where were you on 9/11?

Question

I was at home and asleep my wife woke me up.....the first words out of my mouth were.......that God Damn Bush is behind this...........WHAT WERE YOURS?

Answer 1

This will be a pretty long one. I'm a writer and I've kept a journal for some years now.
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September 11, 2001—
A Day That Will Live In Infamy

[ I know that this piece of writing is rambling, scatterbrained, and incoherent. I am caught up in pointless personal details and there are very callous and insensitive comments that seem totally unnecessary in the fourth paragraph. They concern where the victims worked. I let it all stand untouched. In every other piece of writing in this book, I proofread at least casually before it ever saw print or the Internet. In this piece, I didn’t take the time to do even that. Like everything else here, it is my initial impression of the incident. I feel it is always crucial to retain that first impression, be it good or bad. I remain faithful to my first gut feelings, no matter how shameful they may prove to be later. You have to realize, too, that I was completely in shock. The full impact of this unprecedented catastrophe, with all its implications, would come very slowly, if at all. A full year later, I still feel like I’m partially in denial about much of it.]

The attacks began nearly ten hours ago. My God! My God! My God! It’s the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen in my life. I’d like to say nothing could possibly be worse, but only God knows what will happen in the hours to follow.

How could I be totally unaware of something of this magnitude for half a day? My God, I was out early this morning and no one said anything. It might not have happened yet. Maybe the people I saw hadn’t heard yet. Until now, it was a beautiful, clear, end-of-summer day. It’s also my sister’s birthday and a good friend’s birthday and I was thinking of them. Poor Laura and Kristi, how can they ever have another happy birthday? I was dwelling on my own problems all day, petty things that have lost all significance and meaning forever. My world has changed forever in the last ten minutes.

I don't usually watch TV while I’m writing. I first heard the news when I went to the grocery for cigarettes. I'm closing in on the half-century mark and it's the first time I've ever seen an “XTRA--XTRA—XTRA” in massive red type staring at me. It scared the bejeezus out of me. The Pentagon and the World Trade Center. Jesus...

It's strange... I know I'll be unpopular in saying, right up front, that I blame much of the misery in the world on those two places. But once I saw the cowardly attack, the way it went down, and I pictured all those people, real people, in the buildings and on the airliners, people that knew they were going to die, I was sick... sick as Hell. Not just at heart, I was physically sick. It hit me like a pile driver to the gut. For the first time today, I realized that I may detest the pentagon and the WTO and all that they stand for, but I still love the people inside. They’re just people. No one could ever look at this cowardly attack and not be sickened to the core. My heart goes out to those people. Our tiny differences can mean nothing in a time like this. I can't imagine what their last thoughts were. It's something that is indescribable, atrocious, something there are no words for. Their lives are lost, ripped from them in a cowardly, obscene, and heinous way. Their families and friends will have to deal with a grief that I cannot even begin to comprehend. I have a feeling, an extremely horrendous gut-wrenching feeling, that this is only the beginning.

They are saying that there may be as many as six thousand dead. Jesus. I cannot begin to comprehend a number like that. That’s twice as many as Pearl Harbor. And we all know what that started. I pray for all of us. None of us want to see WWIII start over this, as bad as it is. I can’t help but think that George Bush has been on an undeserved vacation for the last three weeks, in this, only his seventh month as president. I can’t help but feel that there is some sort of connection here, that he’s been stirring up trouble and beating his chest again somewhere. Why did this happen right now? What’s Cheney been up to? My mind boggles at these thoughts. I knew from the very beginning that if Bush took office something terrible would happen, but not this soon, not this thing, not here. Things like this don’t happen here. Not until today.

I got down on my knees and prayed. In a crisis like this, I belonged on my knees. I haven’t set foot in church in ages, but I was raised Catholic and it just seemed like the only right way to pray at a time like this. I prayed most of all that Dubya will keep his cool and the Pentagon folks won't wig out. This is terrible, horrible, but it could get a helluva lot worse. I pray it doesn't escalate. You know how I feel about Bush. Since his earliest days in the primaries I've been very outspoken about my perceptions of him and what he's capable of. This is the First Test. I pray he gets us through this Tribulation appropriately, but I fear he does not know the meaning of the words “restraint” or “moderation.”

God, please let me be wrong this time, but I can see it as vividly as if it's already come to pass...

In the meantime, I'm going to go out and donate blood. It's the only thing I can do right now that will matter at all. I have to do something. I can’t just sit here watching those same horrible images over and over. I will still see them if I turn off the TV. I’m too scared to turn the TV off because of what might happen next. I can’t write anything rational. Words mean nothing in a time like this. I am at a complete loss for words. It will be days, months, years before I can begin to believe what I’ve just seen and heard. These horrible images will never leave my mind as long as I live. I don’t even want to talk about them. I want to punch holes in my head until it all goes away. I wish very much that I had never lived to see this day. I have to lie down for a few minutes. I have to pray. I have a cold, clammy, sweaty feeling and everything is turning gray. Everything sounds funny, tinny, like I’m in a cave underwater. I have to lie down right now. Right here.

I believe I am in shock. I feel almost nothing now, and that is not a good sign. When the feeling returns, I do not know what will come next. I may have a nervous breakdown or go insane or I may drop dead. My hands have never shaken like this. I can’t type. I need a cigarette. I forgot to buy them.

There is nothing to say at a time like this. I have to go out to give blood. Oh, God, please let this be the end of it. I’ve seen enough bloodshed in the last hour to last me a lifetime. I can’t deal with this. Don’t let any more of this happen. Please say that it’s all a mistake and almost everybody was out of those buildings. Please tell me that Dan Rather was wrong and it was only metal and paper I saw falling out of the tops of the towers. I’m more scared of heights than anything in the world and I will have nightmares about this as long as I live. Right now, I don’t want to live. I want to be dead. Nothing can ever be the same again and I just want to lie back down and go to sleep and never wake up. I can’t give blood right now. I don’t want to see a drop of blood. Those poor people are beyond any help I can give them but prayer. I feel like I can give them ten or twenty straight hours of that, but no blood, not after I just fainted. I’m too dizzy. I’m one of the lucky ones today. For the last year, I didn’t think so. But now their pain is over and mine is worse than it’s ever been and I’ve come full circle in ten seconds and I’m lying back down and praying myself to sleep. If I’m lucky, I’ll be Someplace Better when I wake up. I have never felt so drained, scared, and empty in my life. Lord, take me now. I’ve seen all the pain and suffering I can ever stand. There is nothing more I can do here. There is nothing left I want in this life.

I'm full circle again already. I'm going to go out and give blood. I cannot just sit here and keep watching this over and over and over. I have to be with somebody, anybody. My walls are Screaming with silence. Our world is changed forever. And I don't want to remember that I spent the beginning of the End sitting at home in my cramped little womb by myself. We're all in this together. There will be time to divide again when the shock wears off and the mourning period begins. President Bush has never been a great uniter. He's split this Country in two ever since that blasphemous banana-republik election.

There will be a great divide soon. Maybe next week, maybe next month or next year, whenever the Great War starts. The Crusades are back and they will mark the End of Days. WWII will seem like a pre-school squabble over crayons before all is said and done.

Personally, I believe this War will outlive us all. It may outlive this Planet. And we'll all remember who was up in the Ivory Tower of Babble when it started. This will be George's Legacy. And our own.

God, please bless all of those people who passed on today and their loved ones. We’ve never, ever been through anything like this before. Guide us to the right path, and do not let this happen again—over here or over there. Wherever “there” is.

God, Bless us all. Everyone in this world needs a prayer today.

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Answer 2

I was in the shower when the first plane hit as I came out my friend called to ask if I was watching the news. I turned it on as the second plane was hitting. I immediately said oh no, we're at war now. I was on my way to work as the plane crashed into the pentagon and began praying for the people to fight back and not let them crash into the white house. It was a short time later it went down in PA.

I didn't get to mourn because of work and I have never been able to feel release from that.

Answer 3

I was on campus having breakfast with my friend before our class when the first plane struck. We were watching the news on a silent television in the atrium - confused as to what had happened. My immediate thoughts were that the crash was some freak accident. My friend and I went to class - an hour and a half later, we got out and went to a friend's dorm room. By this time, both towers had crashed, the pentagon had been hit, and the last plane had crashed. It was so devastating... We were hit with everything at one time and I worried so much that we were going to war... I will never forget that terrible day...

Answer 4

I was at work. We were just about ready to open when one of my co-workers came to us and said a plane had hit the tower. He'd been listening to the radio in recieving. At first we didn't believe him, but after he repeated himself several times, we all went back and listened to the radio reports. It was horrific. At first everyone thought it was an accident, but after the second one hit, we all knew there was no way this wasn't on purpose. Because I was at work, I didn't actually "see" what had happened until later that day, when the local paper printed a special edition with pictures.

Answer 5

I was taking a test over Egypt in my world cultrues class my Sophomore year in highschool. Someone walked in and said everyone needed to turn on the TV adn we quit taking the test and watched the rest of the day.

Answer 6

I was working in Canary Wharf, London at the time, and to be honest I was bleedin scared. Went to the pub to watch the news on TV and had a cry too.

Answer 7

I was at work, my coworker came in my office and told me a plane hit a WTC, we went to the cafe and witnessed the second plane hit. I stood there in disbelief of what had just happened.

Answer 8

I was at the gym with the sound off and TV on. I thought it was the movie, "The Towering Inferno" and paid no attention to it. When I got to work at UAL, I couldn't believe that it was real.

Answer 9

That shows some deep seated hatred towards our president which is pretty sad. Remember that hatred when al queda comes looking for you.

Answer 10

At home watching it unfold on television. Stung as to what had just happen.

Answer 11

I was at Ft. Benning, GA in Basic Training...We all thought they were messing with us.