What were you doing?

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Yes, it's the obvious thread. But it didn't look like we had one yet!

What were you doing when you heard the news about the 9/11 attacks?



Personally, I was at work and an email popped up from someone in the admin department saying that we may have heard that a plane had hit the WTC and that they were trying to ascertain whether any of the company's employees was in the building.

At the time, only the team manager had internet access at work (yeah, I know, HOW fucking primitive! But this was in the old days, before the empire...) and he dragged up the BBC news site (at about 3 bits per hour!) with about 5 of us huddled round. I remember one colleague - an out-and-out leftie and US-hater that said, "serves them right," when the first speculation about terrorist involvement started to emerge - but after the second plane hit and all doubt was wiped out, even he joined the rest of us watching things unfold; all of us growing more and more saddened as the scale of the loss of life emerged. When the first tower collapsed, I can remember feeling a total sense of helplessness, as if, just because I was watching it on screen, 5000 miles away, I OUGHT to have been able to do something to stop this!

Eight months later, I was in NYC for my 40th birthday. I hadn't planned on visiting "ground-zero" because, to be honest, I thought it would be a little morbid! But I managed to leave the subway at the wrong exit when heading for the Liberty Island tour and found myself a block or two away, so...

The sight of so many placards, posters, messages and assorted reminders, stuck to every available inch of wall, railing, fence or tree was overwhelming - especially the hundreds of banners from fire departments across America and the world, praising those firefighters that died that day. To be honest, my eyes are filling now, just remembering - at the time, I burst into tears on the pavement and was comforted by complete strangers, reassuring me that they knew what I was going through.

But they didn't - not really - because a large part of what I was feeling was complete and utter disgust for the religious bullshit that had driven perfectly ordinary men to kill themselves and callously murder hundreds in the process! When I was reassured by passers-by that "GOD will punish them", I wanted to both hug them for their compassion and punch them for their idiocy! It was that very god - their fake, simplistic, anthropomorphic STOOGE - that had caused this atrocity.

And yet, despite my revulsion at their citing HIS HOLY FUCKING NAME, I couldn't get angry at them for reaching for the only olive-branch they knew at such times. How could I? They weren't the ones in those planes and, roles reversed, they wouldn't be the ones flying them into Mecca! They were just ordinary people that had been told that this was how the world worked as kids and had never seen the need to question it. When a lie pervades every aspect of your life and all of your social group affirm it, how can you argue? (Especially if you are not prone to sticking your head above parapets.)

Sorry if I waffled a bit there. I am not one for much gawkish sentimentality - but 9/11 (despite the completely fucked up way that the Merkins abuse calendars - it's 11/9 FFS!!1!!) just happened to touch me deeply and it needs a serious thread.

[Svartalf]

I was at work, trying not to cry.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I was watching yet another war start.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

I was at work, trying not to cry.

Yep. Thing is, it didn't start like that, not for me, it sort of grew from "just another tragedy somewhere else" to "!!!!!!!" We got to leave work early and I can remember wiping away tears all the way home - and then watching things unfold later through waves of emotion.

[Bella Fortuna]

I was taking my two-year-old to day care. The lady in the front office had a tiny television and said there'd been an accident and a plane had hit the a building in NYC. I wanted to stay and watch more, as it seemed that something serious and terrible was unfolding, but I had to drop off the little 'un and get to work.

The rest of that work day - week, probably - was a blur of hungering for news reports, catching snippets on the radio and TV and internet, co-workers exchanging what we'd heard, feeling the somber closeness that tragedy brings. It was sad and horrible. I remember someone emailing a slide show of images from the day around the office... the pictures of the people leaping to their deaths brought the most tears. I wept a lot during that time. Just recalling those pictures still makes me cry.

[Magicziggy]

My sister rang me from the uk at breakfast time. Told me to turn on the tv. I watched for a while, never fully comprehending the scale. I went to work. It was unreal.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

No, really, Gawdzilla, tears for what? Worse things happen in Africa everyday.

I had tears in my eyes when I heard about the Rwanda genocides as well. And the Israeli shelling of the Gaza strip. And, much more recently, by the atrocities committed on Baha Mousa.

It is fuck all to do with which country/religion/nationality gets attacked and everything to do with the total insanity of the attacks in the first place, and the ensuing loss of life!

If you don't get that. Or if 9/11 didn't bother you because it was "just Americans", then you are everything that some here claim you to be.

I've never cried for the death of anyone. There is no reason to. You can call me stone cold if you want, but crying for such events is an irrational & useless response.

Whereas singling out a single race/nation/culture for criticism is rational and useful I suppose?

[Magicziggy]

No, really, Gawdzilla, tears for what? Worse things happen in Africa everyday.

I had tears in my eyes when I heard about the Rwanda genocides as well. And the Israeli shelling of the Gaza strip. And, much more recently, by the atrocities committed on Baha Mousa.

It is fuck all to do with which country/religion/nationality gets attacked and everything to do with the total insanity of the attacks in the first place, and the ensuing loss of life!

If you don't get that. Or if 9/11 didn't bother you because it was "just Americans", then you are everything that some here claim you to be.

I've never cried for the death of anyone. There is no reason to. You can call me stone cold if you want, but crying for such events is an irrational & useless response.

Not a response that many people make a conscious decision about though. I would suggest that such a response is involuntary and has roots in serving some ancient purpose. I cry at things that move me. I know they move me because I cry. It's the way I respond. It isn't a choice. Reason doesn't come in to it.

[Gawd]

Thanks for shitting on another thread, Gawd.

At least I didn't make up a story that I was celebrating in the streets as the towers came down just so that I can piss you off.

[Gawd]

No, really, Gawdzilla, tears for what? Worse things happen in Africa everyday.

I had tears in my eyes when I heard about the Rwanda genocides as well. And the Israeli shelling of the Gaza strip. And, much more recently, by the atrocities committed on Baha Mousa.

It is fuck all to do with which country/religion/nationality gets attacked and everything to do with the total insanity of the attacks in the first place, and the ensuing loss of life!

If you don't get that. Or if 9/11 didn't bother you because it was "just Americans", then you are everything that some here claim you to be.

I've never cried for the death of anyone. There is no reason to. You can call me stone cold if you want, but crying for such events is an irrational & useless response.

Whereas singling out a single race/nation/culture for criticism is rational and useful I suppose?

For the issues I've posted about in the NIIYII forum, it is completely rational since they are racial conflicts perpetuated by US support.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Thanks for shitting on another thread, Gawd.

At least I didn't make up a story that I was celebrating in the streets as the towers came down just so that I can piss you off.

And I did wonder how you missed making that particular story up, considering all the others you've made out of whole cloth.

[Bella Fortuna]

No, really, Gawdzilla, tears for what? Worse things happen in Africa everyday.

I had tears in my eyes when I heard about the Rwanda genocides as well. And the Israeli shelling of the Gaza strip. And, much more recently, by the atrocities committed on Baha Mousa.

It is fuck all to do with which country/religion/nationality gets attacked and everything to do with the total insanity of the attacks in the first place, and the ensuing loss of life!

If you don't get that. Or if 9/11 didn't bother you because it was "just Americans", then you are everything that some here claim you to be.

I've never cried for the death of anyone. There is no reason to. You can call me stone cold if you want, but crying for such events is an irrational & useless response.

Whereas singling out a single race/nation/culture for criticism is rational and useful I suppose?

For the issues I've posted about in the NIIYII forum, it is completely rational since they are racial conflicts perpetuated by US support.

[Svartalf]

I was at work, trying not to cry.

Yep. Thing is, it didn't start like that, not for me, it sort of grew from "just another tragedy somewhere else" to "!!!!!!!" We got to leave work early and I can remember wiping away tears all the way home - and then watching things unfold later through waves of emotion.

Uh, no, I was trying not to cry because the work was tossing me into the marianas' trench of all nervous breakdowns ... at the time, I noticed the news and didn't pay attention to the whys and wherefores... I learned the full extent of the disaster only about 5 or 6hrs later anyway.

[irretating]

I was at work in the city of London. Someone said a plane had flown into the WTC so everyone pulled up CNN. Then after the next plane hit the WTC, all work stopped. Once London airspace was closed, we were told we could leave for the day. I went home and just watched the looping coverage.

[Atheist-Lite]

I was playing with the TV clicker...chanced on the news between plane strikes, witnessed the second live as it happened on TV.