Yes, everyone please do not get political
:deal:

Yasgur, you may want to put this on a watch list or something...

Deaths from terrorism are pretty small compared to other problems. In fact, in the United states, the number of deaths from terrorism has never been higher then the number of deaths from run of the mill murder. The danger of terrorism is not the deaths, but the terrorizing of the people.


Actually, there's more to it than that. 9/11 was the largest terrorist attack by deaths in the United States. Prior to that, America's death's from terrorism per year were often close to or at zero.

But thats my point, it still happens, and war torn, stable it's all irrelevent, the fact is terrorism is a daily occurance, suicide bombings happen bidaily if not daily, it's still happening, while it is a tragedy 9/11 occured, I dont look back on it in hindsight with pity, I think the tragedies I hear on NPR daily have made me numb to one particular incident.

Again - careful with the politics, guys.

Me, I was in college down in Savannah, Georgia. My little sister had come down with me to hang out for a couple of days with me and another guy whom I was sharing a (really crappy little) apartment with. I had a little television in my bedroom, and the antenna would pick up one or two local channels on occasion. So I woke up a little early for that day, and the only thing I could find was talk shows and what I at first took to be a low-budget made-for-TV sort of disaster movie.

It was right after the first plane had hit, and there was a reporter there at ground zero, and this firefighter trying to get her to get away to safety. It just seemed so cliched (the pesky reporter flaunting danger to try and get the "big scoop," and the rugged leading man trying to save her,) that it wasn't until they broke away from the on-scene reporting that I realized it was something that had actually happened.

I am a contractor, an electrician actually, and I was on my way to work at the Portland Airport, they were just finishing up building a new terminal and we needed to finish working on the new security checkpoint and x-ray machines; the attacks happened right around 6AM here on the west coast.

Just as I was parking at the shop to meet the guy I was riding in with I heard the guy on the radio mention something about a plane hitting a World Trade Tower; to be honest I thought so little about it that I forgot until about 30 minutes later as we were getting close to the airport. I mentioned what I heard to the guy was riding with and he turned on the radio where we heard about the second plane and the fact that there were other 'missing' planes in the sky. I figured there is no way they were going to let us into the airport through the contractor's entrance but we showed our badges and were waved right though and onto the tarmac like nothing was wrong.

Once we got to our parking place and got inside the terminal things were already pretty insane, by this time all outbound flights had been canceled and the airport was absolutely swimming in people with no where to go and no idea what was going on. Most everyone, including all of the construction workers there, were in a coffee shop or restaurant watching the TVs. About an hour after we got there our boss called and told us to get the hell out of there since no one still had any idea what was going on. That was the best idea I had ever heard so I had tools put away and ladders chained up in record time when we found out the customer was insisting we stay and finish the job. :huh:. Unfortunately we didn't have much choice so we pulled everything back out and went back to work.

The entire day was surreal, it is amazing how much of that day I remember compared to a normal day. Me and my kids were living with my folks at the time and my mom's family was in town from St Louis, they were supposed to leave two days later but ended up stranded in Portland for almost an extra week.. It was my grandma's birthday and I remember how bad I felt for here even though she was like 80. The most horrifying thing was sitting on the couch with my uncle and seeing the 'replays' of the people jumping out of the windows from the 100th floor or something; I can't imagine a situation where that is your best choice. My kids were 7 and almost 6 and I asked if they talked about it in school that day and they did a little bit but obviously not much. The kids mom came to pick them up and I couldn't deal with it anymore and I went upstairs and played my brand new PS2 game Dark Cloud the rest of the night.

I was 4 or 5, in kindergarten. I remember getting sent home early. When I got home, Dad was watching the news and seemed very angry. Something about the Air Force being ordered to stand down and not able to do anything.

i was 13 sitting in Mr. Flangels class, he just won a round trip ticket to Florida when it happen so he was happy but sad, i on the other hand didnt know wth it was so i didnt care lol

I was just about to leave my first period class, freshman year of high school. I was about to leave when another teacher came in and turned on the TV in our classroom. I was the last person in class because I remember seeing a plane crash into a building, and was curious what was going on.

One of my friends said something like "what movie is that?" before they left the classroom. This was around 8:30 am central time, so we weren't completely up to date there. My following class was History, and basically all we did was watch the news while our teacher told us that this will be in next year's textbooks.

Yes, I remember where I was.



and where I went soon after.



And the things I've done since.

Again, I don't think anyone is trying to make you feel differently or argue that the way you feel is wrong in any way. In fact, I totally agree with you that the world is full of tragedy and that in most cases where it happens doesn't mean a whole lot. 9/11 was different for us because of the implications it had for us...largely because people didn't expect an attack on civilians on that scale in that place. When things like that happen when you're an advlt and the security of your family, your friends, your children, yourself are brought into question (especially when you don't know whether what you're seeing is an isolated incident or if it's the beginning of something much bigger) it's a big deal.

Anyway, like I said, I don't think anyone is trying to convince you to feel differently. While I do think that the news media used the event (to a disgusting degree) to pander for attention, I also think that the "oh, people should just get over it" attitude is unrealistic. It was pretty scary for a lot of people at the time.

while suicide bombings are a regular occurance in some parts of the world, that fails to convey the sheer significance and magnitude of 9/11 as an incident. The number of deaths on 9/11 were greater than the total number of deaths in the middle east from terrorism in 2001. For most regions during the time period before and during 2001, having more than a thousand deaths in total from terrorism was a bad year. In a single incident, the United states suffered more casualties from terrorism than most regions would suffer in a year during the same time period. When it comes to terrorism, 9/11 is incredibly massive.

Strike three...

I honestly remember nothing from that day, so to me it's just like learning about another history lesson (mind you I love history). But you can't really blame me, I was only six and I doubt any advlts told me about it when it was happening. :shrug:

It's just a shame that some folks can't follow simple directions.