lc_story239.xml

lc_story239.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2004-01-11

A co-worker and I were excited to implement the new computer program at our church office. Most people who worked there didn't utilize a computer very well, and we were very excited to get everyone on board. A few minutes into our lesson, one of the leaders ran into the room screaming something about a plane and New York...We thought she went off her rocker! By the time we got to a television the second plane had hit, and we began to understand...We seemed to split into two groups. A few of us had husbands or wives that we knew were in DC or in other sensitive areas. We immediately tried to contact them - knee jerk reaction - of course we couldn't get ahold of anyone. The other group of the church went to action - they began making signs for open prayer, calling those we knew had military or DC families and offer to watch children, or pick kids up from school, the rest is a blurr.

My strongest memories are of the faces of the people around me. Fear, horror, sadness, disbelief the multitude of reaction to the events was, dare I say, intriguing? The variety of reactions, how many thoughts must we have encountered in our subconsciousness in just the first few minutes?

As most major events, I don't believe the impact of 9/11 is lasting long enough. The futher you are from the epicenter the easier it was to return to a normal routine. Yet as a child of the late seventies, the cold war for me was more of a myth, I never worried if a nuclear bomb was going to drop. But now, I take a second look at oddly parked cars, lonely packages, things I never would have noticed before 9/11.