lc_story140.xml

lc_story140.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-12-19

I was working in the mail room at an engineering company right next to Dulles Airport. Someone got an e-mail about it so we turned on the radio. Then the hooked up some rabbit ears to the conference room tv. Everyone watched silently as they saw the towers being hit. Then we heard word of the pentagon being hit. It felt like the whole country was being attacked and we didn't know who was attacking us. It seemed like there were planes falling every were and we didn't know where the next one would hit. Before long the whole office was in a panic because the pentagon renovation was one of our jobs and we had two techs that were supost to be out there. The radios were all tied up. No one could get a hold of anyone. For many hours we didn't know what happened to them. I don't remember how we got in contact with them, but be were so glad they were safe. One had stopped to get something to eat and had just missed being there and the other had gotten stuck in traffic.

Then two of our engineers got ready to go out to the pentagon for the rescue effort. For the next two weeks one of them was helping with the structural integrity of the pentagon to assist the rescuers. I felt very proud of them.

The sound of silence. When they were grounding all the air planes there came this weird silence. I was so usto hearing the planes from Dulles. I remember looking up into the sky thinking, or more trying to convince myself there really are no planes up there. They were a reality of everyday life that I took for granted.

I think it has changed the way we, as a county think, a little for the better and maybe more for the worse. In our fear we are willing to forfit our rights to be safer, or to atleast think that we are safer. I think we may lose many of the freedoms that make this county great in the name of homeland security. I feel more consern and fear of what our country might become because of it's fear, than the terrorists them selves. And if we let fear turn us on eachother and let our government get into our privite lives for the sake of security then the terroists have surely won.