9/11

Tommie

Its hard to believe that its been 8 years since it happened. I remember I was listening to Stern and was on my way up to a class at the local college. I went in class and one of the guys showed up late. He said "sorry I was late, a plane crashed into the WTC". It was left at that b/c everyone just figured it was a fluke. An hour later and I'm leaving class. Everyone is running around freaking the hell out. I find out what happened, and I ran to my car to get the fuck out of there.

Say what you want about Howard Stern, but he had the best coverage that day. He had people live on the streets in NYC, plus he was playing different networks coverage whenever anything new broke. He stayed on the air that day till damn near noon if I remember correctly.

PaSnow

Tommie, you're absolutely right about that. He helped millions of Americans thru that ordeal. And I've heard that said before, I don't remember who or when, it was probably during his last few days on terrestial radio, when he had big guests coming in, and they thanked him for what he did that day.

I'll always remember, driving to work that day, and about 8:45 heard U2's "Beautiful Day" on the radio, and I thought "Man, it is a beautfiul day" That thought has always remained with me. Then, at work, a few minutes after 9 a guy in the cubicle next to me comes in 3 minutes late & says "Hey Dave, you're never gonna believe what I heard on the radio. A plane flew in to the WTC." I was shocked, but thought it was more that a plane crashed and hit it by accident, then he continues "but while the reporter was talking, ANOTHER plane crashed into the WTC". Shocked, but I thought he misunderstood, or the radio replayed it or something. Anyway, one guy near us had a radio, and listened to Stern alot, so he turns up his radio, sure enough Howards talking about it. OMG we all thought. The internet wasn't as immediate as it is now, videos & youtube were near non-existant, and even logging on to CNN or MSNBC online was impossible (too logged up). So all we had was Stern, basically a play by play, when the towers fell, reporting it was Middle Easterners, used boxcutters, everything was thru Stern.

That day hit me pretty hard, still does. I later found out a kid I went to school with died in there. He was 2 years younger than me but lived next door to a friend of mine, and I remember in 5th grade going over & making an obstacle course thru their backyards, and running thru it & timing ourselves. We also belonged to a swim pool together, and it was always a fear of mine that he jumped, kindof like when we'd jump off the high dives. It turns out he didn't, I reconnected with his neighbor on facebook, and he said he did make it out, but the burns & damage to his lungs from smoke inhalation, he couldn't make it thru & died a little later. I didn't ask any questions, just figured it was something like that.

In general it was just everything though, that affected me. The loss of live, the irrational reasoning, the inability to strike revenge on those that hijacked the planes, the imagining that numerous guys were waking up that morning, with that on their mind, and faced other humans throughout that morning, just sickening. The world changed that day, it was so hard to believe. I remember so many things about what I was & when, going to lunch that day stopping home at my parents to watch the news, going to a local pub that night & watching George Bush's speech, the Senate stood on Capital Hill singing "God Bless America", afterwards everyone in there began chanting "U.S.A. U.S.A. U.S.A.!!" It was surreal, a unity & brotherhood probably not seen since WWII. That Friday staying home for the light a candle vigil, and putting my little candle outside my door, and just sitting there, thinking.

I could go on. May everyone Rest In Peace, thinking of you all today.

Axlin16

Frankly, i'll never forget the media misinformation that day. At one point, Dan Rather had like 32 planes unaccounted for, and I was freaking out, thinking they were gonna hit every major city in the U.S.

Thankfully it didn't get worse than it already was.

I was actually asleep when the first plane hit. I was skipping school, don't even remember why, and i'm a night owl. About 8:30a or so, I was awoken by my mother, who said "your father is on the phone. He says the country is under attack"

How's that for a fuckin' wake up call?

It didn't even register at first, then after about 2 beats or so, it did, and I flew out of bed, and turned on the news. Well the first plane had already hit and the news was covering it. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Little did I know, I had gotten up, just in time for the second plane. I wish I hadn't.

The second plane hit, live. I just screamed "holy fuckin' shit... what the fuck?!??!" Normally I don't use that kind of language around my mother, and it startled her and she said "what?" on the phone still with my father. I said "another plane just hit. Another fuckin' plane just hit". She didn't even believe me. She said, "no hon, they're just replaying the first one". I said, "bull...shit, there's a big flaming hole in the second tower. I ain't kiddin'. Another plane just hit". She then looked, and burst into tears.

It was just a bizarre, surreal, dream-like sort of day. Nothing ever seemed real. But it was. Old folks from the early-40's were coming up and saying "now you know the feeling. Now you know how we felt during Pearl Harbor"

In hind sight, I think what's disappointing about the whole thing, is how much of it has been forgotton, this quickly. The jackasses that still walk around wanting to "negotiate with terrorists", just blow my mind. These fuckin' guys are facists. That'd be like a jew trying to convince a nazi "and why do you want to kill me? What gives you the right?" And they respond, "cause I feel like it". That's the kind of people we're dealing with. Evil.