Its been 12 years.......

[alee]

Yup its been that long, time does fly fast. But on a serious note I just wanted to ask fellow Americans that how was it like back then, I mean how did you react to it, yes we know that the whole nation was fumed and frustrated at the loss alongside the rest of the world. Were U or yr family affected (God Forbid) and has it changed yr life, yes it has changed ours but for an American, now with new project coming up (ahem ahem) where is this whole thing going? No offence whatsoever guys and girls but just being curious that's all

[kc1895]

Thankfully, it did not directly effect me or my family's lives. I remember it being very depressing for months afterwards when the news would constantly replay the images and people running from the attacks. I was still a teen in school and didn't realize there was so much hatred in the world towards Americans. What made me really sad were the hundreds of firefighters who died running up into a death trap to try and save lives. It also had me on guard for a while because I thought there would be many more attacks in the future. Fortunately, it has been much safer. Thanks for asking

[VickieKitties]

I never cared in the first place. Even seeing the people jump from the burning building to their death, I had no feelings about it at all.

[Chantellabella]

My daughter was only 19 and she just had a baby. She married an Army soldier and they had just moved back to the city where the base is. My daughter called me and was in hysterics because they locked down the base and her husband would not be able to come home. She was terrified for her baby and herself. I left the school where I worked and drove 3 hours to get to her. Then I drove them back to my home and held her as she cried for hours. Her newborn baby cried. And I cried. I cried because I didn't understand how the world kept disappointing me. I wanted hope. My hope was crushed for awhile. But I saw how people bounced back. We all do. Humanity is flawed. I'm glad that one day we will be done with this world and move on to peace finally. When God is ready to end our suffering. When he says it's time. Whenever we are finished with this part of his plan. Life hurts. Because we are flawed. I get that.

[Inscrutable Banana]

I didn't share in the collective outrage and despair for various reasons, from what I can remember my reaction was something along the lines of "Wow, that's a really bad day for those people," and then I probably resumed playing video games as a way to distract myself from my own problems, ~2,000 miles away from any collapsing skyscrapers. It's not that I didn't care, necessarily; it was a highly unfortunate event that had consequences which have reached beyond the incident itself. I would have preferred that it didn't happen for the sake of all the people who died in a tragic manner and for everyone else in the country who has had to deal with the political bullshit that has followed. Ultimately, though, bad [BEEP] happens and once it has happened you can't turn back time—the best that people can do is try to come to terms it and push on toward a hopefully brighter future. Nothing can be done for the dead outside of attempts at honoring (or dishonoring, depending on the person in question) their memory, and life goes on for those who remain.

As a side note, I find the way the media and others profited off the incident more tragic than the incident itself in some ways.

[merc]

The whole situation was terrible from what I remember. I was home. I just got yelled at by the next door neighbor for calling the police to report a disturbance at her home. {long story} I called my Mom and she is yelling at me to turn on the tv. I did and I watched until the tower came down and I saw Peter Jennings crying on air and I said I can take this. My daughter who was 3 knew I was upset. My mother-in-law called in a panic because the plane over Pa. It crashed near where my father in law was working. The rumor mill out in central Pa was working over time. She heard all sorts of stuff and kept calling me with updates and yelling at me for taking my daughter to pre-school. She thought there was going to be an invasion. With terrorists parachuting into rural Pa. Then the phone lines went dead, I couldn't reach my husband.

When he finally got through, he was yeah yeah, crazy people overreacting. Later when he watched it on tv he was more understanding. He takes one or two business trips a year. Usually out of Philly, occasionally our of JFK. I always think of this event when he goes.

The east coast really reacted, within a day, the National Guard set up anti-aircraft guns at the local nuclear plant with soldiers posted there.

I only know one person who was on her way to work in NYC , she had to walk through the World Trade Center complex on her way to her office. She said the train she was on kept stopping and she got off an earlier stop than usual when saw this massive wall of people running at her. She said she had no idea what was going on, but she kicked off her heels and ran. She heard someone say that there was a bomb. It had to be bad if New Yorkers were running. All the trains where shut down. She stopped at a dollar store bought cheap sneaks and walked 20 miles through gridlock home. By that point she saw some of the televised news reports and figured there was no point in going to work that day.

On the other hand my cousin who is a dance instructor in Brooklyn had the day off and slept most of the day away and didn't hear about it until 3 p.m. She was one of the least concerned people about this event.

All aircraft were grounded, I live under a flight path for the major east coast flights, about every ten minutes one goes overhead. It was so quiet. Then a helicopter went over. It was strange.