Question for the folks.... re: 9/11

[CarolinaGal]

Warning: This may be a downer as it references 9/11, please do not read if you are in the mood for light-hearted instead


Do you still find yourself seriously thinking about, if not reliving, some of the anxiety from 9/11? I don't mean all of the time - it's just that sometimes here lately, I keep finding myself surprised by reminders. And not real pleasantly surprised. Watching movies or television with the Towers in the distance, that stupid Enya song, someone's ratty old flag still hanging on out of a car window - and then wham! I feel that same gut-wrenching cold knot and have to again try and rationally accept what happened.

Gawd help us, I know I am being morbid - sorry. I just realized earlier today that I had not thought about 9/11 for the ENTIRE day, and Enya played on the radio, and its back again.

I was so fortunate in that I did not lose anyone close in NY, even though I work with several people in the towers and WTC 7. In Washington, I only lost one close high school friend. So I don't have a compelling personal reason to be so stressed. How do you folks from the area, especially those in the middle of it, deal?

Just curious - it's a late night and I am feeling contemplative.

[Ladogaboy]

Originally posted by CarolinaGal
Do you still find yourself seriously thinking about, if not reliving, some of the anxiety from 9/11?

Nope. Not at all.

[OC]

Yes. I have a picture I took of the WTC during a business trip to NYC back in 99. It's beautiful. I spent a week near NYC last July, and one of my day trips took my to the WTC. I can still see it, towering above me. I look at the picture and I remember.

In the complex below the WTC, there were subway tunnels and a shopping mall of sorts. I bought a coffee cup there, that has a map of the NYC subway system on it. I look at my cup and I remember.

Yes, I'll be the first to admit that I have issues. I've been to NYC several times now, and I've fallen in love with the place. Part of me needs to see the empty place that was the World Trade Center.

I keep these things as a reminder. I keep these things as a lesson. The world is not a nice place, and it foolish to think otherwise.

I know there are those that want to kill me, simply because of the life I am allowed to live. I do not understand this, but I accept it. And when you get right down to it, I do not want to change those that want to kill me. I simply hope that our armed forces get to them before they can get to me.

I do not live in fear. This is what they want, and I will not give it to them.

-OC

[sbp]

Living in the DC area it was unnerving hearing planes after 9/11 for a couple months.

I contemplate about 9/11 every now and then. Hearing about new threats like the July 4 threat lets everyone know it ain't over.

[NuTs62]

Originally posted by sbp
Hearing about new threats like the July 4 threat lets everyone know it ain't over.

but then again.. will it ever be?

[Memo]

Whenever I hear loud planes I do think about it, but not like in a seirous way, I just think you know that COULD be a terrorist or something. I guess it's just in our heads more. I don't think about it on a day to day basis. However, whenever I do see the footage from the planes smashing into the towers, rage surges through my veins. I get mad, I can't explain it since I'm not an emotional person. But I am an x-New Yorker and an American

[MJordanash]

9/11 is something everyone will always think about, but most from what I hear have dealt with it to move on and not forget, but not let what happened pull us down. I have my best friend which works in New York around and in the World Trade Center, and he was their when it all took place. With the lines of communication down, we werent able to find out where he was for several days. I guess even if people didnt directly lose someone they knew, it was still an attack on our country, so it does affect people in all different ways. I dont think its wrong to have specific days be harder than others, thats just normal grieving. I still go through it from time to time. I spent a week out in New York working with the firefighters and police officers down at Ground Zero and that in itself was extremely hard to deal with.

[topane]

I think about it occasionally. We're always reminded of it at my office because some people we used to deal with worked at the WTC and they're gone.

[oblongmelon]

I think about it all the time..and just yesterday at work we were talking about it-because two of the people killed went to school in this area as kids..and I work with one of their friends. I guess after the one guys funeral (which had no body),they got a call that the body had been found (the same day)..it's very depressing.

[whitak24]

i guess for me, it's kind of passed.

i know that sounds bad, but i guess it did't have that much direct impact on my life (i've never been lucky enough to visit new york, although i really want to) to really "scar" me emotionally.

i mean, i sometimes i think about what happened and it's sad, and the larger effects (like the increased airline safety and threats to freedom) are still with us, but on an emotional level, it doesn't really register with me anymore.

[Kenas]

Think about it all the time. I don't about other states but in NY you can still see a lot of flags.
On the my subway station where I always take a train, we used to have a good view of the towers, but even 8 months later I can't get used to the new view. Every time I am around my school (located a few hundred feet away from WTC) I am reminded about it - no view and lots of sad tourists. Every time I cross any bridge it reminds me of that day when I had to cross the Manhattan Bridge to evacuate, and where I saw the second tower go down.

[chrissy]

The enya song and the JoDee Messina song, "bring on the rain", both remind me. Living on a military base reminds me. We are still under med/high security. But then again, I remember there are other places in the world that experience 9/11 to a smaller degree everyday. It was horrible what happened. We were wrong/arrogant (sp) to believe it would never happen to us. I don't think we ever pictured it happening that way, , even now looking back.

Audie and Mikey ask every once in a while if the bad guys have been caught yet. It's hard to explain, even still, that we don't know if he is dead or not.

[welfareloser]

loud planes still freak me out... but i had that problem before 9/11 due to a near-death experience...

i was looking at evilbigmouth's portfolio of architectural drawings and photos the other day... she has some gorgeous b&w's of the wtc taken about a month before it went down. little things like that kinda bring it home, and sometimes i wonder how bad it's gonna get since it ain't over yet, but i rarely think about it.

[cruelpupet]

Maybe im just an *******...maybe im just desensitized...maybe im cold and heartless

but it doesnt really affect me. granted i was worried about certain memebrs of my family ex. dad works in the building next door to wtc

i never cried over the wtc...i dont get that feeling in my stomach, like one of you described.


and seeing it didnt really affect me either

the only thing it affected was my sense of direction in downtown

[ufcrusher]

Well personally I still cant come to grasp with the fact that the twin towers are gone. It may have something to do with the fact that they had always been there and I havent seen ground zero with my own eyes.

No I am not saying it didnt happen, nor that I havent accepted it, just that I still get a tear in my eye every time I see a picture of the towers or think of them. I guess it kind of has to do with the fact that I havent been back east since it happened. I havent even flown since then, which is a LONG lag for me.

I actually just spoke with my father who is NYC today. It was his first time that he has been there since the attack. I asked him what it was like and he said it was just disturbing. Coming in from Philly on the train he said that there is just this huge gap in the sky line and it just was wrong.

On the same note, I had to drop my Fiance off at the airport for a buisness trip on Tuesday. We went to the airport and both of us were kind of anxious with going inside the airport. Well I will have to come out of my anxiety by next Thursday because I have to fly to NC.

One final thing, I have had the extreme displeasure of having to switch two bedrooms in my house. SO I am going through my headboard and come across an old penant. I look at it and shake my head, it says Empire States Building, Tallest building in the World and has the height. (As you can see, its an OLD OLD penant) For some reason it just struck me as odd, because when it was given to me, the World Trade Center had already taken the title from it, so I never thought about that statement. (Yes, I do realize that it is no longer the tallest building in the world, but I guess it was the fact that it triggered the thoughts that I had when I first got it which made it seem odd.)

[Nija]

I never cared. only way it affects me is the stoopid laws they passed afterwards.

[hapoo]

Originally posted by cpugeek04

my own thought is that we should have nuked afganistan. **** the innocents, we lost our own innocents. jsut because we are afraid of what the rest of the world will think, we are giving the people who did all of this more time to live, spread their belifs, give them publicity, and more time to commit terror.

I'm sure those are the exact words the terrorists were thinking when they decided to do what they did. Think about it.

[ArkiStan]

As somebody spending their days in the military, I really can't help but to constantly think and worry about this stuff all the time.

[whitak24]

Originally posted by ArkiStan
As somebody spending their days in the military, I really can't help but to constantly think and worry about this stuff all the time.

ARKISTAN IS BACK!!!!!

wb, man! how's it going? military life treating you ok?

[donchristo]

It is weird driving around down there... (In NJ and Rockland County)

I don't know where the city ends anymore... (Coming down Rt 4 or 17)

As for using Nukes... They are going to hurt us as well...

I have no problem with dropping DaisyCutters like they are going out of style...

Carpet Bombing wouldn't be a bad thing if we aim the bombs properly...

[DankNstickY]

When that happened... I got pissed. really pissed. I wanted to join the marines soooo bad. I still kinda do, but not as much as I did right after 9-11. I really wanted to get out there and kick some ass. Watching it on TV, i couldnt really absorb it. I just watched the video being played back over and over. It wasn't that big a shock; I didn't really get all sad or anything, but it was more an angry feeling. Watching the people run through the streets, covered in ash, confused, scared. I couldn't really think of a good reason why terrorists would want to do that to people. I just wanted to give a good ass kicking.

I felt like that for a while, but now I've calmed down. I don't really think about it anymore. Hardly ever. My boss at work has a poster of New York, and it has the towers in it. I look at it, but i dont even notice the towers, or think anything about it. It was just a phase I guess. But it still sucked, and I still wanna kick some ass.

[Booyamos]

I can still remember the day it happened. I live in Boston and I have a great view of Downtown boston, but from my angle the planes that are going into Logan appear to fly right into the buildings... That scared the S**t out of me on 9/11, after I was watching it on the news and then saw all these planes flying right towards the city.

But I think about it sometimes, I did not know anyone that was directly affected by the towers, but just seeing the planes everyday going towards the Tall buildings in Boston makes you think about it sometimes.


I think that the real scary thing is the threat of a nuclear attack. The fact still remains that many people hate the United States and what we stand for. Guess this is as close to a huge war as my generation has been.

[molecularfire]

I was worried like heck the day that it happened b/c my GF was in New York at the time. However, by that night, I'd gotten a call through to her and she was fine so sadly enough, at that stage I really quit caring about 9/11. I know that people died, and that is a sad thing, but nobody I cared about died so I find it hard to care. I'm sorry if that sounds callous. I probably am callous, but that's my honest sentiment on it.