9/11: The Twin Towers (BBC1)...

[MinionZombie]

Been watching most of this drama recreation/documentary programme on BBC1 with interviews of survivors telling the tales of themselves and the people they saw that day... It's messed up, I was just sitting here thinking about what I was doing/where I was that day (at school - Sixth Form - just got out of History class, for which the teacher was bizarrely late for and she didn't say why, I came out and one of the girls in my year said in a non-challant/disbelieving manner that a plane had hit the Twin Towers in New York ... and I just said "weird" and kinda scoffed, not understanding at all - I thought it was like when that plane went into the Empire State - although I thought she meant like a microlite or something - so obviously I got a bit of a shock when I got home and was saw a rerun of one of the towers collapsing as soon as I stepped into the living room). Anyway, at the time I couldn't believe it and didn't "get" it at all, I took it seriously, but I didn't feel anything emotionally about it. Obviously when some asshole in my art class joked quite seriously that 9/11 was a "good thing" because he didn't like Americans I was so disgusted I got up very clearly and sat on the other side of the room...but I guess in the disbelief, the whole "it's like a movie" vibe, or level of "it can't ACTUALLY be real, surely..." has kept me from really "getting" 9/11 ... Until more recently, when I watched the Naudet brothers film I was moved, but it was more shock/awe ... but now here we are 5 years later and watching this programme on BBC1 tonight has brought a big lump in my throat and has teared up my eyes ... and I'm the sort of person who cries on average once every one or two years, so I duno... I'm not sure what the point in this post is, but I thought I'd share this feeling/observation/random train of thought from this evening ... I've got no personal connection to 9/11 (like a family member or friend who was there, or being there myself), I'm like the majority, I saw it all on TV and have since only heard about it through interviews and documentaries, and yet it's brining me to the brink of tears...again, not sure of the point in my post, but I thought I'd share, being that it's that time of year again...

[Chakobsa]

I know what you mean. That film was powerful. I almost stopped watching when they showed footage of people that had fallen/jumped. Thing is though, to turn away or to change the channel is an act of bad faith. We owe it to those people who lost their lives to see and remember.

[Debbieangel]

I can't believe it has been 5 years since that horrible day changed everything we felt safe about...we walked around like of all the world we were the safest because we live in America!!! That changed it for me I am alittle more conscience of my surroundings all the time whereas before that day I walked around like things happening a world away didnt have anything to do we me personally...dont get me wrong...I feel for our troops that are overseas(my daughter was overseas in the Mideast for awhile). I just always figured they are always fighting somewhere in the MidEast so what does that have to do with me? Then 9/11 all those people killed/murdered! I tried to make sense of it all where no sense could be made of it! I cried I prayed and cried again and again and again. Who were these people soo horrible that they could do such a thing? I wondered why and how could they hate us so much to murder us? After 9/11 I never thought of America as I did before...I am more patriotic then before I have a greater respect for our Country now. I used to think of how bad our Country was...now I try to take the freedoms we have and cherish them...freedom of speech...freedom to worship however we want..etc....I also take each day and try to live it to the best of my ability and not take one moment for granted. I thought I had done that when I was paralyzed and the Doc's were saying to me I had multiple tumors or Multiple Sclerosis in '85 but, now I take it even more serious the days I have left on this Earth! I know I am sounding all wishy washy but, I cant help it 9/11 affected each of us in America our own way and this is how it affected me! Just think of the word FREEDOM its a beautiful word! I try to live better cause if there would have been a twist of fate I could h ave been one of those killed who knows?....their poor families live their grief wishing everyday I am sure that their loved ones were still with them....thinking what they could have done different that would have changed their loved ones being there that day. I will forever be changed because of 9/11... I lost feeling totally safe in my surroundings that day. I now am aware of my surrounding at all times!!! All I can say and I h ope you understand what I was trying to say so i will leave it that....GOD BLESS AMERICA and our friends abroad!!!!

[zombie04]

9/11 changed a lot for me. I was born in late 1986 and grew up during the 1990s. I never had go through the Vietnam/Watergate era so the worse thing I remember happening before 9/11 was the Oklahoma City bombing and the USS Cole being bombed. There were other things, but those two were worse ones that I could recall. As for where I was, I was starting my first year of high school, I was at my locker and one of my friends told me about it (about 10 in the morning). When hearing about a plane hitting the WTC, I assumed they were talking about something small, nothing like a Boeing 757. Then I went to my next class and the news was on and that's when I found it was really serious. Both towers were still standing, I believe I started watching just a few moments before the second plane hit. It was a real hard reality check. I think a lot of us believed that America was invincible on its homeland and nothing this terrible could ever happen. I didn't cry at all during the entire day, but I had this really bad feeling like I was sick and about to cry but couldn't do anyting. In fact I have that feeling right now because I just watched the first Daily Show they had since 9/11 and Jon Stewart's words just really brought back those feelings I had then. I'm sure all of us would just rather go back and live like nothing happened, that our own personal lives were the most important things in the world to us and it didn't really matter what happened in the world as long as our lives were going well. I think I'll leave it at that because I really don't know what to say and I just wrote a paper in the last 3 hours that's due tomorrow, so I just feel exhausted.

[Chakobsa]

I remember something my good lady said to me as we watched the news that night, she said something like "Think of all the people who went out the door that day, never to return, maybe after arguing with the missus or yelling at the kids and never being able to tell them that the small stuff really does not matter and that they are loved". Every day you put your nose outside your door might be your last, always let the ones you say goodbye to know you love them. That's one of the lessons I took from that day.