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Live for Today Everyone
I know most of you might be a little tired of seeing this clog up your friends list already, with everyone talking about 9/11 and how we should be silent, be respectful, pray for the souls of the dead, and for the souls of the living.
I'm not asking you to be silent. I'm not asking for prayers. What I'd like is to hear you. What I want is to know that that solidarity that we as Americans felt is not forgotten. As it said in the French newspaper Le Monde right after the attacks, "We are all Americans".
Is that still true? I realize that most of my friends over the internet are not, in fact, living in the same country as I am. Did it affect you the same way that it did us? Did you change because of what happened? Has it made you more aware, has it made you more noticeable of those around you?
You don't have to do this. I'm asking you too, but if it's too personal, or if it hurts too much, you don't have to.
What I'm asking is if you would tell me where you were that day. It can be one word, it can be a story. It can be anonymous or not. I want to hear everyone though, those who live in the US, and those who don't.
I wasn't that old when 9/11 happened. I was in school, and kids were starting to get pulled out of class, mothers and fathers coming to pick them up. The teachers were instructed to give us no information, but we knew something was going on, since each and everyone of our teachers kept leaving the room to converse with other teachers and parents during the day.
I got pulled out during recess. My mom came to pick me and my brother up, and she brought us back home, where we sat and watched the news as a family as my dad made calls to relatives living in New York City, trying to contact them, with little success.
My uncle worked in the World Trade Towers. He was late to work that day, his alarm clock set to the wrong time. He arrived by cab just as the plane hit the towers, but no one knew that he was fine until he was able to call sometime that afternoon, in which my mom broke down and cried.
Seventeen people died from my hometown, all commuters to NYC.
That is my story. Things turned out fine in the end, and for that I am glad. Do I feel like I have changed since that day? Not really. Once I learned my family was safe, things more or less returned to normal for me.
That is how I remember today, by contacting my family and telling them that I love them.
Remember, you don't have to do this. I'd like you to, but I understand if you can't or won't. I will not hold it against you.
Peace be with you. Shalom.
I'm not asking you to be silent. I'm not asking for prayers. What I'd like is to hear you. What I want is to know that that solidarity that we as Americans felt is not forgotten. As it said in the French newspaper Le Monde right after the attacks, "We are all Americans".
Is that still true? I realize that most of my friends over the internet are not, in fact, living in the same country as I am. Did it affect you the same way that it did us? Did you change because of what happened? Has it made you more aware, has it made you more noticeable of those around you?
You don't have to do this. I'm asking you too, but if it's too personal, or if it hurts too much, you don't have to.
What I'm asking is if you would tell me where you were that day. It can be one word, it can be a story. It can be anonymous or not. I want to hear everyone though, those who live in the US, and those who don't.
I wasn't that old when 9/11 happened. I was in school, and kids were starting to get pulled out of class, mothers and fathers coming to pick them up. The teachers were instructed to give us no information, but we knew something was going on, since each and everyone of our teachers kept leaving the room to converse with other teachers and parents during the day.
I got pulled out during recess. My mom came to pick me and my brother up, and she brought us back home, where we sat and watched the news as a family as my dad made calls to relatives living in New York City, trying to contact them, with little success.
My uncle worked in the World Trade Towers. He was late to work that day, his alarm clock set to the wrong time. He arrived by cab just as the plane hit the towers, but no one knew that he was fine until he was able to call sometime that afternoon, in which my mom broke down and cried.
Seventeen people died from my hometown, all commuters to NYC.
That is my story. Things turned out fine in the end, and for that I am glad. Do I feel like I have changed since that day? Not really. Once I learned my family was safe, things more or less returned to normal for me.
That is how I remember today, by contacting my family and telling them that I love them.
Remember, you don't have to do this. I'd like you to, but I understand if you can't or won't. I will not hold it against you.
Peace be with you. Shalom.
no subject
I was in the car with my mom, putting on my eyeshadow as she drove me to class, when she turned on the radio.
The first thing we heard was how all planes had been grounded and diverted to the most local airport, and how many american planes had been grounded to Canadian airpots specifically.
I think I probably said something along the lines of "what the hell?" and looked at my mother when she went "this must be a joke."
We didn't know why the planes had been grounded until we listened quietly and heard that the towers had fallen. I didn't even know what the WTC towers were until then, that they had even existed.
I got to school and all the monitors in the hallways had been turned on to CNN and were showing footage of it, with crowds of 30-40 people around each TV.
Our class was not cancelled, our teacher taught on as if nothing was wrong.
When I got home I went up to my grandparents apartment, because we were living in the same building then, and sat on the floor next to my grandfather and watched the footage, watched the people jumping from the windows, and just feeling numb.
Later when my mom got home I went back down and watched TV until late in the evening. I remember our news covering how there were all these stranded americans, and how hotels had jacked their room rates up, so canadian families were coming with blankets and food and also taking on people to stay at their houses until they could get home.
So many Canadians opened up their doors. It surprised me, I think, because we tend to be pretty reserved as a people towards that sort of thing.
9/11 really fueled my hate for the American government and their policies, and I became very interested in politics and having my say. It's odd to think you were just a child, Amy, when this happened, because I was eighteen and an adult, in the presence of many other adults who all spoke of conspiracy theories and how even if the Bush government hadn't planned it, they'd certainly let it slip through.
We say it's the day America became the world's largest police state.
I think to some extent, 9/11 really did change my outlook on the world, how I felt about things like flying or taking the skytrain, or even being at a public event, like a ballgame. I remember my fellow students and I wondered if they would be targetting colleges next, and if it would be safer to just go home for the day.
One thing I know from it is that you can't build walls and hate your neighbour and be suspicious. You have to learn about one another and educate each other. Only through knowledge can we be free from mindless hate, on either side of the war.