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Politics : Where Were You on 9/11? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alan Smithee who wrote (1)	9/11/2007 12:52:52 PM
From: Augustus Gloop	Respond to of 637

I recall the day very well. I was at my desk and the first reports said a plane had struck the WTC. Since they had no footage at that time I figured some idiot in a small plane crashed. I remarked to my wife that very thing - then they showed the hole. I turned and looked at her and said that was no small plane - that was a jet. About 15 minutes later I watched the other plane hit and I yelled to my wife we had a terror event underway. She laughed at me and said I was paranoid. I asked her if she knew how many planes were in the sky and suggested this could go on all day. Again she thought I was paranoid. As further reports came in she realized I was right. The event caused a depression in my business that lasted for several years. People still fear the market because of that 2000-2003 period. What has stuck with me forever is that a few days before that happened I was talking with two members of Si on MSN - Jorj McKie and John Pitera. It was like 2am and we were talking about the volatility of the markets and how the VXN was suggesting a move from like 42 with a bullish objective of 68-72 (very market bearish). I didn't know it then but it was almost like a forecast of things to come. I'm not sure they'd recall that discussion but I recall it vividly. 9/11 and the days that followed marks the worst period in my life. My initial reaction was that we should bomb the major cities in the middle east and send the message that we'll respond 10000 fold to terrorism. I know it sounds terrible but to this day I stand behind my remarks. We didn't do that, we lost global support and today the result is a more dangerous middle east and globe. My way would have cost us global support as well but the wreckage I'd have inflicted across the region would have set them back 30 years and would have ended the possibility of a nuclear program for some of them.

To: Alan Smithee who wrote (1)	9/11/2007 2:27:02 PM
From: KLP	Respond to of 637

I woke up just after the first plane had struck the WTC....That enough was shocking....My hubby was in Dallas with others at a meeting. I sat stunned, as we all did...and then the 2nd plane hit....Then I think I knew it was an attack. The anxiety of that day started then. NO ONE knew if there were other planes....no one knew if there were, how many there were...The Networks started to check, and then started to see how many planes were missing on radar....No one knew if the WH or the Capitol would be hit....The President and VP and leadership in Congress whereabouts were unknown....None of us knew how many people were in those two buildings and all the side buildings next to the two....On a given day, the newscasters said between 30,000 and 50,000 could be the numbers of people in those buildings that were now on fire... When the Pentagon hit happened, as I recall, the first reports were that a small plane had hit the grounds....the cameras weren't there, but we could see smoke coming from the front of the buildings....It wasn't for a few minutes that we realized ANOTHER plane had hit the Pentagon.... And by that time, my own personal anxiety was raging....Was this another Pearl Harbor...Where were all my family members? We didn't have a meet-up plan if the location for any of us was attacked... By then all planes had been grounded from takeoff....they were trying to find a missing plane .....that one eventually landed in a PA field....The people on that plane had to have been terrified, as they knew what would happen....but they still did what they had to do, especially if the plane was headed for the WH or the Capitol..... There was NO pain injection like we give our condemned death row inmates. These people were murdered, and had time to know who their attacker was... their last minutes had to be just a living hell. My hubby and the men he was with realized that when the planes were grounded there would be no way home via air for awhile. They finally rented a car (lots of people had the same idea), and thought they would drive to Denver.... They did. Planes still were grounded. They drove from Dallas to Seattle, each of the 4 of them taking a 2 hour shift around the clock.....It's a long way between Dallas and Seattle via ground, when they were as shocked as we all were.... The whole day and the whole week was surreal for all of us, including me. The weather was like it is today, beautiful, sunny, no clouds, warm with a little crispness in the air. And we were here on the West Coast. We saw the pictures of the crime scenes. Their weather was the same. We only saw the mayhem. They had to deal with the actual mayhem. And all of us still have to deal with the worldwide killers, and our children will have to as well.

To: Alan Smithee who wrote (1)	9/11/2007 8:20:46 PM
From: country bob	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 637

I was on a construction site when the attack occurred. We listened to events on the radio. By lunchtime, the only people left on the site were my crews. It's probably the only day I can remember when there was no laughing, no cutting up, no practical jokes - just blank expressions on the faces of young men to whom the Gulf War was just a childhood memory. I recall a group of Mexican bricklayers coming up to me and one of them said "We sorry, Mr. Bob" and, feeling out of place and not being able to communicate their feelings, they went home. I guess, on this day, being a recent immigrant must have been pretty uncomfortable. .