Posted on 11/08/2001 12:07:26 PM PST by Lucky2
Former first daughter writes first-person account of Sept. 11 for magazine The Associated Press 11/8/01 3:08 PM NEW YORK (AP) -- Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton, who was 12 blocks away from the World Trade Center when it collapsed, has written an account of that day for Talk magazine.
"Before Sept. 11 I wouldn't have believed I had many innocences left," begins the four-page story in the December issue of the magazine. "I had seen people who had lost everything and everyone they loved to war, famine, and natural disasters. ... Despite all that, I woke up that Tuesday morning feeling good about where I was in my life and happy about where I was going."
Clinton was near Union Square, at the apartment of longtime friend Nicole Davison, when the first hijacked airliner hit Tower One. Davison, who had left for work, called Clinton and told her to stay where she was. Like many Americans that day, Clinton turned on the television and watched as the second plane hit.
"I tried to call my mother, but after I said hello to her assistant the line went dead," Clinton wrote. She ventured outside to find a working telephone, and ended up walking downtown -- toward the towers.
"I remember very little about how I got so far downtown. ... I don't know whether I was on the corner or in the middle of the block," she wrote. "I do remember standing in line at a phone somewhere and hearing a deafening rumble."
The noise Clinton heard was the collapse of Tower Two.
Clinton later found Davison and another friend, and the three spent the day working their way uptown. Clinton wrote that a "somewhat irrational medley of thoughts" was running through her head, including concerns about President Bush's tax cut.
"I worried that with the tax cut we wouldn't have enough money to repair New York and D.C. and to help the families of the thousands I knew must have died," she wrote.
At one point, she stopped to pray and thank God that her mother was a senator representing New York and that the city was led by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani -- a leader Clinton wrote she "had been criticizing just the day before for some insensitivity or other."
When Clinton finally got through to her mother, who was in Washington, she burst into tears of relief. She later spoke with her father, who was in Australia.
"The next night I saw my mother, and early Thursday morning I saw my dad in Chappaqua," Clinton wrote. "It was only after I had seen them both that I finally felt secure again in my own skin."
Now studying in Oxford, England, Clinton says she is frustrated to be away from America. She says she encounters anti-American sentiments every day.
"For more than 21 years I lived with the assumption that I was safe, with a sense of security so profound I didn't even know I had it," Clinton wrote. "Today I find myself shocked into a new awareness of how much I loved the country I grew up in."
Before September 11th I wouldn’t a thunk I had many innocences and/or observationes left. Let me tell you, I was wrong! I awoke that day and realizded that my mother was Senator. That maded me way happy and I prayed to god to thank her for that.
Then, like, my friend called up. She was like World Trade Center got hit! I was like get out! She was like duh yeah! I was like no way. She was like way!
So I goed out and runned downtown. I runned and I runned. Then I realized I was running uptown, so I turned around and runned back the other way.
Then the building was all falling. I was sad. There were like children in there! Maybe horses too, you know in the basement. Maybe. I don’t know.
Then I thought about how only if my Mom’s health care plan had gotten past, all those dead people would have been like fixed.
For twenty years or something, I always thoughted I was safe and I were. Now I not too sure about being in my own skin! Over here in Boxfold, English, I see peoples who don’t like America. I guess they never hearded of my Dad, who is like cool and good and all that. I really miss America and stuff especially the news and MTV who liked me Dad.
Thank you and the end.
It's insulting isn't it?
With the Clintons, every story is always a work in progress. Evolving, all that.
Remember what somebody on here said: they want to be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral.
The Onion would have rejected such sloppy writing.
Oh sure, that's what most of us were thinking as we watched the towers collapse.
Let's face it...it was 9:00 AM none of the Clinton's knew where any of them bedded down for the night, consequently there is bound to be some confusion.
OR Perhaps there is more than one Clinton bin Lyin.
You said it! I couldn't remember who did!
Maybe she should cut back on the phone calls home to mom and dad.
This statement proves she's her parents' daughter.
Wonder if the 'demon seed' received any anti-Clinton sentiments from Ellen Wellstone???
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.