Sometime tomorrow morning 9 years ago, I had the urge to watch TV for no real reason

[munitalP]

Wow, 9 years on...

Last year this time I asked a question of the AFF community, what did 911 mean to you 8 years later, and again, I ask the same question - what does 911 and the war on terror mean to you 9 years later? The vision seen constantly of UA175 reminds me of how fragile life is, but also how easily the path of history can change.

From serene scenes one and two days after the event, people being found alive in the rubble days after to stealth fighters bombing the bejesus out of Tora Tora mountains to copycat suicide pilot (Tampa, FL - I was there that week) to airport security upgrades to the toppling of Saddam Husain to preachers (right or wrongly) threatening to protest the building of a Mosque at ground zero by burning the Koran...

Is the world a better place because of a handful of fanatics? Is travelling safer than it was before the war on terror?

I hope that we never see the likes of 911 again, and God (which ever one that may be) rest the souls of those killed on September 11 2001 and every other innocent regardless of race, colour or creed who has been caught up in this debatable war on terror since its conception.

munitalP

 

[samh004]

Re: Sometime tomorrow morning 9 years ago, I had the urge to watch TV for no real rea

I only just realised what day it was when I looked at my phone, but searching through my TV guide I see no memorial shows on free-to-air, so perhaps it’s finally time to get past it, not so much forget, but not spend so much time focusing on it?

Every year I change my desktop background to something I think reflects it well, that I picked up one year, somewhere online.

I was at boarding school on the Gold coast, and woke to it, or maybe went to bed to it, I can’t really recall, but I remember seeing it on TV in the common room.

 

[YQY]

Re: Sometime tomorrow morning 9 years ago, I had the urge to watch TV for no real rea

I watched it on the Monday night (around 11pm on 11th of Sept AEST) on BBC - i had switched on BBC to check the news before heading to bed. I continued to watch it till 2am.... it was very eerie in the office on monday morning. I was working for big blue and we had some very somber emails from management.

 

[Maca44]

Re: Sometime tomorrow morning 9 years ago, I had the urge to watch TV for no real rea

I was just out of Seattle and woke up about 6am to 9-11 on all TV channels. I was due to fly to SFO and then SYD that day, but with every airport closed that did not happen. I remember it was Tuesday in USA, so Wednesday downunder. I eventually flew out the following Tuesday (my choice) but the airports were deserted and all airside shops in SEA and SFO closed. Like everyone else, it's something I will never forget.

The only good part about it from my aspect only was that I was using Ansett points; flew F class on UA and could only get away for 3 weeks due to F award seat being unavailable, but after 9-11 it let my rebook the following week. That was the time that Ansett went under also. Double whammy.

 

[medhead]

Re: Sometime tomorrow morning 9 years ago, I had the urge to watch TV for no real rea

I got a call at about 3 am from my brother in Germany, turn on the TV. So I did.

I hope that we never see the likes of 911 again, and God (which ever one that may be) rest the souls of those killed on September 11 2001 and every other innocent regardless of race, colour or creed who has been caught up in this debatable war on terror since its conception.

munitalP

The big thing that strikes me is that it is the same god........

 

[Hvr]

Re: Sometime tomorrow morning 9 years ago, I had the urge to watch TV for no real rea

I remember the night well, was finalising an assignment for my grad dip which was due in the next day. I had the video recorder taping West Wing and turned the television on to check it had finished.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing and watched until about 3.00am when I got some sleep.

At work we were doing continuity planning and had been for several weeks, No one thought it was important until that day and then they said we were only doing it because of what had happened.

Not sure how many people actually realise that Saddam Hussein wasn't actually involved in that particular tragedy. He was an evil man but not responsible for this act of terrorism.

 

[Postcode]

Re: Sometime tomorrow morning 9 years ago, I had the urge to watch TV for no real rea

Remember it well. Finishing off on a few papers and partly watching Ten News at 11 pm. Breaking story was that a plane had crashed into the WTC. Unbelievable. Had flown over NY recently and saw how close to the city aircraft can go to and from JFK.

Shortly after the announcement came that a second plane hit.

That's when I knew the world was changing forever.

I stayed up all night with the Pentagon crash and the aircraft loss over Pennsylvania.

I didn't get to bed that night or the next morning. As I arrived at work I could see that no one else had either. Even the nastiest had bags under their eyes.

I don't think a solution is at hand any time soon.

My thoughts, prayers and tears go out to everyone involved in whatever what, and especially to the widow and son and family and friends of our latest soldier who gave everything.

 

[JeniSkunk]

Re: Sometime tomorrow morning 9 years ago, I had the urge to watch TV for no real rea

Wow, 9 years on...

Last year this time I asked a question of the AFF community, what did 911 mean to you 8 years later, and again, I ask the same question - what does 911 and the war on terror mean to you 9 years later?

That particular Monday evening started like any other for me, chat with friends on IRC. I keep all my IRC logs, and re-reading the log for that day, still chills me.

11:08pm BNE time, someone joined the channel I was in saying that planes had hit the WTC towers. At the time, I was busy in a private chat, and didn't call up the news sites.
11:35pm, I tried to see if I could find a US news site with the info. By then, news sites were effectively DDoSed due to the overload of people trying to find news on what was happening. I gave up on the news sites and turned the TV on, and then learned the extent of what was happening.
11:45pm, another person joined the channel talking about the attacks on WTC, and the Pentagon.
12:03am, the first tower collapsed and for a short while that was simply shock in the channel,
12.31am, the second tower falls, and the channel descends into fury and panic.

Is the world a better place because of a handful of fanatics? Is travelling safer than it was before the war on terror?

munitalP, you say the events of that day started a 'war on terror'.
9 years on, and I find myself referring to the current series of battles of this, what I now know to be a centuries old conflict, as a war of terror, with the terrorists from both sides being reported as being Heroes by the Media for their respective sides, and the attrocities regularly and repeatedly piling up on both sides.

Is the world a better place? To this question, I have to say no. The world has become a frightened and more insular place, with what were once considered Rights being erased in the name of Security Of The State.
Anyone different to society is viewed with fear and thought of as an Enemy.
The concept of being innocent until proven guilty is being dismantled by this war.
The societal idea that Rights are inviolate is being dismantled by this war.

Is travelling safer now, than before, somewhat. While the physical improvements on onboard secutiry reduce the possibility of a hijacking, thus far it hasn't completely prevented the ability to bring explosives on board.

Jenifur Charne

 

[NM]

Re: Sometime tomorrow morning 9 years ago, I had the urge to watch TV for no real rea

I was on a late night conference call with lots of people in the USA. Some were in the DC area. So the topic of the conference calls was put on hold and we had a running commentary and discussion as people were listening to the radio/TV and readying from CNN and other news sites. It was interesting to hear it all unfolding.

 

[drron]

Re: Sometime tomorrow morning 9 years ago, I had the urge to watch TV for no real rea

Well today(US time) is the first year I have not been on a plane on 9/11.I have deliberately flown on this day since 2002.However I did attend a baseball game(The Padres beat the Giants) and as you can imagine there were a few emotional moments with the crew of the Carl Vinson bringing on a very large Stars and Stripes etc.
In 2001 I had gone to bed early but we borth woke ~0400 and I went out to make mrsdrron a cup of tea.For some reason I turned on the TV when they were doing a replay of the Pentagon incident.I went back to the bedroom and told her we may be seeing the start of WW3.

 

[Tooner]

Re: Sometime tomorrow morning 9 years ago, I had the urge to watch TV for no real rea

I was on holiday in th UK, a nice sunny autumn afternoon when we heard a plane had hit the WTC. Caught in a traffic jam through Plymouth to my sister's place and watched both towers fall on TV.

We flew out of LHR on the Friday, and got caught in the melee through London, and at the airport. Got to PER to hear Ansett had definitely gone and we had no flight back to SYD.

My lasting memory of the flight home were the very scared Americans in the AA lounge at LHR, waiting for the first flights home.

 

[ejb]

Re: Sometime tomorrow morning 9 years ago, I had the urge to watch TV for no real rea

I was woken by a friend by text message saying "I had stood there only months ago" and I phoned him to ask why the hell he had woken me up and he told me to turn on the TV.

Watched TV non stop for the next 6 hours and to this day watching the second plane hit and the towers fall rate as the most chilling moment in my life.

The absolute horror of the events will never fade, and life will never be the same agian.

ejb

 

[jdlover23]

Re: Sometime tomorrow morning 9 years ago, I had the urge to watch TV for no real rea

Was in Kentucky this morning 9/11 here right now, and one of channels was rebroadcasting nbc's coverage in "real" time, it was quite eary watching it all unfold with all the on the spot speculation. Have flown 3 flights today on American, I swear one lady was about to freak out when a Muslim man boarded our little plane in Kentucky, so still very fresh in peoples psyche over here

I remember the actual events very clearly, had finished work late at the cinema in those days, had gone to the local trade union for a drink, and when I was driving home something was mentioned about maybe a small commuter plane had hit one of the towers, got home turned on the tv to see the 2nd plane hit live, started to SMS everyone I knew, and stayed up for hrs glued in disbelief. The next day we received posts for the first spideman movie, which had spidey suspended between the two twin towers, we were asked to destroy those that day by request of the film distributor.

 

[tuapekastar]

Re: Sometime tomorrow morning 9 years ago, I had the urge to watch TV for no real rea

My memory says it was a Tuesday night here in MEL when it happened but maybe that's wrong.

I came home from somewhere, did some channel-surfing and thought "what an odd disaster movie with the split screen", then the penny dropped. Watched till very late, appalled at what was going on.

Got an e-mail next day from an Aussie mate who was living/working in NYC.

In brief:
Came out of subway about a block from Ground Zero for a meeting, and wondered about the debris in the air
Went to 49th floor of his building (not WTC) and when the lift opened everyone was at the windows looking out
At that moment the second plane hit and everyone raced to pile into the lift (which stopped alomst every floor on the way down, but no more peeps could fit)
He went straight back into the subway and out of Manhattan

Re the OP, I feel safe travelling, at least from acts of terrorism. I'm sure someone determined and innovative and 'lucky' enough will cause another tragedy, but not on the scale of 9/11. There's a lot of complaining about airport security, a fair amount of it justified, but I'm happy to just put up with it, even the bits that I have some doubts about their usefulness. I'd rather err on the side of caution.

As to world safety, I don't consider it any more or less safe now than in the past. Remember WW1 and 2, the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, various plagues, and countless other unpleasantries over the centuries. It's just different now.

 

[JeniSkunk]

Re: Sometime tomorrow morning 9 years ago, I had the urge to watch TV for no real rea

My memory says it was a Tuesday night here in MEL when it happened but maybe that's wrong.

I came home from somewhere, did some channel-surfing and thought "what an odd disaster movie with the split screen", then the penny dropped. Watched till very late, appalled at what was going on.

You're right. I did misremember what day of the week it was, AND I had the IRC log open while I was making my post this morning.
I know what you mean about staying up late and not going to bed till sometime in the early hours of that Wednesday September 12. That morning I didn't crawl into bed till near on 4:00am. Normally, I'd have been curled up in bed near on 4 or so hours earlier.

Jenifur Charne

 

[BAM1748]

Re: Sometime tomorrow morning 9 years ago, I had the urge to watch TV for no real rea

I only just realised what day it was when I looked at my phone, but searching through my TV guide I see no memorial shows on free-to-air, so perhaps it’s finally time to get past it, not so much forget, but not spend so much time focusing on it?

Every year I change my desktop background to something I think reflects it well, that I picked up one year, somewhere online.

I was at boarding school on the Gold coast, and woke to it, or maybe went to bed to it, I can’t really recall, but I remember seeing it on TV in the common room.

A bit hard to get past it I think, especailly if you're a yankee and I don't blame them. My only connection to the WTC was to be a visitor and stand on the observation deck on the roof in 1995 after the first bombing.

There have been a couple of TV shows on free to air, one coming up on the ABC on Thursday night about phone calls from the towers which I imagine will bring a tear to my eye.

Matt

 

[BAM1748]

Re: Sometime tomorrow morning 9 years ago, I had the urge to watch TV for no real rea

We flew out of LHR on the Friday, and got caught in the melee through London, and at the airport. Got to PER to hear Ansett had definitely gone and we had no flight back to SYD.

Yes, what would normally be lead story for a month (Ansett going down) rated a brief mention on about page 7. Amazing times.

Matt

 

[Katie]

Re: Sometime tomorrow morning 9 years ago, I had the urge to watch TV for no real rea

I had gone to bed, and Mr Katie was up watching TV. He was watching the West Wing, which was interrupted by a news announcement. Even though it was a channel 9 news person, it took him a while to be sure that it wasn't part of West Wing. He came in and woke me to tell me what had happened, but I was too sleepy to understand. He stayed up for a few hours watching TV, and emailing with a friend's Dad. Some time early US Pacific time, Mr Katie called a friend who was in California for work, with his family on short trip. I remember the friend's wife commenting that she was glad they had their 2 month old (first child) with them on that trip, as interacting with him helped them not get as caught up in the overwhleming news coverage. It was still early enough that when Mr Katie rang our friends in CA, they hadn't seen any news, and had no idea what had happened.
Then on the 12th, Aus time, we got together with our family for Mr Katie's birthday, and spent most of the night talking about the crashes.

 

[NYCguy]

Re: Sometime tomorrow morning 9 years ago, I had the urge to watch TV for no real rea

I was at work on Broad Street.

Got a call from my partner, who was at home uptown, that 1 WTC had been hit by a large commerical jet.

By the time the second aircraft hit 2 WTC, we were all glued to the TV. There were cries of horror, screaming, weeping. My boss at the time, a tough, take-no-prisoners Brooklyn boy, just kept saying "This is no accident, people, this is no accident". He was as white as a ghost and shaking like a leaf.

At about this time I said "F*ck this, I'm out of here!". I left the building in a hurry, got on the 5 train at Wall Street. Was amazed that there were still people streaming up out of the station, oblivious to what was happening a couple of blocks away.

Changed trains at 14th Street and the car was abuzz. I got off the train at 68th Street and bought a pack of cigarettes (I gave up smoking in 1998) on the way home.

Partner and I sat and watched TV/taking calls from people in other countries who were concerned about us. I was dumbfounded when 2 WTC collapsed... Like everyone else, I simply could not fathom how it could possibly happen. As 1 WTC collapsed I said "We need to get out of this town, and we need to go NOW!".

I called some friends who live on Lake Champlain, outside Burlington, VT, as we packed bags. They agreed that we needed to get out of NYC ASAP. We drove up, listening to the radio the whole way. I think we spoke maybe a dozen words to each-other on the whole 5.5 hour drive.

We drove back 5 days later. The City was, obviously, still in shock. I think the whole world was. I thought that the American's response was very measured, because if I had been the President, the whole of Afghanistan would have been a radioactive basketball court by sunset on September 12.

I believe the sentiments of many were captured in this message written in the dust on an anonymous downtown window:

Bin Laden had, as everybody knows, escaped death on more that one occasion over the preceding few years because the Americans were afraid of collateral damage, in one case civilians in the camp Bin Laden was occupying, on another occasion because he was accompanied by some Prince from the UAE. This turned out to be a monumental mistake; as much a mistake as the British Government refusing permission to assassinate Hitler in the 1930's because it was considered "not sporting". I'm a hawk. There are lots of Princes in the UAE.