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

Greetings all,

Some one already said it: the generation before mine remembers where they were and what they did at the moment JF Kennedy was assasinated; wither they were US-citizens or not, people remember. The impact of the Kennedy assasination was of such importance, it somehow altered the way people would think and feel. Speaking for myself, there are a few events which have made such an impact on my life and have changed my perception of life and the way the world turns, that I do remember where I was and what I did the moment I heard about it (the assasination of John Lennon, the terrorist-attack on the Israeli Olympic team at the Olympic village in Munich-Germany, the Berlin Wall falling and people walking through it, to name only a few), but none of these events have left me with this overwhelming sadness.
Although European, I was in the US at the time of the attack.I had arrived in Atlanta, Georgia in January and was staying till the end of November. I can still hear one of my housemates banging on my bedroomdoor trying to wake me up. I could hear in her voice that something had really upset her and as I rushed down to the livingroom I could hear her voice, muffled as in tears :" Oh no, this is not real, can not be real". As I sat down in front of the tv-screen I couldn't believe my eyes; the first plane had hit the tower and a thick black smoke went up into the beautiful blue sky. Not even 5 minutes later a second plane hit the other tower before our very eyes and although I "saw" it, I didn't want to believe it. As the day unfolded and it became more and more clear what was going on: we each in turn went upstairs to get dressed, while following the newsbulletins on every tv in the house, not wanting to miss anything, not really willing to leave the others alone in the livingroom. It hit me how normal, well adjusted people flock together at times like this,like freightened children, not being able to be by ourselves.
Since the events last year a lot has been said, a lot has been done (or at least we are supossed to believe it has), but I still can not shake the feeling of sadness which came over me the moment of the attacks. I feel this sadness not only for the victims and their families, but also for every Muslim who lives his/her path to the best of their abilities and shares the blame for the actions of a few....feel the sadness for all of us, every living being on this planet. Think about it: in the name of the war against terrorism some people have lost their rights other's rights have been seriously restricted, some people died, others live under a contant threat of a war developping within their borders. There is no excuse for terrorism, but there can not be any excuse for retaliation either. While my hearts still goes out to all those who lost their lives, their family and friends I can not agree with full-scale war being the answer.
I have been told that it is easy for me to make statements like this-one, seeing as I am not an American; the only thing I can say is that I have had my share of living under the threat of terrorims and violence for a very long time, as have a lot of others here in Europe.cfr.: IRA,ETA,PLO,RAF,CCC and so on. Some of the terror comes as a reaction to imperialism and the errors of our own political past, some originates in the unwillingness to search for peacefull solutions.
On September 11th I will pray in my own way for understanding and peace, for those who lost their lives and for those who unselfishly reached out to others to save,help and comfort...and for all of us on this planet, that somehow soon we will find the way to live together.

Walk in Light /|
Star*

Like many Londoners I was at work, as the stockmarket had been highly volatile people were anxiously watching the Reuters screens to see how the US would open. Then someone opened up a news bulletin which detailed that a plane had flown into one of the towers. So astonished at this news all TV's were tuned in to reveal the full horror. People stopped working the phones stopprd ringing and everyone watched amazed as the second plane hit. We started to realise this was no accident, what was going on? The phones started ringing again, concerned loved ones suggesting leaving the city. Rumours of planes above London and of broken phone conversations with colleagues in NY added to the concern. Grown men uneasy, distressed and united.

The market was closed my office evacuated and we scurried home to watch six hours of continuous news hanging on to every word scared to miss any scrap of information. Friends came round, together united in the lounge huddled together divulging rumours - concerned. "Saddam has biological weapons - he used them before", "I've heard it was some nutter in Afganistan", "We should nuke them". At times of stress our responses and actions display our true nature and steele. These comments were heartfelt as our blood boiled in response to this hatefull enemy.

There needs to be a united response from the West to protect the liberal, free society many take for granted. If you leave a cancer it will spread. We need to destroy this threat, at a cost no doubt, but we need to reply to protect the world from this evil.

Well, my story isn't that dramatic.
I was at home, practising my saxophone, when suddenly my mum rushed in and toled to put on the TV.
When I saw the burning tower and someone explained that a plane had crashed, I like many others said; What an accident!
When the second plane hit, I don't know what I thaught, I guess something like;What the h**l is going on?, at first I didn't want to believ that it was on purpose, but then I understood, what was happening.
I don't mean to be insensitive, but at first I didn't feel anything, but later, as I saw the people on the street screaming, I began to think of something like; Hope they get through.
But when the Towers collapsed the immense of it hit me, and I can't remember what I was thinking when it happened, but something like; Oh my god-this is horrible!, never rage though, I don't know why but I never felt angry, merely sadness and compassion.
I cant say that my world view has changed very much, before I always thaught that something like this would happen sooner or later, it was the scale of it that amazed me.


II

I was in Lawrenceville Georgia on the 11th of september. Getting up to the news on CNN. Being from the south and having my senses dulled by the murder of JFK, the Viet Nam war, the play by play of the Gulf war on CNN and the blowing up of the Federal Building, my first thought was that it was over a thousand miles away and it was in New York after all. From a southerners point of view almost anything can happen up there and we in the south were safe. Then the quietness hit me. Suddenly within an hour or two there was little or no traffic on the highways. Living some thirty or so miles from the Atlanta airport and in the approach pattern for Hartsfield, the skies took on a deafing quietness. Suddenly the birds and wild critters could be heard again but in a stillness that was erie. A lonesome stillness. The people too took on a silence,one of fear. There was no shopping except for food and people had supplies laid away just in case more happened. I could see and feel the stress in those around me. The days and weeks that followed the only air traffic was military. We learned that the high jackers had taken flying lessons not 3 miles from our house.
In the year that has followed I have seen a president take advantage of that act of terror to futher his agenda. Young men from all over running to the recruiters office to go and fight for thier country. My Daughters writting me e-mails and talking about how bad the "muzzies" are and how they should all be wiped away. They had never met a muslim person and I am sure few of thier peers had either. All of this by because of the reactions of a president that was not even duely elected by the people.
Terror? Isn't all war terror? Do not innocent people get killed in war, declared or not? Yes I feel for the people who lost loved ones in this attack but I feel for those on the other side who lose thier husbands,daughters and sons. I also realize how lucky America has been when it comes to this kind of war. So now when the American people are not fighting shadows in thier own land thier leader have them going back to Iraq to fight a war that should have been settled way back when by his father.
The day JFK died, we all knew that an age of innocence had come to an end. That was the day when the sun did not warm and the colors in our world had dried up. A grey day with a cold sun shining.A sad day. Viet Nam left me angry. The Gulf War left me amazed. The Federal Building stirred my blood. September 11th just left me tired. Of this I am sure, there will be more.

It was weird -- I was at work, and my friend Helen emailed me and told me both towers of the WTC were on fire and it was really scary, completely failing to mention the rather crucial detail of the planes. So I was thinking, what on earth could have caused two fires? Some enormous electrical failure? Possible, in the States (remember the Louise Woodward baby-shaking trial? It was postponed when a fusebox exploded in the courtroom basement).

So I logged on to bbc news and then I saw that it was an aircraft crash. Two aircraft had hit the towers. Nobody knew any details, it had happened literally about half an hour before. But I remember thinking there was absolutely no way it could have been an accident.

Weird fact: the day of the attack was actually also the technical last day of tenancy in my first non-parental non-uiversity home.

The overwhelming sensation I had was that this was a bad special-effects movie. I couldn't believe it was real. When they showed the from-the-street footage of the tower collapsing, little bits of my brain used for being snide about movies had to be suppressed from saying, "look, that's on a back-projection screen -- the colour saturation isn't quite right, see?" Of course, I knew it wasn't projected. I think that was the weirdest thing -- the feeling that it all didn't seem very realistic, and yet it was, actually, really happening.