Majid

HMmmmmm

I just came home after dropping my daughter to her kindergarten! I was in Chicago then, when I turned on the T.V. I was frozen to see the builiding in smoke. It was like a nightmare, then the retake of the second buliding and the plane. It was aweful. 

PEACE

We were in Antibes, south of France,

with my wife spending the last days of our vacations. Exactly speaking we were walking near a marina when we saw people gathering around a bar-café watching at a big plasm TV. We moved closer and saw the terrible images of an airplane crashing into the first tower. I remember that my first reaction was, hey wait these bastards in Hollywood are making a film over a dangerous subject. But with the second crash and people screeming with the rest of the nightmare we were petrified and stocked-still like other people around.

0911

It was about a year since I'd come to US. Not having enough fluency and education in English language I was working in a restaurant down town DC as a runner. That morning, the restaurant opened as usual around 0700 I think. It wasn't a busy day, and I started my daily routin in cleaning the tables and helping other staff.

The restaurant had a huge plasme TV and CNN was broudcasting. I don't remember what time it was, but I happen to notice that the news was about this skycraper in fire. I was thinking to myself "how would fire fighters manage to take care of this?" Yes, being a new-comer I did not recognize the world trade center.

I was immersed in the live news untill I saw an airplane going directly toward the second tower, and there it was; the most horrifying scene of of my life. We have seen this things in movies, but this one was real with people inside the building and the airplane. 

I didn't realize that there were people gathering around me watching the news. Somebody tuned the volume, and the voice said: "By now we are sure that this is an act of terrorism." There is was; the transition b/w the 20th and the 21st century. I came to this country as a refugee, as someone who was trying to escape all the violence, torture, and turmoil, and find a free, peaceful life. I guess I was just dreaming, and unfortunatley, I learned about Manhattan World Trade Center by the way of its DESTRUCTION.

A Revolutionary Child

I was washing myself in the shower.

when I got out, my house keepr was stuck to the TV and not answering my calls. When I also paid attention to the TV, I figured out why the poor russian was amaszed. Does that help you?

Majid jaan

20 minutes away from Pentagon,in my car,driving toward Pentagon Mall,which is located right by Pentagon,I had a meeting with a friend who has a store there.What a sad day for humanity!.

best wishes

samsam1111

The people you're refering to "not the planners but people who carried the plot" were busy "dying" that morning !

Just thinking about the

Just thinking about the truth of your words have caused this overwelming feeling of sadness and I'm sitting at my desk weeping.  The hopes and dreams of so many... cut down within minutes.  I'm not able to get into any kind of political discussion of the pro's and con's of the Kennedy years right now, I can barely maintain as it is.  There is just this horrible feeling that we've past any point or possibility of creating a world of peace and harmony.  At best we can only maintain our position...the US specifically as a fading world power with none of the pride and glory that sustained us during WWI and II.  Is there no hope at all.

Majid , some who didn,t leave comments here

remember it very well ..They were the planners..lol

AW

The answer to your closing question, is not a damn thing, I'm afraid.

The one thing that I

The one thing that I remember from the weekend after was watching a satellite Iranian TV in a friend's house and some Iranians were having a candle light vigil somewhere in California.

I don't remember the question but the answer is what I remember. This lady was crying and in heavy accent was saying "how can you ask me A question? I am in morning." sobbing sobbing sobbing.

I remember one of the guests in my friend's house saying to TV, lady are you in morning or afternoon? I think some of the Iranians were somehow trying to blame IRI for it. Some are right here blaming mullahs for anything and everything.

This was a tragic, tragic event and everyone was affected by it one way or another. Some are using it to blame others or restrict liberties that they could not do before. It is a shame that this tragedy is sometimes being used for political purposes.

I recommend everyone read 9/11 commission report to better understand this tragedy. Here's a link where you can get a free copy:

//govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/report/index.ht...

Download the PDF file for 7.4MB for the whole report in one document.

shocked beyond words

I had just settled in at work...slowly getting my wits together in preparation for another crazy day working as manager of a gated community in SC.  Our security chief called and told us to turn the TV on... I don't think I moved from that spot for two hours.  At point one of the partners in the company came in and asked me something... he was clueless about what was going on... and I literally screamed at him.  I vaguely remember the day Kennedy died but it was a similar feeling.  I moved around in a fog... automatically dealing with everyday issues but so very very far removed from reality. 

And I wonder... what have we learned from this tragedy?

lol

It's funny you ask this question, I always remember the time me and my husband had the night before! lol... I got up late in the morning when my cusin called from Germany ti make sure we were okay? I was clueless...I turned on the tv.... it was shocking.

I Thought It Was a Movie

I fell asleep the night before with the TV still on, and had just started to wake up. Both towers had been hit at that point.

In my initial drowsiness, I honestly thought Die Hard was on TV. I took a shower to get ready for work, and when by the time I was out, the first tower collapsed.

Just before I moved to California from D.C., I drove to NYC to see some friends. Before driving back to D.C., I drove into Lower Manhattan, and parked in front of the towers, and just stared up at them. Ever since I was a kid, I was awestruck by their sheer size.

I had no clue that less than 18 months later, it would be all gone and so many people would be killed.

And I'm sure some of those people who died that morning walked right past me as I was parked in front of the towers.

It's still chilling.

...

I was in Istanbul then i heard about it and it was horrible .

I had already answered...

I had written an essay about it which was also published in Chicago Sun Times and later on Iranian.com titled Numb (and I was pretty amused to be called race-traitor like Goli Ameri in the first comment I got!!)

And like Nazy, I apologize for adding such a long comment on your blog. Azarin ********************************

I clearly remember the moment I heard the news on the morning of Sept 11th 2001: I didn’t feel anything.

It didn’t strike me at all. I could have heard “The stock market has crashed” or “There is shortage of flu vaccine,” and my reaction would have been the same.

I couldn’t understand why Americans were shocked.

Hadn’t they been warned by those angry men parading in the streets on the other side of the world--the part of the world from which I escaped? Hadn’t they heard over and over, the shouts of “Death to America?” Hadn’t they felt the heat of hatred burning from those grieving women draped in black chador, the heat so intense it turned to ash any illusions of peace? Hadn’t they smelled the stench of flaming flags and burning bodies? Haven’t they noticed men and women setting themselves aflame out of hatred and despair in their no-future-land? Hadn’t they seen those children, blood dripping down their foreheads, smiling at cameras? Hadn’t they wondered why those hungry eyes weren’t crying?

Didn’t Americans watch TV?

I watched the TV, watched as again and again the twin towers tumbled to the ground, watched as again and again those planes hit the towers. I listened to the radio, to witnesses expressing their shock and horror, their deep devastation. I walked outside and walked the streets, counting the innumerable flags that suddenly appeared on car antennas and lawns and front porches. I tallied the American people’s outrage.

I knew I was supposed to feel something, but I didn’t, and so I wondered why those endless images of death and ruin weren’t moving me the way they should. Had I stopped being human? Had I lost my compassion for the world?

I began to search my memory, looking for the first image that had disturbed my sleep, the first news that had turned itself into a nightmare. And in my memory I discovered too many images and too much news. Then, suddenly, one image flared.... *********

Link to this essay: //iranian.com/main/2007/numb

End of the World

Majid, you are so right. We all know exactly where we were and what we were doing when this horrible thing happened.

Here's my article from last September 11th in which I explained where I was on that day. Sorry it's too long, but you asked a question!

******

I asked the young Russian woman who was my translator whether they were saying anything about Ahmad Shah Massoud’s health after the explosion. She listened and said: “Some say he is still alive. Americans say he is dead.”

In the afternoon, as we were driving back into the city, I asked her again if there was any news about Ahmad Shah Massoud. She listened and said: “No news about Shah Massoud. But they say an airplane ran into the World Trade Center in New York.” I didn’t believe her. She had made some mistakes with her English earlier that week, and I was sure she didn’t know what she was talking about. She was quiet and I kept quiet, too.

The news broadcast continued on the car radio. Several minutes later she said: “Looks like another airplane hit the other World Trade Center Tower.” By this time I was sure she not only had poor English, that she was also really stupid, as she had no idea how big and tall those towers were and how airplanes worked. I had a hard time keeping a straight face, thinking that I will be cracking jokes about this woman’s translation skills for years to come.

When I got out of the car and walked into the lobby of my hotel, I saw many people huddled around the TV set in the lobby. From their expressions, their collective silence, and their body language, I could tell something ominous had happened. I ran to the elevator and went to my room where I saw it on TV.

Later that evening we went for a walk near Kremlin and Red Square. Though everyone seemed aware that summer was over, the night air didn’t feel terribly cold. We sat there in silence, watching others walk by us also in silence. Many people had ashen faces and several people were crying. We had ashen faces and we were crying, too.

We knew many people had died, but the numbers, or scope of the tragedy were not known to us at the time. I just knew that early in the morning of a weekday, someone who had bought a cappuccino at Starbucks downstairs and was sipping it, quite possibly looking across the pictures of his wife and kids on his desk, or pictures of her daughter’s graduation and her son’s Little League pose, saw the horrible sight of an airplane approaching his or her window.

The world changed on September 11, 2001, forever. Today I continue to cry for the victims of September 11, 2001 through September 11, 2007. As the world continues to burn in blazing fires of mistrust and hate, I remember the morning of September 11, 2001 in Moscow as quite possibly the last day I woke up to my world as I knew it.

who knew...

That day my boyfriend called me and woke me up. He said something really strange has happened and I ran to the living room, turned on the TV and watched the news while still on the phone with him. I remember we both said: I hope it wasn't those akhounds...

I went to work but came home at 10 and sat back in front of the TV watching the reports all day.

As bad as we felt, I don't think anyone knew at that time, how the world as we knew it ended that morning.

IRANdokht