9/11 was 10 years ago

[Linki]

Quite surreal to think that an event that felt like yesterday was an entire decade ago. I still remember where I was.

 

As an Australian, I woke up to watch the morning cartoons to find the same images on every channel about the events that happened last night. The images of 9/11 have been seared into my mind as my 5 year old self watched it and I'm sure I will never forget such an event.

 

Anyone doing anything special for the anniversary?

Edited September 8, 2011 by Linki

[cactus.]

This decade did seem to whiz by. I'm not doing anything to commemorate the anniversary.

 

[Gtaman_92]

Is just going to be an ordinary day for me, but ima look at the news more.

[SlickSpencer8]

Myself and our clan plan to take part in GTA IV ceremony 21 gun salute.

[ska]

I still can't believe we're still suffering from the problems that 9/11 caused ten years on. More so, I'm just really glad that the last ten years are over, because it was a really sh*tty time for a lot of people. At least things are starting to look a little brighter, even if slowly.

[tubbs51]

I remember that day. I was 11 and i had just woke up and was getting dressed when i turned the TV on and saw the images of one of the towers on fire... i yelled for my parents and my mom came running.. for the entire day thats all anyone talked about.

 

Such a horrific day.

 

 

[Ryan]

Hard to believe it was 10 years ago.

 

I would have been 9 at the time. I was at school that day we were in the middle of class and I remember the principle coming around and whispering something to the teacher. She said she'd would be back in a minute and when she came back she brought a TV with her and turned it onto CNN and she told us to watch and remember this day and where we were as it was history in the making. They ended up sending us home from school early that day. I remember getting off the bus and walking into the house and finding my mum sitting on the couch watching CNN. I remember going and sitting beside her and asking what was happening and then one of the towers collapsing.

 

I remember the local airport, Halifax Robert L. Stanfied International Airport was a big part of operation yellow ribbon. After US Airspace was closed, Halifax International played host to 44 aircraft and close to 10,000 stranded passengers. Many locals willingly opened up their homes to give stranded passengers and bed and meal for the night. Below is a picture of the airport runway from that day.

 

[mrpain]

I honestly didn't know that 9/11 happened until two years after. I was a little kid back then.

 

But still, hard to believe it's already 10 years. Look at what happened, Saddam dead. Obama got elected. Osama dead. Ehh what else did I miss?

[socal000]

As I've done the best 3 years, I'm taking a train into New York City to go see the lights.

 

Crazy, I still remember it like yesterday too. I was home from school that day. My mother and I got back from dropping my father off at the train station, he was taking the train into New York that day for a meeting. So you know, went through my normal morning things, go back to sleep, eat breakfast then go down stairs to find my mother staring at the TV in silence staring at the live video on the news of smoke pouring out of one of the towers. Now at first, like many others, we assumed this was just an accident. What we scared about though, is that we knew that my fathers train route to get to where he needed to be involved getting off the PATH train at World Trade Center.

 

We watch as the second plane hits, and everything else with the Pentagon and Flight 93, and we know it's not an accident. My brothers both from school called home asking about it because they also know that my father always goes through the world trade center. When the first tower collapsed, that's when my brother just walked out of school and came home.

 

We hadn't heard from my father all day. Until finally, that night, he walked in. I had never been more relieved or happy to see him in my life. That's when he shared his story of what went on for him.

 

He got off the train at World Trade Center minutes after the first plane hit. Either Officers or security guards or somebody was sorta pushing and rushing everybody outside of the station. As my dad was walking through, he could smell the burning. But didn't think much of it, because plane crash or terrorist attack is obviously the last thing you'd think about, especially back then. He just assumed maybe it was a car fire, or maybe you know, just a little fire somewhere.

 

He saw the fire trucks already outside, and more starting to pull up. He kept walking out, there were people just looking bak at the towers and pointing. He looked back, seeing the all of the fire and everything. Again, plane crash is the last thing you'd assume. But when everybody was saying a plane hit, then again, he assumed it was just a small private plane that accidentally hit it. He watched people jumping out of the tower. Just the sight of it, just watching people falling to there death right in front of you, that is the one memory he will never get out of his mind.

 

He heard a low flying plane, and looked back, and he watched the second plane hit. That's when he just gave up going to the meeting, and just wanted to find a way out of the city and back home (we live in New Jersey, about 45 minutes from the city).

 

He saw just walking around the city on the tickers and screens about all of the other terrorist acts throughout the day.

 

Words just can't even describe how he felt, or how any of us in the family felt that day.

 

After that day, and after learning about a few of my friends losing parents or relatives, I had never been so thankful, happy, and appreciative that I still have him. And that he is here to tell the story today.

[unopescio]

At least things are starting to look a little brighter, even if slowly.

Huh? What is getting better? The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq effectively achieved nothing, Al-Qaeda is just as strong and committed as it ever was. The US is no longer taken seriously by the rest of the world and the problems of overpopulation, resource shortages and national debt are only getting worse, the entire worlds economy is in the sh*tter, ignorance and arrogance is just as widespread as it ever was. People have learnt nothing. As a whole the world is in a far more serious situation than it was 10 years ago. f*ck just thinking about the whole thing sh*ts me off. The only thing I know for sure is that people wont learn from their mistakes, and history will repeat itself. We are stupid, and we wont last on this planet forever.

[mrpain]

We are stupid

Hah that's the world's slogan ain't it?

 

I agree with you with the world being sh*t. I don't know about you Americans but do you guys think that this is all Bush's fault?

[unopescio]

I don't think Bush ever had an idea of his own, he just let other people make all his decisions for him (everyone has their own agenda), so I guess he is guilty through incompetence.

[Kirsty]

It's difficult to comprehend how much the world has changed, everywhere and personally, in the last ten years.

 

I too remember where I was that day, I was 13 and I was with my grandmother looking after my young cousins. She had the news on as she heard a plane had crashed into one of the towers. I didn't understand at first, but then became captivated by the breaking news that filled every channel as we watched the second plane hit and it became apparent that it was a deliberate attack.

 

Back then it was such a scary thought thinking for the first time that there were groups out there that wanted to kill or hurt so many people. I always remember watching the utter devastation and chaos as the buildings collapsed, and all the images what came after of people who jumped from them.

 

Such a tug on the heartstrings when I see the memorials where all the names of who lost their lives are read out.

 

[socal000]

Instead of turning this into a "Why it is Bush's fault" and "Why Bush Sucks" arguments here, how about we have some respect and stay on the topic. It doesn't matter what president we had, or what they did right or wrong. Either way, thousands of people lost their lives, and instead of bitching about the president, how about we respect them, and their friends, and families in this topic?

[darthYENIK]

I'll be watching the Angels play the Yankees. I'd be doing that anyway, but I'm sure there will be some sort of commemoration. They're handing out miniature US flags to the crowd.

[MrcTOtheJ]

Wow ten years already, I remeber being a 6 year old when my dad woke me up by Cussing at the TV about the attack. No I most likely won't do anything to commemorate the 11th.

 

Well actually I might watch a few documentaries on 9/11, but besides that nothing special.

[Capricornus]

I'm not doing anything to commemorate the anniversary.

Same here. The event was indeed just horrible and very tragic, obviously. However, I am just tired of hearing about it.

[Finn 7 five 11]

This decade did seem to whiz by. I'm not doing anything to commemorate the anniversary.

WHiz by? it went ridiculously fast *Nostalgia*, like a few have said that one incident is still fresh in everyones minds.

From a terrorist point of view, it was a pretty successful venture.

But was it terrorists?

[Hmmm nice bike]

I can't believe it's been 10 years already. I was 7 at the time, and I still remember the day almost crystal clear. I remember we had just started class when the principal got on the PA system and announced that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. My teacher went and turned on the in-class TV, and the second plane hit the other tower maybe 4 or 5 minutes after she turned it on. Then they mentioned the Pentagon being hit, then one of the towers collapsed, then Flight 93 crashed, then the other tower collapsed. I can remember my teacher practically on the verge of tears from all of this. I remember thinking to myself "So the Twin Towers are really gone, then?" Maybe because I was in New York City about two years before, and I stood at the base of the World Trade Center with my parents, and nobody could really imagine anything like this ever happening to them. I remember being a little scared that they were going to attack Chicago, too. After all, we have the Willis Tower, which is the tallest building in the country, and back in 2001 when it was called the "Sears Tower," I think it was still the tallest building in the world. I even remember asking my mom if "the Sears Tower is still there" the next morning, and being relieved that what I saw on TV the day before wasn't happening again. Of course, some people were still scared, and I was still a little spooked to see fighter jets flying over my house that evening, I had never even seen one of those in real life before.

 

I'm also not doing anything special on the anniversary. I'm mainly tired of the same ol'-same ol' documentaries we get every year about it, it's just nothing I find interesting. Not to mention, they sometimes show the people jumping out of the burning towers in some of the ones on cable. I don't have a weak stomach or anything, I've watched videos of people dying before just fine, but it's just something about the WTC jumpers that I just can't bring myself to watch or look at, I think they're very depressing videos and images.

[Adler]

 

This decade did seem to whiz by. I'm not doing anything to commemorate the anniversary.

WHiz by? it went ridiculously fast *Nostalgia*, like a few have said that one incident is still fresh in everyones minds.

It's been forever to me since these past ten years have been all that I can remember about my life. That day in 2001, I was on the other side of the States (still am), and didn't give it much notice because I thought "Oh it's just the news, nothing important to me," and proceeded to flip through the channels while thousands lost someone dear to them. It was unreal to me at the time, and had no impact on me, but since then I've felt for the people that were affected by this.

 

Because I can't remember anything about my life before then, I grew up in the world after 9/11 and I can't imagine a world where the Twin Towers stood as it once did.

[unopescio]

Flying pre 9/11 was a much nicer experience. I remember when I was young all the kids on the plane where allowed to go up into the cockpit and have a look out. Imagine the sh*t storm that would get kicked up if that happened these days.

[Finn 7 five 11]

"Oh it's just the news, nothing important to me,"

I originally thought this as well, but then when the crackdown on terrorism got really serious and airport security around the world completely upped the anti, well that is when i realized, this does affect me, and it security will never be as lax as it was then.

Before 9/11 i had no concept of terrorism.

 

[Stinky12]

Time does fly and yet it's also at a stand still...

It was the beginning of my senior year as HS and was in my 2nd period class when the

news came out that a plane crash into the North Tower. At first everyone thinks it was a

tragic accident and who would have thought it was a terrorist attack.

After 2nd period was over, I was heading to my next class on the 5th floor and that's when I managed to see out the window

dark black smoke bellowing out the North tower in the city sky line. During my 3rd class, we were watching the news as it happened,

all of us in that class witness a plane hitting the South Tower and that's when we all knew America was under attack.

 

My friend was on the 4th floor, he told me he looked out and saw the towers were still standing, after a few seconds at he look out again, one

of the towers was gone...

[PHCharls]

 

 

 

I was 4 on that time, i watched it on the TV. I felt so sorry to those who died in the tragedy.

Edited September 8, 2011 by PHCharls

[Banks.]

It is hard to believe it's 10 years. I was watching the news when it happened and I was young but I still remember it.

[Saggy]

I remember being kind of irritated because my home-room teacher wouldn't put the television on so I was pretty much out of the loop for the whole day about what was going on. Not that I'm saying I really was upset or anything, but it was kind of strange because when I was really young I remember the Oklahoma City Bombing and watching that on the television, and then when Columbine happened our teacher even had us write a "journal" about it, but with 9/11 it was pretty much just "Nope, not going to pay any attention to it."

 

Anyway, yeah, I realized last year that it had been pretty much a decade so I'm not really all that amazed by it. In fact I think I kind of realized, "Whoa, it's been a while," back in 2006.

[Linki]

Wow, surprised to see no conspiracy theories have yet been argued about yet. Well done, let's keep it that way.

 

Anyway, I just wanted to ask, does anyone else try to watch the old news report videos (such as the 'As it happened' video below) and make believe your watching it for the first time to get the full impact? I've seen the videos so much that I feel desensitized to the imagery.

[Andrew]

Anyone does want to argue the fact who's fault it is, or bring up any conspiracy theory's will take a weeks break from the forums.

 

I can remember getting home from school, and finding my parents already watching the TV. I was glue to the TV trying to take in just what was happening, watching the news channel repeat the footage of the planes crashing into both of the towers. Really distressing stuff, it annoys me that conspiracy theorists are trying to blame the government for such a terrible tragedy

 

 

[meta187]

Someone complained once that the lyrics to this song "had nothing to do with 9-11" but I always seem to put it on play every anniversary.

 

 

 

It is fairly surreal that a decade has passed so quickly, for many of us patriotic or not this unified a lot of people behind the notion of feeling empathy and tangible loss for their "countrymen" which is something so foreign to Americans today, aside from the occasional "support our troops" rally. This is one of the single most polarizing and instantly tragic events of our generation. I really can't say if we're in for worse in the coming years but I certainly hope against hope, this will not be the case as this made Pearl Harbor look like a mere skirmish by comparison.

Edited September 8, 2011 by meta187

[Der_Don]

I was 14 years old back then. It was a shocking day for me, especially because me and my family have been visiting New York only a few months before in April 2001 and we've also been on top of the WTC.

Most horrific scenes were these people jumping to death. Most disturbing thing I've ever seen in my entire life.