story9021.xml
Title
story9021.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2003-02-03
911DA Story: Story
I was driving to the printing plant early that morning. I had the radio off and was pondering to myself just what would be the next "big event" in history. What would be the next "Where were you when" that is talked about years later. The JFK assassination, the Challenger disaster. etc.
<br>
When I arrived at work, a co-worker was watching the TV set in the breakroom and told me that a jetliner had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. I dashed to the phone and called my parents in twon, telling them to get up and turn on the TV.
<br>
As a child growing up in the New York Area, I clearly remember watching the twin towers being built. How they slowly crept up the skyline to dominate the view. How they became such a strong symbol for New York City. Like a symbol in an Ayn Rand novel, as if Manhattan had sprouted arms and was shaking it's fists at the sky.
<br>
I refilled the supplies in the bathrooms and returned to the breakroom to make the coffee, when my fellow employee told me another jetliner had hit the second tower. I felt sick to my stomach. This was claerly a terrorist act. We were at war.
<br>
As the other employees filed in to work, we all seemed to be in a daze, with everything happening in slow motion.
<br>
Finally, the news that the towers were falling. We dashed enmasse to the breakroom and watched the footage of the towers crumbling into dust. First one, then the other.
<br>
I don't remember doing so, but a co-worker told me later that I was pounding my fist into the arm of a chair in that room.
<br>
We got very little work done that day. I listened to the news reports on my Walkman, as the music stations interrupted their programming for live news and interviews. The Mexican workers had their radios tuned to Spanish stations, but instead of the lively, peppy music, they played somber-toned announcers and music on acoutsic guitars, sung by solo vocalists. One of the Mexicans told me they were hymns and songs of mourning.
<br>
After work, I sat at my computer and sent e-mail to friends in the NYC area. All were fine. A friend from Beruit sent me an e-mail saying that there was no excuse for this upon anyone, and that the best thing we as Americans could do would be to get back to our regular routines once again.
<br>
I went to bed that night, feeling as if I had been through two days worth of events.
<br>
The following days saw the world mouring with the USA. All over the world, there was an outpouring of grief and support for us. I also saw a rush of American flags everywhere.
<br>
I also noticed that people began to act responcibly and curtiously towards each other. As if people began to care.
<br>
Several miles away, on the Las Vegas Strip, the area near the firefighter tugboat in front of the Statue of Liberty replica at the New York New York casino had been turned into an impromptu shrine for the fallen firefighters. To this day, there is a steady supply of t-shirts from fire depatrments from all over the world, strewn along the fence.
<br>
That was then, this is now. We are hated once again for taking a beligerant attitude towards Iraq, acting alone if need be. Many wondering aloud if this upcoming war is nothing more than a front to increase our access to cheap oil.
<br>
On 11 September 2001, a new world did not begin.
<br>
We simply discovered that there was a veryhostile world outside of our borders, and that there was nothing that could change it, nor could we ignore it.
<br>
Still, there are those who bury their heads in conspiracy theories, blaming others, often illusionary cartels of shadowy figures, for America's ills.
<br>
We were given a monumental wake up call...and we simply rolled over and hit the "Snooze" button.
<br>
When I arrived at work, a co-worker was watching the TV set in the breakroom and told me that a jetliner had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. I dashed to the phone and called my parents in twon, telling them to get up and turn on the TV.
<br>
As a child growing up in the New York Area, I clearly remember watching the twin towers being built. How they slowly crept up the skyline to dominate the view. How they became such a strong symbol for New York City. Like a symbol in an Ayn Rand novel, as if Manhattan had sprouted arms and was shaking it's fists at the sky.
<br>
I refilled the supplies in the bathrooms and returned to the breakroom to make the coffee, when my fellow employee told me another jetliner had hit the second tower. I felt sick to my stomach. This was claerly a terrorist act. We were at war.
<br>
As the other employees filed in to work, we all seemed to be in a daze, with everything happening in slow motion.
<br>
Finally, the news that the towers were falling. We dashed enmasse to the breakroom and watched the footage of the towers crumbling into dust. First one, then the other.
<br>
I don't remember doing so, but a co-worker told me later that I was pounding my fist into the arm of a chair in that room.
<br>
We got very little work done that day. I listened to the news reports on my Walkman, as the music stations interrupted their programming for live news and interviews. The Mexican workers had their radios tuned to Spanish stations, but instead of the lively, peppy music, they played somber-toned announcers and music on acoutsic guitars, sung by solo vocalists. One of the Mexicans told me they were hymns and songs of mourning.
<br>
After work, I sat at my computer and sent e-mail to friends in the NYC area. All were fine. A friend from Beruit sent me an e-mail saying that there was no excuse for this upon anyone, and that the best thing we as Americans could do would be to get back to our regular routines once again.
<br>
I went to bed that night, feeling as if I had been through two days worth of events.
<br>
The following days saw the world mouring with the USA. All over the world, there was an outpouring of grief and support for us. I also saw a rush of American flags everywhere.
<br>
I also noticed that people began to act responcibly and curtiously towards each other. As if people began to care.
<br>
Several miles away, on the Las Vegas Strip, the area near the firefighter tugboat in front of the Statue of Liberty replica at the New York New York casino had been turned into an impromptu shrine for the fallen firefighters. To this day, there is a steady supply of t-shirts from fire depatrments from all over the world, strewn along the fence.
<br>
That was then, this is now. We are hated once again for taking a beligerant attitude towards Iraq, acting alone if need be. Many wondering aloud if this upcoming war is nothing more than a front to increase our access to cheap oil.
<br>
On 11 September 2001, a new world did not begin.
<br>
We simply discovered that there was a veryhostile world outside of our borders, and that there was nothing that could change it, nor could we ignore it.
<br>
Still, there are those who bury their heads in conspiracy theories, blaming others, often illusionary cartels of shadowy figures, for America's ills.
<br>
We were given a monumental wake up call...and we simply rolled over and hit the "Snooze" button.
Collection
Citation
“story9021.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed December 29, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/12617.