story8593.xml

story8593.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-10-28

On September 11, 2001, I was in Sioux Center, Iowa, experiencing my sophomore year of college. My home is actually Worthington, Minnesota. My first class on Tuesdays was at 1:35 pm (2:35pm ET). I woke up at about 12:30 pm (1:30 pm ET) or so. I didn't turn on a TV or anything and had NO IDEA what had happened earlier that day. As I walked to class, I saw several students gathered around the flag pole praying. The flag was at half-mast. I figured someone important had probably died or it was a rememberance day that I wasn't aware of. Didn't think much more of it. I continued on into class like nothing was wrong. My professor began class with mentioning something about "a dark day in our nation's history." I leaned over to the guy next to me and asked him what the professor was talking about. The guy laughed at me and said I was dumb for not knowing. In fact, no one around me would tell me what was going on. So I actually just raised my hand and asked! It was shocking to hear that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. But that's all I was told at that point. It wasn't until later that night that I and everyone else in the Midwest actually learned exactly what had happened. Between teaching and attending classes all day, no one in the classroom had caught on to the fact that a plane hittng the World Trade Center wasn't the whole story. In fact both towers had been leveled, another plane had crashed into the Pentagon, a fourth plane had crashed in Pennsylvania, the Whitehouse, United Nations building, and the Capitol building had all been evacuated, the Navy had dispatched three aircraft carriers to defend the East Coast, F-16's were circling over New York and Washington, all air traffic had been grounded, and approximately 3,000 people had been killed in America.
Things like that are hard to imagine in Minnesota. Things like that don't happen here. Nine years ago, New Yorkers experienced the first bombing of the World Trade Center. Minnesota and the surrounding areas are not targets for this kind of thing therefore we've never seen or experienced such things (they're probably left out because there are more people in New York City alone than in all of Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska combined!).
I didn't know anyone on a plane that day. I have never been to New York. I don't know anyone there. Until now that is. Since that disaster I've been reading about the people that died, where they were from, the job that they had, and other things about them. The only thing that was different about them from myself was that they happened to have a job in one of the tallest buildings in the world in one of the biggest cities in the world.
Like I said, on Sept. 11, I didn't know anyone in New York. After that date, I feel like I know the people that died. It's strange to feel such grief for people that you've never met.
I guess in closing my story, I just want to express condolances to the people of New York, Washington, Pennsylvania, but also to those in Oklahoma City and everywhere else, including Afghanastan, Iraq, and anyone else whose lives have been ended unjustly by those who would put their false ideals above innocent lives. I believe the President was right when he said that they will go all the way to "history's unmarked grave of discarded lies."
The attacks did not happen here, but in a sense they did. Just as the NATO charter says, "An attack on one, is an attack on all," so is an attack on one state an attack on them all.