What Did September 11Th Teach You?

Basically all it taught me was that America is not bullet proof. I was 20 and was under the impression that we were pretty impenetrable.

I was stationed in Germany. Active duty Army. That moment changed my entire life in the military, for my family, my future.

Even today, everything I do in uniform and out has been affected by 9-11. I'll never forget how I felt, standing there with my battle buddies by the Staff Duty desk, watching as the second plane hit. The realization set in for all of us, all at once.

And it rocked our world.

wow - I was just thinking this morning how it affected me.

I was 23 at the time - a little arrogant, felt invincible, safe, a little callous to world events.
Then when I realized what had happened and that we were under attack I felt a fear I had never felt - that comfortable feeling that nothing would ever happen to me was rocked - that day I didn't know when the next attack was going to happen and realized it could actually be me! (I lived in a small IL town however the plan went down in the field in PA and who knew what was going to happen next).
I had never felt the feeling inside of me before, it was fear, uneasiness, sadness.....
Coming from that however I realized how proud I was of my country and how proud I was of those in the duty of keeping us safe.
To this day when I see a military person, firefighter, or police officer I thank them for their service = and I always get a lump in my throat when I say it.

I was at an event with my son and they were showing off a bomber from WWII and there were military members in the area, I told them "thank you for your service" and sounded really shaky and sniffled - my son asked why I was crying.....I just said, "I'm proud and very thankfull for the men and women who fight to keep us safe."

It has taught me that our land isn't as safe as I grew up believing and I still think of large gatherings and how a terrorist attack could easily happen again. I was 21 so it taught me about fear and how real life could be. It taught me that Americans can band together when things get bad, although sad how quickly how things dissipate I know that if this were to happen again we would once again rally together to stand strong and help out. It will always be one of those moments that you don't forget what you were doing when you heard or watched the news of the attacks.

Up until that day I imagined a giant force field covering America. I thought no country would dare attack American soil for fear of our superior fire power and military strength. Until that day, war only happened in other countries. I realized, that day, that we are not invincible.

I have to say that the sheer magnitude of the entire day still leaves me in awe. That it affected people all over the USA and the World goes to show what a powerful nation we are. We have survived.

I was living in Manhattan on 9/11/2001. I lived up in the 80s and can still recall the smell that wafted into my apartment that night. It was a fiery ash smell. We had to keep the windows shut so the air didn't come in - but you couldn’t escape it.

I was home when it happened. My then boyfriend (now husband) called to say a plane hit the World Trade. It was an amazing site to see that fire and know just how in trouble those people were. After all, I walked past those buildings for years (I had always worked in the Financial District - mainly at the World Financial Center which is the tall buildings next to the World Trade with the green tops). Coming out of he subway every day I would look up and se the World Trade. It was an amazing site to see as you come out of the subway and they are right above you.

The scariest part of the day was once the buildings fell, there was smoke and soot everywhere. My roommate and BFF was down there. I wondered how she, with her bad asthma, would make it home. He father had been calling me to ask if she was home yet and he had little hope. He was calmly desperate. It wasn't until 1:30 that I heard a key in the lock. We hugged and she just shook. She was with a man who drove her home. Someone from work put her in his car and said take her as far up as you're going. It took hours to go a few miles so he had come in to our apartment to use they bathroom and call his wife. They both looked shell shocked. She called her dad and just cried and cried.

All night and for several days we would hear the jet fighters flying around Manhattan. It was scary to hear them. Everyone just walked around in a daze (or really angry) not really knowing what to do or think. Would they find people buried alive (no, not really)? The firehouse on my block, the one I walked by everyday lost 9 men. 9 MEN. It was horrible to walk by there. They had photos and a shrine and black and purple bunting. Their faces were blank.

I have to say that Rudy Giuliani is the MAN!! He did a great job comforting New Yorkers.

I think that a lot of people are still walking around very affected by 9/11.

If you are going to watch some of the 9/11 tributes, I suggest watching the MSNBC airing of the today show minute by minute coverage as it happened. They replay the tape in real time (so start watching at 8:30 am).

God bless America!

I am thinking and coming back to this when I get home from the school run....

I was only 18 when 9/11 happened. Fresh out High School that past June.

For me. Life sorta stopped. Never really picked up from where it was.

Yes, I am still here. Living and breathing every moment in life. I have had the happiest moments and the scariest moment happen to me personally since 9/11 happened. And some how...because we all experienced the same sort of pain that day..and in the weeks to come... My personal experiences with heart ache have been easier.

I dont feel anger towards Muslims. Or People of Middle Eastern background.

I feel anger towards the Powers that be...That knew it was coming. I WHOLE heartedly believe it was a half way inside job. This is merely my opinion on the matter. I know this is a touchy view point to have on it...but please let me have my opinion.

We stood together so strong the weeks after the attacks. Our disbelief and sadness...then turned anger, took over that feeling and ten years later...we all hate one another(generally speaking). No one cares about anyone else anymore. Everyone is so shell shock,scared and unable to move from fear....we have become bitter at the Powers that be...we are tired...and cant seem to stop pointing the finger the other direction.

9/11 taught me....

The lies are bigger then we can possible understand
Hate is winning over all
After the haze of togetherness...the truth and new feelings suck. People are not the same as they were on 9-10-01...

It is hard to say where life would have taken me, had 9/11 not happened.

I was in a relationship with a Military guy when it happened. And he was a Ranger...so he would be some of first to go...and was.

Everything I had known and had plans for no longer was the plan....my life went into a tale spin just on the fact that the guy I had been seeing for over a year...no longer could leave base...could not call me to let me know what was going on. I think at 18 that is a lot to swallow.

I dont think we as a country can move on from where we are...still numb and sort of shell shocked...We will never honestly know what really drove 9/11. They sure did a good job marketing fear...

I guess I am waiting for my answer to flow out of my fingers while typing.

It is not happening.

I think I am having issues answering, because I am still figuring out what it is Teaching me. Right now the teachers are very confusing and yelling over petty points. Why we have first responders dying of the same sorts of issues..cancer and what not...and yet we see no connection totally bewilders me..and so this is teaching me we dont care about those effected by tragedy....Even when it is the worst thing to happen on american soil.....So, I am waiting for the teachers to start saying the right things..so I can learn the important things that need to be learned from 9/11.

Again these are merely my opinions.

That the will to live is very strong and humans can endure a lot of trauma and survive it and live on.
Personally I dont like them doing all the drama on TV every year, it continues to instill fear and causes new fear for those who were too young at the time to be affected by it.

I agree with everything you said. I'm 57 and have a little bit different perspective.... I was 8 when the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred. Of course that was averted but it was an extremely close call. My mom was very political at the time and incessantly discussed it. We had stockpiled food, etc. I took it all to heart & developed OCD...constant worrying that we'd all be killed, etc. :(

So, when 9/11 happened, it was very weird for me, almost like, "it took this long?" Because as a child, I was convinced something would happen -- much sooner, is what I was expecting.

I never felt safe then and I really don't now. But I keep my thoughts on the eternal & that this world (thanks to the Lord) is not all there is.

I do think we Americans are stronger and can still pull together, and I do feel so very sorry for the losses of that day + the war losses since that day. I'm sure the families that have suffered loss will never be the same.

I had just been invited--about 5 days prior--to go to training with a major airline. Training was put on hold after 9/11 but about a week later they called and said if you still want the job come to training.

I did, and I can say that it was an odd mixture of sadness and hope. Sadness for what was lost and hope and commitment to a better future. I was very proud of America at that time and I still am!

What affected me the most about 9/11 though was the children who lost their lives, particularly those on the airplanes involved. That makes me angry, thinking about what they must have felt. I try to be extra vigilant at work, not just for my own immediate safety, but really in their memory. I never want another child to experience this and I'll do whatever it takes to make sure that they don't.

Thanks for bringing up this topic, J.! Much more meaningful than the media blitz currently underway!!

Thank you for sharing this, I totally agree with you.

I've been posting tributes to 9/11 on Facebook and will continue at least through Sunday. I've been going over the stories, articles, pictures, etc., that are being posted on the internet and doing some research myself. It has taken me 10 years to be able to do so, and i still can't handle a lot of it. Each and every story of loss is poignant in it's own way. (Even the loss of the Twin Towers, I loved seeing them in pictures and movies, and hoped to see them in person one day, but never had the opportunity. I found a video of their cameos in films and posted it yesterday, and friends in NY thanked me, they were fond of them also and miss them not being there.)

But the lives lost are the hardest to accept. I was up at 1:30 in the morning, and was wondering how young the youngest victim was. She was 2.5, which my little guy will be in one month. I was overwhelmed and wanted to rush in and pick him up and hold him and tell him I love him, but stopped myself from waking him up. I can't imagine what her or the other parents on the planes felt in those final seconds... Or the parents of the 11 year olds on their way to CA, who saw what was happening and knew their children were on one of those planes.

It's been 10 years and I still get teary-eyed, and I didn't lose anyone personally, I don't know how the survivors deal with it. I know that God gives us no more than we can bear, but what they have had to go through i wouldn't wish on anyone.

And, yes, our nation DID come together after 9/11, and sadly, has gone (for the most part) back to their selfish ways. I remember everyone helping in any way they could, of their time and money. Even in other countries, they cared. Friends of mine were visiting relatives in Spain, and were unable to fly home for a week and a half after the attacks. But every time they took a walk outside people would stop them and tell them how sorry they were for them and the US, that what happened was horrible, and would hug them and wish them well upon their return. They watched everything on TV there, and the coverage was as it was here.

My neighbors across the street are Muslim, and their daughter (a young teen at the time) was beat up at school that day, she was told because she was "one of them." Her family is the nicest, friendliest family on the block, they were appalled by what had taken place in NY and Washington, DC. Yet they were victims, too.

My hope is that we can honor the victims of 9/11 in what we do and say, how we treat each other, how we pull together and help each other, and that we strive to work together in their honor, rather than just for our own needs and wants.

There's a site, http://facebook.com/911day where you can post your tribute, I encourage everyone to. You can also find them @:
http://911day.org
http://twitter.com/911day
http://causes.com/Iwill

I know someone personally who lost her husband that day in one of the towers, he was from SoCal and on a business trip. A great husband and father and human being. So in honor of Jerrold H. Paskins I will NEVER FORGET.

Fear... I could not reach my daughter in NY City for a very long hour
Gratitude... she and her husband were alive
Humility.... she was already helping
Pride... like so many others, they are still supporting a first-responder
Sadness.. that some blame governments or groups for the acts of terrorists
Hope.... that our respect for all the losses and heroes will spur each of us to reach out to our families and communities to make better connections.

That life is short, not a guarantee and family time is most important.

That you never know what can happen. That we'll never know the truth of who was behind it. That we cannot trust even our own government who at the Very Least knew the threat was there and did nothing to protect us. That we will survive the worst and continue to be one of the best countries to live in and raise children.