I couldn't let this day go by without saying something. It's been 10 years and still to me feels like it was yesterday. I was 14 years old when it happen I was home from school cause I was sick imagine that. I was laying on the sofa and dad was watching the today show I wasn't all the way to sleep yet just getting ready to doze off when dad said that wasn't no commuter plane. I remember asking him what? He said just a plane just hit the trade center in New York I woke back up and seen the smoke and they kept saying on the today show a commuter plane hit the trade center and dad said there to much smoke and the hole is to big it was a jetliner. We all know what happen next.
9:30 The house phone started ringing about the same time dads business phone started ringing I answered the house phone it was mom she was like you see that and I said yes she said I'm on my way home I was like ok. Dad said it was work he had to get into the office I said ok mom is headed home he said good tiger I don't want you to be alone kissed me on my forehead he was gone. We didn't see him for a month after that he was in Atlanta for a few hours then they wanted him in Washington. Rest if the year we seen him here and there but not for more a couple days at a time. It's his job so we understood but was scared for us and him at the same time.
As I sit and watch that day at the fire and all I felt really sad me and mom sit there and cried and kept watching. I felt so bad for all those who died all for what for hate that's what for religion and hate. All them kids who grew up without one of there parents or maybe even both. Those who jump cause they didn't want to burn and those on the planes that didn't know what was going on I felt sorry for all them and still do. It change everything and everyone that day. Sad part is the hate hasn't stop and I guess never will it's very sad just think what a beautiful and wonderful world this would be if we all just got along and respect each other beliefs.
I couldn't let this day go by without saying something. It's been 10 years and still to me feels like it was yesterday. I was 14 years old when it happen I was home from school cause I was sick imagine that. I was laying on the sofa and dad was watching the today show I wasn't all the way to sleep yet just getting ready to doze off when dad said that wasn't no commuter plane. I remember asking him what? He said just a plane just hit the trade center in New York I woke back up and seen the smoke and they kept saying on the today show a commuter plane hit the trade center and dad said there to much smoke and the hole is to big it was a jetliner. We all know what happen next.
9:30 The house phone started ringing about the same time dads business phone started ringing I answered the house phone it was mom she was like you see that and I said yes she said I'm on my way home I was like ok. Dad said it was work he had to get into the office I said ok mom is headed home he said good tiger I don't want you to be alone kissed me on my forehead he was gone. We didn't see him for a month after that he was in Atlanta for a few hours then they wanted him in Washington. Rest if the year we seen him here and there but not for more a couple days at a time. It's his job so we understood but was scared for us and him at the same time.
As I sit and watch that day at the fire and all I felt really sad me and mom sit there and cried and kept watching. I felt so bad for all those who died all for what for hate that's what for religion and hate. All them kids who grew up without one of there parents or maybe even both. Those who jump cause they didn't want to burn and those on the planes that didn't know what was going on I felt sorry for all them and still do. It change everything and everyone that day. Sad part is the hate hasn't stop and I guess never will it's very sad just think what a beautiful and wonderful world this would be if we all just got along and respect each other beliefs.
It's funny, I sometimes have a hard time remembering some things, where I was when certain things happened in the world, but I remember exactly where I was when we heard the announcement on radio. I was sitting in front of our post office waiting on Randy to check the mail so we could head out to the local army base, Fort Polk to buy groceries. It was a surreal moment and them came the next announcmet, then another one.
If Randy hadn't been forced in to retirement, he would have been sent to Iraq with the rest of the Louisiana National Guard, he might have lost his life, like so many others. Like his friend Bill Manuel, who was killed when the Bradley he was in hit a roadside bomb. The week before bill died, Randy had a dream about him, in it the same thing happened but Randy was with them. Like I said, it oculd have been Randy, but I thank god everyday it wasn't him. But I wish it wasn't bill either or none of the rest who have given their lives for this country, where people are supposed to be free, to live life the way they want, love who they want without being discriminated against. Sometiems it doesn't always work this way, but it is still the best country in the world to live in.
It was between five and six in the morning. I just finished my first delivery of gasoline at a 7-Eleven store in Cardiff by the Sea in Southern California. I was in the truck, finishing my paperwork and listening to KFI radio in Los Angeles. Then Bill Handel made a casual announcement that an airplane crashed into one of the World Trade Center buildings in New York.
I thought to myself, "That's weird. Must have been a GA (general aviation -'little airplane")that was flying too low along the Hudson. There's a VFR corridor that follows the Hudson at and below a thousand feet. The FAA officially declared the George Washington Bridge NOT to be a congested area so the corridor could legally exist".
Then Bill said it was an airliner that crashed into the WTC. I'm on my way back to the rack for my second load, and I'm thinking that something fishy is going on. Air carriers are on IFR flight plans, and even a visual approach to LGA or JFK are well above 2,000 feet over the Hudson - well clear of the WTC towers.
While I'm drivind an empty tanker truck and pondering all this, Bill Handel announces that a second airliner has crashed into the other WTC tower. "Good grief", I thought to myself, "it's happening - the beginning of World War Three".
I tune the radio to a local station, and 'Uncle Teddy' is on it as well, with a play by play that the whole country is now glued to - radios, televisions everywhere. If there was any doubt, it was erased when 'Uncle Teddy' announced an airplane struck the Pentagon; and shortly thereafter, an airliner crashed into a farmer's field.
It was at that moment I knew that the country I was born and raised in no longer existed. And I still have these debates with myself as to who the "enemy" really is. Ten years later, and nothing has changed. I want my country back, but I don't know where to look.
I remember it like it was yesterday too.
The world will never be the same after that and I am sad for all that lost loved ones in the attacks. I am also watching all the people talk about the loved ones lost.
I dont think any of us will ever forget.
Very nicely done my friend.
Ryan, your comments show the love and caring that is in you heart. It is a reason you are loved and cared for so much. You never cease to impress us all in so many ways. My memories and a few comments are in 3 posts on my blog http://teddytoy.blogspot.com/ Please feel free to check them.
This event changed all of us. I believe everyone felt the pain and suffering, whether you were directly impacted or not - but we were all impacted in some way.
Nice remembrance, Ryan. Thanks.
Peace <3
Jay
It was a terrible day here on the east coast. I'm only an hour from Manhattan and half the people I know work in New York. It took me two hours to get through to my brother. And the days that followed were frightening.
But we got through it. And we showed them how tough we are. And we'll continue to show them no matter what anyone says.
Nice post, Ryan.
Hi Ryan,
so good to read you again! Don't leave us! :) It would be really a loss not to read about your thought and feelings anymore, cause I believe you are able to change people and things by writing like this. So it's a real and valuable contribution to a better world!
What leads to 9/11: The main thing following 9/11 is, that we must defend our freedom. We have tried to do so by means of
- two wars (Afghanistan, Iraque),
- cutback of fundamental human rights (Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib etc.) and
- cutback of civil rights (Patriot Act etc.).
In the essence, 15 terrorists with carpet cutters were able to provoke us to give up some of our deepest believes and standards. And it all costed more than a 1,200 billion dollars so far. If the US and the western economy falters or collapses, it will be caused by these few terrorists as well. So in the end, they proved to be very successful.
What to do? We must react on terrorism, where ever it occours, swift and determinted, and then return to our normal lifes. We have allowed fear too long to control our lives. Maybe we should remember a great man and patriot:
" Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." (Benjamin Franklin)
Peace! starts from within.
Simon
I was in Cincinnati to help my nephew select a vehicle that could carry his string bass. We (His parents, him and me) heard about the first tower when we arrived at a dealership. It was kind of surreal: we had to do the business of buying the car while the towers burned and collapsed on the TV.
Of course my flight home was cancelled. so I took the bus home — a 20 hour trip, but not bad.
It was a wake up call for the country, but I think we're still trying to figure out how to deal with terrorism.