Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource "September 11: Bearing Witness to History" Stories Submitted Online Description An account of the resource Visitors to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History's, "Bearing Witness to History" online exhibition submitted these reflections beginning in 2002. NMAH Story NMAH Story: Story How did you witness history on September 11th? Share your experience. I was late for work on September 11, 2001 because one of my children was sick and we weren't sure if he would be able to go to school. Just as I was about to leave the house to head for work, my mother-in-law called and told me to turn on the television. The second plane had already hit the WTC, and details were very sketchy. The general consensus was that it was a terrorist attack, but at that point nobody really knew what kind of planes were involved. I went on to work, and by the time I got there, all my co-workers were aware what had happened. The initial shock quickly escalated to fear as my thoughts at the time were something like, "If they would do something like this, is there anything they won't do?" At 1,300 miles away from Lower Manhatten, I believed that I was relatively safe in Fayetteville, Arkansas, but the fear was still very real as we listened to continuing reports and heard that other planes were involved. Knowing that any number of thousands of commercial airliners were still in the air, I couldn't help but worry that this was only the beginning of a broad series of hijackings that could ultimately result in the loss of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives. It was a very though day as we waited and waited to find out what would happen next. As bad as it turned out to be, I still felt that we had gotten off lucky. If the planes had hit the towers later in the day, thirty or forty stories lower, the losses could have been so much greater. And if the people on Flight 93 had not learned of the events of the day, would they have bravely rushed the hijackers, or would they have assumed like the passengers on the other three planes that they would have eventually been brought down with a minimum of loss? How tragic and how devastating would it have been for our country if that plane had made it to Washington? And how may of the cancelled flights that day were to have hijackers on board with more targets in west coast and midwest cities? Having lost no friends or relatives on September 11, I have to consider myself extremely lucky, but in my own way I joined millions of Americans in feeling the loss as though it had occurred in my own home town. On that day, as I do every day on my job, I spoke with several people in the New York City area, and the horror was evident in their voices. One man named Richie asked me, "Did you hear what they did to us?" My immediate answer to him was, "They did it to all of us, Richie. They did it to every one os us." NMAH Story: Life Changed Has your life changed because of September 11, 2001? If so, tell us how. My life has changes since September 11, 2001 in that I no longer feel complacent about safety in our country. I still believe that we are strong and have the ability to win the war on terrorism, but I no longer naively believe that we can intercept the terrorists and prevent them from completing their missions. I do believe, however, that the shocking reality of those events have pushed our intelligence agencies to action like never before, and we are increasingly capable of protecing ourselves. NMAH Story: Remembered What do you think should be remembered about September 11th? We should remember two things. First, people don't like us. It may be for all the wrong reasons, but we can never forget that many people whose hatred for anyone different is a ticking bomb which we may not be able to diffuse. Second, we should remember that, when the going got tough, our whole country came together like I've never seen before. The statement that the terrorists only made us stronger was more than just a political statement or a rallying cry -- it was the truth. NMAH Story: Flag Did you fly an American flag after the events of September 11th? Have your feelings about the American flag changed as a result of September 11th? I probably didn't fly the flag as much as a lot of Americans after September 11, simply because I didn't want to be lumped in with all those who were going a little nuts with it at the time. However, more than a year later, I am happy to see that patriotism is still flying high. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource nmah5015.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. story Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-09-16 IP Address The IP address of the device used to submit the item. 208.191.62.219