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I first found out about it through email. I had a Chief American Writers class at 10 am and had gotten up to get ready for class and one of the first things I did was check my email. Someone had posted a message to a mailing list I was on that said something like "Turn your TV on right now. This is important." Being the obedient guy that I am, I went out and turned on the TV. A few minutes later a second plane hit the undamaged tower. I didn't make it to my 10:00 class, but I did go to Graphics at 11:30. I brought a radio with me and listened to the NPR coverage until we voted to cancel class and I went back to Millbrook and watched more coverage on TV.

Moments of national tragedy are supposed to be imprinted indelibly in our minds. Both of my parents know where they were and what they were doing when they heard that President Kennedy had been shot. A couple of you have already done this, but I'd like to hear what all of you were doing when you first heard about the planes hitting the Trade Center towers.

Posted by on 11 September 2003 at 3:07 PM

I was in my room getting ready for my African-American politics class, watching the whole thing unfold on my tiny 13-inch TV. I remember thinking, "Why isn't anyone taking this as seriously as me?" I was so angry that my roommate was laughing about something inane while we saw the second tower collapse, that there were girls talking about boys on cell phones and there were people laughing and joking as usual. I became even angrier when, in the aforementioned class, students began outright declaring that we had deserved what happened to us. I couldn't help it; I started crying. I said something rude and stormed out with a likeminded classmate.

My next class was child psych, and we had an exam. I was shocked--shocked!--that the professor didn't cancel it. Something about red tape and school rules and such. The fact that she didn't have the foresight to understand that taking a test should have been the least of our worries really destroyed me. Of course, I think the national shock wore off by that afternoon and we all began to understand just how important the whole thing was.

Later, watching the coverage in the J-school lounge, a friend of mine and now a fellow journalist said "Damned towelheads" to no one in particular. I felt ashamed that I didn't say something to him. It was certainly not something he would have said now, which is why I've forgiven myself for not chiding him. People react to tragedy in unusual ways, and anger directed at the wrong people is sometimes one of them. You have to learn to withhold judgment during times of duress, I think, and let people deal with things their own way. You have to hope that they learn to direct their anger to the right people and not allow a few bad apples decide how they feel about (and treat) an entire group of people.

You know, I, like the rest of my countrymen, had such a difficult time with this. I developed a hatred for the liberals whom I called "funeral crashers"--those who started the blame game before we could even grieve those 3,000 lives lost. And I desperately, primally, wanted someone to pay. I think it was only until I saw Jon Stewart's amazing speech on the Daily Show a couple of nights after Sept. 11 that I really began to deal with the tragedy in a healthy way. He said that a couple of crazy people who use violence to get their message across can't come close to damaging our country and what it stands for, and that we will go on as we always do. He said the terrorists live in chaos, and that we are so much luckier to be Americans than to have to deal with that madness. We are privileged to be able to live in a country that presents us with options. The countries the terrorists came from aren't so generous.

I know this isn't exactly what you asked us to talk about, but I didn't really want to post about it on my own site.

Posted by Rachel on 12 September 2003 - 2:50 PM

Well said Rachel. I posted about my situation when the towers were hit. For some reason, this year I was more down about 9/11 than last year, but I think it was because this year we had less of an organized, societal reponse to that awful day.

Posted by rkc on 13 September 2003 - 9:53 AM

I was in my 2nd period World Cultures class (how ironically fitting). We didn't have a TV in the room, so the most memorable experience at that moment was my teacher leaving the room crying. Next period was spent watching coverage looping, for the towers had already fallen. I had no idea what to do. In my 4th period programming class, we watched news via IPTV and there was one kid who just played a tank combat game. I wanted to yell at him, but I really didn't want to talk to anyone at that point.

Posted by steve on 21 September 2003 - 9:32 PM