RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Where were you when it happened and what are you thinking (post stories and share)

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Originally posted by Franta:
Fucking unreal...I went to sleep right before it happened (yes I do sleep at tims...) and the phone rang and rang (my caller ID is upstairs and I was sleeping in the basement with Ace) all morning.... finally I get up and its my brother calling from home "what the hell you doing at home?" he tells me what happened and I kept waiting for the punchline that wasnt there thinking it was NOT true....
unfortunately I turned on the television to see it was...

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I still keep waiting to see Bruce Willis and Will Smith arrive on the scene......

I have no stories - I just found out!

RhinoNYC at the DCMBs has described how the cityscape has changed.

She said, "Two planes crashed into the Twin Towers." I was in shock.

I think the only times I had been awoken like this were when a house in the neighborhood was on fire, I turned my head to see a mad blaze. The work of arson (no one lived there yet). Another time was when the father of a friend was killed in a Liquor store hold up. Also she woke me up when my grandfather died. This was different. Something ominous and evil about it.

I ran downstairs to look at the large television. I saw the two towers I had seen on several visits to NYC, only now they were ablaze. I was in a heightened state of awareness. The disbelied was gone. What happened? Footage was quickly shown of a plane crashing into one of the towers. My eyes began to tear and I thought "Bin Ladin". The fucker. Moving to the live footage, they zoomed on the action, I saw debris falling from the buildings, but it wasn't debris, it was people jumping. Despair, choking in the fire. Rage, madness, frustration, a desire for revenge.

In ten minutes, the Tower fell. No, nonono. I had seen this before. I walked by it and admired it as a skyscraper. America's stock market. This wasn't supposed to happen. This was atrocious, evil. 12 Firefighters reported dead. More running in to rescue people.

I suspected that perhaps bombs were planted to help initiate that collapse. This attack had to be well planned. The news of the crash at the Pentagon concerned me. A threat to Washington. Where else would they strike. How many planes were hijacked?

The second tower collapsed. Oh Christ. Let one stand. I was cursing Bin Ladin in so many words. Again, I assumed that it was bombs planted in the building. The belief is it collapsed under weight and shock, but I felt whoever was behind this, waited until more people came into the area in attempt to rescue people and let the second come down, taking more lives. 200 firefighters missing.

The section of the Pentagon does down. The last plane goes down nears Pittsburgh. Only later was it confirmed to be the last plane.
I kept watching footage, listening to people debate and speculate over what would happen and what was going on.

Biden talked about how terrorists win when they alter the way a country acts. Sounds very cautious. I was upset by his lax attitude. Bush was not very commanding in the situation, uninspiring. It was the way the world reacted that made me feel good. Canada, Nato, United Europe, Russia, Tokyo (thanks to Dark Typhoid Dave) Russia, the Pope even Iran all express condolences and outrage. It reminds me that in the face of tragedy we unite as a people. Kind of bummed Bush is our President. Clinton had several problems but his charisma would have been great for speeches and pulling people together.

It is beyond Pearl Harbor as the innocents are lost, it happens in the most important U.S. city. No offense Washington. This cripples economy for a bit.

There were those inspiring moments, seeing the people come together to see through the crisis, rescue efforts, hospitals, even the methods of security. FAA shutting down all flights, all Federal building and monuments closed in major cities. Theme parks, baseball. Television and virtually all of America comes together. Like Rob here, who built this page.

I was online talking to friends and aquaintances getting their feelings on this. It feels good to let it out and hear what people have to say. There is that sense of sadness, shock, and a desire for justice.

For me, I just get sad thinking of how cruel is the condition of the human heart. But like Yin and Yang, perhaps we can see the goodness too. Let order come from this chaos.

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Originally posted by rufusTfirefly:
We had one of the guys in the office at the time, and he is, by far, the most untactful person I know. Even he was dumbfounded.

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I think someone else has that title now...

My company runs the cafeteria and the observation deck of the Trade Center and it looks unlikely any of the employees survived. I'm so numb - I think the only thing keeping me sane is being able to sit here typing all this out, if I keep it inside I think I'd have a breakdown.

"Sorry to wake you guys," he says, "but I have to use your TV."

"Wha...?" I ask. "Why?"

"Because the World Trade Center has been bombed and the Pentagon is on fire."

"What the...?!" I said. My roommate jumped out of his bunk and said something to the effect of "Man, that isn't funny!"

"No, I'm serious!" he says, walking over to our small television.

"Stop playing around," I say, reaching for my glasses. And, then, he turns on the TV...

The first thing I see is a building with pillars of billowing smoke pouring from the top.

"Oh, God... no..." I thought to myself, rising from bed. "What the heck happened?"

No one spoke. We just watched the screen in silence. For the first few minutes, the only thing I could think of was that this could be the beginning of the end.

It sounds like religious drivel and I'm not trying to push my beliefs on you. It's just the first thing I thought. The thing that scares me most is that it looks like World War III is about ready to break out. It's like something out of a comic or a movie.

Surreal... I dunno if I can handle it...

Another site, someone tried to raise a smile posted this, in respect of re-building the WTC:

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Instead of rebuilding both towers, I say they should build one great big tower that stretches all the way from the outermost boundaries of where both old buildings used to stand, across the entire space between them. And it should be a mile-and-a-half high and made entirely of solid adamantium, bristling with anti-aircraft guns and missile launchers. Oh, and it should be able to transform into a giant robot which can stomp around New York and wield a giant energy sword and even fly if the need arises.

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First time I laughed today.

Other Americans, distraught by scenes of jubilant Palestinians, asked if there was celebrating in France, China or other parts of the world.

I can assure people that this is not so, from reactions I have seen for myself and read elsewhere.

My colleagues and office workers are in a daze, and the office is very quiet. People are spending the morning logging onto Chinese language websites reading about it. The local newspaper editorials are condemning the attack and urging the United States to stand strong as it did after Pearl Harbour.

A lot of people watched it on the news last night - HK is 12 hours behind NY - so we got immediate coverage at a time when most people are watching TV.

Local Chinese have expressed to me their horror at the situation. A guy from Tienjin (north of Beijing) looks stunned. A colleague from Shanghai went to Manhattan last December for a holiday and was absolutely mortified. Chinese President Jiang Zemin sends his condolences to the US. Extensive coverage in the paper.

By the way, the Chinese embassy in New York was located in the World Trade Centre.

I cannot emphasise enough to Americans that not one person here has expressed any satisfaction or pleasure at this travesty.

I'm also reading threads from military personnel about US fighters over most major cities, submarines being deployed to get them out of bases which might be terrorist targets, and ships around Manhattan island.

I wont copy and paste it here because it's my account of the whole day and is kind of long... I still can't believe this happened...

Someone posted it elsewhere earlier and I echo their sentiments...I wish our super-heros really did exist and they could make this catastrophe quite not so bad.

Please stay in touch whenever possible those of you in New York and Washington. Foremost though, STAY SAFE!

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That was my first post at the DCMB's prior to finding out about Rob's request to post here. The day got much worse.

I'm going to try to go to bed...again...it is now almost 3:00 a.m. on 9/12. I've been up about 19 hours on only 3 hours sleep. I still doubt that I'll sleep more than a few hours.

After my roomie went to work, I didn't want to be alone, so I went downtown. It was eerily abandoned, and the few people there wouldn't make eye contact, and few people spoke.

I didn't know where to go, so I went to Temple Square, a big landmark in Salt Lake. I'm not very religious, but it's really beautiful there, very serene and peaceful. I finally lost it when I was sitting in front of a replica of the Christus statue, and they played a collection of quotes from Christ. I broke down when he said something about a new commandment that we love one another, as I have loved you, love one another. I lost it, right there.

Where's the love? Is that so hard? Why can't we love one another?

So I seriously love you guys. For reals.

After a couple hours looking for info on the net, and going to lunch to watch the resturants tv's for an hour. We were all sent home. (I work at a community college)

I got home and hugged my daughter and wife. I also thanked God that my best friend wasn't in NY like he was supposed to be. Even though he probably would have been safe and several blocks from Trade Center, it still gives me the chills.

Still kinda numb. All I really know is that my daughter will grow up in a different world than I did.

[ 09-12-2001: Message edited by: Dev Em ]

[ 09-12-2001: Message edited by: Dev Em ]

I continued with the lesson in a classroom of happy faces and raised hands. There was a knock at the door. The v.principal pulled all the teachers in the hallway and told us.

Only i didnt understand what she said. I thought she said a train crashed into a twin tower. I thought wow thats bad. Then she left and i turned to another teacher and said so what happened? He said a plane crashed into the trade center. So im thinking thats way worse but it was an accident. We were told not to turn the radio on or the tv and not to tell the children. I still had no idea why this was such a big deal.

I went back to my class as calm as could be and continued on. Next the principal came in and said our Rob was downstairs. I was really confused. I asked her why and she said he was concerned.

I get down to the lounge and I am totally lost. What is going on???!!! I told him what i heard then Rob told me what really happened. We were attacked and the twin towers were gone. The pentagon was hit and something in Pittsburg was gone too. I freaked out and broke down. Why was this happening and who did this?

ALl my kids were gone and i was in the school sitting just staring at nothing. i felt numb. i still feel this way.

I walked to the peer and sat with Rob and we watched the gray clouds of smoke hover and shift around this massive hole where the trade center used to stand.

We sat and listened to the radio for constant updates. At around 5 ish anothe trade center builing fell. It's all just too much to take in.

I still feel numb. i don't really have much to say or even know what to say. I cried a lot yesterday but not much today. I dont know why i havent. Maybe i am in shock Rob, I dont know. It doesnt seem real.

Knowing that the buildings are gone is tragic. And i know that tons of people are missing/dead, but it just isnt able to get through to me. I got home and saw people showing their lost loved ones on the news and i lost it there. Maybe it's seeing the actual faces that makes it real to me. Its horrible that these buildings and people are gone but seeing the faces makes it even more of a reality and now this horrible nightmare is sinking in.

[ 09-12-2001: Message edited by: DFFCLTKND ]

We don't have a television in our office, so it was about 9:10am that we found out what had happened to the WTC towers. Heather, my section editor, had just read a headline on one newspaper web site and told us all.

Naturally, we were asking questions and then another girl came in from the bathroom and said, "Everyone over at General Sports is out in their lobby watching TV." General Sports has 5 TV screens above their reception desk and the were all on various stations broadcasting the news.

Most of my office walked down the hall and into General Sports lobby to watch the news. We were all stunned. I breathed, "Oh my God" more than once, and so did all of us standing here in that lobby. Then, they showed footage of the 2nd plane as it crashed into the tower. Again, it felt like someone and ripped out part of my heart.

After about 5 minutes of watching, my co-workers & I left and returned to our own office. We turned up the radio, as the station was now broadcasting ABC News.

Not too long after that, we heard that one of the towers had fallen. We all walked back to General Sports and starred at the TVs. A minute or two later, they replayed the tower collapsing. And a few tears rolled down my face. Thoughts of "Oh God, no" ran through my mind.

Again, we all trooped back to our office. After that, everything became a jumble. I heard them say that the Pentagon had been attacked. And the "Oh God, no" was back in my head.

When we heard that the remaining tower had collapsed, I stayed in the office. I couldn't bear to go back and watch. I stayed in the office until we all left around 2:30pm.

Sometime around 1pm, I finally got an IM from my friend Pete (who lives on Staten Island). He was okay. His family was okay. His friends were okay. I didn't know if he was still working in Manhattan, so I had been worried. I didn't have his phone numbers anymore, so all I could do was e-mail him. We conversed briefly on the phone and it was good to hear his voice, accent and all. After I hung up the phone, I was shaking and on the verge of crying. I took a minute or two to compose myself and then went back to work.

What happened after I got home though, is another story. I changed out of my work clothes, and laid down on my bed to watch the news. It was during that time, and dinner, that I saw the first images of the plane crashing (seeing the plane disappear into the tower) for the first time. There was nothing to stop the tears then. They came and they didn't stop. I cried for a minute or two as I watched them replay the footage over and over again. Sometime after that, I either passed out because of all the stress or just fell asleep. I don't know which it was, but it was a good 45 minutes later before I came to/woke up.

I then went downstairs and ate dinner with my family. I went back upstairs to my room and turned on the tv and my computer. I spoke with various friends via IM...Sharad, Edi, Zahl, Edward, just to name a few.

I then watched George W. Bush deliver his address and chatted with some more friends. Then, it was time to call it a night. I logged-off, put the timer to 2-hours on my TV and crawled into bed and cried myself to sleep...

I'm still exhausted and drained...both mentally and physically. I probably will be for a good number of days to come. But that's to be expected. I'm a very emotional person to begin with. And when something like this happens, I tend to draw away from others and spend time alone; to cope and deal with things in my own way. And just like Batwoman, I've been posting to my online journal today and yesterday. It helps...to get the words out...it helps a great deal.

[ 09-12-2001: Message edited by: Bianca ]

At 10AM, the guy I was to assist (Mark) arrived. Before I could ask him anything business-related, he said "Come on!", turned his back to me and motioned me to follow him down the hall, as he escorted me through the corridors of the large office space. We got to the break room, and there was a television surrounded by about 40 of the 300 or so employees in the office. On the television was live FOX NEWS coverage of the World Trade Center, in Lower Manhattan.

It showed the first Tower smoking from the crash of the first plane. Then just as I was getting used to this, the second plane was shown crashing into the second tower. (I know now that these two crashes occurred at 8:45AM and 9:03AM respectively, but initially thought I saw it as it happened)

Then, just as I was starting to adjust to the reality of the second tower destroyed, one of the towers began to collapse to the street. One of the women watching screamed, and like everyone else, I was stricken with horror. (this was about 10:20 AM)

At first I didn't understand how the building could have collapsed like it did, all 110 floors straight down to the street in seconds. But I figured after thought that the heat of the internal fire destroyed the structure of the upper floors, and the sheer weight of the collapsing steel and concrete from the upper floors caused the floors below it to give way, in the downflowing torrent of concrete and steel.

And every time you got somewhat used to the idea that the first horrific thing happened, then the next happened, and the next after that, the news broke that there's a third explosion at the Pentagon, there's an explosion at the State Department, reports that a New York school may have been bombed, another airplane missing, a plane crash in western Pennsylvania (both of my parents and a majority of my family are from, or live in, Johnstown, just north of where the plane crashed!). It was as if we were fighting a massive war against an invading nation.

Like everyone else, I thought: How big is this thing, when will it stop, how much more of this country will they disrupt before this ends? Is this a diversion for a greater military strike on the United States, possibly simultaneous with an invasion in Israel? HOW MUCH WILL BE DESTROYED BEFORE IT'S OVER!?!

I tried to work, but couldn't really concentrate, and I felt compelled to go back and back every 20 or 30 minutes to the ongoing TV coverage in the breakroom, and see what else might have happened. And even if nothing else happened, I could at least try to accept the vastness of what had ALREADY been destroyed, the THOUSANDS of lives lost. Potentially TENS of thousands.

Sometime around noon, the coverage showed an aerial view, looking north at Manhattan island, looking at the city from at least 5 miles out in New York harbor, just a vast span of water in the foreground, with the tiny, distant statue of Liberty in the midddleground, and the entire vast mile-wide southern tip of Manhattan in the background, engulfed in smoke and ash, and the smoke drifting out way beyond the city, into the harbor and surrounding areas. Without video images, the destruction would truly have been beyond imagining.

In a moment of attempted optimism, I said to some of my co-workers in the break room: "Well, if there is a bright side to this, it could have been NUKES." One of my my co-workers looked up with a haunted expression and said: "The day's not over yet."

This froze my blood.

Like everyone, I was sickened by the images. Not so much that this was any real threat to America, if we know who the enemy is. If we know the enemy, our armies can strike and exact a vengeance to the perpetrators anywhere on earth. But this is an UNKNOWN enemy. Pearl Harbor in 1941 took about 2000 lives, and we began a war against Japan, the known aggressor. But this...

It's a declaration of war by an unknown enemy. How can someone kill so many innocent people, and not even claim responsibility? Not even anonymously give a reason to rationalize it? If someone objects to U.S. foreign policy, how can the pointless slaughter of people who have NO CONTROL over that policy accomplish anything? When I've seen reported terrorist strikes against military targets, I've often thought: Well, at least these men and women know the risks of wearing a military uniform. I mean, at least from that viewpoint, terrorism is a form of war, fighting against the soldiers of America. But to just kill innocent people...

( I feel the same way about U.S. military action, past and present. The bombing of Dresden in 1945 was a pointless slaughter of 100,000 German civilians, in a city that had no war production facilities. The war was almost over, there was no point. The bombing should have been done to a military target, not civilians.

Similarly, Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. The U.S. should have done the blast to military targets, not cities full of civilians. )

I know the goal of bombing targets that are exclusively military is near-impossible. But to target places that have no military facilities is cruel and pointless.

In the moment of seeing the World Trade Center fall and the other hijack crashes, I wanted the U.S. to strike back with everything and leave a smoking black hole where Afghanistan and Iraq used to be. I wanted total veangeance that would make any terrorist recoil in terror at the thought of ever attempting something like this, or even anything on a smaller scale at the U.S. , ever again. It was only much later that I could think beyond my anger, and think that 1) The world doesn't work that way, an act of vengeance only breeds the next act of terrorist countervengeance, and so it goes, on and on, strike and counter-strike, that can't possibly end terrorism in the U.S.; and 2) If we react with mass bombing, we will likely be as guilty of slaughtering innocents in the name of our cause as the terrorists who unleashed destruction on us. We need to prove our cause is just, and exact our justice in a way that is correct in the eyes of all civilized nations, rather than unilaterally going on a bombing rampage, where all we've proven is that we have more planes and bombs than our enemies. We have to pursue vengeance in a way that is not impulsive and destructive, but in a way that lays the ground for enduring peace.

But all this occurred to me after a night's sleep.

My office shut down at 1PM. I went straight home, and when home I immediately turned on the unending TV newscoverage, and watched it obsessively until about 4AM. I just couldn't stop watching.

When I finally couldn't watch anymore, they were just revealing that a man in Boston had a confrontation in the Boston airport parking lot prior to the terror bombings, some Arab men, one of whom pulled a knife on him, and later, when the man had seen the inescapable news coverage, he called the police immediately, and based on his description, they found the car the Arab men had left in the airport lot, and traced the name of the man who rented it. The car was traced to South Florida, where I live. His home address was in Coral Springs (near Fort Lauderdale) and the car was rented at an Alamo location in Boca Raton (I used to work for Alamo!)

All day and evening, I was struggling to hold back the tears watching and thinking of these events, I don't fully understand what specific part of these events raises the emotion in me. I think it is the simple fact that thousands of innocents have died, and so pointlessly. IN A SINGLE DAY!!!

In the entire Korean war, about 53,000 Americans died, in about three years of fierce combat, back and forth on the Korean peninsula. In the Vietnam war, about 58,000 Americans died between the early 1960's and 1975. In the Persian Gulf War (the war that inspired Osama Bin Ladin's hatred of America, and terrorist career) less than 200 Americans died. And I think the unbelievably light casualties have lulled the U.S. into a false sense of complacency, to the point that it has thinned its military to half the fighting strength it was during the Gulf War. I think it was this apparent weakness of the U.S., and our lack of commitment to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that combined, invited the bold vastness of this terrorist act.

I fully believe that if all airlines had not been grounded after the first four planes crashed, that there might have been many more planes seized and turned into death instruments, expanding this undeclared terrorist war across the entire continent, from Atlantic to Pacific.

In sharp contrast to the less than 200 dead in the Gulf War, there are an estimated 6000 who died yesterday. IN A SINGLE DAY, IN LESS THAN TWO HOURS!!!

I think because of the incredibly high numbers, there is a strong push to treat it like a war. We have to be patient, and let the investigation bring the orchestrators of this pointless terrorist act of mass extermination to justice, and there are already too many leads for the FBI and other agencies to not find the exact source of this evil. And I do mean truly, evil. Because these acts of terror are the manifestation of the very same mindset that, unchecked, allowed Hitler, Stalin, Khmer Rouge, Milosevic and others to kill millions. The same mindset that some certain group of people don't deserve to live and can be slaughtered on a whim, in the name of God, or some unstated political cause. Given the opportunity and continued freedom to do so, the masters of yesterday's terrorism would also kill millions.

I don't want my country to stoop to the level of these terrorists, and bomb them to oblivion with thousands of innocents who happen to live in a country whose government harbored these terrorists, but have no control over what their government does. They don't deserve to die any more than these people who were in the World Trade Center.

We can protect our citizens while proving that ours is a nation of laws and not tyrannical force (as Osama Bin Laden has accused us of). In this way, we prove to the world that ours is a nation WORTH protecting.

[ 10-20-2001: Message edited by: Dave the Wonder Boy ]

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My alarm is set for 8 AM CST and it's on radio only. I was woken up to the following news update by Bary Keefe on the Mix.

"this is unbelievable, I was going to update you on the breaking news, when another plane just crashed into the WTC." *side note, that's not an exact quote*

Needless to say that woke me up and had me in shock all day. I laid in bed for the next hour (just about) listening to Eric, Kathy, Bary, and the rest of the morning crew describing what they saw on MSNBC and the other tv stations they were watching. I decided to get out of bed sometime before 9 and turned the volume up on my alarm clock so that I could hear it in the other room. I turned on the tv to see what all this looked like....

I must have watched 6 different stations during the next 10 minutes. I put it on CNN to see them showing what that second crash looked like. The djs described it by saying it looked like something out of a movie. They weren't kidding, it did. They then went to DC to show what the Pentagon looked like and the corespondent there was describing what happened there when he was cut off by the guy in NY. When they cut back to the feed from NY, the first tower was nothing more than a large ball of smoke. It just collapsed...

I sat there staring, numb, hoping they'd actually show it collapse. They didn't. So I decided to go back to my room and get ready for work. I stood there in my room.... listening.... waiting to hear more.....then it happened.... The second tower collapsed. I could feel the blood drain from my face. I got my self dressed and listened as long as I could. The last things I heard before walking out the door were "this is an act of war, and Pearl Harbor".

Even in my state of numb shock, I thought of those before they even said anything. For the next 30 minutes, I was cut off from the radio and phone and I drove to work. I got to work and asked my boss if they heard what happened, they did. In fact they were listening to the radio. The owner came up front and I was telling them what I saw and heard. More what I saw. something happened between the time I left the house and the time I got to work... A plane crashed in PA. There were reports that it was shot down....

For the next 8 hours I was in a state of numb shock. Doing my best to work and not just sit there in disbelief. Over the course of the day, listening to talk radio, I heard all the reports of what's been going on, who's claiming responsibility, etc...

I heard 2 sickening things... First partying going on in the streets of Palestine. Then Iraq playing a "patriotic" song that went something like, "down with the Americans".

Let me say this, My family is from the middle east. I'm a first born American, Christian and proud to be an American. For safety reasons, both mine and my family's, I wont say specifically which nationality I am, but I will add that I have Russian blood in me too. If I had to choose a country, I would choose America in a heart beat. No thinking there. This country is my home. I considerer myself an American before any ethnicity. English is my first language. So for something like to happen, I say get the sicko and drag him back here by his tongue and put him on trial and let him pay for what he's done.

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Originally posted by Batwoman:

I heard 2 sickening things... First partying going on in the streets of Palestine. Then Iraq playing a "patriotic" song that went something like, "down with the Americans".

Let me say this, My family is from the middle east. I'm a first born American, Christian and proud to be an American.

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Amy, I consider this the most important part of your post. I know I myself was incensed when I saw Palestinians dancing in the streets at the news of thousands of Americans murdered in terror bombings. It made me wish very ill will, to say the least, toward Palestinians and other Arabs.

But I've also seen on the news that as many Palestinians have organized prayer vigils. And in many Arab countries, they are only exposed to one-sided news their entire lives, that is very anti-American. So they don't really know what America is about.

Peter Jennings on ABC News voiced concerns about a possible backlash at Arab Americans. And I think what you say here represents something many here may not know:
That a majority of Arab Americans are equally sickened by what has happened, because this is their home, too.

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Originally posted by Franta:
On the one hand: I should hope that our mistreatment of the Japanese during World War II has taught us something about punishing an entire race for the sins of its government. Placing innocent families in prison camps is not justice.

On the other hand: A local Arabain run convience store posted a sign stating "YOU DESERVED IT AMERICA" A group of students of the same race at a local college discussing what the terrorist did wrong and how they would have hit the Pentagon harder. Makes me wonder if the Freedom of Speech is an abused gift. Also why these people would choose to live here if Americans are such awful people? Why do the accept our aid and funding for school amongst other assitance if we are "the scum of the earth"?

As for those misinformed people who state that this was a long time coming and the US deserved it, I ask them this; would you say the same to a child whose older sibling sexually molested them or to a wife whose husband physically beat them?

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I would also like to add something that I just missed when I put that in my journal last night. And that is, there were times where I felt like crying, but didnt't know why exactly, I wanted to pray, but didn't know what to say, I wanted to just shut down and be alone with the news and my computer checking to make sure all of you were ok and to hear what happened to you. Work was the last thing on my mind, and yet there we were, at the store until closing time. I left and driving home at 6pm the streets were dead! It felt more like 11pm, and like everyone said about O'Hare, it was an earie silence.

Franta, I agree with you 100% on these people who demonstrate themselves to be clear enemies of the United States.

I've met people with similar attitudes from Europe, Asia, and Central/South America. I wish there were an easy way to deport these enemies within our own borders.

It's difficult to defend those who invite lynching.

Regarding your wife-beater/child molestor metaphor, I also agree. If someone is dangerous, you don't rationalize their behavior, you eliminate them as a threat to society. In the case examples of anti-American Arabs you gave ("AMERICA:YOU DESERVE IT" sign in convenience store, students saying they could do a better terror bombing) there is a big difference between angry talk and their actually doing it. Although it's hard to say whether it's just angry talk or whether they would really do it. For all my peaceful talk, I might rain blows on them with a baseball bat if they said something like that to me.

The point I tried to make is that, no I do not automatically look on in disgust members of Arabian descent, many of my coworkers and Doctors at my hospital are. To think so would be absurd on my part.

However, what I am saying is that those verbalizing their displeasure with the United States should leave. Their hatred perpetuates the sterotype of their race. Dont ruin it for the true Americans.

I would extend all the sincere comfort and prayers to those throughout the world affected personally from this heartache and share my upmost praise to those volunteers giving help, blood and anything else.

Our tv stations in Oz have covered it 24hrs straight and still going on one network.

This tragedy will make the western world stronger and unite us together.

God Bless America and the freedom of all!

This was an example of what Muslems are like. I heard on tv today that these actions are not what Islam is about. If that's true, why is it I've seen it happen so many times with my own eyes? Why have I heard too many personal accounts of crap like this happening. I tried to find pics of that day, but so far have only come up with one and that's not what I wanted to post. I'm looking for ones of the chaos. But I think the Secret Service confiscated everyones film in order to find the person(s) that started the riot.

I know you dont care much for us NBs but in these times we all need all the friends we can get.

Amy, I think you bring up a good point that Iran, like any country, has many political and ethnic groups, some diametrically opposed. And not all Iran, or any other middle eastern country is 100% fundamentalist fanatics. There are many arab nations struggling to prevent takeover by fundamentalist/terrorist elements. You recommended the movie Not Without My Daughter a while back, starring Sally Field, that paints a picture of life in Iran that is akin to Orwell's 1984 or Nazi Germany. What a terrifying, paranoid way to live, and captured well in the movie.

In the last couple of days, the unreality has given way to a real sadness. Yes I'm Canadian, but this Attack on America was an attack on all of us. We see terrorist actions here and there in other parts of the world, but it really hits home when this happens here on the North American continent, in our greatest city.

I've been doing what I can to help out here in Vancouver, where over 30 jets full of passengers were re-routed, but I wish I could do much more.

You guys should be proud to be American. It's good to see that no riots have occurred, and everyone's been doing everything they can to help. God bless America forever...

TTT