It says something when a tragedy becomes a cliche.

It was night time for me and I was turning a corner of an intersection in my car on my way home when I first heard about it on the car radio. I had the next day off from work. I heard later it was very quiet and sombre at work that day.

I heard a story of how one man was instantly fired from his job when he treated the attacks as a joke while in his place of work. I also heard of one group of Chinese visitors who where told to leave the country when they burst out laughing at the news.

I also heard of how Muslim children were abused while going to school. So while the previous paragraph shows something that made me feel proud the last sentence doesn’t.

I feel alarmed at how insular the World has become.

I went to church yesterday, for the first time this year. I went to a church I hadn’t been too before. I wasn’t offended by anything. I think the real worry was what was inside me, my own prejudices. I do remember nothing was said about the anniversary, though.

Yes there are enemies without. We should not be naive about that. But let’s not forget the harm we do to ourselves as a society.

I remember waking up and grumbling a lot. Nature’s Alarm Clock. I had the early shift at work, and waking up an hour before my usual time meant that I wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep.

Annoyed, I trudged down the hall, past the kitchen where my housemate was watching television. I grunted something approaching a greeting and headed into the bathroom.

On my way back, I see my housemate is still staring at the TV. “What’re you watching?”, I asked, suddenly noticing tears on his cheeks.

Right then - at. that. moment. - the South Tower collapsed.

My housemate’s name was Mohammed, by the way.

—-

I was working a Baskin-Robbins at the time. The boss even called to make sure I was coming in. “People are gonna need ice cream.”, I told him. It was pretty slow, but those who came in were grateful. It is comforting to know that in a world suddenly turned sideways, a hot fudge sundae is still a bastion of innocent pleasure, and there’s very little that can change that.

I kept the radio on, listening carefully to the news reports, making sure I had the best information. Folks would come in with one or more wild rumors - the military is tracking six more jets - Chicago is in flames - Washington Monument hit… The sort of stories that fly at that time. I’d gently correct folks, “I’ve been listening to NPR all morning, here’s what they have.”... it reassured them that the wild rumors from their friend of a friend weren’t true.

—-

My father’s story is somewhat amusing. For nearly thirty years, he had a marvellous handlebar moustache - the result of a competition between him and a college buddy. One fine morning, he came to the decision to shave it off.

Nobody at work noticed for like, four days.

I remember it well enough from the first time around, so I didn’t really want to spend the day wallowing in those memories again.  I went camping instead.

I so happened to have the day off when it took place, so I watched it as it happened, but from the UK. Having grown up with years of terrorism in mainland Britain, the WTC attack hasn’t really affected me in any way, other than the annoyance of reading conspiracy nonsense.

Yeah, the conspiracy nonsense is probably the worst part of the whole shebang, at least on an ‘affecting daily life’ aspect. Some people can’t fathom how the all-powerful government would ‘allow’ something like this to happen, so therefore they must be in on it, etc, etc, etc..

*sigh*

Talking with Truthers is where I get my Signature #2 from: “Ok… So… what would it take to convince you that it really WAS a bunch of terrorists? What evidence would do it? What study, or investigation, or document would you accept as bona fide? What source of informaiton would you *trust* and say ‘ok, I was wrong?”
“Well, none, of course. The information’s all been covered up/altered as part of the conspiracy.”
“So… then how do YOUR sources know they are correct?”
“They just are.”
*headdesk*

Repeat a couple times with minor variations, and I’ve come to the conclusion: Trutherism is a religion. It is faith-based. They believe, and that’s that.

The one I hate is when they trot out ‘A bunch of ignorant fanatics living in a cave and armed with box cutters couldn’t have taken the planes, people would have fought back’. I have to gently but firmly tell them, “No, they couldn’t have. But a bunch of trained, special-ops commandos, armed with combat knives could have. Everyone thought it was just a hijacking.” The recently-released tapes showed that a few folks had been stabbed, and the hijackers can be heard telling everyone ‘Sit down and be calm and everything will be fine’...

I was at work and heard my girlfriend who was the office manager and one of the crewmen watching a little TV in the other room.  Suddenly I heard ‘OMG!’  I got up and walked into the other room where both were glued to the TV and I asked what was going on.  ‘A plane just hit a tower in the World Trade Center,’ they told me.  I assumed a little personal plane where the pilot has gotten sick or the plane had failed and there was so much smoke and then…...........a second hit and it wasn’t a plane at all, this was a jet, this was not a mistake or accident.

That’s when I realized that, after all the years of being ‘safely’ back in this country, having gotten away from the people I’d lived with who hated me because I was from the United States, who made it known that I was hated when I lived there….......... well, I hadn’t gotten away from them at all.  That has only been an illusion and no matter where I went, no matter where ANY of us go, we can’t hide.

That was a shaking epiphany…..that was my tower that fell.

I had already gone to bed when it happened.  I remember waking up the next morning to the news and wondering if it was all some sick joke being played by the radio station.

I also remember a few days later going to the movies with a friend for her birthday.  We saw “AI”, and I couldn’t help but thinking when watching that movie that the Americans were so confident with their buildings that the twin towers were shown still standing (albeit half-submerged in water) 2,000 years (or whatever it was) in the future.  And that happens to be about the only thing I do remember about that film!

I was home & had woken up unusually early (b/c I worked until almost 2, and then was out of the shower by 8:30ish).  The entire day is pretty much etched on my brain…Just the same way Kennedy’s assassination is etched into my mother’s.

It makes me sad the same way it makes me sad to think about Pearl Harbor or the Holocaust…Or Rwanda or any other devastating event from history.  Except that this is something I watched from start to finish.  I can’t help but feel sad thinking about people know their end was happening & not being able to do anything about it…

I remember watching a movie with my mom about a week later…At home, it was a rental.  And there is a couple or a girl looking for apartments and the realtor goes over to the windows & goes, “And here is a BEAUTIFUL view of the twin towers!”  And it kind of jolted me.  There had been so much censoring right away…Taking the images out of various artwork, movies, TV shows, etc.  That all of the sudden to have someone point it out…Was kind of jarring.

Yeah, I know what you mean about the Towers in older movies. It was pretty much required to show a shot of them to establish ‘Ok, the characters are in New York’. If you were really lucky, you got the helicopter fly-by of the Statue of Liberty with them in the background.

There was a guy who compiled movie and television clips featuring the Twin Towers, most of them the same three-second throwaway shots to establish location.
http://vimeo.com/28171399

Robin Bobcat - 13 September 2011 07:38 AM

Yeah, I know what you mean about the Towers in older movies. It was pretty much required to show a shot of them to establish ‘Ok, the characters are in New York’. If you were really lucky, you got the helicopter fly-by of the Statue of Liberty with them in the background.

There was a guy who compiled movie and television clips featuring the Twin Towers, most of them the same three-second throwaway shots to establish location.
http://vimeo.com/28171399

I had to steal that link & share it.  Very neat!

Smerk - 13 September 2011 04:54 AM

.............and I couldn’t help but thinking when watching that movie that the Americans were so confident with their buildings that the twin towers were shown still standing (albeit half-submerged in water) 2,000 years (or whatever it was) in the future.  ......................

The use of the word ‘confident’ and the context is more telling Smerk than you may have intended and so is the term ‘American’.  There are a few more words, ‘arrogant’, ‘conceited’, ‘pushy’, ‘bully’ that are frequently used to describe U.S. Americans (as opposed to Canadians and Mexicans who also live in America but somehow escape the label ‘American’ either because they don’t want to be associated with the U.S. for which I can hardly blame them, or because somehow the rest of the world would believe they live on an entirely different continent, and South Americans).  I am keenly aware that these words are used with some contempt on many levels from citizens of other countries.  Which is exactly why I was grieved by the attack too because there are many ‘Americans from the United States’ who are actually not only innocent of those words or the ideas they paint, but who will be hated or resented anyway. 

THAT’s what I thought on that damnable day, and it’s what I think now. 

I apologize, I am not feeling very well because of my own invasion, lack of sleep over several days, fear for my bird and husband and home, and resentment because I am in pain and nauseated.