Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning?

YouTube Smackdown Crew

[StarCMC]

Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning?
9-11 Links Shattered (Time Magazine Photo Essay) September 11 Archived News Sites September 11 Timeline of Events America Attacked - A Tribute Firehouse.com Tribute President Bush's address to the nation on September 11, 2001 NYC Tribute CNN Archives 9/11/01 Mike's 9/11 Memorial Page (Links below are from Mike's 9/11 Memorial Page) MOVIES 5000 Heroes (1.7 Mb)   9/11/01 Tribute Flash (3.3 Mb)   A Special Tribute Flash Card (1.5 Mb)   America (2.6 Mb)   American Attacked 9 1 1 (7 Mb)   American Strikes Back (606 Kb)   American Triumphant (1.3 Mb)   American Will Remember (2.2 /mb)   Can't Cry Hard Enough (1.2 Mb)   Club Santuary Tribute (471 Kb)   FDNY Tribute (1.9 Mb)   God Bless America (553 Kb)   God Bless the USA (1.2 Mb)   In Memoriam (512 Kb)   God Will Prevail (1.5 Mb)   Link to more Flash Movies   Mike Holt Tribute (1.4 Mb)   Never Forget (224 Kb)   Prayer for the Children (4.1 Mb)   Remember 9/11 (1.5 Mb)   Remember Those Lost 9/11 (273 Kb)   The Last Walk Home (191 Kb)   The World Mourns 9/11 (1.5 Mb)   Tribute (2.9 Mb)   Tribute To The Fallen (3.5 Mb)   Tribute to the Victims (2.3 Mb)   Wall of Americans (2.3 Mb)   World Trade Center Tribute (1.2 Mb)   World Trade Center Tribute 9.11.01 (656 Kb) Pictures Images from Ground Zero More pictures at New York Lab Terror Strikes At American Hearts The World Coming Together The World Mourns the Tragedy of 9-11 The World Reacts The World Reacts 2 United We Stand U.S.A. Always United - Forever Free! Slide Shows   The 9/11 Tragedy Slide Show The World Stops to Remember 9-11 Then and Now Slide Show	Interview of my friend, a 9/11 Survivor    1.  Where were you on 9-11? Outside, a few blocks east of the WTC. Being on the east side actually prevented me from seeing the very worst of that day, although what I did see what hideous enough.       2.  What is your most vivid memory of that day? There are so many, it's hard to say. The disbelief and uncertainty right after the North Tower was hit, before we even knew that it was a plane. It just seemed too "furious" and hot to be a regular fire, so I felt that it was something extraordinary, but I didn't know what.            I remember calling my father to let him know that there was a big explosion at the WTC, but that I was OK -- and then him hearing on the radio that it was an airplane. While we were talking, there were secondary explosions inside the North Tower and then little bits and slivers of glass fell on us. I also vividly remember watching people falling/jumping and just refusing to believe that it was happening. Another strong memory is of running for my life when I was told that the South Tower was coming down (not realizing that it had collapsed into itself, I assumed that it either toppled or exploded and took out everything for blocks in every direction). The awful noise, the abject horror on so many faces and then trying to outrun that debris cloud. I remember wondering if I was about to die. And when I heard that awful, familiar rumbling again, I stopped to watch the North Tower just pancake downward, realizing that thousands of people were inside -- including people I knew. Sometime shortly after that, as I was walking uptown along South Street/East River Drive, I somehow got to talking with a shell-shocked guy who worked on the 9th floor of the North Tower and he wound up telling me every gory detail of what he saw on the way out. He also kept trying to walk back there, because he wanted to take the ferry back to New Jersey, so I had to keep pulling him back by his arm.       3.  How did your life change as a result of what you saw or experienced? PTSD. I didn't sleep for more than a year afterward (never more than a few hours a night). I feel as if I've lost a certain innocence and now realize that my neighborhood could really be blown up again, and maybe me with it next time. When I see footage on TV of terrorist attacks, I feel as if I know what it's like there -- the confusion, the horror, the mental disconnect as you don't want to believe that it's really happening, the fear, the smells, etc. I guess it feels like my life is divided into pre-9/11 and post-9/11, in terms of experiences, perspectives, etc.       4.  When someone tells you that you need to "move on" how does that make  you feel? Angry! Very few have said that to me, but the few who have been stupid and insensitive enough have felt my wrath.     5.  Do you believe that most of America remembers?  Why or why not? Hard to say. I think it goes along political lines -- those who remember are those who tend to support the war against islamofascism and understand why we're doing it, and there are those who are stuck in the Clintonian mindset of "tit for tat," in that we wait until the terrorists hit us, and *then* we strike back...proportionately, of course (like bombing empty buildings in the middle of the night, to "make a statement")...and then call it even.     6.  Is there anything that you, as someone who experienced the horrors of that day first hand, would like to say to the rest of us? Thank you to everyone who remembers and has prayed for us.   Please keep the survivors of the 9/11 attacks in your prayers.  It is not easy for them. Thank you to the troops who have put themselves in harms way to ensure that this does not happen again on American soil.  The men and women of the US Armed Forces are the best in the world, bar none.  God bless you all!
The YouTube Smackdown Crew wanted to post a thread asking you to tell us where you were, and we'd also like to invite you to work with us in our efforts to take the hirabist scum videos down off YouTube.  If you're interested, click here and go to the current YouTube Smackdown thread.  We appreciate any help you can give ~ it's our way of fighting back after 9-11.   Please add your thoughts, videos, music or anything else you'd like to add about that day.   And I'd really like to know...   Where were YOU?  What do you remember?

    

[Just another Joe]

I was in Charlottesville, VA at the, then, Sprint central office starting an installation of a piece of telecom equipment.
I was also starting a 24 hour fast for my church.

I was sitting at a desk checking Free Republic for my morning fix when I saw the thread about an airplane hitting the WTC.
I told the office staff to turn on their television because a plane had hit the WTC.
We saw the second plane hit the other tower, then heard about the Pentagon and Flight 93.

One vendor personnel started spouting off about this was done by the palestinians and they were just "getting back" at the USA and blah, blah, blah.
I immediately told him that there was no such country as "palestine" and that if this WAS a terrorist attack, he might want to hold his tongue or HE might pay part of the price for such an attack.
The vendor staff, all of middle east origin, decided to drive back to Chicago that day.

I knew that there was no way I was going to get any installation work done that day so I went back to the hotel room and started praying.
I opened my bible at random and was looking at Psalms 108. An entirely appropriate verse fot that day.

Psa 108:1 [[A Song [or] Psalm of David.]] O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.
Psa 108:2 Awake, psaltery and harp: I [myself] will awake early.
Psa 108:3 I will praise thee, O LORD, among the people: and I will sing praises unto thee among the nations.
Psa 108:4 For thy mercy [is] great above the heavens: and thy truth [reacheth] unto the clouds.
Psa 108:5 Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: and thy glory above all the earth;
Psa 108:6 That thy beloved may be delivered: save [with] thy right hand, and answer me.
Psa 108:7 God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth.
Psa 108:8 Gilead [is] mine; Manasseh [is] mine; Ephraim also [is] the strength of mine head; Judah [is] my lawgiver;
Psa 108:9 Moab [is] my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe; over Philistia will I triumph.
Psa 108:10 Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom?
Psa 108:11 [Wilt] not [thou], O God, [who] hast cast us off? and wilt not thou, O God, go forth with our hosts?
Psa 108:12 Give us help from trouble: for vain [is] the help of man.
Psa 108:13 Through God we shall do valiantly: for he [it is that] shall tread down our enemies.

[LonePalm]

I was in Jersey watching the WTC when the second plane hit.

I will NEVER forget.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[metmom]

I was at home as well, homeschooling the kids. A friend called and told us about it. We turned on the TV a little before the second plane hit. I was suspicious about the first one but when the second one flew so deliberately into the other tower, I knew it was hijakers and terrorism.

It had to have been the worst day of my life, watching all that carnage, and that having buried both my parents at a relatively young age.

[jy1297]

Honestly i never thought of it as an awful day for me personally. I thought of one of my friends stories from that day that was in a building across the street and watched people jump from the windows his day may have been awful. From my view uptown at work i was able to see the smoke but not the building directly from obstructed views. On my way home from work on the F train when it went above ground at the Smith-9st station that’s where i get my best view. That was around 11:30 - 12:30 i don’t recall the time that well. There was still a huge cloud around downtown. The dust cloud was there even the next morning.
if i can figure out how to cut a section of video off a DVD i will one day post my video of 9/11.

[alarm rider]

I was at work in downtown Washington, DC. We heard the news, watched the second aircraft plow into the building. Heard about the attack on the Pentagon. I watched the smoke rise from the Pentagon across the Potomac.

I will never forget, I was not fearful, I was outraged. I still am.

[novemberslady]

I was here

[cjshapi]

I was working in my home office, on the phone with one of the company’s sales reps who lived in the NY/NJ area. He had two phones going at once and told me there was some sort of plane crash at the WTC and to go to a room where there was a television. The second plane hit about 30 seconds after I turned it on.

I cried each time I heard the Star Spangled Banner for more than a year after that. God Bless those who were lost and injured and those who gave assistance. Never forget.

[hoagy62]

I was at work, as a driver for an airport shuttle company. I had a news radio station on in the van with two couples who were headed to the Caribbean for a vacation. We all heard the breaking news of the first crash, and we all thought it was a terrible ‘accident’. Then, about 10 minutes from the airport, we heard about the 2nd airplane. One of the gentlemen in the back said “This isn’t an accident...this is deliberate.”

I dropped them off and was starting out to my next pickups when the news that all airports were being closed came over my company radio. We were told to continue as normal until told differently. On the way North, I heard about the Pentagon...and I literaly screamed in my van.

We were all finally told to take any airport-bound guests home and to report to the airport to take stranded people home or to hotels. I remember on my way back to the airport thinking about the beautiful blue sky and the Seattle skyline...and wondering in fear if a plane was going to try to take out the Space Needle, or if in the next second it was all going to disappear in a bright flash and a mushroom cloud.

I finally got home and sat with my wife and (then only) child and watched the replays of what I’d only heard about.

Our company held on by the skin of their teeth...many other shuttle companies around the nation weren’t as lucky.

I, too, will never forget.

[KarenMarie]

My daughter was still in High School and her b/f was visiting from England. On the evening of the 10th, she had asked me if she could take the day off school to take him to the WTC observation deck and I had agreed.

When I was leaving the room, I overheard her telling him that she was glad to be getting out of her math test, which made me reverse my decision and insist on her attendence at school. God peaked my maternal hearing, I am sure.

On the morning of the 11th, my father called me to tell me that a plane hit the tower. At that point, we thought it was an accident. I went into the spare bedroom to wake up her b/f and we were watching, in shock, when the second plane hit.

by 11:00AM, I was pounding on her school doorbell, insisting to be allowed to take her home. They finally relented and we sat home watching to news.

Being only a few miles from NYC, we smelled it for days after the event.

It is something that will stay with me forever. And my now son-in-law was changed by the event as well.

[StarCMC]

I was outraged. I still am.

You and me both.

[StarCMC]

Oh man. I have goosebumps reading that.

[Gnat Masterson]

I was in N.C. working a contract for 12 hr nightshift. I did not watch the tv when I got home that AM. After sleeping the day away, I did turn on the news when I awoke. Shock and disbelief immediatly set in. The newsmen were in disbelief too for it seemed to take forever for them to mention what had happened. At first I got the impression that a small plane had hit the WTC. Later, the news bothered me to the point of distraction. I ended my contract early and went home. I needed to be near my family.

[Biggirl]

If you are wondering why I have not been doing any “smackdown” efforts, I had to take a break because my computer has been down over the last month. Will be picking it up tomorrow and will by the weekend will start up again to do the smackdown efforts. Take care.

[Biggirl]

Thank-you for this special 9/11 ping.

[xp38]

Lest we forget...Two of our Freeper family were in the middle of it all and are now on the FR Memorial Wall. RIP Barbara and John

[Eva]

A man that my husband worked with for 25 years was working at the twin towers that day. The man was a former Chief engineer on the ships, who took an early retirement because of a heart condition. He was a hero that day. He was working at the plant engineer and as such was able to lead a group of people through the tunnels beneath the towers, where they were rescued the day after the attack.

Lou Tranos died a few weeks ago.

[StarCMC]

It’s ok — I know a lot of people smack and never post about it! :-) We all just do what we can and hopefully no one feels pressure to do more than they have time for!

[StarCMC]

BTTT.

[Fawnn]

I was where I have to spend far too much time: in bed.

My daughter called and said, “Mom. Get up. We’re under attack!” (I still remember the fear in her voice.)

I got up and watched Fox News and monitored FR practically nonstop, barely sleeping over the next few days. And prayed. I e-mailed the few people I know in the NYC and Boston areas, and was so thankful when I got their replies that they were safe!

I’ll never forget!

I’m amazed at those who claim we had no reason to go into Iraq. (We should have taught that Hussein a lesson when we found out he’d put a “hit” out on Bush 41!)

[JoanOfArk]

I was getting ready for my class on Americans at War, taught by Dr.G. Kurt Piehler, at UT Knoxville. I knew, when the first plane hit, that it was no accident. My class at UT was full of ROTC seniors, so I was surrounded by patriotic, intelligent Americans. Seeing their rage and determination helped me to organize my thoughts about the attack and erased any doubts I had about the courage of today’s fighters.
I am still mad as hell, though, and will never forget! I am no longer tolerant of those who value diversity and pacification.