story6053.xml

story6053.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-12

It was another mundane day...I went to work...I worked in small office, a Dot.com company failing but struggling not to fail. There were five of us: Dom, Tony, Mary, Vlad and me (Karen); we had just moved into this location from Springfield, NJ to save money on rent...little did we know. Anyway, Dom and I proceeded to get into some argument; usually I am pretty even tempered and seldom get into arguments, but today, just felt edgy. We had a radio, but Dom took a phone call and he said that he was just told by the other person that the WTC was hit by a plane...we turned on the radio...it was upsetting...none of us could concentrate on our work...then we heard that a second plane crashed into the South Tower; we knew, then, that this was not mere accident, but planned and intentional evil. I do not remember at what point we heard about Washington and Pennsylvania. Vlad, Mary, and I decided to search for a television and we found a bar (which was actually closed--but the owner let us in to watch TV) and we saw together the falling of the second tower. We went home, but since I had a second job in the afternoon, that office was less interested in our shared state of mind, so I had to work. Needless to say, the Dot.com, which did a lot of business by mail, quickly slid downhill, despite our efforts to keep it afloat. I will not forget that day, and I am still angry. And the other day on "60 Minutes" they were interviewing Muslim teenagers at a school in New York, who believed "paradise was a place where all your needs are taken care of, like you people who want to go to the Bahamas"; well, my idea of paradise is where people like them don't cause harm to others because we have different beliefs and lifestyles, where there is no pain and suffering. I've decided that while I still believe strongly in God, I have little use for religion, if this is what part of, or a least part of, what causes these kinds of travesties to happen.