WTC -- 6 Months Later

VoodooDali · Post by **VoodooDali** » Mon Mar 11, 2002 9:12 am

Good Morning All. I can see that all the news channels are going to talk about 9/11 all day. I'm cynical about the media and feel that the event has been too neatly packaged for consumer consumption. (Maybe because my dad was an ad man--I am too aware of advertising techniques.) I am sure I will hear more bad patriotic music, as well.

However, despite my own cynicism, I did feel tearful this morning. I thought I would relate 9/11 as it happened to me.

8:00ish: My husband and I get up to go to Manhattan for our daughter-in-law's sonogram. She is 6 months pregnant. This is one of the few nights that I don't fall asleep with the TV on.

8:45ish: My mother calls and says we should not to into the city because the WTC is on fire. We finally turn on the TV. When we see the fires in both towers, we grab our binoculars (we keep them handy being backyard astronomers) and run outside.

9:00ish: We have walked 2 blocks away to the clearest view of the towers. (I am in Jersey City and the Palisades run through here. We live at the top of a big hill/cliff and have always had an unobstructed view of the WTC.) A whole bunch of people are already gathered out there. A telephone company truck is parked on the side with the radio blasting so we can all hear the news. We hear breaking news that the Pentagon has been hit, and are starting to wonder just what is really going on. It's a gorgeous warm day with clear blue skies. We are watching the towers burn. My husband sees someone jump from the south tower. Finally the moment comes--I am looking at the South Tower through my binoculars and a lot of debris or something is hurtliing out of the levels that are on fire. All of the sudden those levels collapse and the whole thing starts to go down. I am yelling NO NO NO. My husband and I are both shaking. I remember talking to a woman next to me who was standing there with her toddler. I don't remember what we said.

I go across the street for a better view of the North Tower. I am praying at this point for it to remain standing. The levels that are on fire are a bright orange-red--like molten steel. I see someone jump from the North Tower. After a while, I start to see large chunks of debris shooting out the north side of the North Tower--explosions, and I'm really praying now that it doesn't collapse. Then it goes down.

I don't remember much then. I do remember that my husband and I decided to walk home, and cried all the way. For the next week, it brings tears again every time we go outside and see all the smoke. We can smell the smoke over here like burning plastic.

Afterwards, we watched a lot of it on TV like everyone else. I was really moved by the sympathy of people from other countries. I also felt really alienated from my own people for not feeling the hatred or anger it seemed I was supposed to feel.

Tonight we will go onto the roof of the building across the street to watch the lighting of those two lights. I don't know what to think about that. I do know that I am still heartbroken every time I look at the skyline and see the hole in it. It is now impossible for me to differentiate the Jersey City skyline from the Manhattan skyline.

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Mon Mar 11, 2002 9:31 am

The media did the exact thing they did with Diana and every other tradegy since i can remember; they trivialised it. I think that it is inevitable that this appaling act will go down in history differently to how it actually was, all due to the media's miss handling of events.

@VDali, a very sobering story.

Sailor Saturn · Post by **Sailor Saturn** » Mon Mar 11, 2002 9:42 am

Originally posted by Mr Sleep
The media did the exact thing they did with Diana and every other tradegy since i can remember; they trivialised it. I think that it is inevitable that this appaling act will go down in history differently to how it actually was, all due to the media's miss handling of events.

"History is written by the victors."

I don't remember where the quote originates...

Gruntboy · Post by **Gruntboy** » Mon Mar 11, 2002 9:44 am

Thanks VoodooDali. That was very brave of you.

I posted my story a little while ago. I happened to be visiting my brother in Hoboken in September.

I am wearing an American flag on my lapel today at work. Not many have noticed I'm afraid, there is lots of banal talk on the radio/TV etc.

KidD01 · Post by **KidD01** » Mon Mar 11, 2002 10:31 am

VoodooDoll, It's a touching story. Everyone still remember that day. I recall I've just came home after some project implementation work and see the horrifying scene on CNN. Iwas shocked since my online big sister lives in NY, thus emailed her and of wondering her safety - Luckily she replied after 2 weeks later

Aegis · Post by **Aegis** » Mon Mar 11, 2002 10:35 am

@VD: Your a brave one.

Last night, on CBC, or CBN or some station like that, they aired the first WTC ducmentery. It was filmed by two french men who were originally doing a story about a newbie fireman. What they got instead was a world disaster. It was quite stirring, and because it wasn't done by the media, it wasn't trivilized

Nippy · Post by **Nippy** » Mon Mar 11, 2002 11:31 am

I didn't post much during the tradgedy because although talking to people about things like this is good for you, I wanted to let people grieve.

I find it shameful that the media trivialises things like these. I watched what I consider to be the best news network for independancy, Sky News, and the clips taken from CNN and other news agencies made me feel a little sad. I know that people greieved but showing flashy visuals does not show the news. It's upsetting to think that some people made money from this...

I am truly thankful, however, that we have allies like America. Great Britain and the USA need each other, and will always be allies because of our ties in history for good and bad. I was joyful to see the united action by the world in the wake of the 11th and the war on terrorism.

Now I truly feel that we have United Nations...

Silur · Post by **Silur** » Mon Mar 11, 2002 4:50 pm

@VD: I can't even imagine how it would have felt to see it happen in real life. The television is a filter, sort of like peering through your fingers.

On the 11:th of September I was attending a meeting regarding airport security. At about 8.30 NYC time, Bin Laden's face was on the overhead projector. There is nothing unusual about that - when discussing the security of air travel, his name always comes up. It would still be about an hour until someone came and told us what was happening. I didn't think much of it at that time.

When someone finally did interrupt the meeting and told us, and Bin Laden turned out to be a suspect I thought back to that moment. It is not often one gets to analyze the difference between theoretizicing over a percieved threat and the reality of after the fact knowledge with so short a time in between. Nothing we had imagined even came close - and we even thought we'd imagined some pretty bad stuff.

The next day, airport security was a completely different issue, of course.

I remember watching the news incessantly for weeks afterwards, trying to grasp the reality of it. The news at that time were behaving better than usual at least (I watched mainly BBC and CNN).

Since then, the media has pretty much been it's normal self. Today, however, I only saw a few minutes from the ceremony and I agree with Sleep that it was very similar to the coverage of the Princess Di tragedy. Couldn't stand the stuff.

VoodooDali · Post by **VoodooDali** » Mon Mar 11, 2002 7:20 pm

@Sleep and Silur: I've found the BBC or McNeil-Lehrer to be the only news programs I can stand.

We went on the roof and watched the lights get turned on. I'm sorry to say I was underwhelmed. I guess it's just not much of a replacement. I have to withhold some judgement though until I see them up close. (I'm 5 miles away)