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How do you feel on this 7th anniversary of 9/11?

By September 10, 2008 - 1:51pm
 
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Tomorrow sees the 7th anniversary of the attacks on America on September 11th, 2001.

What are your feelings?

Do you feel the same away about our political situation now, as you did then?

Did you lose someone you know or love or experience anxiety or depression as a result of this terrible day in American history?

Personally, I'm always sad on this day. And very reflective. I didn't lose anyone I loved or even knew but I feel for those who did. I also hope those who continue to suffer physical illnesses as a result get finality (ie; a cure) to their health problems.

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Anonymous

I know in my eyes, I will always remember what I was doing on 9/11/01 and I think everyone can reiterate the same. I remember on that fateful day, I was watching television getting ready to go to school (college) and I thought the Empire State Building was on fire. I didn't even realize that New York City was under attack.

As I was driving to school that day, I remember staring up into the sky because we were unaware at the time if all the airplanes were grounded and I was waiting to see one fall out of the sky.

Moving forward from that day, I will always remember the fallen soldiers (including my ex-husband) that fought for our country afterwards to make sure this sort of thing will never happen again. It is sad all the lives lost that dreadful day but there are also many more that have been lost since that day.

Some people have mixed emotions about the United States of America's War Against Terror, but many people have been lost for our freedom regardless of the politically climate behind the reasoning.
Here is a website of all the fallen soldiers that were lost to someone in Afghanistan and Iraq. Drop a note to someone's family today in remembrance of all the people lost to let them know we care so much and that their lives were not lost in vain. www.fallenheroesmemorial.com

September 13, 2008 - 11:22am

The 1970's: I was a university student in the Middle East and North Africa, circa Munich Olympiad 1972, plane hijackings, a bomb threat on a plane I was on, and the Beirut civil war. I lost friends in that war. Providence kept me safe.

1993: My DH was on a project in the North Tower of the WTC. After the bombing, his project was to move the client's data center (a former client of mine from my investment banking days) across the harbor to New Jersey. They were thinking ahead. I made a couple of trips out to Wall Street with him to visit old stomping grounds and friends, walk through the WTC concourse to the train station. We never got the time to go to my favorite place, the Hors d'Oeuvrie Lounge in the Windows on the World at the top of the WTC.

9/11/01: My DH had been back to the WTC and was due to be there, again, on 9/10; but his team was sent to California, first, at the last minute before heading to NYC. I was upset about my not being able to make a trip to the NYC home office of the company I was with at the time, just a few blocks from the WTC. All perspective changed, just as I was dropping my daughter off at school.

My sister in Seattle called me to see if I could have DH call her BIL - had to tell her DH was in CA, and no one could get through to NYC - her BIL's art studio was in one of the WTC towers. DH was on a round-robin call to check on his NY crew, and called me to let me know he and his team were grounded at the airport (they were supposed to be going to NYC). They didn't turn in their rental car, driving it home to Texas, instead. My company put out an alert to all of us to start our round robin of calls to check on our teams and said they were evacuating the building.

The Wall Street world is very tight. You meet people from all the big firms at a conference or event, or even at Harry's Bar. It's a world built on who you know and who knows you.

My sister's BIL was caught in the commuter train that was stopped on Brooklyn Bridge and he saw the second plane hit the South Tower. Word reached us about Cantor Fitzgerald, a few people from my DH's company and a family member of someone at my company.

DH and I haven't been back to NY. He keeps thinking about the apartment building he would have been leaving at Battery Park and how many times he walked through the WTC Concourse. He used to stop at a favorite shop to find a gift to bring home to me. He gets really quiet when someone mentions 9/11 and he thinks about how he had once stood beneath that radio tower to help test the signal to the new data center.

This is why I feel grateful above the sadness of loss of friends. Providence had a hand in keeping my DH safe that day.

September 10, 2008 - 5:36pm

I was not in New York on 9/11. I used to live and work in NYC and moved in 1999. I decided to move New York about a year after I graduated from a university in Long Island, NY, since that is where everyone I went to school with seemed to be winding up. So, needless to say, I still had many ties to the city when I moved.

There are so many memories from 9/11/01, like calling my dad (who travels a lot) to see if he was ok, calling my sister in Pittsburgh after I heard a plane crashed near there, getting a call from a friend working in investment banking here wondering why his computer systems were mysteriously down (he hadn’t heard the news about the first tower yet), to calling my friends in NYC and after many busy signals getting through to them & hearing horrific stories. One friend who works in mid-town told me about the co-worker’s father who appeared in their office covered in ash looking for his son, another friend told me about standing with her co-workers by the window of her high-rise crying as she watched the towers burn and fall. Everyone I contacted had a story like this, and it was overwhelming.

That day I knew that there was a very good chance that I knew someone who had died on 9/11, since a lot of alumni from my school graduated with business degrees and worked in the city. I soon found out that I did. It was actually someone that I knew since I was a freshman and was truly one of the happiest, nicest, friendliest, warmest and most honest people I had ever known. I think of him every year and as I am sure so many others do. In fact, every year I Google his name. This time, I saw that earlier this year his high school alumni class had a kickball get-together in his honor (something I read that he used to organize on his own to get all of his friends together – I am sure it was a big group!) I loved seeing that. I am sure he was there!

Big hugs to you, Kenny.

September 10, 2008 - 3:05pm
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