Today

[moira finnie]

Six years ago today was a Tuesday as well. Turning off all the noise of our culture for a moment to give a thought to all those lost that day and since then may not change a thing. Still, my heart goes out to those most deeply affected by all the events emanating from September 11th anyway. May they know some peace.

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi,

September 11, 2001 was a beautiful clear sunny day in New York City. A perfect day - - what could go wrong????


Well, we were all surprised to see the World Trade Center on fire high up and reports of a plane crashing into it.

I was home (it was 6:45AM in Calgary) preparing to go to work. I stopped to watch the TV pictures of the WTC burning. About to turn the TV off, I then saw another plane coming toward the buildings and wondered what it was doing so close to the area.

Then of course, absolute disbelief as it crashed into the other building.
I immediately knew this was a terrorist attack and screamed out loud.

All the way to work on the bus, people were talking about what they'd seen and some didn't know about it yet. They were incredulous!!
At work, we watch all day on the conference room TV; coming and going and not believing. I felt so bad for those in the upper floors, knowing they were probably doomed.

And then, we saw the bodies jumping out. I couldn't look any more.
We all wondered what it would be like to be in that situation.....
I felt so sorry for all the passengers in the planes; but realized they were the 'lucky' ones - - they died quickly.
Those in the buildings were going through a "horror show"!!!!!

When the first building came down, we were all crying & screaming - it was horrible to see.
And when the second Tower fell, our boss turned the TV off and sent us home.

Here in Calgary, several high-rise buildings were evacuated. We have 3 buildings over 50 storeys high.
I still cannot believe that all this has happened. It is just too incredible; but then, life is incredible and unfortunately, humanity is full of the unbelievable.

A day of sorrow today for those on the planes and in the Towers and the rescue workers, who are now dying from carscinogene exposure...
Terrible....

Larry

[pktrekgirl]

Here on the east coast, most of us were at work already when it happened, and had little access to TV. CNN.com and the other news sites quickly cracked under the strain of millions of hits, all at the same time, and so we were left with only the radio.

I know it was terrible to watch...but only being able to hear about it on the radio after the initial pictures of the first plane stalled all the news sites was really surreal. Now I know what people at the beginning of WWII felt like, glued to their radios.

I don't know why they didn't just let us go home - no one got anything done for the rest of the day. I think everyone NEEDED to go home and watch the news - like it couldn't be 'real' until we did.

I know there were alot of innocent civilians that died that day...but I think my heart goes out most to the NYC Fire Department members who WILLINGLY went up into those buildings, when they could have walked safely away and spent the evening with their families. Many people were forcefully PUT into situations that made them a hero that day (the guys on the 4th plane who crashed it out in rural PA, for example)...but the NYC firemen had a choice...and 343 of them - think about that - 343 men, CHOSE to go up in those buildings, even though it had been known for years that the WTC would be an impossible set of buildings to evacuate - even under conditions much less dire than the one they were faced with.

Sure...it 'was their job'. But I'll tell you what - NO 'job' could have gotten ME into those buildings and climbing UP those stairwells toward jet fuel fires, major structural damage and all sorts of untold danger - all of it taking place well beyond the reach of any ladder.

It really blows my mind that 343 men went in there without a second though - doing their job despite the fact that they had to know they would likely die.

Anyway...I know there were alot of heroes that day...but I still can't get over the sacrifices made by the NYC Fire Department.

[inglis]

I was at work and called home to see how things were going.My husband was at home with our 1 year old son at the time ,and he relayed what he had just seen on television to me. I was shocked and could not believe what he was telling me.I ran down to Radio shack which was located in the mall I worked in at the time and watched the replays of what had happened and I was very scared . I wanted to go home and be with my family. I had to stay at work and through out the course of the day there was no one left in the mall except store staff .It was a horriable day one which any of us will ever forget . I was in NewYork back in 1983 and I got to go up to the observation deck of The World Trade Center and see how beautiful the view was .I will always cherish that time and how good NewYorkers were to us Winnipegger's . It was a great city and we felt very much at home there.

[movieman1957]

I was on my way to work. The radio broke the news and I ran to watch on the TV in the office. While watching I saw the second plane come into the picture and new right off where it was headed.

I live about 40 minutes from Washington and this area reacted with great fear. Schools were locked down. Parents scrambled to get to schools. Fear of a much larger attack was very much on our minds. It was a tough day in this area too.

The odd thing at the office was that some people still came in to make payments and other things long after we knew what was happening.

I told my wife to pop a tape in the TV and let it run. Someday maybe I'll watch it.

[TalkieTime]

On 9/11/01 my clock radio awakened me at 5:40 a.m. (It was then 8:40 a.m. in the east). The disc jocky soon mentioned that a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Center. I turned on the TV in my little office. At that time it was assumed that this was a freak accident. I started a videotape recording so I might watch this unfolding event later.

My wife soon awakened so I mentioned the accident to her. She came into my little office to watch while I showered. After I finished my shower she reported that a second plane hit the other tower. It became instantly clear that these were not accidents, we were being attacked.

Just before my leaving for the office the first of the towers collapsed. I started a new videotape recording on MSNBC (to record for the next six hours).

I left for the office--around nine miles from my home. I was the second of the three employees to arrive. I lowered our flag to half staff. Soon afterward the Chief of Police came by to personally assure us that he would maintain close patrol and observation of us as we were the only Federal presence actually within his jurisdiction. (Apart from our flag our office had very low visibility; located about one mile away from the city limits of our larger city, Portland Oregon.)

With the bits and pieces of news from New York, the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania, the office was somber. It was only later that the horror was viewed for the first time.

Recently I dubbed these live-recorded videotapes to DVD. Perhaps I may watch these someday, perhaps not.

I remember the cover on the next issue of Yahoo Internet Life magazine. It was dark blue with a simple e-mail inquiry from 9/11: Are you OK?