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You have awoken a sleeping giant...
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/gvbZoQZh.jpg)
I grew up in New York about 40 minutes away from NYC, and as with most NYkers today is just one of those days that you talk to friends and family about "where you were" or "what were you doing that day". It's about remembering those that lost their lives, and about those that survived through some sort of miracle. I was lucky, I didn't lose anyone close to me, but I knew the people that lost people, I knew the people that were there surrounded by falling buildings, surrounded by the thumps of people hitting the pavement 100 stories high, and surrounded by the heroes that I look up to.
I remember that day like the back of my hand. I was 12 years old, and I was in the doctors office with my father. The previous day I had fallen on a rusty nail and today was my tetanus shot! Nearing the end of discussing my stupidity of running with a piece of food full of rusty nails the first building was struck. Every single person in the doctors office had gone completely silent, and my tetanus shot no longer mattered. We all gathered in the waiting area as we watched the TV bring in the first images. Cell phones began to ring, and people rushed out of the office crying. There was this surreal look of pain, of distraught and of complete confusion as we all stared at the small TV mounted on the wall.
It wasn't long until my father's cell phone rang. It kept ringing and ringing. Everyone in my family seemed fine, but my grandfather was heading down to the city.
NOTE: This picture was the taken on the 12th, the day after.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ie8G1bMh.jpg)
He was a fire-coordinator after all, and it was his duty to be there. He wasn't the only person I was worried about though. My best friend's father worked in the World Trade Center, but my best friend's phone wasn't being picked up. We decided to leave the office and rush home. We took the typically longer route via the dirt road along this lake, but my dad was flooring it so it was much quicker than usual. Then he stopped. He slammed the brakes on his little truck right along the lake and started crying. I'm talking full on waling, the type of crying that makes you cry, the type of crying that makes you want to crawl up inside yourself and not come back. It was the only time I have ever seen my father cry, and it is burned in my mind like a lit cigarette being pushed into my eyes. He said, "Son, today everything changes...today your world is not the same...we are all going to be different after today...and whatever...whatever happens is what it is, but never forget that we have one another...never forget how the world was this morning before that plane came..."
After the talk about the future of this country, my future and where we were going to be a few days from now we arrived at home. My mother had left work and picked my sister up from school, and we were finally all together. My best friend finally answered his land line phone, and it wasn't good news. His father had not been heard of since the planes hit. They had no idea where he was, or if he had survived. It was extremely sobering to see how much pain was in his voice. The fear had captured him. It had captured every single person that day, and the terrorists had damn well succeeded.
That night I had baseball practice as usual. The coach and families decided it was best to play baseball because it would keep our minds off the atrocity that had occurred only 30 miles away. We could see the smoke, and it didn't help. That afternoon on the field playing baseball didn't help in any way. It was the quietest practice, and one of the quietest moments of my life. There weren't any planes, there weren't any parents screaming at us, hell even the coaches were whispering. It was as if everyone was trying to play a game of silence to avoid the casual nature of it all. I mean who the hell plays baseball 8 hours after something like this happens? I know that day we didn't play baseball. We played a game of silence, a game of fear and a game of what ifs.
This man's face was representative of our country that day. Angry. Defeated. Sober. I'm not sure who he is, or if it was taken that day or in the days to follow, but it is exactly how I remember everyone.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/rnU05SRh.jpg)
Fast forward two days...
My best friend had just seen his father. His father survived, but it wasn't pretty. Apparently after the first building struck he ran out helping as many people as possible, but lost his cell phone in the hectic sprawl for safety. You couldn't leave the city. You were stuck that day.
My father wasn't himself at all. I've still never seen that empty look in his eyes, it was the look of a defeated man. I didn't find out later exactly why he was that way for a while, but it turns out that one of his jobs was to tag cars that were sitting in the train station parking lot for too long. Normally this would mean that someone was out of town, or their car was broken down, but after 9/11 it was different. Each car that was left behind was a person that was no longer here. Every single car that sat in that parking lot day after day was a car that no longer had an owner. He was devastated.
I guess all of this leads to my final story. My grandfather is good friends with the previous Governor of New York. I wouldn't say we had special privileges, but I definitely experienced 9/11 in a different manner than most. My grandfather had gotten down to the city to help with the rescue missions that morning and was able to take a bunch of pictures throughout the days to come. His friend also took some photos. A piece of the WTC was melted down into plaques as a memorial type deal. I'm not 100% sure, but a piece was given to my grandfather. I don't have any pictures of it, but I will ask him for some. I think it was one of the things that the Governor had given him. I held it and it was the most humbling experience of my life. This piece of metal had probably killed someone. It was a piece of the tallest building at the time, and it now was in my hands. But it was still here, it existed and so did we. That day I realized that we will all cease to exist in some form, but our memory, our existence itself will never disappear.
I've decided to post a link to a flickr account I made that has 293 photos from that day and the days to follow. NOTE: I know my grandfather took a lot of the photos, but his friends also took some. I do not know who the friends are, but my cousin told me that it is ok to post. Also, some of the photos are screenshots of TV and some are from the AP. My apologies, but I just uploaded the entire disk instead of going through them all.
These photos have never been seen outside of my family or family friends. I'm glad I can finally share with you all <3
http://www.flickr.com/photos/101600002@N05/
 
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after the 911, I hated how Bush tried to mask the terrorist attacks with beautifully worded sentences, spurring even more misunderstanding and complete lack of self reflection on its foreign policies error/mistakes, continuously meddling in middle east issues without considering the result.
Then there was the war on terror which was supposed to make the US look like a hero while it is actually a sugar coated revenge.
Politics sometimes just make me mad. Government do their things yet it is the people who suffer.
very powerful photo shots.
5/5
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Well, that was one of those days you never forget. Even if you live on the other side of the world.
That day, I remeber coming back from school quite early. In Poland, it was around 15:00 PM when that happened and my school cancelled all remaining afternoon classes. Initially, I had no idea why my school day got shorter, so I was glad. Only when I came home and saw the TV broadcasting news and my parents watching, I figured out something serious happened.
I never imagined something like that could even be theoretically possible. First, smuggling weapons on the planes. Then, flying off course without getting intercepted by military aircrafts. Total madness. The only good side I could see is that those were planes, not rockets, so it couldn't be World War 3 starting. Though noone was 100% sure at the time...
Sad that Bush used death of these people as an excuse for a war.
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On September 12 2013 00:26 ETisME wrote:
after the 911, I hated how Bush tried to mask the terrorist attacks with beautifully worded sentences, spurring even more misunderstanding and complete lack of self reflection on its foreign policies error/mistakes, continuously meddling in middle east issues without considering the result.
Then there was the war on terror which was supposed to make the US look like a hero while it is actually a sugar coated revenge.
Politics sometimes just make me mad. Government do their things yet it is the people who suffer.
very powerful photo shots.
5/5
Yeah, it definitely sucks that we went to war. We took the wrong approach, but I think at that time nobody had their heads on straight.
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On September 12 2013 00:26 wingpawn wrote:
Well, that was one of those days you never forget. Even if you live on the other side of the world.
That day, I remeber coming back from school quite early. In Poland, it was around 15:00 PM when that happened and my school cancelled all remaining afternoon classes. Initially, I had no idea why my school day got shorter, so I was glad. Only when I came home and saw the TV broadcasting news and my parents watching, I figured out something serious happened.
I never imagined something like that could even be theoretically possible. First, smuggling weapons on the planes. Then, flying off course without getting intercepted by military aircrafts. Total madness. The only good side I could see is that those were planes, not rockets, so it couldn't be World War 3 starting. Though noone was 100% sure at the time...
Sad that Bush used death of these people as an excuse for a war.
TIL they cancelled school outside of America because of 9/11. How big of a deal was it in Poland?
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Pretty big. I wouldn't say the whole country stopped, no. But obviously, the internet exploded, random people were talking to each other on the streets about the future impact of that tragedy. Till the late night, TV was doing nothing but broadcasting from New York live. Also, as far as I know, couple Polish citizens and people with Polish origins were in WTC, though I don't remember how many of them died.
I'd say people were more surprised than horrified. Especially after the attacks were linked with Osama, who was previously supported by US goverment. Noone could imagine that a private person was able to arrange something of that scale and "succeed". Later, we were also strongly impressed by the heroism of passengers at that 4th plane that crashed without hitting anything. But the world where no outside power was strong enough to attack USA on their ground fell apart.
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Baa?21242 Posts
Subways in NYC were noticeably more empty this morning on my way to work for sure, guess that's the 9/11 effect?
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On September 12 2013 00:58 Carnivorous Sheep wrote:
Subways in NYC were noticeably more empty this morning on my way to work for sure, guess that's the 9/11 effect?
People are still afraid. I'd say the 9/11 effect is a good way of putting it.
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Pretty big. I wouldn't say the whole country stopped, no. But obviously, the internet exploded, random people were talking to each other on the streets about the future impact of that tragedy. Till the late night, TV was doing nothing but broadcasting from New York live. Also, as far as I know, couple Polish citizens and people with Polish origins were in WTC, though I don't remember how many of them died.
I'd say people were more surprised than horrified. Especially after the attacks were linked with Osama, who was previously supported by US goverment. Noone could imagine that a private person was able to arrange something of that scale and "succeed". Later, we were also strongly impressed by the heroism of passengers at that 4th plane that crashed without hitting anything. But the world where no outside power was strong enough to attack USA on their ground fell apart.
That's intense. I had no idea it was that well thought of overseas.
Subways in NYC were noticeably more empty this morning on my way to work for sure, guess that's the 9/11 effect?
Definitely 9/11 effect. I sure as hell wouldn't fly/subway it up today, it's bad joo joo ;X
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Those are some haunting images..
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It's such a strange thing to look at those pictures from 9/11 and at first it feels familiar... I've seen the pictures of the plane hitting the building, I've seen the pictures of the towers on fire and the towers collapsing. And yet sometimes, I'll have a double take.
It's hard to imagine what it must have been like in NYC on that day, so for many of us, it kind of feels unreal. Yet once in a while, I catch a glimpse of just how crazy this whole thing was. I don't know how else to describe it.
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Those are some stunning photographs. Thanks for sharing!
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What happened on that day was a big tragedy, felt on a global scale. My experience of it is probably different than most of you would think. People here celebrated the attack, because, you know, USA bombed my country only a year before that. Our officials were sympathetic of course, politics being politics, but a lot of people were openly happy about that attacks.
I could never get behind such a stance. The thing that struck me the most, was people jumping out of the towers, to their deaths. Imagine yourself in that situation, choosing between two ways of dying, with no hope of salvation. These people weren't responsible for the politics of their nation, they were just more victims of the same.
Although I must say this, and I hope you won't take it against me. The reaction of the american people really struck me. The fatality of the situation, like the talk your father gave you, that nothing will ever be the same. For years people kept saying that. I remember thinking, what a sheltered life they had, and what a shame they lost it. When the bombing here began, people were like:
-"Americans are bombing us!"
-"What? Again?!"
And people didn't look or sounds as defeated after six months of bombing, compared to random Americans which lived on the other side of the coast from NY. People that never felt the shock waves of an explosion. I remember thinking to myself, where are those people that fought in WWI and WWII? The people that built the greatest empire of modern times. Why are they talking like it's the end of the world?
But I realized where they were when I watched a documentary of the event, that documented the actions of the NY fire department. The bravery they displayed is something that moved me and stayed with me to this day. And then Bush made what is in my eyes a mockery of it all and declared a "war on terror". Another target for the american war machine, some oil, and the planet keeps on turning. Looks like Siria is next...
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i went to ground zero as apart of a trip i did around America late last year, it was a moving experience
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I remember my grandfather saying "America is about to start WW3 in the middle east for this" when the first rumors about Al-Qaeda possibly being behind the attacks were aired in the news.
Wasn't that far off in the end..
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Oh my god, those photographs took my breath away. Thank you. I live one block away from the WTC site in an apartment building that's in the background of quite a few of those photographs, covered in dust and ruin. I work in one of the office buildings that figures prominently in many of the photos; it has no windows, it looks shattered and destroyed.
I moved here long after the 9/11 attacks, and until I saw these photographs I don't think I ever fully appreciated how badly this area was hurt. It's amazing how far it's all come back.
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I had an aunt working less than block away from the WTC incident. The only thing she really ever mentioned is the disbelief America was attacked, and that so many people lost their lives; but she wasn't so moved as to emotionally break down. I know a lot of other people from NY and most of them shared the general sentiment.
I think that's something unique to new yorkers, their blood is just a bit thicker than the rest of us.
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idk, i still tear up apparently.
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I'm from Long Island, so I know quite a few people that have relatives that died in the towers. It makes me sad to think about, but I guess since I wasn't heavily affected by 9/11 it doesn't move me as much as a lot of others.
I guess I was also too little at the time to truly "appreciate" it, so that contributes as well. Regardless, I liked a lot of the pictures you had and the story you had to tell. 5/5
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Lalalaland34478 Posts
Even from Malaysia at the age of 11, I still remember being woken up by my Dad and told that a really bad thing had happened in the US, and walking out to watch it on TV before going to school. I still remember the photo on the front page of the newspaper that day.
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EPT
