Remembering 9/11

[kimana517]

Lyrics taken from "There She Stands" by Michael W. Smith

This is a beautiful tribute to 9/11 complete with lots of great Scriptures.

Where were you when you heard/saw the September 11th attacks?
I was in class at the Word of Life Bible Institute in New York, training to be a campus leader as an intern for my 2nd year. We were about to take a class break as usual and the room got noisy as class ended. Then one of our resident professors came in and walked up to the mic. We were all a little surprised to see him, as he wasn't teaching us that day. He asked us all to go back to our seats, his voice grim. Then he told us. Someone flew two planes into the World Trade Towers, just 4 hours south of us, and the towers had collapsed with thousands of people inside. We were shocked. Horrified. Hearing it didn't make it seem real. As he went on with the details, we just stayed quiet. The whole rest of the day we were quiet and they didn't have the internet or any TVs hooked up yet for that year so we had no way of getting news, of seeing it for ourselves and having it become real. Finally around 9 o'clock that night someone brought in an hour and a half of news that they had taped and we watched that. Again, we were silent. It was crazy. How could someone do that? Many students' parents called because they weren't sure how close we were to NYC and were we all okay? We were, physically. I don't think anyone in America was okay mentally after that for at least a few days. I had been a camp counselor over the summer and one of the campers I kept in touch with was from Staten Island. Her father had seen the towers collapse in his rearview mirror as he was trying to leave Manhattan. That all made it real.

A little over a month after the 9/11 attacks I went on a week-long Open Air Evangelism trip to NYC. One day we were talking to people and doing Gospel meetings in that part of Manhattan so our leader took us down there. It was crazy. It was more than a month later and Ground Zero was still smoldering. It smelled like burning electronics and human flesh. Disgusting, I know, but I've smelled flesh before and that's what it was. You could still see smoke rising and though they had a lot of it blocked off, we were actually able to see many of the damaged buildings and even for a couple minutes, Ground Zero itself, which we were not allowed to take pictures of, as per the law enforcement in the area. Most of the city blocks nearby were eerily clean, as they had run street sweepers and stuff overtime to get rid of the dust, but occasionally there were ledges or awnings that hadn't been cleaned and they had dust on them 3 inches thick. The saddest part to me was that all over the wall they used to block most of it off were makeshift missing person posters and notes to loved ones who died. Flowers, teddy bears, American flags. It was SO sad. People were very receptive to the Gospel though. It was like it had awakened them.

Our country was brought together and unified like it hasn't been for a long time. The terrorists tried to divide us and bring us down but instead we banded together and were stronger than ever. It was awesome.

Here are some pictures I took in October of 2001 in Manhattan near Ground Zero. They aren't the greatest because we didn't stop walking because we had lots of things to do, but they are still interesting.


In this one you can see the smoke still rising as well as a damaged building.



This shows the barrier they put around Ground Zero. It went nearly all the way around
and was completely covered with homemade missing persons posters and memorials to people
who had died there. It was so very sad.



Here is one of the buildings that one of the Trade Towers fell on when it collapsed.



Another view of that building's damage, as well as more smoke and
more of the memorial/missing persons fence.



This HUGE flag was spread across this building. If I recall correctly,
this was the New York Stock Exchange. It was something on or near Wall Street.


So. Where were you when you heard/saw the September 11th attacks?

Comments

[t-jay.livejournal.com]

At the time of the first attack, I was at my health club. I'd had an 8AM appointment to go over either the cardio equipment or the weight equipment. We had just finished up and I was on a rowing machine when I saw the TV overhead with closed captioning showing the first plane having just hit the first building. Immmediately I figured something wasn't right. A few minutes later one of the newscasters suggested that perhaps this could be a terrorist attack, to which the co-anchor responded, "I didn't think about that!"

Well, then I saw the second plane crash into the second building, thus confirming any questions anyone might have had, needless to say. I stuck around for a while and then drove home.

When I got home, sometime after 9 in the morning, there were two voice mails from my mom in California. The first VM message indicated the initial plane crash into the first building. The second voice mail was after the second plane crash, which of course she confirmed it was a terrorist plan. Right after I checked the voice mails...before I even had a chance to call her back, she called me again. I started to say I had just gotten home from the health club and was aware of what had taken place. She then said, "The Pentagon got hit." I exclaimed, "WHAT?!" and turned on the TV. (She hadn't even given me a chance to turn on the TV at home before calling me back - LOL - my mom will immediately call me or e-mail me about any possible changes about any situation, personal or otherwise; that is the relationship we have, regardless of the distance.)

So...if I remember correctly, I was on the phone with her when the first building collapsed. I know I wasn't talking to her when the second did, at which point I was in tears.

I stuck around home the remainder of the day. I don't remember much of what I did. I know drivers were paranoid of gas station shutting down and lines to the gas station extended down at least a quarter mile down the street. I don't recall whether I got gas that day or not.

Of course, my church had a prayer meeting that evening. Because my church was a county away, I didn't want to drive all the way there. Instead, I walked around the corner from where I lived to a local church and attended a prayer session there. Afterwards, I was offered a ride home, and I accepted.

I chatted online at least during the evening (IRC - Internet Relay Chat, where I know this_is_warmth.

We were concerned about my dad, because at the time he was in DC on business. (He was staying in Virginia and would commute daily.) He called my aunt in Pennsylvania as soon as he could, and she called the rest of us in the family indicating he was, and would be, fine.

Needless to say, he didn't fly home as originally scheduled. Instead, he and his two other co-workers rented a car and drove cross-country, taking turns at the wheel. They only stopped at a hotel once.

My dad e-mailed me when I got home. He said, 3,000 miles in 2.5 days - a trip he would never forget.

So, that is my answer to your question. LOL

[t-jay.livejournal.com]

Whoops, I screwed up on the LiveJournal tag for Lana. But you know who I am referencing - LOL

[t-jay.livejournal.com]

Oh, and one more thing....(Are you sick of me yet? LOL)

I don't remember who on my list said this, but I am thinking it might have been a mutual friend between you and I who made this statement a few days ago:

(Paraphrased) 9/11 brought the nation together; Katrina has brought it apart.

[kimana83.livejournal.com]

LOL, no, not yet! =o)

Hmm. I don't remember reading that, but then, I'm a few days behind on my friends page. It's true though. And it didn't have to be that way. I think maybe it's because for 9/11 there were people to blame that deserved the blame. With Katrina no one is at fault so the liberals tried to invent blame to put on Bush by means of calling him a racist and even saying he essentially has the power to control the weather. It's easier to unify when there's someone to blame that's actually deserving the blame, I think.

[kimana83.livejournal.com]

Hehe, yes, I do. =o)

[kimana83.livejournal.com]

Part of me wishes I could have seen it happening live on TV, but part of me is glad I didn't. I had friends who turned on the TV after the first one hit and actually watched live as the 2nd plane hit and then as they collapsed. I was in a state of disbelief even after hearing it secondhand. I know the people who saw it were in even more disbelief. It was crazy.

I'm glad your dad was OK. Man that would've been scary to have someone so close near where some of the planes hit. Someone my mom worked with in Illinois (where we lived at the time of 9/11) had actually been to NYC the previous week and was in one of the WT towers exactly one week earlier. They had made that their first stop on their sightseeing that day so they were there in the 8 o'clock and early 9 o'clock hours exactly one week before. It was creepy!

[pansyprincess.livejournal.com]

I was doing schoolwork when it happened...my dad called to tell us, and we ran to turn the TV on. We were glued to the TV for the rest of the day!

[kimana83.livejournal.com]

I imagine if we'd had a TV up there we would have been too! As it is we were very quiet all day and the next and some people were crying and we had lots of impromptu prayer meetings!

[chestnutcurls.livejournal.com]

I have an entry about it here. Thanks for sharing your story.

[kimana83.livejournal.com]

Ooh wow, I got chills from reading that. Thanks for sending me the link. Wow.

Where I was

[katharhino.livejournal.com]

My brother and I went to the same college, and we both had oil painting class on Tuesday mornings. We arrived, went to our easels and laid out our palettes and brushes. It was the art building janitor, Jack, who came in to tell us "Turn on the radio, right now!" We did and for the rest of class we listened to it happening. We were still standing in front of our easels, but not a lot of painting got done.

Mostly, it was completely unreal. We didn't see any of those images of planes hitting the towers, not until later. I stood there thinking, I wonder if they'll hit the White House next, and yet I felt completely detached.

The one thing I remember most vividly was that radio voice saying "We've just got word that another plane has crashed in Western Pennsylvania..." and my heart actually physically jumped. I could feel it hitting my ribs. Because the rest of my family was in Western PA, and even though the chances were about 10 million to one that this particular plane had crashed on top of our house—you just don't think logically at such a time. It was a real comfort that my brother was in the same room, and we were together.

It was certainly a sensation of shock. The college chaplain had a service that evening and I went, but I cried for most of the service. I hadn't cried before that, much, though tears came to my eyes after class when I went through the student union and saw the images on the TV.

Interestingly our college did not cancel a single class. The president had decided that we wouldn't give the terrorists that triumph over us. Most of the classes talked about it, but they did meet.

Re: Where I was

[kimana83.livejournal.com]

Yes, I can imagine that would be very comforting to have him there. I had Isaac right next to me because we were best friends at the time so we talked about it with our other good friends. It was good to have them there. Oh my word, that would be scary to know the plane had hit in the general vicinity of where your family was! My family was living in central Illinois at the time so they were much more worried about me than I was about them! (There is absolutely nothing in IL worth bombing or crashing planes into except maybe Chicago, which was 3 hours north of them.) WOL didn't cancel our classes, I think because they knew we'd go nuts if we had extra hours of free time and no way to watch or see what's going on.

Thank you for sharing your story!

[injoy.livejournal.com]

I was living at the time about 1.5 hours away from NYC, and about 2 hours north of DC. I wrote an entry about it here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/elinsyw/60067.html). I had friends whose uncles were firefighters and never came back, as well as people from my school. But it was all very surreal, and I don't think really made much of an impact on me. Yesterday's date didn't stick out to me, although I think that's the first time I've failed to think of "September 11th" as synonymous with the events that transpired four years ago.

[kimana83.livejournal.com]

Man! That had to be scary to be so close to both attacks. And wow. That is SO sad about your friends' uncles and your schoolmates. I would think that would make it more real to you, but then I guess each person reacts differently.

[injoy.livejournal.com]

It was scary, especially since I was 17 at the time and my parents left literally hours after the attacks to go to Tennessee (they were supposed to fly out that afternoon, but obviously couldn't), and I was by myself entirely during all the days and uncertainty that followed.

I think it was less real to me because so many people around me were so directly and personally affected -- I never really had room to develop the idea of "our country is being attacked / our way of life has been betrayed" etc because it seemed so heartless to be patriotic and take it personally when so many people lost things so much more important than just their national security, and there I was so much better off than they were. So... I guess I was just in the middle ground, too far away to be directly affected, and too close to be indirectly affected, if that makes sense.

[kimana83.livejournal.com]

Yes, that does make sense. I couldn't imagine being alone for the days after that. I didn't have my family near but I had very close friends, so we were there for each other. Wow.

[arien-o-lindele.livejournal.com]

I was in Oshkosh, WI, with my former pastor's family (I'd gone with them to take their oldest son to PCC for his freshman year): we had all slept in that morning, so it was the first thing I heard about that day. Mrs. Case came into the bedroom where Anna and I were and told us the news that she had heard from her husband who was on a missions trip to Mexico, but was delayed because they weren't letting planes past the borders for a short time: I couldn't quite comprehend it at first. We were all glued to the tv for most of the morning, but Mrs. Case, being the good homeschooling mother that she is, finally said that we could watch again after we finished our school work for the day.

Even though most of the footage was basically the same all day, I couldn't stop watching--it did not seem real. It was like a movie. I was just trying to take it in. And then wondering what was going to happen next...I can't believe that was so long ago already.

[kimana83.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's how I was once we got the taped news programs. For an hour and a half we all just watched it, speechless, disbelieving. It was very strange. I know! How could it have been 4 years now?!

[breezy83.livejournal.com]

I'm a few days late here, but I can still remember clearly where I was on September 11, 2001. I was in Schenectady NY, at Union College in freshman chemistry lab. it was the second week of college, and we started at 8 AM and after an hour or so, people started coming into the room and talking to the professor, and after a while, she told us that school was cancelled for the day and that a tragedy had happened. We all went to the nearest TV and everyone was so shocked and upset.

[kimana83.livejournal.com]

It's weird for those of us who were in class at the time, isn't it? Class is such a normal part of life that to have that interrupted for something so extreme makes one feel very odd.

Thank you for sharing!