9/11 - Where were you on this day?

I was visiting my mom who I hadn't seen for years. I was mindlessly surfing around the net when I kept coming across stories (blog posts, not news at this point) about a plane flying into a building. I shrugged it off, this happens now and again. Maybe there was an engine failure? Some other mechanical error? Bad weather? I don't know.

At that point, it wasn't a big deal to me but, I tried to check news sites to no avail (Many of you who tried to access any news sites that day remember how overloaded they were). So, I told my mom, who was in the room adjacent to me, to turn on one of the news channels. To our horror, we saw the North Tower billowing smoke.

I was sad for those people and, even though I am Agnostic, I prayed to myself, whoever would listen, to give them peace. But, it still didn't occur to me how major this was. I had always heard the story of the plane that crashed into the Empire State Building. I thought maybe, just maybe, this was something like that.

Then, we saw the second plane come in.

I felt sick, and weak. This was intentional. I remember climbing up the stairs to get to my mother's bathroom. I wrapped myself around the toilet and dry heaved. How could anyone do this? How could so many lives be so disposable?

I still get the same sick, weak feeling whenever I see pics or video of that day's events.

My deepest regards to *everyone* in the world. Whatever your faith, gender, color. I am so, so sorry for what we are putting ourselves and each other through.

I was 5 months pregnant , and still trying to tell myself that Bush , might not be the worst case scenario my gut said he was ..... I am one of those that get "happy hormones" when preggers . I heard it on the radio first , then , when I saw it , realized , it was over . All the things I had been active in trying to bring about would not be possible for a long time , until the fear wears off .... and this could be milked for years ..... I wept . 3 days of hard grieving , for the dead , the living and the compassion that dies in panic on a grand scale such as this . It would have to get much worse before it got better . I failed to imagine exactly how bad though .

well i was in high school in English class when are teacher got a phone call she hanged up and said to us that everything would be ok . i was like... what she lost it already , meanwhile she turned on the tv when we where seeing the horror that was unfolding , i lived in a border city in El paso Texas, even tho this was happening in new york.. we felt the emergency to keep the U. S safe and they had all pubilc places evacuated like schools, parks, etc... when they closed and lock-down of the border crossing bridges and full force of law enforcements around the border around the city , when i was driving home i was thinking to my self,what if life stays like this, it looked like where going to war with Mexico with most of the army from fort bliss around the only thing that divide us from a different country , a rio and a tall fence , thinking that evil can pass thur Mexico weak government anytime. when i got home i just hold every body and just sat there thinking it was a dream of some sort and i would wake up ......

I was working @ a 6th grade camp in the forests of Santa Cruz, Ca. We heard whispers about something big and debated about how and when to tell the children.

I felt no fear but inwardly said, "FINALLY something is happening!"

I was in my 6th grade class, my teacher left the room, then came back and turned the TV on. He wasn't supposed to let us know what was going on for some reason, but he thought we should be informed.
He had us write about it in our class journals, and within the next half hour, the majority of the kids in school were picked up by their parents.

My dad worked at the Dayton VA at the time. His bosses wouldn't let him come home. He finally snuck out and right after he got home there was a huge boom. On the radio they were saying there was smoke coming from the area of the VA and the source of the boom wasn't known for a while.
Turns out it was a sonic boom from all the planes taking off a Wright Pat and the smoke was from some dude burning leaves in his yard.

I was getting ready to take my kids to school when the 1st plane hit. I thought it was a commuter or small plane. As I dropped them off the radio reported a second plane hitting the 2nd tower and I knew we were under attack. I did not know until later when TV footage showed Jet Liners hitting the Towers.

I then had to write a Homily for the coming Sunday Mass. My Homily was directed to the families that lost loved ones, the prayers of the day were somber and I completed the Mass with the exorcation that we as Americans must pull together at this hour of tradegy and that we were now, At War.

It was my first day of first grade so it was a half day and my mom picked me up and we started going home. We were waiting at the bus stop and we heard the explosion. I asked my mom, " was that a bomb?" (we had just gotten back from an extended stay in israel and there had been extensive conflict). She said "No we're back in the states." Ironic eh?
we went home and we could see smoke from midtown Manhattan and we went up on our roof and were buffeted by burning paper and ash.
After that i was so scared that was gonna be another attack. At the time my dad was working in the empire state building which made it even worse, i thought he might get hurt, my mom was also working in midtown

I was still in 8th grade and I remember our English teacher told us to follow her to the library where I looked at the TV and saw the south tower up in smoke...

Waking up turning on the news and seeing the tower 1 burning...listening to the news on NBC and them talking about a fire in the tower....no mention of a plane until after tower two was hit by a plane....saw it live on the air. Remember feeling like I was in a bad dream.

Remember the news reporter saying that their was an explosion in the tower moments before it came down.

Watched the whole drama unfold like a movie. Didn't go to work...remember emailing the White House asking Bush to exercise restraint....don't start world war three and such.

I was in high school making out in class.

I was getting ready for work when I turned on the news. At work everyone was repeating the same two words, “Nuke them, nuke them, nuke them.”
I have to admit I agreed with them at the time. Then I thought I got a bit more rational. Years later after all our dead and wounded, after all our treasure, after all the mess that is still Afghanistan and what is a mess to come, maybe our first instinct was right?
I said then that the entire world would condemn the US for dropping nukes on Afghanistan. I also said the next day it would be business as usual as we are the biggest economic power in the world and the world would still trade with us. I said that it would also send a message to our enemies that if you kill us, we will wipe you and all your descendents from the face of the earth forever, and make your land the Moon.
Joseph Campbell once spoke of Righteous Indignation or justifiable anger and violence as a response to evil. He said that Americans had so distorted our sense of Righteous Indignation through passiveness that we were crippling the functionality of individuals, especially men, and our nation.
I believe he was in many was correct. So I wonder if the chant of “Nuke them,” our first instinct, was the right choice? But it gives me chills to think about it.
Still, I actually believe that from a historical perspective, from the lessons of history of other nations and empires (not a moral perspective mind you), that we would probably be better off today if we had.

I think I was in bed, i remember my mother calling me but I was too asleep to comprehend what she said.

When I did get up I remember hearing it on the radio, then on TV. I had to go to the doctors in Philly that day but the nurses must have decided to go home early.

I think I spend the rest of the day in partial disbelief, and watching two TV stations trying to decipher what was really happening. The news kept saying things they hadn't confirmed.

I remember the 1993 bombings as well.

I also was fortunate to have been able to be on top of 2 WTC before, the one without the antenna.

It was when I was much younger, the family had gone to NYC, I don't remember why, but I saw the towers and insisted that we go and see them.

I remember the bridge connecting the two towers and the elevator ride to the top. There was an odd flow of air into the elevator due to the buildings height.

The floor just below the roof had huge panes of glass instead of walls. I was a bit timid about going to close to them thinking they might not be well secured.

The roof had a helicopter pad and an area for tourists to walk around the perimeter of the building.

Most people don't know this but the Twin Towers would sway in the wind, enough to be felt. I remember the odd sensation and asking my father about it.

One final note is that I'm somewhat upset that we are not building two even taller towers on the site. The current plan has one of equal height, but less floors and the second is up in the air.

Found an interesting time line of events here.
http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline&co...

I was in San Diego (Mission Beach), CA. i was getting ready for work when it happened. The thing i remember most clearly was everyone being incredibly quiet that day.

At work at a financial firm. I remember they wouldn't let us watch on the internet after the first tower went down. After the report of the second tower, they couldn't stop us. I went home and held my 10-week-old son and thought about his future. I thought about war and death and wondered why this should be the world I would raise him in. As he slept in my arms with the most peaceful look on his tiny face, I cried for everyone who had lost their babies, no matter how old they were, and was just grateful to still have mine.

Thank you all for sharing your stories. I truly appreciate that you gave your time today to do this.

I remember the day like it was yesterday, everything was going great. I had just visited the Towers a few months back for a birthday party for a friend of mine. I remember being at the top of the building, looking down and wondering how amazing this building was......

I was just three months into my new job at a bank and was excited that I got an opportunity to work there. My boss was sick and the regional manager was there and I can't forget him because of his attitude; always mean and never caring.

So the first time everybody in the office heard something was when the owner of the building came in and told us, that one of the buildings was hit. We thought it was just an accident and can we find a place to go watch it. We didn't think of anything until the second one hit and in the news, you started to hear, terrorism... we are being attacked... our country is going to war.

To this day, I will never forget the way i felt. I felt scared, vulnerable, like everything around would somehow disappear, my family was being attacked and I couldn't do anything about it.

I asked my boss to leave to go get my brothers out of school and he wouldn't let me, he felt like it anything was going to happen, to just let it happen and I couldn't deal with that. I walked out not thinking about my new job, but about my family and how scared I was for my little brothers.

I reached one school, got one out and then went to the high school where the other one was and couldn't get him out because the school was in total chaos. Parents were there screaming and yelling trying to get their kids out and the only thing I could think of was, WTF is wrong with these people... Let the kids out!! Finally they let everybody go, but I was still so scared for them and my family. I was still hearing in the radio that we were being attacked.

Finally, I got two of three brothers while my mom had already picked one up and I took them to my place. I stayed there and watched the news over and over and still wondered.... what if... what if I had stayed in NY. What if I had decided to not come back to NJ and stay living and working in NY.....

I will never get over it, just a few months back I was in that building celebrating someone's birthday and just like that, a few months later, people were jumping out of it.... The worst day in life... to be in fear... and can't do anything about it...

"Attending school this day nine years ago. I remember it was a hot day, skating to school, as not to be late, I could feel the heat. I did make it on time this day, or at least made it to my seat before our teacher walked in. Class starts at 8:30, so not long after school started all Seniors were asked to report to the Auditorium. Our Principle, she came rushing down the aisle, she didn't even get on stage. There were only 92 of us to address. My home town is just one square mile, 5 minutes from the G W, the George Washington Bridge. She mentioned that there was a situation and that because we were older she felt we would understand better. She said minutes ago a plane flew into the world trade center. We all looked at each other confused, some one asked, "A prop plane?" We couldn't even imagine a jet flying into the building. We were told that parents would be coming to pick us up from school and that school would be dismissed.
For those of us, whose parents were not already at the door, or calling us on our cellphones, ran up stairs to the library which was already showing live coverage of downtown. We sat on the floor together, huddled into a small viewing room, I remember a few teachers there as well. The timing was just before the second plane hit. No ones eyes left the tv, it felt like seconds before this moment, this tragedy, would change world and my life into the foreseeable future. The next move was home, my father worked in NYC. Everyone Father and Mothers, Families and Friends worked there. I had my bag, my skates, I tied them on and away I went. About a mile from school, route 80 crosses the Hackensack River which gives a skyline view of NYC. The over pass connecting my town to its neighbor was a short site from that river crossing. I considered going against traffic down the off ramp to get the view my brain needed to digest the situation. In that same instant, every fire, ambulance, and emergency vehicle in Bergen County hauled ass to get to the city. It was quite a site, traffic was at a stand still, some people were even out of their cars, they could see the city from where they were. Some thing I never noticed, a strip of grass running the length of the highway, which the head emergency vehicle navigated as the train of help followed. I couldn't do it, I needed to be with my family, I started breaking down. I raced home from route 80. The traffic of people trying to get home was tough to avoid. My constant tears didn't help the situation or my ability to see. It was a short distance home and I was the first of my family back to base. I paced anxiously for their arrival... the story continues...

In the end, I was lucky in my immediate family, but many friends lost loved ones. 9/11 was traumatic to our lives. Its in my freakin year book.

My Uncle and Aunt held a remembrance party for Jeremy Glick a college friend of theirs. Jeremy is survived by his wife Lyzbeth and daughter Emerson and remembered as Hero for retaliating against the terrorists in the plane that went down in Pennsylvania.

We all survive the people who died that day. People from far and wide, people who lived across the country, or across the street. Were all connected on this small sphere called earth.

If America died this day, we must live on in that image we know all too well it should be. May they Rest In Peace.

Like most have said, it was such a surreal day.
I was driving on the highway on my way to a monthly meeting in Miami listening to the radio. The DJs were cutups and often did comedy bits that sounded real. When they first mentioned a plane had crashed into the WTC I thought it was part of a routine they were going to do. The more they talked the more I realized this was really happening.

They made way for a sister news station which had an interview going on with someone who was watching from a building not too far from WTC. As she was talking she suddenly screamed that another plane had crashed into the second tower. At that moment I knew it was a terrorist attack. Up until that point I figured it had been a tragic accident.

As I was listening to the news I found myself becoming filled with apprehension. On the radio they were talking about likely targets for more attacks, and Miami was one of the places they mentioned. My thoughts immediately turned to my kids, who were in school.

When I arrived at my destination everyone was watching TV. We just sat there watching, stunned and disbelieving what we were seeing. When the towers collapsed most everyone reached out to others....to hug, hold on, just to get a feeling of shared humanity.

The meeting ended up being canceled and I drove back to get my kids from school. I just had to see them and hug them, and know they were alright.

I didn't know anyone who was on any of the planes, or at the WTC; but many of the people I worked with had a connection. I remember the eeriness of empty skies with no planes flying overhead.

I also remember driving by the apartment where Mohammed Atta had lived during part of his time in Florida. Scores of news vans were there for several days. It was an extremely creepy feeling knowing that terrorists had been living so close, and that possibly could have been in the same line at the grocery store or something. That building is no longer there, which I have to say made me feel better for some strange and unknown reason.

I was a senior in high school in an art class. A girl from our class "went to to the bathroom", which means she probably wanted to wander around to see friends. When she comes back she announces to us what had happened. The odd thing being that we were probably the only class in the school without a TV due to the set-up of the art studio.

Obviously we were all stunned and confused with the second-hand story, but as we became more aware of the facts and details the situation grew to be more grizzly. I immediately began to think about family that I have that live in the City (I was in Connecticut): my uncle who worked down in Brooklyn and so on. Thankfully everyone was away from the immediate area.

Being a senior, I had the chance to leave around noon, went home and watched news coverage for the next couple days straight. I don't know how to explain the emotions of that day, but I'm sure everyone else felt the same...feelings of helplessness, and sadness for all the lives in danger/lost, ect.

What's weird though, was with the knowledge of a terror attack, I knew war was inevitable, and in the next couple days there was talk of the possibility of a draft which scared the hell out of me at seventeen. However, I knew it was an event that would shape the entire course of the history of our country from then on.

Great post Ksirys!

I was driving my daughter and sister to the school bus stop and heard the news of the first plane on the radio.(About 7;30am in Oregon.) I went to my yoga class for an hour and then to a local restaurant where I was building a cinder-block privacy wall. I watched the TV at the restaurant on and off most of the day. My keenest memory was the first report of flight 93 being shot down by our fighters. That story changed soon after and I was left with a sinking feeling that the truth was being controlled. I could not believe that the planes made the buildings fall. Somehow I knew war was inevitable.

...remembering how my life's pains and inconveniences in 2001 were nothing--the people of NYC were the ones I should have been feeling sorry for. Now, I am sorry. and praying.

"On the line" temp job at a plastics factory in the Midwest. depressed, broke, resenting the closed in, grey steel, stink of the place. floresent lights buzzing high on the ceiling, grating on my nerves... my back hurt and I was tired of listening to coworkers' stories of drama and unsavory daily affairs. I don't remember how the word came to us but I do remember sitting on a wooden pallet alone in disbelief. I didn't "get it" at first. The number of deaths would be in the thousands, I heard... "-but this doesn't happen in the United States-- maybe the rumors were distorted-- just gossip," I thought. My body was still and my mind slow... "I have a great friend in Brooklyn, I don't think this is real. this kind of stuff doesn't happen."
I went to my mom's that night and saw the explosions over and over on TV. -sitting on the couch, hoping it would be over soon. I'm still waiting.

I was in the fourth grade, parents began to rush the school and take their kids out, the teachers were instructed to tell us something happened but wouldn't tell us what. When i got home and found out that there was an attack on New York i was baffled, who would do this, how could they harm so many innocent people, and vividly remember is sitting in my kitchen with a very solemn sense of fear falling over me.

I was in my 10th grade Geometry class, we were getting ready to do attendance when the person that came and picked it up told us to turn on the TV. I remember a few minutes later the second plane hit the WTC. We stayed in our first period a few minutes late. I remember walking through the halls and it was so quiet not like the usual chatter. When I got to my next period, Spanish class. My teacher was crying hysterically. We watched it all unfold. She was from New York and she had siblings that worked in WTC 1. When it collapsed I remember her face, she left the class early and never came back.
All throughout school we watched it unfold. That day everything stopped.

I was 10 years old in 5th grade. My teacher was being his goofy self, until another teacher came in and whispered something in his ear. I swear the color just drained from his face. I had never seen him look like that, so serious-- It scared me. All the kids quieted down right away. At first we just thought someone was in trouble, but then he walked to the back of the room and turned the tv on.

I remember I couldn't really tell what was going on with the news, just a lot of chaos. Honestly, I didn't think much of it. There were two kids in the class, Zach and Renee; they were the most mature of us all, and usually the only ones that ever had an idea of what the adults were talking about. Renee asked what was happening, and my teacher said we'd been attacked.

After that all I can remember is the confusion. I had never heard of the World Trade Center, and I didn't know anyone who lived in New York, so I didn't feel connected to any of it.

Later we had an assembly, and the principal said we'd never forget this day. I distinctly remember I turned to my best friend and said, "Yeah, right. I'll probably forget by next week."

Nine years later, and I still remember saying those exact words. I was so young and naive.

After being sub- contracted by Nicholson&Galloway for 11 Wall, under the supervision of the Llewellen brothers for a few years...native New Yorker... raised by the Kennedy Foundation along the Hudson valley... I had many friends working all over downtown and the WTC... I was beginning work on 134 S LaSalle in Chicago when my apprentice called me off the wall , I asked what was going on; he didn't answer. I was determined to have a word with him but as i got to the office; everyone was wandering around as if in shock, i could hear a television blaring from a distant cubical, " ...Oh my god .." I heard the announcer say as i got there in time to see the second plane hit.
It was the beginning of a long burial period... I lost most of my childhood friends...loves... even a cousin.One of my friends lived next door to the ' controversial mosque' where an engine was found along with charred remains still strapped to the seat ; months later... Many people i knew in NY, never came home after that day. Seemed like the burials lasted weeks , friends kids were coming home with military pamphlets as their fathers quietly answered the first call. Just when I thought the burials were over; bodies fell from the sky as a plane crashed on my sisters block in Queens, the following December... I couldn't stay and keep my sanity ... only to live in a " Daily Chicago" , at the tip of a Bush world...where over time

the protection of government took priority over the protection of the average citizens

which was the reason citizens volunteered to fight in the first place... politics that is emotive based tends to taint any benefit to the population at large.
This day reminds me of how ineffective politics becomes when you allow the government to keep secrets.
I sit here a retired veteran looking back at nine years that so many have answered with service and sacrifice; that has changed my life, my loves, my hometown, our world... there is much to think about but what gets me most is the silence.

The silence ...

Each year, i say good by to so many and yet there have been so many more that fell after that day.

Once the government feels it's security takes priority over it's citizenry (Bail outs for corporations with 'our' money as 'jobs' turn into financial indentation )... it is no longer 'for the people',it is for the merchants or bankers note/lobbyist, America you are missed 1776-2001

"......what did it or how bush was behind it. I'm only looking..."

LOL ..i guess we already know what you were doing that day...

I was working at a hospital on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It was a non-emergency hospital, but we were asked to prepare for the possibility of a large number of victims to be brought in. No one ever came because the majority of victims were deaths, not injuries. We were left watching events unfold on a TV with bad reception. Dead silence.

Elementary School and class was abruptly cut for a bit to watch the report on television. At that time, I had no idea of what the World Trade Center was. Really, I didn't think too much of it even though it was everywhere on television back then. However, I did notice the strange amount of Patriotism afterwards like went I went to the movie theater. They would play this annoying 3 minute or so advertisement of patriotic American images of open fields with cowboys and so on. Crazy times I'll say and with the attacks, suddenly came the whole lets invade Iraq and Afghanistan idea. I was actually a little scared about the idea of going to war since I was still sort of young and I had no idea about war in general and so on and so fourth. In conclusion, 9/11 was horrible and the response was just as worst when you put the human cost that came afterwards.

I was an assistant in the special ed department of a local school. The teacher I worked with had left me in charge of teaching a math lesson to go to the office. When she returned she told me the World Trade Center had been hit by planes. I was told I was to stay with the children in the classroom to make sure they were entertained so as not to hear anything about it until more information was known. So I spent the time doing an art project and telling jokes with them... not easy to do. Finally parents were lined up around the block to sign out their children, and I too had my ten year old son in another school I was anxious to get to. I didn't realize the true scope of it until I went into the teacher's lounge and saw on the news that the pentagon had been hit as well, and I broke down because I knew then that it was some sort of attack. I then went to pick up my son at school, and when he saw me he ran into my arms and looked up at me and asked, "Are we going to die mommy?" I tried to remain calm and told him I would never let that happen to him.

This touched me very deeply because I lost three ex-coworkers from my days working near the Trade Center, a young man who was the son of a friend of my husband and someone I knew from my town. One of our students also lost his grandmother in the plane crash in Pennsylvania. I then spent the next couple of days buying tube socks and other items the firefighters needed and sending them over through the school. I can see the emptiness where those buildings once stood from my house, and it is an emptiness that will always be there because it was a place I passed through everyday. May we finally realize this event should be an opening to a more peaceful world and not the hate that precipitated this horrible tragedy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB6a-iD6ZOY

I was planting my daughter's shade garden in the small spot beside our garage. I had the radio on and the news came on, I thought: they said it was the news...OMG...this can't be. I went to find where my husband was...then they said the second plane hit the second tower. I thought this has to be a comedy routine.
How could this happen? I think they outlawed 'panic' show stuff back when the radio aired a show about the aliens attacking earth, Orsen Welles? I freaked out! I thought when we were young adults we were told Pittsburgh would be a key city to bomb because of the steel, coal, manufacturing plants, hospitals, etc..I ran to get my keys to the van to go get my kids out of school.
Thank God my husband was there , he would have been up near Shanksville at the time of the Flight 93 crash, but he was detained at the store with something he had to take care of. He was supposed to be up there delivering to his customers in the area.
Somerset County is packed today. The historic Mt. Craft Days fall on this weekend, the farmers have a harvest Jubulee this weekend and Laura Bush and Michele Obama are supposed to be at the Flight 93 dedication today! I'd like a Google Earth picture of the crowded area. 'Great comercial for something...maybe American Patriotism or the American dream...This country is so diverse and wonderful!

I was 19, a delivery driver for a plumbing supply shop checking in a big order. One of the women from the showroom came in & told us a plane hit the WTC. We all figured it was a small plane, probably not a big deal. We turned the radio to Howard Stern who could see the buildings from his studio a second or 2 before the 2nd plane hit. We were all in shock. I don't remember much more of that day until after work. A few friends & I sitting around the basement passing a big bottle of Jack Daniels watching the news crying & not saying a word.

I was 15 years old, freshman year in Business law class. I remember my teacher getting a brief phone call. The students sat in their desks quietly. When the teacher turned on the TV one of the towers was ablaze. There was a few comments about what this meant but mostly the students remained quiet and in disbelief.

Some time during this period of silence the second tower was hit and it was revealed the pentagon had been attacked also.

At which point in time I remember very distinctly my teacher saying "This day will be a pivotal moment in U.S. history. You will always remember where you were on this day.”

In high school on Staten Island, the teachers were on strike that day, we were all stuck in the cafeteria when a teacher told me I had to pick my sister up from school which i thought was odd. Then the principle told us that a plane had hit the towers and that we all had to go home, it was all a blur of crying and fear...

Taking the bus home was eerie, everyone was silent and suspicious

My sisters school was at the top of the Blvd with a view of the NYC harbor and skyline, and you could see billowing the smoke coming from the towers..she was only 2 and did not understand what was going on, she just pointed out that there was a big fire...

sophomore year o high school, osama main suspect 20 minutes later in 4th period........sketchy business

I was 11 years old, and when the first tower was hit my class was on the playground. There was a fight breaking out between a few kids, myself included. Our teacher started yelling for all of us to come inside, and we were convinced we were in trouble. She took us back to the classroom and the TV was on, which was odd. We sat down and watched the live broadcast as the second plane hit. For the next thirty minutes to an hour no one, including my teacher, spoke. We sat quietly trying to recollect our breath as the towers fell.
Whatever it was we were fighting about out on the playground, it never came up again.

I feel almost silly bringing this up, but I've watched a lot of news this summer about the apparent recent backlash against Muslims. For the most part, most non-television, "real," people I know think the media is just lending legitimacy to non-issues created by people who want Republicans elected in the mid-term elections. Obviously, no real person is in support of burning Qur'ans. The only real people I have seen bring up Cordoba House are all in support of it. At the same time, though, people really did set fire to a mosque site in Tennessee. People really did try to bomb a mosque in Florida and attack a cabbie just because he was Muslim.

I clearly remember the media immediately after the attacks speaking against the idea of blaming the whole religion for the acts of extremists. Now, it seems, certain networks are cultivating anger, wherever they can find it, in order to fuel votes, and they don't care what gets burned down in the process. Like I said, I feel silly bringing it up, but there were Muslim kids in my school on 9/11, just as there were in the nine years before and the nine years after. No one blamed them or their families and I really don't believe any of this recent anger in the media is a response to September 11th.

I was 13 years old in Arlington, VA at a school out of sight or earshot of the Pentagon. I came into my 2nd (maybe 3rd?) period class where we were supposed to watch a video as part of a distance-learning program. Our teacher came in with the tape, but instead turned the TV to the cable input and we spent the whole time watching the news about the Twin Towers. I know I thought, "They obviouly don't let planes fly that close to the city with so many tall buildings." After that, I guess, the teachers were told to not let us watch TV.

Someone mentioned at lunchtime, around noon, that the Pentagon had been hit, too. At first, I thought they were just confused, but they were insistent, so I think I believed it at that time, but it didn't really sink in. I'm still surprised, even now, checking the timeline for the day and seeing that the Pentagon was hit at 9:37 am [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_for_the_day_of_the_September_11_attacks] because it just doesn't fit with my memory of when I was told. I know when I heard that the towers had fallen that I wasn't surprised. Rather, later on when people said they were shocked, I didn't know why.

We went through classes like normal and left by the normal bus schedule. We weren't let out early and I think I remember parents trying to pick up their kids but not being allowed to. I didn't learn until my Junior or Senior year of high shool that friends who had gone to other middle schools, even just a mile closer, actually heard the impact. For them, the memory is a lot more immediate. I still only know of one person, for sure, whose mother was in the Pentagon that day (she's fine) and I didn't meet that girl until high school.

Some other random things:
During the 1st period announcements and moment-of-silence the next morning they played the Mariah Carey song "Hero" over the loudspeaker. There was this random channel that aired "MuchMusic", which, I guess, is the Canadian version of MTV, in the afternoons and evenings, but not later at night. I watched a lot of that for the next few days, because every single channel was airing news 24/7.

Powerful and potent KSirys.

Me and my friends, most may remember, were around 14-15 on September 11th, 2001. It was very early in the morning, and during our first period at school we were watching the news, following the towers being hit. When I arrived at school, there were large circles of students praying around the flags in front of our school.

Because we lived near White Sands in New Mexico, and many of the students who attended my high school came from military families, large caches of students were sent home immediately. I don't remember the day lasting very long, I think the school was almost empty by the end of the day, as many students left to take in the attacks privately. Some of us decided to go drink, like myself.

Overall, the day was quite the surprise. It was the first time in my life that the idea of a modern war could be realized. It also opened my eyes to how oblivious our government is in America. Even worse, it showed me that anybody—really, anybody—could become President; all you had to do is pretend that it wasn't happening and large numbers of people would agree that you couldn't have possibly known because you were reading children's books to a classroom full of kids. Nevermind the man in the black suit whispering in your ear...

I was 12 years old in the seventh grade in Palm Springs Junior High in Hialeah, FL in my morning home-room class. It was a reading class and we read silently every day, I was reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

It was a morning like any other, until one of the teachers came running into the classroom telling our teacher to turn the TV on. We were all confused about what had happened and just as the bell ran for us to move to our other class, we heard news about the Pentagon being hit, everyone was very worried.

My next class was outdoors in P.E. We were outside sitting in the hot sun with no information waiting for over an hour without doing anything until our next class. All our coaches were talking between themselves. A friend of mine said it was the Palestinians, and we all seemed to agree. By the time we went to Civics class my friends told us that the Towers had both fallen... I was in disbelief and I thought that he was kidding with me. I missed the whole thing.

Just like that, the Towers had fallen. It was shocking and surreal and everyone was talking about going to war to avenge what had happened.

I was in Eighth Grade, attending a middle school in Orlando, Florida. I was in my second class of the day when another teacher came in to notify mine that a plane had hit one of the World Trade Centers. The teacher turned on the television and kept it on as she tried to continue with her lessons. I was sitting at the front of the class, one row away from the television mounted on the roof. I did not recognize the Twin Towers because the angle on display was hiding one behind the other. I did not know what to make of the situation. At the same time, I really did not think it was planned. That is until on live television, I watched the second plane come into the screen. I can remember how slow it got in that class room to this day, as we all watched the plane head straight for the second tower. I'm talking about the few seconds that it was even in the picture. Everyone saw it, and then it smashed. Everyone screamed, as middle school children would watching a plane flying into a building.

And still, the teacher waited a few moments, but made an attempt to continue with her lesson plans. I tuned her out as I stared in awe of the buildings on fire. I said out loud, "the buildings are going to collapse!" Not a second after I said it, the first building went down. The teacher walked away from the front of the class, pulled a seat out and sat down to watch with the rest of us.

A few moments later the intercom turns on with a buzz ".... Ms. (teacher's name), can we have Khalid Al-Ajil to the front office, his mother is here to pick him up." I really was shocked that my mother would come pick me up. But, by the time I made it to the front office, I noticed plenty of other kids making the same journey. Many parents had come to pick up their kids.

My mother said that she was concerned that something might happen to Universal Studios, which the school was not too far away from. We got home and the television had been left on, with the news replaying shots of the plane hitting the one tower, the collapse, while guessing suspects of who might be responsible.

"Don't let it be an Arab.. don't let it be an Arab.." my white-freckled-green eyes mother said as she paced in front of the tv.

"Why does it even matter?" I asked.

"Because, it could make living in America really difficult." She replied

"Why? Dad is from Kuwait. America saved Kuwait. We should be fine, even it was some Arabs," I shot back.

"I wish it was that simple, Khalid. But, it wont be," answered my mother.

The rest, you could say, is history...

I was in my Junior year at College here in Los Angeles and I was up all night--on speed, no less--working on storyboards that were due for a class that Tuesday night. I decided to ditch my morning class, and was desperately trying to download a Photoshop plug-in (on dial-up at that time) that was taking forever. I heard the TV in my uncle's room, which was turned to the news, talking about the first plane that crashed into the tower.

At that point they still thought it was an accident, but I thought how strange for a plane to be flying so close to high rise buildings, but I went back to work on my storyboards. My uncle didn't say a word about anything and left to go to his office. Two hours or so would go by, and around 8:45 am (my time), a friend at school calls me on my cell phone and tells me not to come to school because they're shutting down the campus. I was still oblivious to the whole thing and thought this friend was joking. And then a few minutes later another friend who was not in school i-m'd me and told me to go and look at the news because this was a terrorist attack and you actually see the second plane going into the building.

I went to the TV, turned on the news and, even though I was prepared for what I was about to see, since both friends warned me, when I actually saw what happened I went into a state of shock. The rest of the day I couldn't move away from the television set and my soul was shot.

i was on the south shore of long island.i worked evenings so i woke up after they hit, but before the fell.i had my tv set as my alarm clock, set to mtv so the annoyance of nsync or britney spears would compell me to wake up to turn it off.instead of that i saw smoking buildings and time stopped when i realized i didnt accidentaly leave the tv on a movie channel.i spent the rest of the day being the relay of information between various friends and family, doing a head count.the scariest series of phone calls i have ever made.

of the various things i will never forget was working at coca cola, dispatching trucks of water to ground zero for weeks, until they created its own route for it.every night after work, taking out to dinner (on the corperate card, i wish i rolled like that) volunteers who had come from all over the country, just in the hopes they could help at ground zero.i was fortunate to be in the presence of such fine examples of humanity.i was damn proud of us as a people.

...I went to bed early the night before to read, and also I was taping a movie...got up early 9/11 and watched movie, so didn't watch the news...sigh...went to the bus stop that was crowded, as usual, to go to work...when I look back in hindsight, most of the people were very subdued...but I just went on my merry way...got to work, walked in, and wondered why hordes of people were grouped together and not at computers...until I saw a paper on a desk, and nearly fell on my arse...I'll never forget that day...

I was sitting in my cubicle at Underwriters Laboratories, working on an electrical certification report. My boss, Paul, came out of his office and told me, "Someone just flew a plane into the World Trade Center." I thought he was talking about a small private plane.

A few minutes later, Paul returned and told me a second plane had hit the second tower. "It must be some kind of attack," he said. Things in my life had been going so well, and it made me sick that the world was now going to go through another crisis. I had lived through JFK's assassination, the carnage of 1968, Vietnam, the Iranian Hostage Crisis, and the Challenger disaster; I was now depressed to realize that fate had vomited up yet another tragedy.

Paul returned to tell me when each building had collapsed, and I got up to watch the horror on television. Over and over again the networks reran the shots of the jets piercing the cement and steel and glass. Over and over again the shots of people fleeing clouds of dust. Over and over again the pictures of people jumping to their deaths.

Then, in the ensuing weeks, I watched as my coworkers posted newspaper headlines on their cubicle walls, especially the one my ex-Marine friend, Tim, liked" George Bush's picture below huge type that said, "Let's Roll!"

Yeah, I thought; roll right into hell.

I was in a hospital in Staten Island, New York. I saw the second tower fall from behind the hospital. I was taking my boyfriend to the hospital to have the staples removed from his head from brain surgery. He had to show the staples in his head to the overkill security set up at the hospital that day. Then I walked in and sat with a doctor as they told my boyfriend that he had terminal cancer. It was a weird and surreal day. I remember that I thought it was not just planes that flew into buildings but probably planes filled with dirty bombs or biological airborne disease. I thought that maybe we would die together from something other than cancer. He died in August 2002. I am still here. Guess I was wrong about the dirty bombs and biological weapons.
My boyfriend with terminal cancer got almost a year more than a firefighter friend of mine who died in tower two. I guess it is all relative.