h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I heard via a slightly garbled text message from our very own Galaxy Babe.

I still remember the gist of her words - turn on the news, someone is bombing America.

I was sitting in the school playground, waiting for my son to come out of school. When I got home and could access the news, I was stunned and terrified, as my other half was telling me world war three was around the corner - I have a son to protect, and I'd give my life for him if I had to.

A year on, I feel... nothing. It seems to me as if it happened on another planet, or as long ago as WW2, because nothing in my life has changed. A rather selfish view, but it's not deliberate, it's simply mine...

The main thing I felt was, as I saw replay after replay of the planes hitting the WTC, was sadness at the sheer loss of life and the scarring of a great city. But also worry at how Bush Jr. would react to this event. I was suprised and impressed at first as he toured the world (finally learning the name of the Pakistani President as he went) and guaged the opinion of many different countries. He then took a course of action that was supported by all. Shame he couldn't keep it up, it looks like he's just making things worse now.

The only thing I feel now is anger at the 'hijacking' of a truly tragic event by both politicians and commercial interests.

Bush is now an untouchable "War President", who introduces draconian legislation that severly clamps down on US citizen's freedoms and then calls it the "Patriot Act", so if anyone disagrees with it they are obviously not patriotic enough. If anyone has the gall to dissent against the government, to fall out of line about anything to do with terrorism, then they are obviously not patriots. It's ironic really because this very behaviour is "UnAmerican", i.e., goes against the USAs admirable founding principles.

Commerce is simultaneously trying to condemn exploitation of "9/11" AND fly the stars and stripes in the background of every other advert, put the stars and stripes on everything from Corn Flakes packets to TV channel logos. American car manufacturers are pushing the American-ness of their products whilst fast food adverts are telling us that America is "still the best damn country on earth".

I have some more personal thoughts regarding Sept 11th on my Journal under the heading "Hijackings".



Ste

I had a similar gut reaction - oh my god, now Bush will just hit the big red button. I suppose we have to be thankful that he didn't but I think it was touch and go. And with Iraq still on the hit list who knows?

I was on holiday in the States at the time and saw it all live on breakfast TV in Las Vegas, having had a stupendous 10 days visiting various natural wonders (Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Bryce, Zion...) and about to drive up through Death Valley to Yosemite.
Our guide had a friend in the FBI who was training at the Pentagon at the time so we had a worried 24 hours waiting for news (she was ok).

My abiding memory will be of watching the first tower collapse live on telly, like slow motion and - well I don't think words can do it justice. We were all aghast but I wish I was surprised at how it has been used as an excuse for any number of outrages since.
But maybe the good stuff comes through - can't say I'm sorry to see the demise of the Taliban.
Personally, I was going through a bad time at work and a lot has happened since. I jacked in the job, started an Open University course, and I've just started working for our local environment centre and am hoping to get a job with them too. I'm not putting it down to 9/11 but something like that can change your perspective. Now I just want the Americans to do the decent thing and take some responsibility for the world rather than just exploiting it - get behind Kyoto and Jo'burg guys!

I was on my lunch break at work, listening to the Radio. I was listening to Mark and Lard messing about as usual and then they went to the news where it was reported that a 'plane had hit the WTC. After the news, they felt it "wasn't appropriate" to continue the silly stuff and just played music.

It sounded like it was an accident at first, then the later reports came in and it became clear it was some kind of attack. One of my colleague's boyfriend phoned the shop up just because he felt he had to talk to someone about what was going on.

I went home to discover that the WTC towers had been completely destroyed. It was weird, dominating the news. It reminded me of when Diana died - the news coverage over here (Britain) was blanket. Only this was a major event happening in another country and, unlike Diana's death, it would have major repercussions in Geopolitics.

It took a few days for the extent of what had happened in America to settle in. I remember having a dream about being in the WTC and the floor starting to wobble and buckle as the 'planes hit and the building started to collapse.....

I also remember realising that I was living through a defining moment in History. That was weird.

I remember logging onto this site and reading some of the stuff people had written. Some of it was angry, some sympathetic, some urging calm, some dismissive and "serves you right". When I saw the last type it was probably the first time I ever felt angry about "anti-American" sentiment.

I felt kind of nervous about what was going to happen next and if there would be any more attacks. That lasted a couple of weeks.

Since then, we all know what has happened. I was impressed by the restraint the American's actually showed, which was unexpected. I was also quite surprised that there weren't any follow-up attacks.

I was working on the university website, as a summer job. One of teh guys who was helping happened to be looking at a news site, and he just said 'Oh my God, a 'plane's crashed into the WTC'. I think we were all pretty stunned...

Luckily (for me), no-one I know was directly affected or involved. Perhaps it didn't really it me as hard as it might otherwise have done, what had really happened.

I was at the office. It is a small one and only 2 of us were there.

My colleagues daughter phoned her to tell her to switch the tv on.

From that moment to the end of the day we were transfixed. No more work got done. All we could do was watch in horror as events unfolded.

As we watched the reports of the first strike, the images repeated over and over the coverage suddenly switched to the second tower and we watched the attrocity live.

Stunned silence continued for at least 10 minutes.

People ask "where were you when Elvis died?" - I've no idea.
Or "where were you when John Lennon was shot?" Don't know.

Oddly, I recall where I was when Desert Storm was launched and it struck fear into my heart (not easy - I am a nurse and can handle most things).

I remember what I was doing when the Shuttle Challenger exploded on launch ("We are go at throttle up"). This one still raises a tear!

I will never forget.

I am British and the events of Sept.11 2001 took place 3000 miles away.
They did not affect me in the same way as you in America and I can only humbly empathise with those who suffered personal loss.

I refuse to share my opinions on the causes of the events - what do I know anyway?

I only wish the world would learn to walk with each other in peace!

turvy

PS Now I'm Crying

9/11 - a day that shook the whole world.

I woke up in a bad mood. Usually, I was up early and into h2g2 for a bit before I went to my job in a call center for 9:00 am. I hated that job, and that morning woke up uncommunicative and generally p---ed off at the world. Didn't go online, didn't turn on the radio, just ate my breakfast, had my second cup of coffee and left the house.

I arrived at work, and the whole place was buzzing. Mostly in my group: we sold Jeppesen navigational charts to pilots, and were more interested in what was happening. My team soon filled me in, and, as all planes were grounded, and no one was calling, we all went into different news casts on the internet. While I was settling into my cube, the girl next to me told me to look at her screen - it showed the first plane going into the WTC. It looked like a scene from a movie, and it took awhile to realize this was real! Then someone shouted "OH, MY GOD!" and we all ran to look at his screen, and saw the second plane go in. It was simply awful!

At coffee break, someone said something about being glad he lived in safe, old Canada - it couldn't happen here. Yeh? Why not? I bet a lot of Americans thought the same way before Sept 11!

Days later it came out that the hijackers had learned to fly using our training manuals and charts. Brought it home REAL QUICK! Perhaps some of the people who had been there awhile had sold the hijackers the material. Shocking!

We were all witnesses to history - and not in any good way.

I came home from work and switched the computer on to check h2g2. Oddly enough, the first thing I did this time was to read the Scouts' eGroup and there was Abi's message #5232, Subject: 'The recent bombings in America', asking us to keep calm and avoid hysteria.

I thought of something like the Oklahoma event... then switched on the TV and the first thing to see was the North tower in a thick cloud of smoke and a plane approaching the South tower . I spent the next hour in front of the TV until the news had finally sunk into my brain. It took even longer to get a phone call through to my sister who's living in NYC and had seen it all from the window in her living room.

I was working for a freight forwarding company, very close to Glasgow Airport at the time... I remember one of the managers getting a call on his mobile from a friend, he was in the office saying to his friend on the phone "what! they've crashed planes into the WTC and Pentagon?!"...

We all thought he was joking... then I went onto the 'net and saw he wasn't...

The pictures were awful, but they had this unreal quality about them - like it was just another model for just another movie.

The most scary thing was being that close to the airport, and hearing only military jets flying.

I also remember driving home, listening to the radio and hearing the utter shock and disbelief in the presenters' and reporters' voices as they talked about what had happened. Me? I just wanted to get home, home = safety....

I was touring Dapol's factory and Dr. Who musuem in Llangollen.
As we were going 'round,the little ladies making daleks had the radio on, and I caught something about the world trade centre being destroyed. I assumed it was Play for the Day, since no-one else was paying any attention (either said little Welsh women weren't interested, or they'd already heard it). Anyway, we continued the tour, had a good chat with a bloke making railway wagons and went back to the car. I told Mr. KA to put the radio on, saying I'd heard something odd about the WTC being destroyed. He said something daft, but put the radio on anyway. It took us about ten minutes to work out what was going on, becuase the reception was utter crap (Wales soaks up radio waves somehow). Having assertained what had happened, we went down the pub.
It wasn't until we got home and saw the video footage that anything really sank in. At which point I thought F**K! Bush is gonna blow up the world. Fortunately, he didn't.

It was really bizarre, maybe because there were no TVs about, but on the day when I heard, no-one really seemed bothered. That's why I have difficulty relating to all the stories of shock and tears.

The valley in which I stay frequently in Wales has no TV reception at all, so we couldn't see it.

Life just went on as normal, with the radio being switched on occasionly to see if there were any new developments.

I was at the river. When I got back from my sculling, Malcolm the boatman had BBC Radio 2 on in the workshop and at that time it had been anounced that a plane had crashed into the first tower and that evacuation was in progress. At the river, everything seemed like a possible accident - there were no particular details.

I cycled through the village back to my room. The only sign of life outside in the village was the empty buses. Everything was eerily quiet. The shock came as I walked into the shop to buy a snack - the TV was on, and BBC News 24 was being broadcast on BBC One. The shop is usually bustling, but everyone was silent and glued to the box. It was as I got back to the TV in the building where I live that the second plane hit. There started the awful speculation of what might happen, and I couldn't bear to watch - I went and listened to BBC R1. From there, I listened as the rest of the stories developed.

Whoami?