Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Library of Congress Stories Description An account of the resource A collection of more than 200 user-submitted stories gathered from the Library of Congress's "Witness and Response" exhibition staged in 2002. LC Story LC Story: Story Where were you on September 11, 2001 when you heard the news? (Please share your experience of learning of the events and what you did afterwards.) I was sitting in class at the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. I normally worked in the Pentagon as a civilian employee for the Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, but was on a one-year training assignment and had been up in Carlisle for about a month. Someone ran into the classroom and told us to turn on the television, which we did. It was just in time to watch the live broadcast of the second plane flying into the World Trade Center. As we watched in horror, each of us in the classroom immediately knew that this was terrorism and that it would have a huge impact on our lives as Americans and as members of the Army. I felt absolutely sick inside. We watched TV for a while, and then class was dismissed for the day and I went home to continue watching the television coverage. LC Story: Memory What is your strongest memory of that day? As I was watching the coverage of the plane crashing into the Pentagon, they showed a diagram of the Pentagon and where the plane had hit. Two weeks before I left for school, my agency had moved from one side of the Pentagon to the newly renovated section. With a very sick feeling, I realized that the plane had hit directly into our new area. What had happened to all my friends and co-workers? I frantically started calling people at home, but all the lines to the Washington, DC area were busy. I finally got a hold of someone around midnight, and she started naming the names of the missing. All in all, 26 of my co-workers were killed and many more injured. These were people I saw and worked with every day. They were mothers, fathers, friends, sisters, brothers, and children, all lost while serving our country. I will never forget that gut-wrenching feeling when I realized it was my area that had been hit and the guilt I felt that my friends and co-workers were there and I wasn't. LC Story: Affects How do you perceive that the events of September 11, 2001 have affected this country and/or you personally? September 11th showed America that even though we have it pretty good in this country, not all is well with the rest of the world and there are a lot of people who hate America and would like to see us destroyed. We are vulnerable and not as invincible as we would like to think. We are spending huge amounts of money trying to make the country safe again, and it will never be as long as people hate us enough to become human bombs. Poverty is the world's greatest weapon of mass destruction. If the United States put more money and effort into improving the lives of people who have no hope, maybe the world wouldn't be so resentful of our affluence. We have enough to spread around. No, we did not deserve what happened on September 11th, but I wish it should make us more humble instead of more arrogant. As for me personally, I am much more aware of my own mortality. I don't work as hard or as long hours as I used to. I want to enjoy life, my friends, and my family as much as possible, because who knows what tomorrow will bring? I have made a conscious effort to volunteer my time to help out the elderly and others who need help. If we would all help each other out a little bit, it would make the world a lot better place. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource lc_story180.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. anonymously Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2003-12-31 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 198.26.126.13