Six years ago today....

[Sticks]

Where were you when you heard?

I was at work, having to move files from one set of cabinets to another in a government building. I do not recall if we had an increased security alert that day. A number of people were watching a television at work, I can not recall if I saw one of the towers fall.

While people we looking at the twin towers my thoughts were also at the Pentagon, as Washington DC was a city I had actually visited in 1999.

I remembered walking home that day with my walkman.

An unbelieveable day

The following Sunday it was my turn on the preaching rota, so I scrapped the prepared leeson and improvised a lesson about the inspiration of certain hymns that seemed appropriate in light of the news events of that week.

:(

[davidlpf]

When it first happened I was asleep, the got a call from my mother who was at work and hearing reports on the radio. Then it was 24 hour a day coverage for several days, when you are unemployed that is alot of times seeing the planes crash over and over.

[scotsman]

Working , at that time I was a part of front line IT support team , working out of an older building here in Aberdeen, we got a e-mail alert about what was going on , and trying to get more info from the BBC news site , and being unable to ,

I think what I remember most is the weather that day , here , as in New York it was a beautiful later summer day , not a cloud in the sky , almost unseasonably warm .. and somehow that seemed to make it all the worse ..

I went home early that day , nothing was happening , everyone was trying to get more information , at that stage the thought of fixing someone's MS Word problem didn't seem to matter that much

[Tog_]

I was at work as well. My shift was from 3 am to 11:30 AM local time (2 hours behind NYC). It was in the back room of a grocery store. One of the truck drives said that a plane hit the WTC. I assumed it was a light plane. I drug out the radio and found a working station just in time to hear that a second plane had hit.

When I had a chance, I went to tell the boss what was going on, and the scanning coordinator ran up to me and said "They just hit the Pentagon". That was when it hit me that it was an attack. I had no idea what hit the Pentagon, so my mind filled in the blank with a missile attack.

I took one or the 4 inch black and white TV's from the shelf and set it up at my desk for the vendors to watch and get information. The second thing from that day that will be with me forever is the sight of coming down the poorly lit hallway, with its dark concrete floor, and dingy cinder block walls to see about 5 people crowded around the tiny television, their faces lit up by the screen.

I drove home with the radio off.

About the time military action started in Afghanistan, I put on the album Haunted by Poe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haunted_%28album%29). It was the first time since long before that day that I had listened to it. There were 4 songs on it that seemed to be written explicitly about the events that day, and the aftermath. It was actually released the year before. I still have a hard time separating the visuals in my head from a few of those songs.

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

It was 10:30 pm over here. I was 10 years old and watching TV at the time. There was a news flash live to when the 1st tower was hit and remember the reporter saying as if it was an accident.

Then the second plane hit in the background and it was all obvious to everyone it was no accident...

[Nicolas]

I was in the bus going home from school. What I got from the radio news was that terrorists had attacked the WTC and pentagon using planes, so I thought they had bombed them with military craft. (remember kids, up to 10 september 2001 using the plane itself as a missile was unheard of...).

When I got home, I heard the towers collapsed (or at least one of them, can't remember), and saw the footage of the crashes and collapses shortly after. At that time, they were talking about 12 possibly hijacked planes and 4 lost planes, 2 WTC, 1 pentagon and one crashed which also quite possibly was hijacked. (remember kids, when the events still unfold there's a lot more confusion than when looking back later on)

[Doodler]

Sitting in my office, working on a crush deadline project.

Last year I was sitting in my office, surfing the web, wondering why we were still whining about it.

[Palomar]

Working at home (same job today). Online of course, checked the news. One airplane struck a WTC tower? :( Tragic accident. Must have been a small 5- or 6-seater airplane.

Checked news again 10 - 15 minutes later. ANOTHER airplane hit the other WTC tower??? :eek: This CAN'T be another accident!

Jumped up, ran to turn the TV on. Oh no!!! :(

Then the plane crash in the Pennsylvania field, Pentagon, etc. Horrible.

This nation hasn't been the same since, understandably.

[Palomar]

...the worst part was people jumping from the burning Towers. Tore me up in indescribable ways; I couldn't watch. Never ever expected to see something like this occurring in the US.

But we're healing. It's good to remember the victims of course, but we need to continue healing and moving forward.

[farmerjumperdon]

Watching one of the shows last night I saw one bit I had not seen before. It was film of a group of firemen watching helplessly as people jumped from the upper floors. Each time you could follow the firemen's eyes as they followed the fall, then see them wince as their eyes came to ground level. You could also hear the squishy sounding thud over the microphone. I also never knew that a couple had jumped holding hands. Leaping from one certain death to another. That's a tough call.

[Spock Jenkins]

I was just returning with my manager and a couple of co-workers from a weekly breakfast meeting we would have. As we walked into the office, somebody said a plane flew into the the WTC. My first response was, "How bad of a pilot do you have to be to not be able to avoid one of those buildings!?!" My thinking was like many others - a personal commuter plane off course.

We had a TV set up in the conference room with rabbit ears and a very fuzzy signal. It was an investment firm - so we were pretty much done for the day - markets all closed. I listened to coverage on Howard Stern, of all places. He was in New York and regardless of ones opinion of him - his coverage that day was excellent. He never went off the air and stayed in his New York studio's for the entirety of the broadcast.

[Doodler]

Watching one of the shows last night I saw one bit I had not seen before. It was film of a group of firemen watching helplessly as people jumped from the upper floors. Each time you could follow the firemen's eyes as they followed the fall, then see them wince as their eyes came to ground level. You could also hear the squishy sounding thud over the microphone. I also never knew that a couple had jumped holding hands. Leaping from one certain death to another. That's a tough call.

Slow burn, quick impact. Sometimes its not so tough, actually. Doesn't make it any easier to watch, but then its not totally incomprehensible.

[Doodler]

I was just returning with my manager and a couple of co-workers from a weekly breakfast meeting we would have. As we walked into the office, somebody said a plane flew into the the WTC. My first response was, "How bad of a pilot do you have to be to not be able to avoid one of those buildings!?!" My thinking was like many others - a personal commuter plane off course.

We had a TV set up in the conference room with rabbit ears and a very fuzzy signal. It was an investment firm - so we were pretty much done for the day - markets all closed. I listened to coverage on Howard Stern, of all places. He was in New York and regardless of ones opinion of him - his coverage that day was excellent. He never went off the air and stayed in his New York studio's for the entirety of the broadcast.

He wasn't the only one to rise above his usual routine. There was a DC jock who's something of an obnoxious goofball in the Stern-lite vein who stayed on and did a pretty remarkable job.

[pumpkinpie]

I was at my desk when a coworker said "A plane hit the world trade center." I worked in downtown Baltimore, where we had a WTC, and at first I thought a small craft had hit our building. But I quickly learned the truth, and we all followed the news coverage for a couple hours.

By noon, we were evacuated. Baltimore was on a supposed "list" of potential targets so authorities told us to go home.

[Kristophe]

I was asleep when it happened. It was my first day of university classes, and I was going to sleep in as late as I could gosh darnit.

My girlfriend at the time was the one who told me. I don't remember if I had called her that morning, or if she had woken me up with her phone call. I think I may have called her, because I remember her being surprised that I had no idea what was going on. It's amazing what CD alarm clocks will insulate you from in the morning (usually really, really annoying morning show speed abusers).

All day long, every TV on campus was showing the news footage. I remember big crowds gathered around the big screen TVs in the residences. They were so large, you couldn't even see the TV from the edge.

[CodeSlinger]

I was on my to class, when a friend grabbed me and led me to the student lounge. We watched the TV in stunned silence, and then I remembered that my parents were in Manhattan that day on business. I freaked out when I found the phone system completely jammed up, leaving me with no way to check in on them. Later that day, after the phone system was untangled, they got in touch with me and told me they were fine, they were not in the vicinity and had made it safely to my aunt's house in NJ. That's all I remember from that day.

[Paracelsus]

I was in Baltimore, MD at the time, finishing up my post-doc at the U Md Medical School. I had been out 'late' the night before, so I had just gotten home via 'the walk of shame' and was fixing breakfast with the TV blaring in the background. I saw smoke coming out of the first tower on TV, and the newscasters were talking about possibly a small plane having lost control and smashed into it.

I saw the second plane hit live. Fortunately, I did NOT see the towers fall live. I didn't see all the people jumping out of windows and going splat on the ground 100 stories below either, thank god.

As soon as I realized that that we were under attack, I called my mom and a local friend of mine to tell them I was ok and to make sure they were ok.

I had to go into the lab the next morning; the lab was located in the VA building in the heart of downtown Baltimore. There were cops on every street corner with M16s; the whole thing creeped me out, and I did my experiment as quickly as possible in order to get out of there.

[KaiYeves]

I was 9 years old and had come home from school. My mother had just presented me with a new magnetic chess set that I had wanted for some time. My father called me into his room and said "Some people crashed planes into the Trade Towers. We don't know much else." All my life, the world had been at relative peace, and I didn't know what to say.
"Should... should I cry, Daddy?"
"You don't[I] have to. But if you want to."
I cried into the big cusions on his bed. That bed must be historic, because I remember sitting in it two years later and hearing about the landing of Spirit.
By the way, Radiation Specialist, it's good to know that I'm not impossibly younger than everyone here.

[crosscountry]

I was driving to school. I was listening to a Spanish music station, and the announcer came on in English. Someone had hit the world trade center. It didn't sound like an accident to me.

I stopped by the apartment of my then girlfriend and future ex-fiancee and turned the tv on. To her it wasn't a big deal, so we headed off to the campus cafeteria. The tvs there were turned to news, and from there we watched the second plane hit. It was tragic; there was no question at that point what was happening.

We finished our breakfast and each went to class. I had Hinduism, and I arrived with everyone watching the news again. Pretty soon the announcement came that classes were canceled that day, but most of us stayed to watch the towers fall. No one thought that would happen. It was really unbelievable. Sometime during that the report about the Pentagon being hit and the plane in Pennsylvania landing in a field. It was getting worse.

I had to work that day in the evening, and I remember George Bush coming on the television and talking to us. I decided then that if he declared war I would join the military. Soon after I walked into the office of the Air Force recruiter. I was going to join. After passing all the tests and being accepted, and also waiting 18 months, I was waiting to swear in at the military medical center in San Antonio. That day I learned that they wouldn't take me on account of a technicality. I never did take that oath.

[Gillianren]

(remember kids, up to 10 september 2001 using the plane itself as a missile was unheard of...).

Everyone keeps saying that, but it wasn't. Several fiction writers had already had the idea, notably Stephen King in the end of The Running Man. And if a fiction writer can think of it, so can someone who's actually planning to do it.

I, too, was asleep. I'm on the West Coast, so we're 3 hours behind East Coast time, and I'm a late sleeper anyway. By the time I woke up, it was all over but the recovery.

I walked into the living room and turned on the TV. I'm pretty sure the first thing I saw on TV that morning was one of the buildings collapsing, though it's all (understandably) kind of a blur at this late date. So I thought, "Well, that's not right," and hit the "guide" button on the remote. According to my TV, it was supposed to be an Aerosmith retrospective. So I thought, "Wait, is it some video from Armageddon that I never saw?"

Then, I started flipping channels. MTV. MTV2. Bravo. Dan Rather was on all of 'em. So I flipped to CNN, and that was when I knew what was going on. I spent most of the rest of the day watching the news; I even watched some in Spanish, which was the most depressing of all of them, even though I couldn't understand every word. (I got enough to know that the caller's husband worked on one of the upper floors, maybe 100 or so, of one of the buildings, and she hadn't heard from him.) Then, my soon-to-be roommate (she was supposed to move in a couple of days later) made me watch The Lion in Winter on AMC instead.

[Siguy]

I was too young (6 years old) to really know what was going on at the time, and I also don't remember much about that day. Sometimes I feel guilty that I wasn't as shocked as others were. But of course, I was very young then and I really did not know what was going on. I didn't even know about the WTC ever existing until then.

[Frantic Freddie]

I'd turned on the bedroom TV to catch my usual morning news & saw that a plane had hit the Tower.My first thought was "What,they're lettin' blind people fly planes now?",irreverent,yes,but nobody knew it wasn't an accident at that point.

Then I saw the second plane hit.

I yelled "Holy ****!!! We're under attack!!!" & levitated out of bed & ran into the den where the wife was already reaching for the remote.

We watched it all,as I shook with anger & grief & my wife cried.At some point I hung our flag.In a totally futile & impotent gesture I wore my .45 to the office,we did no business that day & closed early.

[Doodler]

(remember kids, up to 10 september 2001 using the plane itself as a missile was unheard of...)


Dude, are you seriously typing that with a straight face?


Kamikaze?

[Frantic Freddie]

Dude, are you seriously typing that with a straight face?


Kamikaze?

Doodler,in context he's right,no one had seriously given thought to using airplanes as missiles against civilian targets.
Well,obviously the planners did,but no one in our intelligence agencies had any idea.

[Doodler]

I see, and the gentleman who parked his plane in the Rose Garden during Clinton's presidency was lost? The Pentagon wasn't exactly a civilian target, either.

This attack was certainly the most ambitious on record, but not exactly the most original.

[Doodler]

Just saw the cutest thing I've seen in a long time.

MSNBC video clips of a pair of twins born on 9/11. They've had to live under the shadow of it, and now they're just old enough to understand some of what happened, but I had to admire their attitude.

When the reporter started, "When you were born on 9/11..." in those obnoxiously maternal profound tones, one of the twins interrupted with the most beautifully sarcastic tone, "We know." I could practically hear her eyes rolling.

I feel better about life, the future is secure. ;)

[Van Rijn]

I see, and the gentleman who parked his plane in the Rose Garden during Clinton's presidency was lost? The Pentagon wasn't exactly a civilian target, either.

This attack was certainly the most ambitious on record, but not exactly the most original.

Whatever, it certainly was a big surprise and shock to me.

[soylentgreen]

Vesey St...telling my wife about how I used to beg my uncle to take me to J&R Records to get Varese soundtracks.

It would be impossible to compare the impact with anyone who was fed on a morning and afternoon full of uninformed talking heads speculating and endlessly repeated footage...all capped off by the macabre burlesque of an impromptu sing-along on the Capitol steps.

All things considered and mustering all the objectivity I can, going to Bosnia with my friend some years earlier was much more horrifying. And most people never even saw what went on there. It kills me to daydream about that whole nightmare getting the same "exposure" as one of America's decidely few moments in "the rest of the world's shoes".

Frankly I don't know how anyone, even the biggest flag-waving patriot can stomach this annual event of all day "look back"s. It's maudlin, hollow and a bit contrived...so I guess I'm with Doodler on this. Besides "The Biggest Loser" is on already, so I guess it's not important enough for primetime anymore.

"Never Forget"...I can assure everyone, in this country there has not been one minute in six years in which you would be able to! As an American, I'm tasked with remembering the Alamo, the New York Draft Riots, the Maine, the Titanic, Pearl Harbor, the 77 blackout, the Challenger, Lockerbie, Columbine, you to Herald Square..that's all Americans do...remember! They never seem prepared for anything. It's always "a day of infamy" or "a loss of innocence". America has lost it's innocence more times than a Buddhist prositute.

I love my country and would do anything for it, but sometimes, it's like a big brain-damaged cousin...and that's all I care to say about September 11th.

wait one more thing...
Doodler,in context he's right,no one had seriously given thought to using airplanes as missiles against civilian targets.
Well,obviously the planners did,but no one in our intelligence agencies had any idea.

and that's not saying very much at all, is it? :(

[BigDon]

I was on an early morning job packing a Brit's condo for an overseas move back home. (It takes all day to do because in overseas moves everything has to be wrapped in paper pads. Ever gift wrap a sofa? How about an armoire?)

I was thinking it was an accident like that bomber hitting the Empire State Building in WWII. I was even in the middle of supposing that there was probably a small plane down somewhere as that was the only way I could think of a 747 getting that off course and hitting one of the towers. That the small plane and the bigger one impacted and took out the cockpit or controls of the larger.

Then the second plane hit.

I distinctly remember stopping in mid sentence and thinking to myself, "Okay, who are we at war with now?"


Also and equally profound (to me) was the fact that I switched parties at that moment. Way back in '78 I was one party right up until that moment. Because I knew how my party was going to handle it. And I was right. They tried to treat this like a "criminal case" and wanted to send in the FBI! (Gee, what part of "Act of War" didn't they get?)

I remember the people jumping. Some folks were wondering about the apparent "suicides" and one fire inspector coming on to say that by the information from their laser thermometers the concrete of the ledges they were standing on was 250F. You can't stand on that. As soon as your shoes get less than half that temp your body is going to force you off the ledge. You are not going to just lie there and fry. Once the real pain starts your autonomous systems take over and will move you away from the negative stimulus. (I've been badly burned before. Its quite amazing what your body can do after it disengages from the brain.)

They had no choice, it wasn't suicide in the common usage. They didn't jump to avoid burning to death, they were already burning to death.

[Lurker]

On this day many in this country raise their voices in anger and hate for the Muslims who are responsible for ugly acts of September 11. While I in no way condone the ugly act comitted on this day, I find many in this country blind to the short-sighted policies and acts that engendered the anger and hate in those who felt driven to this act.

It is now time for all of us to understand our failures... to take responsibility for the hate and anger that divides us... to let go of the past and begin the process of healing. There is more than enough foolish behavior and blindness to go around. Let each side put down their's so that we can begin to move on...

[Doodler]

On this day many in this country raise their voices in anger and hate for the Muslims who are responsible for ugly acts of September 11. While I in no way condone the ugly act comitted on this day, I find many in this country blind to the short-sighted policies and acts that engendered the anger and hate in those who felt driven to this act.

It is now time for all of us to understand our failures... to take responsibility for the hate and anger that divides us... to let go of the past and begin the process of healing. There is more than enough foolish behavior and blindness to go around. Let each side put down their's so that we can begin to move on...

Sorry, there's this knife wound in our back that makes spreading out our arms to give them a big hug rather difficult to manage, all kinds of binded ligaments and whatnot. I'm afraid we're just going to have to pass on that for now.

[Lurker]

Sorry, there's this knife wound in our back that makes spreading out our arms to give them a big hug rather difficult to manage, all kinds of binded ligaments and whatnot. I'm afraid we're just going to have to pass on that for now.
This is why I don't bother arguing here. They feel the same way, they felt driven to the act they committed on this date 6 years ago. Unfortunately you aren't willing to look past the pain and apparently neither are they... If you don't believe that US actions drove them to their act, I suggest you discuss it with them. No... never mind, you arent willing to give an inch...


Not really anything more to say...you are locked in with vengence in your heart. Enjoy the battle, it looks to be very long and very bloody...

[Gillianren]

"They" don't all feel one way or another, kids. Also, a lot of "them" are actually us.

[Sticks]

One additional detail of that day for me in England.

After my laundry, I went to visit my fish and chip shop, which is run by a devout Muslim, to see if he was al right as the backlash was just about to start and we live in an area where some far right groups try and recruit. The guy was absolutely appalled that someone could do this. He is a decent guy, who does good chicken and fries and sea food pizza. not all Muslims were celebrating this contrary to what was shown on CNN in Jordan and on the Westbank.

Many Brits also died that day

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

Wow Doodler, there is enough hatred in your words, I wonder how you can manage to live. Had bad memories in you childhood?

[Nicolas]

Everyone keeps saying that, but it wasn't. Several fiction writers had already had the idea, notably Stephen King in the end of The Running Man. And if a fiction writer can think of it, so can someone who's actually planning to do it.


What I meant was that it had never happened in reality, so when the radio says "terrorists attacked the WTC with planes" you don't think of it like using the planes as missiles in the first place. I didn't mean it was so extreme nobody could imagine it (both terrorists or people hearing about the events). It's just not the first thing on your mind when it never happened before and you hear something about a plane attack.

[Nicolas]

Dude, are you seriously typing that with a straight face?


Kamikaze?

Against a civil target in peace time?

I am quite familiar with kamikaze. WW2, japan, aricraft carrier decks, all that... Nothing at all that relates on "terrorist did a plane attack on the WTC" on a random peacetime day. When terrorists are involved with planes in peace time pre 9-11, that's hijacking to go to Cuba or in an extreme blow up the plane. When terrorists attack the WTC pre 9-11, they use bombs. Nothing at all that would make "they actually simply flew the planes into the towers" the first thought in my mind when hearing the news.

[farmerjumperdon]

I'd turned on the bedroom TV to catch my usual morning news & saw that a plane had hit the Tower.My first thought was "What,they're lettin' blind people fly planes now?",irreverent,yes,but nobody knew it wasn't an accident at that point.

Then I saw the second plane hit.

I yelled "Holy ****!!! We're under attack!!!" & levitated out of bed & ran into the den where the wife was already reaching for the remote.

We watched it all,as I shook with anger & grief & my wife cried.At some point I hung our flag.In a totally futile & impotent gesture I wore my .45 to the office,we did no business that day & closed early.

I would think anybody who hung around or knows planes much had to guess it was an attack as soon as they knew it was a jetliner and not a Cessna.

Planes are too easy to steer, especially for a trained commercial pilot, for there to have been much chance of one accidentally being flown into a skyscaper.

As soon as I heard it was a jetliner, I guessed terrorism.

[farmerjumperdon]

Hadn't there been plans intercepted in which terrorists at least considered flying planes into the Eifel Tower and a couple other things? Wasn't that out there in the intelligence community as something the terrorists were already seriously considering, if not planning?

[Doodler]

"They" don't all feel one way or another, kids. Also, a lot of "them" are actually us.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celebrations_of_the_September_11,_2001_attacks


I understand that there are a number of distinct subgroups and factions within the overall culture.

However, while I understand that not all of these people want us dead, a significant number don't want us alive. Call me crazy, if you will, but I have a little problem with that.

[Doodler]

Wow Doodler, there is enough hatred in your words, I wonder how you can manage to live. Had bad memories in you childhood?

You have no idea, believe me. I'll spare you the nightmares of a detailed explanation.

However, I believe my last post kinda explains more relevently why I'm keeping my bone picking option open.

[Maksutov]

I posted this a number of years ago but it seems to have been lost during the BABB/BAUT transition.

The morning of September 11, 2001, I was in a meeting with my department staff. One engineer was late for the meeting. He showed up and told us there was a report that an airplane had hit the World Trade Center. We briefly discussed this, surmising a small airplane had gotten lost or a larger one had come in too low on its approach to Kennedy or LaGuardia.

When a process engineer opened the door and told us that another airplane had hit the other tower, I said "It's a terrorist attack." and canceled the meeting.

We then watched the horrific events on CNN. The reactions are documented here (http://www.bautforum.com/off-topic-babbling/19380-keep-you-eyes-ears-open-today.html#post435743).

Sorry, Lurker, but, despite being opposed to the mess in Iraq and a lot of what we've done to Afghanistan (funny, that guy someone pledged to capture a number of years ago is still at large), and understanding how your view would be influenced by your interactions with a person from that part of the world, I find there are NO excuses for what those sub-human cowards did that Tuesday morning.

Please direct your attention to a picture that's on my desk. It's of Christine Lee Hanson, a two-year-old who was on United Flight 175.

http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/2866/christineleehansonga6.jpg

[Sticks]

Please can we keep this thread to reminicences about what you were doing when you heard of the attacks. Discussions about other aspects can be done on other threads.

Thank you

[Paracelsus]

Please can we keep this thread to reminicences about what you were doing when you heard of the attacks. Discussions about other aspects can be done on other threads.

Thank you

I liked your comment earlier about many citizens of other countries being victims of 9/11 as well. Foreign victims of 9/11 did not get as much coverage in the media over here as American victims, or at least, not that I saw. True, the majority of the victims were American, but this calamity didn't only affect Americans. As far as discussions of reminicences only on this thread, I understand the intent of the OP and respect it, but I don't think there can be any discussion of 9/11 without politics mixing in at some point and tempers flaring. This subject is a political hot potato and a major sore spot over here.

On a more congenial note: Hi Lurker! Welcome back. :)

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

This is classic stuff going on here...

In respect to the OP, I won't say much except to say:
They won't hate you if you don't mess with them.

Enough said, sorry Sticks.

[Lianachan]

Sitting in my office, working on a crush deadline project.

Last year I was sitting in my office, surfing the web, wondering why we were still whining about it.

Exactly the same here, on both counts. I only opened this thread because I thought it was called "Sixty years ago today...." and wondered what was so great about 1947.

Don't agree with anything else you've said in this thread, though.

[KaiYeves]

You have no idea, believe me. I'll spare you the nightmares of a detailed explanation

I suspected as much. If we were all a superhero team, you'd be that guy who broods in the corner wearing all black who only speaks once in a while, but when he does, it's brilliant strategy stuff. (No insults intended- those characters are essential.)
Well, if we're talking 1947, we'll always have Roswell. (The most famous weather balloon in the world, I bet.)

[Van Rijn]

In respect to the OP, I won't say much except to say:
They won't hate you if you don't mess with them.


True. But mess with us, and . . . well, we're not all Vulcans.

[Van Rijn]

I was home, and had been asleep, but had a call that something had happened. They didn't explain, and suggested I turn on the TV and watch for myself. I turned on the TV and saw somebody in Boston (of all places) talking about something happening, and security measures they were taking. Changing channels, there were pictures of smoke. After a time, the general picture of the situation started to become clear, but initially it sounded like there were attacks all over, or at least there was worry that there could be. I checked in with work (a big building downtown) and they were closing up shop for the day because they weren't sure what was happening and were worried about west coast attacks.

It was all pretty chaotic, and eventually I went outside to work on a project in the backyard, just to do something and get away from the TV for a time. I remember it being a little wet and dark - pretty unusual for here in September, and not helping my mood. It wasn't until some time later that the details and explanations for the situation became clear, and work was back to normal the next day, though everyone seemed to be in a daze.

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

I know this topic is buried but I came across something interesting while browsing teh internets.

I understand that there are a number of distinct subgroups and factions within the overall culture.

However, while I understand that not all of these people want us dead, a significant number don't want us alive. Call me crazy, if you will, but I have a little problem with that.

See how much these guys (http://www.bestirantravel.com/culture/wtc-vigil.html) celebrated.

Hey, let's BOMB them!

BOMB! BOMB! BOMB!