lc_story171.xml

lc_story171.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-12-24

I took off a couple of hours to take my daughter to the MVA for her driver's test. She failed the test and I had a headache and started not to go to work. I took her home and then heard on the radio that a plane flew into the World Trade Center. I thought that I would later see it on the news. I decides to go to work and took the Metro to Capital South and I heard a loud explosion. Then I saw all of these people in the streets running and saying that another plane had crashed into the World Trade Center and another in Philadelphia. I work at the Library of Congress and I tried to go in the building to let my supervisor know that I had arrived. The LC Police would not let me in. So I walked around and saw all of my coworkers outside and they told me we had been dismissed. I had no money on me and the trains were horrible and the cellphones would not work. I remeber looking out the trains and saw the smoke from the pentagon. After I arrived home everyone was calling to make sure that I got home and I also called to check on other family members. After I got home and saw the news I was truly upset that someone deliberly did this and killed so many innocent people.

The non stop news coverage and how the country seemed united and all the flags on the cars, houses and the government buildings. How I was scared to go to work the next day and I called in and looked at TV all day.

That life is no longer normal. I grew up in the sixties and the only one we feared was Russia. I never thought that anyone would attack us on our own soil. Now when I go to work police are on every corner. I have to now go through metal detectors at work and they make me feel that I am a criminal. My daughter worked at the Brentwood Post Office with the anthrax and that was scary. Then the sniper murders and that scared me to death. So now I have a lot of anxiety and sometimes I don't want to go to large crowd gatherings or look at the news.