Three years ago today.....

[kentuck]

I had a job then. I still had about a month before my branch moved to California. But, as usual, I got up and turned on the TV news. Someone had a camera shot of a plane flying into the WTC. Wow! What happened?? Smoke and flames coming from the building. A moment of shock.

I yelled upstairs for my wife to turn on the TV. Shortly thereafter, another plane from another direction hit the other twin tower of WTC. Damn, it's a terrorist attack! Huge flames from the impact. Chaos... The TV reporters attempting to calmly report as if it was a residential fire. Then they show a clip of Mr Bush in a classroom in Florida.

Then, I thought, what if these building collapse? They are reporting about the thousands and thousands of people that work in those buildings. O My God! The tragedy of it all. And when the first building started to collapse, the world changed forever. It was the collapse of world powers. Everyone was equal. But we did not know it.

[liberalitch]

1. I was in my classroom with my kids and...

our school resource officer (Dana) came in and said "A plane just hit one of the WT building in NYC." (My room was one that had already had cable installed) I said "Oh, what a horrible accident." She said "yea"
A bit later she came in and said "This is no accident, another plane has hit the other tower."
From then the shock and fear just unfolded around me.... I had to go through the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel on the way home... Were they done for the day? Was the tunnel next?
But I had to not think about my own fears.... My kids were upset.... many live on Langley AFB... they had reasonable concerns about family and one 9th grader even cried because her dog was out in the yard.
I cried all the way home and sat in front of my TV all night stunned

[bleedingheart]

2. Three years ago..

I was off from work cleaning my house and getting my daughter breakfast. My son was in Kindergarten and my mom called to tell me that something bad was happening in NY. I turned on the TV and called my coworker immediately because she didn't have access to a TV to see anything.

We were in shock all day.

[Mandate My Ass]

3. My gut was telling me something that day

I can remember watching Waco, Columbine, OKC bombing among other tragedies unfold over the years, but that day everything felt so different, wrong, somehow rehearsed and smooth. I tried not to think those thoughts but in hindsight I truly believe my gut was on to something.

[Democrat 4 Ever]

4. I was in a class room

I was a student working toward a degree in Political Science. The professor was (still is) a foot washing, dyed-in-the-wool Republican who tried to teach us that Bush walked on water. (I was the only "older" student in class and I challenged him daily. I was not teacher's pet.) The subject? Presidential Politics. (He also espoused that the office of President was just a ceremonial and an image position. Everything about the presidency is staged. I came to believe he was right - at least about Bush.

During the terrible, horrific morning he refused to listen to news reports, didn't even KNOW about the events had occurred until we told him - although there were TVs blaring from every commons area, in every building all over campus. He just didn't see the big deal, let's get back to work.

As soon as class was over we all rushed out of class and made a beeline for one of the student lounges to watch the news. There were over 100 people crammed into a small space, stunned into silence watching as people jumped, buildings fell and America changed forever on live TV.

Later that week, at class, this man showed a video of Bush's first speech to the nation after 9/11. To make his point about staging he drew our attention to the fact that Bush was not giving his speech in the Oval Office but in the Map Room (think, correct me if I am wrong) because it had a window directly behind Bush. While BoyGeorge rambled on to a stunned nation children flying kites and playing on the grounds of the White House were planted behind him in full view of the cameras - to show the American people he had them "safe." With the tightest security since Pearl Harbor, in a city that was locked down tighter than a drum, "somehow, someway" children managed to get onto the White House lawn to fly kites in full view of Bush inside "reassuring" the nation. The spin machine was already up and running and using the tragedy for their own means. Remember his saying, "Thank God, Bush is president, he'll know how to keep the people safe."

This is too long, sorry, but I'll never forget how this little man used 9/11 as his own bully pulpit to push the GOP agenda from day one.

[Mandate My Ass]

6. Thanks for sharing your memory of that day

As bad as it was for all of us, I couldn't imaging being stuck with a die-hard repuke as that morning progressed.

It's always grated on me that that little man, who demands respect he hasn't earned, and occupies an office he didn't win, uses that catastrophic day to push a hateful agenda and gets a free pass in the media.

The whole "thank-god-bush-is-president" spin was put out there so the shell-shocked nation wouldn't pay too much attention to his utter failure to lead that day or any other.

[slackmaster]

5. I had a different job then

One I felt comfortable in, one where I had a lot of seniority unlike my present situation as a newbie.

I got up at 6:10 AM Pacific time, turned on my computer monitor and stared at the picture of the smoking tower on Yahoo. I checked to see if I was dreaming, then turned on the TV. It went down hill from there.

My boss called to tell me it was OK not to come in, that the chairman of the board had declared the office closed for the day. I spent the day on Usenet and several other discussion forums watching the world fall apart. I knew we were at war, and that it wouldn't be over for a very long time.