story10574.xml

story10574.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2004-04-30

Alan Jackson says in a song that he dedicated to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on America, ?where were you when the world stopped turnin' on that September day?? I remember it like it was yesterday. I was in Greensboro, North Carolina in study hall with my baseball coach at the time, when the world stopped turning on that tragic day. I got into his office around 8:30 to begin my homework for English class. He had a small television set in his office where he was watching his morning news on CNN.

Around 8:45 a.m., an American Airlines Flight 11 was hijacked and crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center. I remember the news showing repeatedly the massive airline plane crashing into the north tower. While they were showing that clip of the plane crashing into the north tower, around 9:03 a.m. another plane was hijacked and crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center. The news station shows the plane exploding, and fire erupting on the top floors of the Trade Center. I remember thinking, are we going to get out of school or baseball practice because of this tragic moment. When this happened, there was no way that I could do my homework for English. The outcome to this tragedy was innocent people lost their lives for being at the wrong place and the wrong time. I told my coach that I needed to go home because I could not think about doing my homework when something that tragic is happening to our society. One the way back to my dorm room I saw people in the halls crying because they knew someone that worked near the twin towers or they were related to an airline pilot. This really made my emotions flare up, making me really upset. I just wanted to drop out of college and join the military to get my revenge on those ?bastards? that where trying to bring our society down. They crumbled our spirits of a happy world. I got to my room around 9:28 a.m., just in time to hear President Bush speak about the apparent terrorist attack. I was glued to the television set waiting to hear more about the terrorist attack, and how many innocent people that had lost their lives. At 9:43 a.m., the news said that American Airlines Flight 77 had just crashed into the Pentagon, in Washington D.C. I was worried that the next place that would be hit was the gas tanks in Greensboro. The gas tanks that are located in Greensboro are the biggest on the east coast, holding the most oil. It could cause a huge explosion of the city if a plane had crashed into them. I was thinking to myself, if an airplane hit those huge gas tanks it would take out the whole city of Greensboro. At 10:05 a.m., the south tower of the World Trade Center finally collapsed, causing a cloud of dust and debris forms and drifts away from where the building used to stand. CNN news announced at 10:10 a.m. that United Airlines Flight 93 also was hijacked and ended up crashing in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. I did not think the attacks on America were ever going to end. I had in my mind that the world was coming to an end for the United States. It made me wonder how this could happen since we have top secret services and technology that are capable of detecting this before it happens. Around 10:28 the north tower of the World Trade Center collapsed letting off a cloud of debris and smoke. I did not know what to think when all this happened in such a short period of time.

Our school ended up closing for the day, but our evil baseball coach made us practice. I lost a lot of respect for him making us come and workout when something so tragic had just happened to our Nation. I was scared of what was going to happen later on that day to our society. When baseball practice was over at 6:00 pm, I went straight to my dorm room to see if anything else had happened. The news showed people that witnessed the tragic moment by video tape. I saw the plane hit from another point of view. Then when the towers started to come down it covered the city with smoke. I could see the man that was video taping it running away as fast as he could and the smoke making the daytime look like night. When the smoke cleared, all you could see was white dust on everything in New York City. I was really hurt that I could not do anything about it, in helping or preventing this tragic moment. I did not end up joining the military, but I did transfer school to get closer to Washington D.C. a year later.