story3491.xml

story3491.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I was getting ready to go to work, and my husband was still asleep in bed when the phone rang. I heard him say "oh my god, oh my god, Michele, turn on the tv, there's been a plane crash."

Normally we don't listen to television or the radio in the morning, so we had no idea what was going on. Before I could turn on the television, the only thought was that my mom was flying that day for business, and that her plane had crashed. I know I said "oh god, I hope my mom is okay," and my husband said "that was your mother."

At that point in time I was so relieved, and very confused. I couldn't imagine why I would care that there had been a plane crash. While any plane crash is tragic, unless you have a personal connection to someone on the plane, or related the crash, it's hard to get that concerned.

As I turned on the television, I was so utterly amazed at the news coverage. The second tower of the World Trade Center had just been hit, and the image on the television just kept playing over, and over again. It was inconceivable that this was not an accident.

Almost as soon as it started to sink in that this was intentional, another plane crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, DC.

I have never felt the shock and horror that I was beginning to feel after watching the images on TV.

When the fourth plane crashed on the ground, I really began to wonder when it was going to stop. It just seemed to keep going on, and on, and on. I wondered how many other planes were going to crash that day. It seemed like there were many rumors being spread by the news media, and that potentially there were many planes in the air that could also be crashing that day.

I spend most of the rest of the day in bed, crying, and trying to keep my two small children calm and distracted. I really didn't want them to know yet what was going on, since they were only 2 or 3 1/2 at the time. We kept our older son home from preschool that day.

Over the next few days, the preschool received several bomb threats. It's a jewish school, and it seems that many anti-semites were using the terrorist attacks as an opportunity to express their hatred. It was terrifying to let my children leave my side.

As soon as the stock market opened up on September 17th, I bought United Airlines stock. I wanted to show my support of the airlines, and U.S. economy. This was my very first stock purchase.

Three weeks after September 11th, we got on an airplane to take a vacation to Florida. It was very hard during the first few minutes of the flight. I was utterly terrified that the plane was going to explode. Nothing happened, and it was an uneventful flight, but I still feel frightened when I get on a plane.

Today it's exactly one year later, and I don't think I will ever get the images of those planes crashing into the twin towers out of my head. I can play it over and over again. This is an unbelievably vivid memory for me.

Today I am angry that this happened. I am sad that so many innocent people died. I feel sorry for the families that lost someone during these attacks. I don't know that we will ever be the same.

At the same time, I now hate flying, because I feel like the security measures only harrass people, and don't really eliminate any threats. I have gotten into arguements with police and national guardsmen over not wanting to be touched by strangers at security checkpoints, having them scare my children at the airport, and I have had my possessions stolen while going through security at the airport.

I am frustrated that Osama Bin-Laden is still at large, still funding terrorist groups. I don't believe the U.S. government or the world governments are really doing anything to try and capture him, or to eliminate terrorism.

I also feel like this has been a great opportunity for the U.S. government to potentially take away some of our freedom. We are just beginning to see it at the airport. I think that more changes will come.

I don't like the world very much right now. I'm still scared.