email622.xml
Title
email622.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
email
Date Entered
2002-08-29
September 11 Email: Body
I still can't even begin to fathom yesterday....
As some of you know, I live practically within spitting distance of the Pentagon. I had a late start to my day Tuesday morning and was just getting out of bed when I turned on the news and saw the 2nd plane hit the WTC as it was happening. Since then I've been in some sort of parallel plane of reality. Doesn't seem real...
Anyway as I was about to head out the door to work, my entire apartment shook and I heard a thundering boom outside. I quickly flipped the T.V. on to find that the Pentagon was struck. Phones went down and I panicked. Thick clouds of smoke began to creep into the air outside. I figured my office was a safer place to be than my apartment since it's a bit farther away from D.C. and the Pentagon so I quickly jumped in the car and made my way to work. I walked into an office full of eyes glued to our T.V. As we sat there hearing our boss tell us to go home or wherever we deem a safe place, we saw tower #2 of the WTC crumble as it happened. Then the phones came back on and I received about a billion phone calls asking if I was ok. As I spoke to my mother I learned that my step cousin was in the Pentagon at the time of the crash, but luckily he was on the other side of the building and is fine....albeit a tad shaken.
A friend of mine has (had) a brother on the plane that was taken over by terrorists and crashed in Pennsylvania. He's been reduced to a sobbing pile of tears and flesh....
It's been a terrifying 24+ hours. It still doesn't seem real. I don't know why everyone is at work today. Nobody can think straight or concentrate for more than 5 seconds.
I think the only thing that scares me more than what happened yesterday is what the U.S. is going to do in retaliation.
-Ben
Corrine Russell <corruss@hotmail.com> wrote:
So, how are things holding up in your neck of the woods?
I think that I just need to write this out and send it into cyberspace, so
please bear with me.
Things are crazy here at JMU. Most classes were cancelled yesterday, and
all of them today (well, the one I've been to) are hour-long sessions on the
current "situation". So many people seem to refuse to call it what it was -
an Attack.
But anyway, I didn't know about it until about 10:05 yesterday. I went to
eat breakfast at one of our cafeterias, and as I was disposing of my tray I
saw about 10 people standing by the TV. I walked over in time to see that
the 1st tower had fallen. CNN was on for a bit more, went to commercial,
and then the 2nd tower fell.
I sat there in our little cafeteria lounge for 2 and a half hours fearing
that someone I knew and cared about would be in the next place hit. The
crowd remained stable at about 25 people, reactions ranging from mute
disbelief, to horror, to red-faced fist banging.
I went back to my dorm and continued my TV vigil with five others. I
didn't go to my "Peoples of Sub-Saharan Africa" lecture, but I was told that
the professor came in crying, said that she didn't want to be there, and
told everyone to disperse.
We all ventured out for dinner at the same time, and the students all kind
of walked around in a daze. Some would stop mid-stride and just look at the
ground; some seemed to not want to acknowledge that anything had changed
from the day before. Others talked of retribution. Most wished that the
towers could reappear and the Pentagon become whole by the time we woke up
the next morning.
Random people have asked me where I'm from. The pastry bar lady at
breakfast today did, and I told her Northern VA. I told her how my uncle
Randy had been doing construction around the Pentagon when the plane
crashed, how my dad heard it coming in and felt our apartment building
shake, and how my mom's family's company sent in cranes to help with the
rescue effort. She said that it was such a shame - so many students here
are from Northern VA, NY, or NJ. I said, "Yeah - and I know kids that lost
multiple friends in the tower collapses. This one guy down the hall from me
has an uncle that was in the 1st fire-fighting team to go into the towers.
They were called back but didn't come back quickly enough, so another team
was sent in to get them. The 1st team made it out before the collapse. The
2nd didn't."
We had a candle-light vigil last night - about 2,500 people showed up.
Students were invited to come up and speak, and I did. It was mostly about
how we - my generation - must bear the brunt of whatever is to come. How
we, and our peers, will be the ones fighting and dying in the most
amorphous, ambiguous, ugly war in at least modern history if it comes to
that, and how we must be the ones screaming for peace if there is to be any.
I said that the youth of America will be forced to grow-up quickly if this
escalates, and I hoped that in securing our freedom we don't lose our
country's soul. Today people that I don't know have come up to me and told
me what a great speech it was. I told them that I wish that I hadn't had to
make it.
Corri
-------------------
The more we learn, the more we are, or ought to be, dumbfounded.
-Lewis Thomas
As some of you know, I live practically within spitting distance of the Pentagon. I had a late start to my day Tuesday morning and was just getting out of bed when I turned on the news and saw the 2nd plane hit the WTC as it was happening. Since then I've been in some sort of parallel plane of reality. Doesn't seem real...
Anyway as I was about to head out the door to work, my entire apartment shook and I heard a thundering boom outside. I quickly flipped the T.V. on to find that the Pentagon was struck. Phones went down and I panicked. Thick clouds of smoke began to creep into the air outside. I figured my office was a safer place to be than my apartment since it's a bit farther away from D.C. and the Pentagon so I quickly jumped in the car and made my way to work. I walked into an office full of eyes glued to our T.V. As we sat there hearing our boss tell us to go home or wherever we deem a safe place, we saw tower #2 of the WTC crumble as it happened. Then the phones came back on and I received about a billion phone calls asking if I was ok. As I spoke to my mother I learned that my step cousin was in the Pentagon at the time of the crash, but luckily he was on the other side of the building and is fine....albeit a tad shaken.
A friend of mine has (had) a brother on the plane that was taken over by terrorists and crashed in Pennsylvania. He's been reduced to a sobbing pile of tears and flesh....
It's been a terrifying 24+ hours. It still doesn't seem real. I don't know why everyone is at work today. Nobody can think straight or concentrate for more than 5 seconds.
I think the only thing that scares me more than what happened yesterday is what the U.S. is going to do in retaliation.
-Ben
Corrine Russell <corruss@hotmail.com> wrote:
So, how are things holding up in your neck of the woods?
I think that I just need to write this out and send it into cyberspace, so
please bear with me.
Things are crazy here at JMU. Most classes were cancelled yesterday, and
all of them today (well, the one I've been to) are hour-long sessions on the
current "situation". So many people seem to refuse to call it what it was -
an Attack.
But anyway, I didn't know about it until about 10:05 yesterday. I went to
eat breakfast at one of our cafeterias, and as I was disposing of my tray I
saw about 10 people standing by the TV. I walked over in time to see that
the 1st tower had fallen. CNN was on for a bit more, went to commercial,
and then the 2nd tower fell.
I sat there in our little cafeteria lounge for 2 and a half hours fearing
that someone I knew and cared about would be in the next place hit. The
crowd remained stable at about 25 people, reactions ranging from mute
disbelief, to horror, to red-faced fist banging.
I went back to my dorm and continued my TV vigil with five others. I
didn't go to my "Peoples of Sub-Saharan Africa" lecture, but I was told that
the professor came in crying, said that she didn't want to be there, and
told everyone to disperse.
We all ventured out for dinner at the same time, and the students all kind
of walked around in a daze. Some would stop mid-stride and just look at the
ground; some seemed to not want to acknowledge that anything had changed
from the day before. Others talked of retribution. Most wished that the
towers could reappear and the Pentagon become whole by the time we woke up
the next morning.
Random people have asked me where I'm from. The pastry bar lady at
breakfast today did, and I told her Northern VA. I told her how my uncle
Randy had been doing construction around the Pentagon when the plane
crashed, how my dad heard it coming in and felt our apartment building
shake, and how my mom's family's company sent in cranes to help with the
rescue effort. She said that it was such a shame - so many students here
are from Northern VA, NY, or NJ. I said, "Yeah - and I know kids that lost
multiple friends in the tower collapses. This one guy down the hall from me
has an uncle that was in the 1st fire-fighting team to go into the towers.
They were called back but didn't come back quickly enough, so another team
was sent in to get them. The 1st team made it out before the collapse. The
2nd didn't."
We had a candle-light vigil last night - about 2,500 people showed up.
Students were invited to come up and speak, and I did. It was mostly about
how we - my generation - must bear the brunt of whatever is to come. How
we, and our peers, will be the ones fighting and dying in the most
amorphous, ambiguous, ugly war in at least modern history if it comes to
that, and how we must be the ones screaming for peace if there is to be any.
I said that the youth of America will be forced to grow-up quickly if this
escalates, and I hoped that in securing our freedom we don't lose our
country's soul. Today people that I don't know have come up to me and told
me what a great speech it was. I told them that I wish that I hadn't had to
make it.
Corri
-------------------
The more we learn, the more we are, or ought to be, dumbfounded.
-Lewis Thomas
September 11 Email: Date
Wed, 12 Sep 2001 07:40:27 -0700 (PDT)
September 11 Email: Subject
Re: Yesterday
Collection
Citation
“email622.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed September 28, 2024, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/39642.