Some moments are life changing; we always remember where we were when they happened. One of those moments is the terror attack of 9-11, 2001.
Where were you on 9-11? Or more importantly, how did it affect your life? What did it mean to you? And what can we, ten years later, learn from that tragedy to live our lives better today?
Please share your memories by using the reader comment form below or email to eventnews82@gmail.com
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I remember the whispering breaking the prevailing silence that was usual in my AP chemistry class as people found out what was happening that morning. I remember walking outside and standing next to a car whose driver turned up his car radio for everyone to hear the news. At 8:46 an airplane collided into Tower 1 and twenty minutes later the second airplane hit Tower 2. Tower 2 collapsed in free fall at around 10:00 and the first tower soon followed. Being a high school boy I immediately felt the thrill of the excitement that suddenly infiltrated the day.
Hearing of airplanes, explosions, buildings falling down; all of this can make a young boy’s glands start pumping. I came home to a worried mom and watched the reruns of the planes colliding into the twin towers two feet away from a 60 inch television. The images of the area of the World Trade Centers looked incinerated, and the media footage instantly recalled doomsday movies we have all seen; ashen ghost towns, mushroom clouds, a sky on fire, and people running for their lives. I remember indignation surging up inside of me and gritting my teeth
I vowed: “well get those bastards…..we will”. Of all things all I kept on lamenting is the irrevocable loss to the new york skyline that has taken place, and that our postcard cityscape will no longer look the same.
Thinking about the buildings and how many millions of tons of steel and concrete and investments were now lost.
At the time, my sister was working in the WTC and was on the Manhattan bridge train when it happened; this I was also half conscious of and as to her being alive, I knew it could not be otherwise.
It strikes me odd that I thought of architerchture and aesthetics of buildings I did not even venture to see in my seven year residence in NY as opposed to the human lives and that there could have been some 50,000 people trapped and dead from the fall of these builging. My sister came home after walking through the Brooklyn bridge and mom was at ease.
The television was on the whole day and we must have watched those collisions replayed fifty times by its end. At nightfall the dust from the buildings had settled and blanketed our street cars, some 20 miles from downtown Manhattan and the sense that something terrible had happened settled with it.
People had gone missing and it was clear that not all of them were ever coming back. That day people went about their business, and never came home. Almost every person that lived through that day has his recollections, and stories,or knows someone who has lost a loved one.
Al- Qaeda-a fundamentalist Muslim organization issued a fatwa on America, licensing the murders of Americans by any able Muslims, and claimed responsibility for the days happenings.
Its main reason for its blatant hatred of America stems from its intolerance of the State of Israel which America heavily supports and of America sticking its nose too close to Mecca.
Bin Laden, the thinking head of the group, (through which a bullet recently went through as he was shot dead by US troops) admitted that he conceived the idea and “inspiration” to knock down the towers when Israel was bombing high rise buildings in Lebanon and carried his plan to fruition. He used America’s own planes, about five hijackers a plane who had nothing more perhaps then boxcutters and bomb threats, and who attended flight school here in the States no less, and coordinated the biggest terrorist attacks in the history of the world. In this case the murderers were harbored under the protection and education of the murdered who turned civilian airplanes into rockets of flammable jet fuel and who assured in flight passengers that everything that there is nothing to be afraid of and thus avoiding resistance and overthrow.
This has its similarities with the holocaust; when people flocked and navigated to their very graves when they were told they were being washed when really they went to their deaths. Furthermore the attackers carved this day into our hearts; as the attacks were carried out on a U.N. peace day, on a date which has the digits of every emergency phone call ever made in this nation. They wanted to make us afraid and for us to carry that fear everywhere we go.
And at first they succeeded as economy was floored soon after, people were afraid; afraid to ride the subways, to take flights, afraid to go about our daily lives for fear of being unsafe. When I think of the hijackers, I think of ugly faces and deformed souls; I have always thought of them as the worst and lowliest of men; and had there been an encounter between them and I and if I knew what I know now I would have done something terrible to the lot of them. If there is a purgatory and hell, then that must have been their next stop off that airplane. I have never understood when people forgive people who don’t deserve it; they have murdered thousands of people, people who have nothing to do with their ridiculous prejudices and western grudges, people who were unprepared, who woke up to go to work and to return to their families that evening.
Posted By: Ilia, Brooklyn NY
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| I was on the 46th floor of 60 Wall Street working at JP Morgan on 911. This is just a few short blocks from the twin towers and I watched both towers burn, shudder and. Afew minutes later crash to the ground. I felt the ground shake like an earthquake and could hardly see through the smoke and haze. A couple of hours later we were kicked out of the building and escorted out. I caught the last high speed ferry to Long Island where my wife picked me up. I re-enlisted in the Army Reserve after a ten year break and served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Posted By Michael Gold, South Riding, VA |
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| I was in Rio de Janeiro Brazil in my college classroom when a student entered the room telling the terrible news , the teacher immediately turned the CNN on..I felt numb , and when I realized what was happening I stared panicking and crying..I left the room and stared to call everyone I knew who was in NYC at the time, I got a hold with a friend who is my husband today..He was working at midtown Manhattan , and described what he was looking at the windows..It was so disturb, still is. I moved to North Jersey a month after the events ,and stared to listening to all stories , and went to ground zero . I work in Manhattan today, and I am amazed by people's strength , and that gives me inspiration . I still can't believe it has been 10 years, I am looking at the Hudson River as I type, and was just asking my self that when I saw this tweet Posted By Anonymous, Paramus, NJ |
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| I was in Midtown Manhattan, where we live | ||
| We are the Chabad of Midtown. It was to have been the 1st day of school for my oldest child. I was up early to prepare her for orientation. The radio was on. I heard abt the 1st tower being hit. When the 2nd tower was hit I realized it was no accident. Frightened, seven month pregnant and w/ a toddler, I frantically tried to reach my husband at his office. He finally picked up the phone. Until I'd reached him he had no inkling of the terror. He had been praying the shacharit services with the morning minyan! He raced out of the Chabad House to look down Fifth Ave just as the 1st tower fell. All that day I saw people covered in thick layers of white ash stream past our apt. bldg trying to catch trains at Grand Central Terminal. In the week that followed, we were evacuated twice due to our proximity to the Empire State Bldg. Would it be next? Countless people, many who rarely attend synagogue, came to our Chabad to pray. The words on everyone's lips seemed include "G-d". Posted By Brocha Chana Metzger, New York, NY |
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| I remember that day very clearly. I just got back home from dropping my kids off at school. I checked my answering machine to see if my husband called from Harris, NY where he worked as a physical therapist. I accidentally deleted the message, and it was only later I found out that I deleted a message from my husband who frantically ordered me to get the kids out of the school and stay home. I turned on my radio and I heard the news. I didn't have a TV, so I walked upstairs to my neighbor's apartment who had a TV with a huge monitor. I could not believe what I saw. I screamed when I saw the second plane hit the North tower. I could not believe what I was watching. I was terrified. It all looked so surreal. I will never forget that day. May Hashem bring Moshiach NOW! Posted By Michal Goldenberg, Balltimore , Maryland |
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| At 8:15 AM Eastern time, I was in the waiting room of the Santa Barbara, CA, airport, waiting to board an east bound, America West, (now US Airlines) flight to Phoenix and on to Philadelphia, scheduled to leave at 6:00 AM Pacific Time. I went to the TSA security supervisor in the waiting room, a small one, in a small airport, to report a breach of security protocol by his people. He told me to " sit down and mind my own business". We all now know what happened approximately 30 minutes later. As we were walking across the field to board the flight at about 5:45 AM Pacific time, we were turned back to the terminal, as we were told all flights had been grounded since the second tower had now been hit. This was after we had previously been told, in the waiting room, that the first tower had been hit. Maybe we should all "sit down and mind or own business" when we see a breach of security ? This is the absolute truth of what transpired. Posted By Anonymous, Medford, NJ via thechabadcenter.org |
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| i was in WTC 3 until around 8:15am - can't remember exactly. At the time of the attack i was a couple blocks away on Rector St Posted By Saul via chabadoflarchmont.com |
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| My husband and I were in an airplane on the runway at the airport near the Towers, awaiting take off to our vacation in the Bahamas. We had just been at the Towers the day before. We were waiting for the plane to take off after we had been grounded for mechanical delays. We had been given the options to fly an alternate route, but chose to wait for our flight. Suddenly, the captain said we were returning to the gate. He saw one of the towers hit by a plane, and we saw the burning hole as the plane returned to the gate. My first thought was how in the world does a plane hit a building? Quickly though we learned the horrible truth. The airport was evacuated and it took us hours to return to my Dad's home in NY, and days to return home to California. I will never forget the burning smell that filled the air. Ironically, we had cancelled a trip to Israel because I was fearful of terrorist activity there and gone to NY instead. I thank G-d everyday our family was safe. Posted By Dorit, San Diego, CA via chabadcv.com |
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| I was in Boston and failed to get on an earlier flight out - one that would have crashed! Myself and 2 colleagues rented a car and drove back to LA starting later that afternoon. 46 hours to LAX non-stop with a 6 hour nap and shower break along the way. Around midnight of the 13th I was watching the news and heard the President of Cantor Fitzgerald speak, My wife found me in tears after the address. I had a client on Flight 92 - he said "let's rock and roll" before leaving his family behind. Since then my motto has been:"Do you want to make G-D laugh? Tell him what you're doing tomorrow". I grew up in NY and watched the twin towers being built from my office on Broadway in lower Manhattan. I still miss the sight of them. Posted By Henry Schwarzberg, Mobile, AL via jccmb.com |
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| I was at the WTC (building 3) up until around 8:15am or so - don't remember exactly. At the time of attacks I was a couple blocks away on Rector St. Posted By Saul |
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