|
» Is she okay, Derek?
– Paul { 9.11.01 @ 8:34am }
» Yeah, thank goodness. She moved to LA a couple months ago. I'll edit the original post to make that more clear. I'm just a little stunned right now....
– Derek { 9.11.01 @ 8:46am }
» I lived in NYC for 10 years and just saw the pictures of the Towers coming down. I'm in tears...all those people...did I know any of them?
– mirla { 9.11.01 @ 8:49am }
» I just stumbled across something really eerie - On September 11, 1609 Henry Hudson discovered Manhattan island.
– fishrush { 9.11.01 @ 9:42am }
» fishrush, that's a very odd fact, but I think perhaps coincidence. I'm guessing that it might be random or have more to do with it being an election day in New York.
– Dinah { 9.11.01 @ 10:02am }
» Thanks for the update, Derek.
– Paul { 9.11.01 @ 10:27am }
» I live in North Carolina very close to Fort Bragg. When I saw the news this morning I cried because I saw the footage where the 2nd airplane had crashed into the tower. I cried for the people on the plain and the people inside. Those people must of felt so much fright and I know none of them woke up that morning afraid of that. I would be afraid of it crashing but thats jsut because I don't like airplanes but most would just say well its jsut an airplane and I'll make it, it will be my last time or it could of been their very first time telling theirselves it would be ok. NONE of them knew this was going to happen, none of them didn't know they would never see their loved ones. I just can't take all this in because I hurt, it hurts me physically and emotionally. I was laying in my bed when this happened, safe. My fiance is safe. My family is safe. But I feel bad because all thsoe people weren't.
I am so sorry to the families and friends of anyone who was in DC or NYC and the people in Pennsylvania. I really am. I will pray and think about all of your families, I know I dont know them personally but in my heart I do because we are all people. I'm so sorry, if anyone would like to talk and you don't know who tot alk to you or you want a new friend, please email me (graytopia@aol.com) I will talk to you, I will be your friend and I think all of us should go to bed tonight and think of all what we have.
xoxo,
cathy
– cathy { 9.11.01 @ 11:42am }
» Can't stop crying.....just the thought that 2 months ago, I would have been there. I was always at work by 8:00 am. 12th floor in the North Tower.....used to go up and down to the 35th floor all the time.
Shock....sick....fucking frightened out of my mind.
I can't get a hold of all of my friends over at Merrill Lynch. It's gone now..... just dust. So sad....
Please say many prayers and go give blood!
– Jenn { 9.11.01 @ 11:53am }
» I watched it all on CNN in my office at L and 17th Streets, Northwest Washington. My colleagues halted, stopped mid email, mid-conversation with clients, and rushed home to their loved ones. I'm told the parking garage attendants knew nothing, nothing of what was going on as they'd been in their garages since 6:00 in the morning, minus televisions or radios... scrambling as businessmen and women in tears tried desperately to get their cars, pick through the crowds, collecting children from daycare. Later, I emerged, still stunned, from the building and the sun, oh the sun was so deceiving. Such a beautiful day. A friend tells me it was like this in Hiroshima, on that terrible day too. The phones are down everywhere, but I know my friend at the Pentagon is safe because she finally e-mailed me back. The guy I'm dating - his firm had an office in the World Trade Center - 400 lawyers. It would be too optimistic to believe they're all safe and sound. The roads here are yellow-taped at intersections, and men with machine guns stand every few feet. The streets downtown are quiet and empty now. It's like a pleasant Saturday, a few people mill around. Only, the people I see are in trances, staring at the ground. Everyone is in shock, even now.
– Mattie { 9.11.01 @ 12:07pm }
» god how insane. they just talked about the woman who called her husband from the airplane while it was being hi-jacked.....the only weapons they had were knifes and those razors used to cut cardboard......crazy. my heart is heavy and grieving for this tremendous loss.....a loss not only for the ones directly involved, but for all of us.
– celisa { 9.11.01 @ 2:06pm }
» It is the inhumanity of it all that causes my heart to break. This was not an accident. This was not a malfunction. There were people who lived with the intent to hurt and to kill. There were people who planned this, who dreamed this perfect little plan that stabbed at the heart of every decent human being. I'm so sorry for the families, for the men and women who woke up this morning for just another day, and for the country that will never be the same. If you can do something now, do it. If you can't, at least pray with the rest of us.
– mona { 9.11.01 @ 4:14pm }
» It is frightening what people can do to one another.
It is frightening to realize that we have no control,
over events, illness, and countless acts of hatred.
Makes one feel helpless, in a world with so much
pain and suffering.
But why? What is the purpose of pain and suffering? Where is the meaning? Is there meaning? The answers came to me in philosophy class. I just don't believe them as a get older. Can
we love and be passionate in the face of evil?
don"t believe them as I grow older.
– morris powazek { 9.11.01 @ 4:38pm }
» Tonight the world fears the gentle giant of the west, believing we will lash out at the rest for this outrage. The guilty will be punished but we should not allow our anger to run rampant.
For the first time in years our nation has been brought together in one mind and with great mourning for our lost countrymen and women. If only we could feel the same kind of brotherhood in times of peace!
God be with us all tonight!
– Michael D. Thomas { 9.11.01 @ 5:40pm }
» Very true words, Michael. Well said.
Morris Powazek wrote:
It is frightening to realize that we have no control,
over events, illness, and countless acts of hatred.
Ahh, yes. "Control is an illusion". Couldn't agree more. By what Derek has told me, I'm guessing that you must be his father. Am I right? You raised a good man, Mr Powazek...
This is a painful time for so many. My heart goes out to all of you and to all of the vicitm's and their families. We can and will pull through this stronger than before.
– Jay Allen { 9.11.01 @ 7:12pm }
» All the other tragedies we've suffered as a nation seem to pale in comparison. As a Jr. High teacher, to see those innocent faces in my classroom and realize that the world they will know will be so different from the one in which I was raised makes me ill. The reality has yet to hit us all. I just kept thinking, "Thank God Jenny is home," but the loss of thousands...I just don't know what to think. Please, hug your families and loved ones!
– Momma { 9.11.01 @ 7:39pm }
» Just wanted to let you know..... I heard from my co-workers at Merrill Lynch. They all evacuated right after the second plane hit the tower. They are physically ok but emotionally distraught. I am so relieved.....yet still grieving for those I have not heard from and for those thousands of people who perished.
I fear what will happen next.
– Jenn Powazek { 9.11.01 @ 11:39pm }
» All the US bases here in Italy are on Delta alert. Right here, in front of the Mediterranean sea, we're facing this big "what" that is going to happen. We keep in our heart all of you american brothers, and we pray for us all.
– fabrizio { 9.12.01 @ 12:45am }
» Hi from the "frozen zone". We had a very harrowing day yesterday that started by watching the Trade Center fire from our rooftop. Then we had to find my boyfriend's little brother going to law school six blocks away from the trade center. (He is okay, thankfully) Once we gathered him up, we went to Bellevue to give blood, but were turned away because they couldn't handle so many people at once. While there we saw the police bringing in the wounded in paddy wagons because there just weren't enough ambulances to go around...
I have friends who saw the collapse up close, and were caught in the dust clouds. The whole thing is just appalling.
All day yesterday we heard non-stop sirens. And any time a plane flies overhead now, we get nervous.
Our windows are shut to keep out the dust.
It's disturbing now to look south and just see a plume of smoke where the towers used to be. I still can't believe all of this happened.
– sherri n. { 9.12.01 @ 6:36am }
» I have a friend living in Manhattan, who I believe is okay, but I don't know for certain. All can do is hope and pray. I think there might be an old school friend who went to Wall St. on a training course to learn about the US Stock Exchange. I wonder how he is? I wonder if there's anyone else out there who I know?
Myself, as someone on holiday who is meant to be going home to Ireland tomorrow, I'm watching the news, waiting to see what the situation is with flights out of SFO. I think I'm going to be delayed, and I just hope to hell my hotel can extend my stay..if they can't, well I'm out on my own, either looking for another hotel, asking people if I can crash...I dunno what will happen, or what I'll do.
I want to go home. I came here for a holiday, but that's all gone out the fucking window now. The Irish consulate aren't able to give much advice, just to tell me to keep checking in with my airline, but they're as in the dark as the consulate at the moment.
Fucking cowardly terrorists. I've had my life affected by them before, but nothing as horrifying as this, but still it's the same - they fuck life up, they make it hard for people to live, and generally make things miserable for everyone.
For anyone in NYC and around the US, I would say that life goes on. Don't give in to these people, because then they win. Terrorists, as the name suggests, try to cause terror. The greatest weapon against them is not to suffer terror or to show it.
– Tom Cosgrave { 9.12.01 @ 1:20pm }
» Yesterday.........
i work in Manhatten around 8 blocks from where the World Trade Center stood,
until yesterday, and lived there as well until moving to the bronx
a few weeks ago--i was at work yesterday morning when the world seemed
to have gone completely mad and turned completely upside-down--by the
grace of god, my family, neighbors (who worked in the bank across the
street from the WTC), and myself are OK--but, i will NEVER forget the
faces--the faces of the people fleeing the area, shell-shocked, shaking
and covered in concrete dust--faces of the throngs of people moving in
mass, exhausted and disbelieving, marching down 2nd and 3rd ave, trying
to get out of Manhatten the only, nearest way possible at the time, marching
in mass across the
Brooklyn Bridge, the face of my husband (after he saw the second plane
crash on the news after i had called him about the first crash and to warn
him he might have a hard time meeting me for lunch as we had planned--one of
the last calls i was
able to get thru to him before cell phones as well as land lines went
buggy--and coming to find me on his bike after all trains, buses and
roads into manhatten were closed and shut down)--his face when he found me,
safe and
ok--the faces of the the countless rescue, fire, police, ambulance and
volunteers rushing in buses and any vehicle available to the scene, and of
rescue vehicles lined
up at area hospitals--the faces of the incredible lines of people lined
up at hospitals waiting to give blood--the faces of the national guard,
barely old enuf to shave, babies, standing in midtown and all around the
United Nations area, directing people and traffic in full uniform, armed
with M-16's--the faces of my co-workers as the severity of this
horrible, obscene, travesity unfolded and finally sunk in as families
and friends who were desparately trying to locate and be located and
passers-by who were
being helped and calmed--the faces of the peole as we gathered around
car radios and looked up into the amazing clouds of smoke billowing from
wreckage of what was the NYC skyline, forever changed--and my thanks and
gratitude--thanks to the resiliency and incredible New Yorkers who just
pitched in and did what was neccesary--it took me around 6 hours to
finally get home (usually a 20 minute train ride)and that's only because
an amazing cop actually stopped a bus and told a driver to let me on, my
husband rode back over to the bronx and met me there, by then cell phone
seems to be working and transportation seemed to be starting to run a
little, if very slow and congested with all the rescue vehicles , and i
was never so happy to be "HOME"--i am very grateful right now, and just
wanted to share this with my 'internet friends'--we all need to give
thanks each and every day for all the things we take for granted
daily--friends, family, freedom......and so much more
-with love--
Robin
– Robin { 9.12.01 @ 5:08pm }
» Derek,
Thanks for the forum. While I do not know personally anyone involved in this tragedy, my heart and soul goes out to the thousands of families effected. Like everyone else, I watch in horror the story unfolding for the past 33 hours, still finding it hard to take it all in. It is a sad indictment of the world we live in. Our beliefs, our values the very fabric of our lives were attacked yesterday. I know that this will strenghten our resolve and pull our great nation together. We are Americans and will remain free!
God Bless our Great Country
– Mike (Hammond, La) { 9.12.01 @ 5:58pm }
» It's like a nightmare that no one can wake from. To know that some one deliberately hurt and killed many Americans for the joy of it. We as Americans need to come together as one to secure our future and land and to keep our children safe.
GOD BLESS US ALL!
– S.G. { 9.12.01 @ 6:48pm }
» We are a country of strength and unity. And though it doesn't show at times, when a tragedy of this magnitude happens the people of the United States always go back to our roots of Strength, Unity and Hope. Through these virtues we will overcome the hate that exists in the world today and good shall prevail. May our leaders and all peoples of the world who believe in good ban together and wipe out terrorism so that no one should have to go through this kind of horror again. God Bless America!
– thomas { 9.13.01 @ 8:26am }
» I am in southeast Kansas and although a long way from New York, very close in thought and prayers for everyone there. It is just unbelievable what has happened! My little grandchildren are frightened, they cannot understand such meanness or why anyone would crash an airplane on purpose. You don't have to be a young child to have these feelings of fear and confusion. I am so thankful that Bush is our Presdident at this time, he is not afraid to show his tears or to do what has to be done. It is not about being democrat or republican, just doing the right thing.
– Barbara { 9.13.01 @ 11:08am }
» Derek - I'm glad your sister is safe. My friend Jacki was in the second tower and got out. But she had just sent two people up to the 90th floor before the first plane hit. How can someone ever cope with that?
Somehow everyone I know in Manhattan was able to get out of harm's way. I was stranded on Long Island on Business while I watched this unhatch less than 30 miles away on Manhattan and then seeing the Pentagon getting attacked at home. I finally got back, but now we've got MPs on the streets. I don't know how this will affect us all, but I pray that we make a positive out of such a negative.
– john athayde { 9.14.01 @ 10:42am }
» Oh God what a nightmare.
I live in CA. I was driving into work Tuesday morning when I heard the news. The radio channel I listen to sometimes jokes around on people.. so when they announced it I thought it was a joke. I switched to another station to find out it was true. I'm depressed and angry.. I think the "terrorist" will find a new meaning for terror when the U.S. military gets through with them. And this is one time that they'll get what they deserve if we catch them. Only hope that WWIV doesn't occur because of this.
"I know not with what World War 3 will be fought, but i do know World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones" -- Albert Einstien
– B. S. { 9.14.01 @ 4:51pm }
» In Indiana, my 21 yr. old son called to see if I was watching t.v. as the events of Sept. 11 unfolded. My first thoughts raced to my father who works for the U.S. EPA and travels extensively, especially Wash. D.C. He was safe. But now I am more afraid of how quickly George W. has rushed to judgement after only hours into an investigation. Many of his threats and comments of revenge reminded me of a true story where a black man was accused of raping a white woman (a lie she had concoccted to distract her husband away from the fact she had been cheating on him), and the lies and rumors spread so fast that white townspeople began lynching and killing all young black men in the area, then white supremistists used the cause as a front to kill many innocent black men, women, and children and loot and burn their businesses and homes, all in the name of justice. Fact based events such as this is an example why our judicial system has long been touted by our government as the only fair and equal way to exact justice and legislation as the only way to change laws or write new ones to help prevent future reoccurences. I'm afraid Bush may appear more like a "good ol' boy' southerner rallying as many he can for a "lynchin", before truth and justice has a chance to prevail. Although on one hand the act of violence perpetrated on Sept.11 produced the greatest number of caualities than any other single act, it cannot come near the collective number of people murdered in the U.S. within the last ten years. But no matter how heinous the crime or how many were killed, our government has long advocated working within the legal system to ensure justice and execute punishment. After the war in Yugoslavia, one of our troops missions was to protect the people and prevent reprisals from those who had lost entire families and communities from attrocities commited by the Serbs. We ask them to settle things in War Tribunals. During the gulf war when Israel was bombed by Iraqi scud missles, their first response was one of "revenge", but at the request of the U.S., was asked to back down so as not to turn the tables of our original mission and alienate our few Arab allies. Therefore how can we justify this double standard to our children, to our foreign allies,or to those doing time in prison for taking the law into their own hands and,
for example, killed the person who had kidnapped and raped their child? I remember in the McVeigh investigation that it was several months before police had enough evidence to bring him to trial. The early stages of the investigation focused on first, a terrorists link, then a John Doe #3, both of which were eventually determined not to exisist. And the very agency that botched that investigation as well as Ruby Ridge and Waco is the same one who leading this one. I want justice as much as anyone, but I'm not sure if I trust the FBI's ability to gather the evidence that may lead into WW III, only to possibly find out that 3,000 misplaced documents may eventually prove that we wrongly punished innocent people in our rush for 'revenge'.
– Rita { 9.22.01 @ 7:11am }
» My dad was at the Pentagon...i was so scared. I wish to see the pictures of the Trade Towerswhere they see the devil in the smoke.I mean the face of it. Sorry. I miss all those people even though i never knew them. it is sad to say that they were all inosent and had died, but at least we know there in a place where they are safe. HEAVEN. it is a good place. but it was to soon. i miss them so much. it is sad to see the people cring and wondering about their family and also the kids wondering where their mom or dad or even their brother or sister is. i'm sad to see them not happy and lonely.
– Brittney Davis { 9.24.01 @ 2:52pm }
» Posting to this entry is now closed! If you'd like to post about your expereinces on September 11th, please visit missing pieces. If you'd like to post about how the Internet has helped you in this crisis, please visit Design for Community. Thanks.
– Derek M. Powazek { 9.24.01 @ 3:10pm }
| 
