nmah4230.xml

nmah4230.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I live in Phoenix, Arizona. The first plane hit at 5:46 AM AZ time, just minutes before my alarm went off. My husband and I rarely turn on the TV as we get dressed for work but on that particular morning we did, for whatever reason. As we turn on the TV, we see what looks to be total chaos in New York City. Still half asleep, we weren't sure what was happening. We then see one of the WTC towers on fire. Then we hear Katie Couric explaining that a plane had hit one of the WTC towers just minutes before. We can't believe, we are literally dumbfounded. We then begin to see replay video that had been captured with a plane actually colliding into the building. It looked so incredibly surreal. We could not believe what we were seeing. We were glued to the TV, sitting in bed, groggy and in disbelief. We thought that a terrible accident had just happened. As we are watching, we then actually see, live, the second plane hit the other tower. I initially thought that this was a replay of the first plane but then suddenly, the TV hosts begin to report that a second plane had hit. We were horrified. We had actually seen the plane hit on National TV. We then realized that this had to be some sort of evil, intentional act. As we are dressing for work with the TV on, we begin to see the first tower begin to crumble to the ground. We could not believe what was happening; that we were actually witnessing this on TV. I asked my husband if he thought there had been enough time to have everyone evacuate. I knew there hadn't been but I was hoping he'd had a rational response as to why there had been time. I just could not bear to think about all the people I had just watched, be murdered. I stayed close to the TV while my husband showered. Then, the second tower begins to lean, I rush into the bathroom yelling, "Oh my God Adam, the second one is leaning!" I rush back and withing minutes, the second tower begins to crumble. We were in complete and utter shock. We felt totally numb.

I was pregnant at the time of the tragedy. I believe 9/11/01 made me a much more suspicious person. I am now much more observant of the people around me in public places. I do not feel as safe in my own country anymore. At the same time, I feel much more American. I encourage others to vote and I follow poltics more closely. I feel like I owe it to those that were killed to be a proud, giving and generous American.

I believe we need to remember the heroes and victims that were murdered that day. They died for our country. We as a country need to make sure they did not die in vain.

We did fly the American flag. In fact we've had the flag hanging the entire year. We plan on taking it down this evening, on the one year anniversary. As a result of September 11th, My husband and I feel much more patriotic and proud to be Americans. We know how lucky we are to live in this country. Innocent people died simply because they were Americans and we will never forget.