They always find a way to be the victim huh.

[Forogil]

At work, jet-lagged after a trip from Logan Airport.
I have learned that airport checks at US airports now take longer time.

[Mayhem]

The reason we remember these things is so that we don't forget because we don't want it to happen again or do something to stop it.

I wonder when the US will start with that.

[Fencers]

I was at my mom's house in Chelsea. My mom went out grocery shopping and my sister woke me up only a few minutes before the second plane hit. I saw it live on TV. My sister and I panicked and ran outside in our pajamas looking for our mom.

An unreal number of sirens, ambulances, cop cars, and fire trucks went off at once. The sound was crazy. It was overcast and you could see like fog/mist/smoke at the edge of every block as it rolled across the island.

Pretty surreal actually being there. I felt we watched television for like 3 days without pause. Kinda felt like being in a warzone.

I think the US learned, nothing.

[kail]

I was in elementary school when my teacher heard the news and put it on TV while trying to explain what has happened. Many classmates, including me eventually, were picked up early. Not much to learn other than twisted people existing to commit such atrocities. We've heard it in history classes and then witnessed it ourselves in 2001.

My world hasn't changed other than noticing society's higher disdain towards Islam/Arabs.

[Jotaux]

I woke up early to watch some tv before school. I saw a news report with a plane hitting a building and figured it was some special on the potential for that to happen. I went upstairs to wake up my dad (at the time he was working on his pilot license). He was already up watching and told me about the attacks.

I went to school that day but they gave us the next day off.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Was playing at home and noticed that my parents were weirdly focused on the tv. Sucks that stuff like this happens in our world, rip to the innocent people who lost their lives.

I was suprised by the amount of people who believe in stupid conspiracy theories surrounding this event. Soo many people who think this was an inside job just so murrica could attack the poor muslim countries. Yikers. They always find a way to be the victim huh.

There was no inside job, obviously, but Dick Cheney and others in the government 100% utilized this to justify an attack on Iraq, a country they'd wanted to invade for a long time, and despite intel saying they had no reason to. It's public these days.

[draynay]

I was asleep, pretty much everything had happened before 8am my time and I didn't have any classes until evening.

What did I learn? I supposed I learned a bit more about human nature, pretending to care and showing their true colors once it was no longer convenient, or exploiting tragedy for their own gains.

[Coolthulhu]

It was about a couple of hours after lunch, I was doing homework at my grandpa's. He walked in the living room, turned on the TV, and made a comment about movies having gotten too exaggerated. I asked him why and when he didn't answer, su I turned towards the TV and saw him zapping through the channels, all of which were broadcasting the same thing live (the first plane had just hit). He didn't manage to answer, just stumbled back and fell and on the sofa, I joined him and we watched in silence. I probably wouldn't have realized the gravity of the situation to the fullest had I been alone, I had never seen him like that before. Unable to answer as if shell-shocked, that is, fixated on the screen in utter disbelief, occasionally changing channel as if to check whether it was actually happening. After a while my aunt barged in and said she were unable to reach one of the cousins (who worked in one of the towers), which brought my grandpa back to reality. My cousin wasn't at work that day, but it took a while to confirm it because he wasn't answering his phone and his parents and friends weren't either.

[Ayirasi]

Hungover on the couch and not being able to process what the I was seeing, because there was no way what I was seeing on the television was real.

[I Push Buttons]

Where were you, how did your world and the rest of the world change.

I was at school, I think I was in like fourth grade. Our teachers didn't tell us about it and this was before kids, especially elementary school kids, had cell phones... So we were in the dark all day. I didn't know about it until that afternoon when I left school and my dad was standing outside waiting to pick me up.

I bought into all the patriotism, nationalism, and militarism of the time; I was like "fuck yeah dude, fuck em up!" when we invaded Afghanistan, same with Iraq two years later. I guess that shaped my foreign policy outlook in life since I still hold the same sentiments now and I still agree completely with the invasions of Afghanistan and even Iraq.

Other than that, though, not much changed for me.

[Kellhound]

I was asleep when it started, but was woken up before the towers fell. Spent days waiting for the next shoe to drop, but thankfully I learned that bin Laden was not quite the terrorist mastermind I took him for.

[Morae]

I remember coming home from school. I turned on tv, it was showing news for some reason...... on every channel. Then I started watching and was like "wtf?". I felt like I was watching some movie. Then i realized it was real and continued watching.

[kamuimac]

At school in EU didnt care about atacks it was american thing anyway . years later i learned that it was US who sponsored osama and treated him as a hero in 80/90s in first place so /shrug still dont care till today .

[rumplist]

We learned that Americans are much worse than Al-quaeda.

[silveth]

I was driving to work that morning when the first one came over the radio. I remember getting to work and asking people if they heard what happened and no had yet. We turned on the news and then saw the second one hit.

Then I remember our blood donor head coming to us (even though we were the IT department, we were friendly with them because we were on the same floor in that old hospital building) asking for help because there were call flooding in about people coming to donate.

I remember her, myself and our IT security manager making the decision to move the blood donor operation to the auditorium and get more stations setup quick as people started showing up.

I remember the candy stripers coming to help us with crowd control and getting the forms filled and keeping people moving in the right direction. We ended up with 12 stations up. 4 System admins taking and looking over the forms.

I remember somehow becoming the incoming person in charge, answering questions to the helpers and donors as they came in and waited for their turn.

I remember the hospital upper management coming over to our makeshift area when they got out of their "meeting to determine what we should do" and being a little annoyed that we went again without them. Of course by that time we had 200 people in line waiting. I remember our CEO asking me if we needed anything, I said water for the people sitting and waiting would be good and more juice for after they gave blood.

I remember having so many people come to donate that we had to start telling people calling that we needed them to hold off or go to the civic center where the national drive was setup like we were and finding out that they were overwhelmed also and telling people to go to us. I remember getting pulled to a phone because one of the colleges in the area wanted to setup bus loads of kids to come and asking them to limit it to 2 buses that day and then hopefully more in a few days after we have calmed down.

I remember the hospital getting ready for patient transfers from the city as there was a planned move. When survivors were found and brought to the local hospitals, then they would send patients out to further hospitals to make room as needed. We were an hour or so away from NYC.

I remember the evening when everyone realized that there would be no mass groups or even any survivors found.


I will never forget that day.

[Cerilis]

I was driving to work that morning when the first one came over the radio. I remember getting to work and asking people if they heard what happened and no had yet. We turned on the news and then saw the second one hit.

Then I remember our blood donor head coming to us (even though we were the IT department, we were friendly with them because we were on the same floor in that old hospital building) asking for help because there were call flooding in about people coming to donate.

I remember her, myself and our IT security manager making the decision to move the blood donor operation to the auditorium and get more stations setup quick as people started showing up.

I remember the candy stripers coming to help us with crowd control and getting the forms filled and keeping people moving in the right direction. We ended up with 12 stations up. 4 System admins taking and looking over the forms.

I remember somehow becoming the incoming person in charge, answering questions to the helpers and donors as they came in and waited for their turn.

I remember the hospital upper management coming over to our makeshift area when they got out of their "meeting to determine what we should do" and being a little annoyed that we went again without them. Of course by that time we had 200 people in line waiting. I remember our CEO asking me if we needed anything, I said water for the people sitting and waiting would be good and more juice for after they gave blood.

I remember having so many people come to donate that we had to start telling people calling that we needed them to hold off or go to the civic center where the national drive was setup like we were and finding out that they were overwhelmed also and telling people to go to us. I remember getting pulled to a phone because one of the colleges in the area wanted to setup bus loads of kids to come and asking them to limit it to 2 buses that day and then hopefully more in a few days after we have calmed down.

I remember the hospital getting ready for patient transfers from the city as there was a planned move. When survivors were found and brought to the local hospitals, then they would send patients out to further hospitals to make room as needed. We were an hour or so away from NYC.

I remember the evening when everyone realized that there would be no mass groups or even any survivors found.


I will never forget that day.

Wow.

/10chars

[ParanoiD84]

Can't remember much more then the people who where forced to jump.

Felt really good when they fucked bin laden up though.

[Cizr]

My mom was in hospital and me and my dad were visiting her that day. When we entered her room she was watching tv and crying. I was afraid something happened to her but she just pointed to tv where they were showing the attacks.