Remembering 9/11, 25 years later

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25 years ago today. Hard to believe it’s been that long! Where were you? How were you affected? All of us here was, whether directly or indirectly.

Personally, I was at work in Antigua, when it came on the news in the customer lobby. The manager closed the office that day, much of the staff and the Caribbean in general have family who live and work in New York. It was all unknown whether your family was impacted or not, my wife’s uncle was a chef whose change of schedule meant he didn’t go to work that day.

But nearly 3,000 people went to work, boarded a flight, or ran toward danger that morning and never came home! :broken_heart: Thousands more, including the first responders and recovery crews, have carried it with them ever since.

A lot of us remember exactly where we were. Some of you were probably at a desk watching news sites buckle under the traffic, or in a server room keeping things running while everyone tried to figure out what was happening. Either way, it’s worth stopping for a minute to remember them, all who were lost and also those left behind who lost loved ones.

If you want to share where you were that day, or just leave a few words, this thread is here for that. Take care of each other, be kind to others, hug your loved ones, and take advantage of every time you say goodbye to your family and friends when they head to work or school.

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Weekly Forum Summary
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:headstone:

On this commemoration of the 9/11 anniversary, I would like to invite us all to consider a very necessary moment of reflection … upon the following:

  • if we allow our conceits to deceive us into thinking that we are better than others,

  • it leads us to choose to suspend our willingness to talk to those of a different perspective/experience,

  • we thereby inflict upon ourselves the inevitable gap in vital information,

  • which can only result in distorded perceptions,

  • which unfortunately leads to inevitable bias,

  • which drives those with “closed hearts” to extremism,

  • which regrettably drives aggression,

which, in the end only leads to dark places, littered with a full spectrum of hurts, death and destruction …

  • which no sane person wants!

It is clear that there is far too much insanity in the world today … and that it needs to be called out as such … in order to prevent a repeat of events such as happened on this date 25 years ago!

Let us all pray that the madness can be contained … before it gets further out of hand!

Understanding why it happened can inspire news ways to a better future!

:headstone:

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On 9/11 I was parking to go to my first class of the day in college. When I finally got to where I could see what had happened I went to the Army recruiter’s office and tried to sign up. They wouldn’t take me.

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I was 21 years old and I can still remember that day very well. I came home from my apprenticeship at around 3.30 pm here in Germany. I switched on my PC, went online (56K modem – YAY!) and opened ICQ (does anyone still remember that?).

Shortly afterwards, a friend messaged me on ICQ: “Turn on the TV, turn on the TV.”

I turned on the TV and didn’t switch it off again that day…

Back then, my aunt was living in Kansas with her husband, who was in the Army.

At that time, there was still a US Army base in our town.

The base was sealed off for weeks – the atmosphere in the town was very tense, and that was in Germany, more than 5,000 km away from New York.

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On 9/11, this day was a month or two after I completed a VERY successful run of contracts, but I was fired or released from a highly paid position, presumably to be replaced by a less expensive alternative.

I found “temporary work” by writing a few articles for a popular Ziff Davis Magazine at that time, “Extreme Tech”. At that time, Jim Lynch was the technical writing project leader for Extreme Tech, and I was in the basement of my home.

My children, who are married and in their twenties now, were pre-school age and my former spouse was running a small in our home day care, watching my two and one or two similar aged children from other families.

One of the parents came in just before 9 AM: it seems to me that it was around 8:51 AM and said the Twin Towers in New York City were deliberately crashed into by a hijacked commercial aircraft.

Barely had we learned the news it happened a second time, completely demolishing the towers.

I contacted Jim Lynch, told him about it and he made some chuckling comment.
A few moments later, he realized I was not kidding and we all were in shock, basically saying what is happening.

Then we heard about the Pentagon and different parts of the story continued to unfold.

Twenty five years later, this past week we got some news that the TSA is finally making a few careful provisions to allow relatives and loved ones to see off their families without having a ticket of their own - with some provisions - permission to have access to enter the airport anywhere near the boarding area might be possible in certain circumstances; I’m sure we’ll start seeing and reading more details about it in the near future - but it definitely provides more scrutiny - including the advanced notice - so the individuals can be checked as needed.

We’ll have to see if this idea and plan works, if it actually goes forward and if it sticks or if it has more changes.

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Thanks for sharing this! Seems so fresh as the moments of that day stuck with you.

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