We pause in thought for those lost on 9/11. RIP.

Five years on and it's still so hard to believe what happened that day. There is still that feeling of initial shock when you see those planes crash into buildings that there was on that day.

I was living in New Jersey at the time, in an apartment about 1/2 hour away from my parents house. I had to stay over the night before because my dad was going to fix my brakes on my car. I went to a pub the night before and slept through the whole thing. I woke up at noon and heard all about it in one blow. I was never so scared in my life. I was only 24. Nothing like that has ever struck so close.

I was driving home that night on the highway where people usually drive 85mph+ and everyone was going no more than 30mph. Every car I passed was just leaning forward and looking up (the philadelphia airport visible across the deleware river nearby).

For weeks, months after, everyone was so kind. In traffic, holding the door to the store, flags were sold out everywhere. One of the most interesting perspectives on this, 5 years later, is how quickly we mostly turned back into being selfish. Us Americans should always have that pride and togetherness. We'll always remember that horrible day, politics aside. Its about the horrors and triumphs, the extremes of that terrorism.

It taught me that we aren't safe. That if the towers can fall, what's next? Who is stopping these extremists? and can they be stopped.

I was here, or at funtrivia and at that time was a moderator who had just begun her 'duties' that very week. As I was at work in France, it came as a shock when someone began exclaiming to come look at their screen and people gathered around it...then, my English mate and I said it must be a hoax, found an English source, saw the news, and then all hell broke loose and sites were overloaded and we mulled around trying anything we could to get news. I remember waiting for people here to post messages to FT to say they were ok, or give us news.
I'll never forget spending that day with you all, many of you are still here...Copago and I were mates then, remember?

In real life, several of our coworkers were on a way to a worksite in the US and landing in New York...we had to quickly find their spouses and inform them of this event and then, wait until they finally were routed to Canada, without being told anything during the flight but knowing there was something terribly wrong. They would have landed shortly after that crisis. In the ensuing chaos, they were stuck in Canada for a while then sent to Spain then France. THey finally were told of what had happened as we of course had no idea.

As I was the only American anyone knew to speak to, I became the one everyone spoke to at work and at the schoolyard gates...it was harrowing. Sometimes it was a need to speak, but I was in shock wondering if selfishly, I'd ever get to see my parents again if this was indeed war.
Yet there were moments of togetherness, when the Muslim parents and I sat at the cafe a week or so later, and our sons were so close and we became closer than ever.

I also remember finally getting through to our friend in Washington DC, a mile from the Pentagon and her story was harrowing and her son actually was doing a business internship about a block away and walked up to see it.
She was a teacher and students were pretty much trapped in their schools and they thought the bridges would be cut off. It took us about three days to get through though...and she was pretty shocked to say the least. She was worried about her own children but had to stay with her students and could not travel home by car anyway because of the bridges being blocked.

My children were singled out as Americans, and the consulates told us to lie low after the events.

So, this brings back my memories and thank Goodness I was a member of this site back then. It was like having a home to go to, and discuss things. I could not discuss it with people there...it brought one's identity to play, as you never felt as far from home as then...honestly.

I was in my local library, and when I got home, Dad told me. It seemed horrible to me, that people could attack. Also, me and Mum were going to spend our very first time in London (two day break) about two weeks later, so I was concerned that if they could attack in America, London would be next on the list. Thinking of everybody who had friends caught up in 9/11

Yes, it seems unbelievable that it is five years. It was about nine in the evening here and I was , as usual, at FT. I suddenly read a post from someone saying that another plane had crashed. I went to BBC news.Bonnie(PurpleFan) and I talked, as we still do, that evening on MSN. I watched in horror for what seemed like days afterwards. I remember the awful feeling of oppression as I returned to work , walking through the streets of Central HK which is full of skyscrapers and staring up to try and imagine the horror of it. My heart went out to the victims, as it still does.
People did talk together here, more than they normally do. They don't now.

I remember turning on the tv and watching the second plane hit.I wasn't sure I had just seen what I saw.
I woke up my Husband and we watched in horror.I remember thinking of the CN tower in Toronto and wondering if it would get attacked also.
I was also worried about a very dear friend who lived in New York and how scared Sara and I were till we heard from her.
It still haunts me and I feel for everyone that it touched.
I can't watch the video of it or it will give me nightmares for months again.
Also the idea of flying now bothers me where as before I loved to fly.
I am just glad that Canada was there to help when the planes were grounded.I am proud of us for helping and not even questioning if we should.
My thoughts are with all.
PF

Today I feel able to discuss yesterday ~ what with all the news coverage, tributes, ghastly videos (ghastly in that they were really hard to revisit; one thinks those images are burned into the memory but, for me, they really aren't with such details as we get to recheck each 9-11). I certainly remember the day itself [as I was sitting there in my own living room]. It didn't seem real. It was some strange collage of smoke and planes and screaming and wild expressions in the eyes on TV. I'm sure mine were equally bugged out. It honestly took me some 20 minutes into events as they unfolded to truly believe that what I was seeing was factual! It seemed so remote a truth, so possible in the world as it is yet so distant as even the farthest away likelihood is, too. In my case, it is also my late father's birthday on September 11 so I'm a dose conflicted emotionally on that day anyway - the towers coming down made my internal parts a complete jumble of confusion, dread (for both the past as it was and the future as it looked to be happening). I never got mad. I never felt fear. I certainly never came close to shedding a tear that morning. All I remember, really, is that I felt as completely empty and somehow detached from society [as I like to know or imagine it] as I ever did in my life. How could that have been happening? Where's the logic? What next? Why?
I did watch a TV special (one that I hadn't seen before) - a fellow videotaping his firefighter brother in NYC on that day. It was a project of his or something, that the towers dropped was NOT why he was there and the ensuing video was almost a documentary of his shock/horror as it reflected the audience's. I remember one thing about the tape more than anything else, one "new" image without editing. As the chaos built that day the videographer was trying to catch as much of the activity as he could stomach - and this almost rhythmic crash and thud kept happening. Naturally, when a building is collapsing, noises are the rule and not the exception. This noise was different though. It turned out to be the bodies crashing to the surface after they had jumped from the upper floors. Hearing that ugly 'banging', for some reason, drove the horror of that day home for me all over again. There is nothing more real than a noise such as that was.

Whoever has said it was right, too, completely. Globally, I think, we were so much connected by that ungodly morning that went to Hell in a busy U.S. city. We were joined by the universal languages of fear and disgust and vulnerability of many kinds. It shocks me, and always will, how quickly it took for "us" to forget how that part, at least, empowered our existences. Now? Back to "business as usual". Our progress hasn't been, at the end of a long day, terribly impressive. At least in my opinion it hasn't.

Now this is an event, as you have just proved, when people remember exactly how they heard the news.

I was in the office and a staff member came in from having been on a break to the shops, that he was watching tv in a shop window with the breaking news, that a plane had hit one of the towers. I turned my computer to a news website and then saw the news unfold, the second plane, the falling of the towers - I was horrified, as we all were. Not a day that I will ever forget.

This is the Funtrivia thread from that day

Last Monday I had my television cable changed over to digital cable and whilst the guy was here he checked out all my other cables,like stereo,dvd and video player. I grabbed a video tape from the entertainment unit and stuck it in to test the video player, I haven`t played any taped for years now and the one that I pulled out just happened to be the tape I threw into the recorder the moment I realised that the 9/11 event was going to be huge.
Talk about flashbacks.

I was watching some program on tele when it was interrupted by the live feeds from New York regarding the first plane hitting. I was stunned and immediately rang my parents and then my brother, all of them were asleep in bed. My brother couldn`t believe what I was telling was happening and asked if I had been drinking or something,I was in a pretty excited state. As I was telling him what was happening I was watching the news and then saw the second plane hitting, I told him to just turn on the television to any channel and sorry mate I`ve got to go as another plane has just slammed into a tower.

I stayed up most of the night and was really in some sort of shock as more stories were aired regarding other planes and the Pentagon. At the time I was thinking that war had started. I was wrong, the war has been going on for years and will continue for many more years.

Sue, thanks for posting that link, but I must say that that was it, I'm crying as it really reminded me of the cruel remarks I heard before the fourth plane had been detected from a coworker.

Believe it or not, he and I became friends afterwards, but, one or two of the guys who refused to stand and observe the silence were hidden from me by a very kind coworker and
they did not become my friends to say the least.


The other thing that happened was that my husband and daughter found out about it while picking out a kitten in Italy as the hotel lady called them to the TV and they watched it transpire on live TV. They then, went ahead with the kitten selection and when they crossed the border called me up and asked me if I'd seen it, and I said yes...and then, they told me about the kitten...
That cat was the only bright thing to cling to all night, thank god he was there...as we were glued to our television set and then trying to call everyone we knew that night.
My mother called me and said, 'I am not sure if you've seen it over there, but, there's been an attack.'
This was because in California, they were rapidly closing down all State agencies, the bridges etc until they knew what was happening.

First of all let me say that I feel deeply for the people who were killed or injured that day, and for their families and friends. I watched events as they unfolded and I cried, which is not something I do often.

What bothers me about the memorials is this: they act as if nothing else has happened in five years. The "War on Terror" has now killed between 60,000 and 180,000 people in Afghanistan and Iraq, most of them civilians, and just as innocent as those who died on 9/11/01.

Even the most fundamentalist view of the Bible says "an eye for an eye", not "twenty, or fifty, or hundred eyes for an eye." Worst of all, the world is now much less safe than it was five years ago, and the US government is alienating more and more people around the world, guaranteeing an inexhaustable supply of would-be terrorists. Isn't it time to make an honest evaluation and think of more effective ways of dealing with terrorism?

I remember that day so well. I was busy at work here in the Netherlands, it was somewhere between 3:30 and 4 in the afternoon, we're 6 hours ahead of New York. I was alone in the office with our team leader when he said to me that two planes have crashed into the World Trade Center. My first thought was he's not serious. He was talking to someone on the phone with someone about it. He called me over to come have a look on his screen. He had the picture there of the North Tower in flames and smoke. The news item, on the BBC site as he was English, mentioned that a second plane has flown into the South Tower just a few minutes ago. We were sort of a daze. I still said that a plane flying into the WTC could still be an accident but with two planes it's no accident anymore. I contacted an online friend of mine who lived in upstate New York. While chatting she mentions that a third plane has crashed near Washington DC which I relayed to our team leader. We both decided to go home to watch what's happening on TV. When I got home I immediately put on CNN on TV and saw those shocking images of the 2 towers in smoke. I just sat there not believing what I'm seeing. It was as if I was watching a movie. Turns out the crash at Washington DC was into the Pentagon. As I was watching the South Tower collapsed. My first thoughts were of the thousands of people who work in that building and what about the other building? Will it hold or collapse too? Have the people been evacuated? Must take hours to go down all those steps. A few minutes later the North Tower collapsed as well. My wife and kids came home, surprised to find me there. When I told my wife what was happening she didn't believe me, she sat there staring at the TV all the time and just like me couldn't believe what was happening. My kids were impressed by the images not realising what was happening and that it was for real, not a movie. All evening we followed what was happening. News came of a plane crash near Pittsburgh. My wife at one point wanted to turn the TV of, it was to horrible, but I wanted to watch. I was shocked, saddened, fixated, amazed, so much going thru me. I sat there tears running down my face.

The following days the TV news and papers were filled with what has happened. It was all people talked about. It was not just the USA that has been attacked, it effected the whole western world! We all were attacked. The world wasn't the same anymore since that day. It has shown how vulnerable be are. These past 2 evenings I watched some documentaries on the 9/11 attack on the WTC. It's hard to believe it's already 5 years ago. It's still so unreal to see those images. I still get tears in my eyes when I see those images. Just like the big hole left at Ground Zero there's a big hole left in the lives of the loved ones of the people who have lost their lives that day. It's something that has changed the whole world!

A friend of mine has made a nice page in memory of that day with 2 songs by South African groups u can download on http://www.geocities.com/rembrandt0/Sept11.html

Sadly I have to agree with Catamount. The wars in the Middle East is only creating more hatred towards the west and putting us all in danger. The Taliban is gaining in the south of Afghanistan and Al Qaeda is gaining support. It's time that something is done to put a stop to all this and to bring about peace in the Middle East. U can't go in there with your guns blazing thinking that will fix everything. What is needed most is humanitarian aid and diplomacy.

It was afternoon in the UK, and I was at home at the time. My wife called me from her car-phone telling me to put the TV on, and I was appalled at the images I saw.
I watched the scenes from New York for most of that day, and got up several times during the night to see how things were developing. No-one knew if there were more atrocities planned, nor where in the world they might occur. London was an obvious potential target, and I was due to attend a meeting in Westminster, near the UK Parliament building. In spite of the potential threat, most Londoners went to work and about their business - as did most other people throughout the world who were determined not to be intimidated by cruel and evil terrorists.
Only two days later, I flew to Italy amid strong security measures, and attended a very moving remembrance sevice for the 9/11 victims, in the town of Alessandria. Italy observed a 10 minute silence one day, in which the whole country participated. There were all sorts of rumours going round about nations declaring war, etc, and security getting back to the UK a few days later was even tighter.
Less that two months later, my wife and I flew to Florida for a holiday involving a 10 day Caribbean cruise, followed by a week unaccompanied touring. We were surprised to find that many Americans had either cancelled their booking for the cruise, or had decided to travel overland, taking as long as three days to reach Fort Lauderdale when they could have flown there in just a couple of hours! We also found that bookings at Florida hotels and motels were right down, due to cancellations by U.S. citizens. The entertainments director, on board the cruise ship, organised a remembrance service which was well attended, and we were moved at the comments of some Americans who sincerely thanked us for coming to the USA, though it had never even occurred to us to cancel.
President Bush reacted to this apalling emergency with considerable restraint, and great statesmanship, not over-reacting but targetting the regime which was giving the terrorists a working base - the Taliban in Afghanistan. The whole world was then behind America, and ready to support any action against terrorists, but sadly virtually all that sympathy and support has evaporated because of the invasion of Iraq, and the huge casualty numbers of innocent Iraqis which have resulted from this war. The terrorist group responsible for the 9/11 atrocity is now stronger than ever, and the whole world is a far more dangerous place than it was five years ago. Bush and Blair continue to make speeches linking Iraq with 9/11, even though everyone else knows that Iraq had nothing whatsoever to do with that outrage. As long as these two 'gentlemen' and their supporters are in power, al-Queda will get stronger and the world will become more dangerous.