story4123.xml

story4123.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

When I first heard, I was at work. Our agency attorney had come into my office area and stated that a plan had hit the World Trade Center in New York. I immediately followed him to the conference room where a TV was showing the fire and smoke from the impact. A second plane then hit, and we were in shock. I knew I had to try to do some work and went back to my office. I had to pass the conference room and stepped in to see what was being said about how this happened and they were reporting about the plan hitting the Pentagon. At that moment, I felt such dread and horror. I ran down to our office to tell a fellow worker a about the Pentagon and we both returned to the conference room. We stood there in shock and disbelief. How could this have happened? How could there be people on this earth that could actually do something like this? It was totally incomprehensible. We went back to our office and tried to listen to what was happening on the radio; but it was too distracting. We requested that TV on so that we could see, as well as hear. It seemed to be less distracting. I was glancing at the TV across the room when it started to collapse. It was unbelievable. Everywhere I went in our agency, TV's had been set up and other workers were listening to all that was going on in New York and Washington D.C. There were expressions of shock and dismay on all the faces I saw throughout the day; and I could not tear myself away from the TV as it reported on the attacks.

I can only imagine the grief, anger and other emotions being felt by the people that had family and/or friends in the buildings that had been hit. I felt guilty being relieved that I had not known someone and was not personally involved. But my sorrow was not lessened by those people.

I am proud of my country and the way my fellow Americans have acted in the face of this tragedy. I am very proud of our President and the heartfelt words he spoke. I wish for Peace and Understanding in the days to come.