9/11 Stories

[AG124]

Well, it was good considering the circumstances. Didn't mean to be rude or anything.

[Rose]

No no no I wasn't saying that . I was just making a reference to a comment I made in my initial post. Namely that my mom was down at the site doing live shots for months, and that was one of them. It's just cool for me that someone in Canada saw it... not "cool" under those circumstances of course. I wasn't implying that you were being rude at all, sorry if it came off that way.

[Yahoshua]

I was in HS at the time and I was walking to Math class. When I got in the room (it was room #10) Mr. Baker (yeah I still remember his name....strange) was on his laptop looking at the screen. He clicked on it continually, completely ignoring me which was unusual for him.

When I walked around to the side of his desk to see what he was looking at, he simply said "The WTC was attacked." He then shut the laptop, and he began, and finished class as normal.

The thoughts that ran through my head during that class are forgotten now, but my mind was moving at the speed of thought.

The whole school knew what had happened in the span of a half-hour. School ended as usual and when I arrived home I read up everything on the internet as I could. My first impression (after being told of us being attacked) was that we had failed ourselves and repeated history (Pearl Harbor). My next thought was who could've done this? I spent the next several hours watching as the second plane hit the the towers, watching the people jump, and watching the towers collapse. I don't remember how my other family members reacted.

I wasn't afraid of being attacked. I reasoned that the Japanese attacked all at once, and if this truly were a repeat of Pearl Harbor, then it would only happen once. And perhaps I was right. I then heard that the Pentagon was hit. I had passed by the Pentagon only a few months before during the Washington D.C. trip my class went on. When I re-digested my thoughts they came off as strange and foreign to me (btw I think WAY too much about little things).

When I had eventually learned that most of the hijackers were Arabs (and Saudi at that), I immediatly connected them with Islam. That the mentality of Islam is domination (I had purchased a 1992 printing of a translated Q'uran for a research project at school). My next thought was that we were at war, just like after Pearl Harbor. But when it dawned on me how may arabs there were in general population compared to the rest of the world, I realized that the war after Pearl Harbor would be insignificant in comparison.

[AG124]

Originally Posted by Rose

No no no I wasn't saying that . I was just making a reference to a comment I made in my initial post. Namely that my mom was down at the site doing live shots for months, and that was one of them. It's just cool for me that someone in Canada saw it... not "cool" under those circumstances of course. I wasn't implying that you were being rude at all, sorry if it came off that way.

Just making sure I didn't offend anyone myself, that's all.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by Eichenlaub

I remember being at the university of Nijmegen for the day, although I cannot remember whether I was there to study or to follow a class.

Somwhere in the afternoon, probably around 15:00 hours, I was sitting in the computer room when a group of fellow historians-to-be entered and babbled about a plane in the WTC. We all crowded (about 4-5 of us) around a single computer and tried to find reels of the events in New york. We saw it, were awed and dismayed. We spoke about it loudly (which is not allowed), making rough guesstimates of the maximum possible number of casualties. Other people looked up at us but apparently we were amongst the few who really knew of the attack. Some must have been annoyed at our callous noise-making, but they learned our reasons when they got home later on. As we sat there, our eyes wide open, I was the first to mention Osama Ben Laden as a suspect, but we really weren't occupied with the perpetrators yet. The misery overwhelmed us all.
Didn't grasp it at first, but then I heard from the staff of the computer room that another plane was being monitored and possibly to be shot down by fighter jets. That's when I left the university and went home. I tried to do the normal routines and succeeded rather well since I had not been able to learn everything yet. That evening, at the karatedo training, my instructor spent a few moments on the attacks, asking the youngest participants (10-11 years) whether they had understood what was going on and whether they had heard of it at school. I remember everybody having their versions of the possible casualty rates, and what this would do to the world. All agreed that it would no longer be the same and I knew back then that I would always have some sharp memories of that day.

The strongest memories I have though, are really of the 12th. I woke up and turned the tv on. Eventually I got out to buy a newspaper (which I almost never do). The day was spent completely engrossed in watching tv and reading that paper. I was completely lost, unable to function properly. I distinctly remember shedding lots of tears back then, and whenever I invoke those memories, I find that a few well up in my eyes even now.

Having spent a day in solitude and sympathy, I got back into a normal routine the next day. When extraordinary disasters hit me, I usually grieve for a full day, as I for instance did when Dutch public figures Pim Fortuyn (06-05-02) and Theo van Gogh (02-11-04) were assassinated.
People were somewhat embarrassed to go back to work and tend to their own lives from 12 September onwards, but really, what else were we to do?

It's already been five years now and how everything has -or hasn't- changed since 11-9-01. It's just unfathomable at times.

Nowadays I cannot fully believe the official story, though I've not been reeled in by any specific conspiracy theory yet. 'Loose Change' was aired here last Sunday and I saw most of it. As a historian I know how evidence can so easily be tempered with, especially eyewitness testimonies, therefore I hesitate to accept any of all those theories without further evidence. Checking it for myself is impossible though.

Kind regards,

Eichenlaub

He Eichenlaub what study did you do in Nijmegen, my oldest son studied there at the time, tandheelkunde.

PS: ahh.. I see, history.

[Eichenlaub]

Hi Fish,

History it is indeed! I must say though, tandheelkunde sure is a better bet financially!

Kind regards,

Eichenlaub

[Fish]

Originally Posted by Eichenlaub

Hi Fish,

History it is indeed! I must say though, tandheelkunde sure is a better bet financially!

Kind regards,

Eichenlaub

Indeed.

[Wim Libaers]

I was reading a forum on the PC. News about the incident came more or less at the same time on that forum and from my dad who was watching it on TV (probably heard it on the radio first). Then the second plane came, then there was a report about the pentagon being under attack by one or more helicopters (leter replaced by another plane) and the crashed one.

I don't remember much specific things about what I was doing, and I can't say I was really shocked either. Interested and curious about the future, expecting some military action, but I don't remember feeling much. Perhaps I'm very insensitive, perhaps other people are overly sensitive, I don't know.

[Rose]

Originally Posted by Wim Libaers

perhaps other people are overly sensitive, I don't know.

I'm not sure feeling extreme emotion after watching 3000 people die is overly sensetive.