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[Karnewarrior]

I was also about seven, and ended up hearing about it on the news~
At the time, I was fully aware of terrorism, and really didn't understand what the big deal was~
Still kinda don't, especially seeing as it's been ten years, but whatever~

Pretty much exactly this, although I can sort of understand why Terrorism would freak the government and thereby the people out; Terrorists don't field an army, so you can't fight them like another nation. It wasn't an invasion, it was a group of crazy people, and we knew there were more, but we couldn't get at them.

Obviously the only solution was to attack the middle east as a whole.

[Gunner-Chan]

I was sleeping. My sister woke me up and was freaking out a little over it.

I just went back to sleep. To be honest I had other things worrying me more. Given I was 15, living with my sister and had dropped out of school in an attempt to rehabilitate myself.

[Aqizzar]

I remember the whole day pretty clearly.  Ninth grade, I had band practice for the first period, so in Central Time class would have just started right when we locked the door and no sound could get in.  I heard somebody mention something about an airplane crash, but who knows.  The first thing after that was the quick "homeroom" shuffle - the teacher had wheeled in an A/V cart.  I was the first person to walk in, right as a newcaster said, "the first tower has just collapsed."  I said "holy shit," somebody behind me mocking said "don't swear," I said "shut up you fool and look at the TV!"  We still cycled between rooms the rest of the day, but no class did anything except watch TV; I didn't really know anything about the President at the time, but I thought it was rude that people would be making fun of him during an announcement.

By far the most interesting moment of the day was when I got home.  About 5 or 6 PM, my dad was outside trimming our hedges (that in itself was kind of weird, it's like he had suddenly regressed into Ward Cleaver as a way of showing his disdain for the world).  We were talking about something when we heard a plane break the sound barrier right overhead.  It was a combat-loaded F-15 flying from the Naval Air Station to patrol DFW Airport, and I could tell it was loaded because he was about 500 feet off the ground.  My dad, who had lived around airbases his whole life and served in the navy, turned back to the hedges and said, "I know we're not in that much danger."

~
~
~

C'mon, really?

[Detonate]

I think that future generations are going to look at this event and be confused as to why it struck our national psyche so very deeply.  Don't get me wrong, it was a very, very horrible day.  But to consider Katrina for example, while less lethal I think it created quite a bit more overall human suffering.  But we moved on from Katrina like we do from most disasters.  We didn't move on from 9/11 like that.  At some point, you just need to accept that the grieving process is over and move on.  Imagine how confused and worried you would be if someone were still grieving their spouse 10 years after the spouse died.

Hopefully I don't sound massively offensive because I don't mean to imply that there is anything wrong with people's reaction to tragedy or the many heroic reactions this event inspired.  I just don't understand why everybody, myself included, have spent so long acting as if this tragedy is different from all others.

Edit: What I find very interesting was that a few people were slow to get the memo and treated 9/11 as a 'conventional' tragedy for a few days.  I remember my middle school history teacher gave us an interesting lecture in our next class after 9/11 on what it was like in a historical perspective and discussing some of the geopolitical issues that the likely war in Afghanistan would entail.  There were some interesting news articles about the attacks that did more then the whole america under siege stuff, actually looking at what we would normally expect.  But within a week or so, all of that stuff was gone.

I agree. Really, it's only remembered and had such a big impact because it was the greatest terror attack in the world, and it was on the world's strongest country. The horror that it created was nothing but shock- due to the severity, people and the government started the whole "America under siege" thing. Compare it to Pearl Habour. Pearl Harbour (besides launching America completely into WWII, but this is about the attack itself) had the same thing going on. People said, right after Pearl Harbour, what goes on today with 9/11: "We will never forget", "remember", "justice will be served", etc. However, do we still "remember" Pearl Harbour today in the sense that we do with 9/11? We don't, it's viewed from a historical perspective. It's a tragedy, but it's time to move on.

EDIT: Let's also remember the wonderful scapegoating values these events have.

[Virex]

I think that future generations are going to look at this event and be confused as to why it struck our national psyche so very deeply.  Don't get me wrong, it was a very, very horrible day.  But to consider Katrina for example, while less lethal I think it created quite a bit more overall human suffering.  But we moved on from Katrina like we do from most disasters.  We didn't move on from 9/11 like that.  At some point, you just need to accept that the grieving process is over and move on.  Imagine how confused and worried you would be if someone were still grieving their spouse 10 years after the spouse died.

Hopefully I don't sound massively offensive because I don't mean to imply that there is anything wrong with people's reaction to tragedy or the many heroic reactions this event inspired.  I just don't understand why everybody, myself included, have spent so long acting as if this tragedy is different from all others.

Edit: What I find very interesting was that a few people were slow to get the memo and treated 9/11 as a 'conventional' tragedy for a few days.  I remember my middle school history teacher gave us an interesting lecture in our next class after 9/11 on what it was like in a historical perspective and discussing some of the geopolitical issues that the likely war in Afghanistan would entail.  There were some interesting news articles about the attacks that did more then the whole america under siege stuff, actually looking at what we would normally expect.  But within a week or so, all of that stuff was gone.

It's not the tragedy that hurts, it's the intent. Nobody purposefully points an earthquake anywhere (put that tin foil hat down), earthquakes just happens. Planes hitting buildings don't just happen...

[jc6036]

I was actually 7 and watching tv at home during a thunder storm. In the middle of the attack, lightning struck and blew out the tv. I also strongly agree with others "just get over it" opinions very much. While it was a tragedy at the time, it was 10 years ago.

[Detonate]

I think that future generations are going to look at this event and be confused as to why it struck our national psyche so very deeply.  Don't get me wrong, it was a very, very horrible day.  But to consider Katrina for example, while less lethal I think it created quite a bit more overall human suffering.  But we moved on from Katrina like we do from most disasters.  We didn't move on from 9/11 like that.  At some point, you just need to accept that the grieving process is over and move on.  Imagine how confused and worried you would be if someone were still grieving their spouse 10 years after the spouse died.

Hopefully I don't sound massively offensive because I don't mean to imply that there is anything wrong with people's reaction to tragedy or the many heroic reactions this event inspired.  I just don't understand why everybody, myself included, have spent so long acting as if this tragedy is different from all others.

Edit: What I find very interesting was that a few people were slow to get the memo and treated 9/11 as a 'conventional' tragedy for a few days.  I remember my middle school history teacher gave us an interesting lecture in our next class after 9/11 on what it was like in a historical perspective and discussing some of the geopolitical issues that the likely war in Afghanistan would entail.  There were some interesting news articles about the attacks that did more then the whole america under siege stuff, actually looking at what we would normally expect.  But within a week or so, all of that stuff was gone.

It's not the tragedy that hurts, it's the intent. Nobody purposefully points an earthquake anywhere (put that tin foil hat down), earthquakes just happens. Planes hitting buildings don't just happen...

Not to detract from your point, but it can. There are many more examples of such incidents, but that's probably the most well-known.

[Vattic]

I was 12 at the time. I remember having a teacher come into an English lesson and take a couple of students with them. I only realised what it was about when I got home and saw it on the news; They had family involved. I remember getting uncharacteristically angry at a friend who did nothing but complain that his cartoons got cancelled in favour of footage of the incident.

[Virex]

I think that future generations are going to look at this event and be confused as to why it struck our national psyche so very deeply.  Don't get me wrong, it was a very, very horrible day.  But to consider Katrina for example, while less lethal I think it created quite a bit more overall human suffering.  But we moved on from Katrina like we do from most disasters.  We didn't move on from 9/11 like that.  At some point, you just need to accept that the grieving process is over and move on.  Imagine how confused and worried you would be if someone were still grieving their spouse 10 years after the spouse died.

Hopefully I don't sound massively offensive because I don't mean to imply that there is anything wrong with people's reaction to tragedy or the many heroic reactions this event inspired.  I just don't understand why everybody, myself included, have spent so long acting as if this tragedy is different from all others.

Edit: What I find very interesting was that a few people were slow to get the memo and treated 9/11 as a 'conventional' tragedy for a few days.  I remember my middle school history teacher gave us an interesting lecture in our next class after 9/11 on what it was like in a historical perspective and discussing some of the geopolitical issues that the likely war in Afghanistan would entail.  There were some interesting news articles about the attacks that did more then the whole america under siege stuff, actually looking at what we would normally expect.  But within a week or so, all of that stuff was gone.

It's not the tragedy that hurts, it's the intent. Nobody purposefully points an earthquake anywhere (put that tin foil hat down), earthquakes just happens. Planes hitting buildings don't just happen...

Not to detract from your point, but it can. There are many more examples of such incidents, but that's probably the most well-known.

I should watch my rethorics... Whatever, you guys get the idea.

[Frumple]

Was at home, some point during highschool, think school was out for some reason, don't really remember. Didn't really affect me much at the time (I'm in Florida, NY's on the other side of the country, so personal safety wasn't even a consideration). At worse, it felt kinda' like a natural disaster, or something along those lines. Had a cousin that was living within visual distance of the towers and another one that went up to help out with relief, but neither were hurt so there wasn't much concern. Sympathy went out to those affected, of course, but it was a very distant sensation.

Within a few years, we (The USA) had either caused directly or indirectly some substantial multiple of the number of deaths caused by the attack, ostensibly in retaliation to see justice done. Between that and realizing that terror attacks have done a helluva lot more damage to a number of other countries than it had in the 9/11 attack, I stopped really caring about the attack itself within a year or three. Blood price was paid, time to move on, other countries have it a lot worse, time to get off the soapbox.

That was years ago. I didn't even register it was the 11th of September until I saw this thread, and it's around 6:30 PM here. Actually had to look at the OP before I realized what the topic was.

[quinnr]

I was in second grade at the time...I was homeschooled, so all I remember is seeing some stuff on the T.V. about it, was pretty isolated from everything at the time.
Anyways, I was going to say something very similar to this post:

I think that future generations are going to look at this event and be confused as to why it struck our national psyche so very deeply.  Don't get me wrong, it was a very, very horrible day.  But to consider Katrina for example, while less lethal I think it created quite a bit more overall human suffering.  But we moved on from Katrina like we do from most disasters.  We didn't move on from 9/11 like that.  At some point, you just need to accept that the grieving process is over and move on.  Imagine how confused and worried you would be if someone were still grieving their spouse 10 years after the spouse died.

Hopefully I don't sound massively offensive because I don't mean to imply that there is anything wrong with people's reaction to tragedy or the many heroic reactions this event inspired.  I just don't understand why everybody, myself included, have spent so long acting as if this tragedy is different from all others.

Was it tragic and horrible? Yes. Does the entire country need to dwell on the fact that 0.001% of people that die on average each year died on 9/11, a decade after it happened?

Personally, I don't think so. It's all I've been hearing about for the last two weeks...it's time for people to move on.

I apologize if you think I'm a horrible person. Don't take it personally, I just tend to be quite apathetic towards these kinds of things.

[mainiac]

Pearl Harbor is an interesting parallel.  While the death toll was lighter, I'd say it was worse though because that attack was part of a declaration of war from an enemy that had a substantial industrial war machine backing it up and a multi-million man army at it's disposal.  But history books don't talk about the way that pearl harbor shaped the world. 

I was recently in a community theater musical revue about WWII that drew a lot of veterans as audience members.  They didn't seem to be obsessed with Pearl Harbor like we are about 9/11.  We had a song from the war about Pearl Harbor that the audience seemed to like (It was named "Remember Pearl Harbor" but was not the same song as the one of youtube.)  It was distinctly not a grief stricken song.  It was more of a call to action song like Battle Hymn of the Republic.  Maybe part of our wierd treatment of 9/11 is because if you felt a need to do something about Pearl Harbor, there were natural outlets for that emotion.  The armed forces were much larger back then.  Anybody not in the armed forces could contribute to the war effort on the home front.  But we never had a big national commitment to Afghanistan.

[freeformschooler]

Oh yeah, I was a little kid when this happened. I remember being picked up from school, and my dad had called my mom on the way home to tell her that this had happened. When we got home we watched television. There was a woman, a news reporter, just standing not entirely far away from the wrecked building as flaming bits of WTC fell down around her. I remember that distinctly.

[Virex]

Well the war after Pearl Harbor was won, which probably contributed as much to it's current status as time did. The war on terror, well, who feels like it has actually been won?

[fqllve]

I read a Charles Krauthammer column the other day which had a quote that left me vaguely offended.

9/11 was our Pearl Harbor. This time, however, the enemy had no home address. No Tokyo. Which is why today’s war could not be wrapped up in a mere four years.

I was recently in a community theater musical revue about WWII that drew a lot of veterans as audience members.  They didn't seem to be obsessed with Pearl Harbor like we are about 9/11.

There are a couple differences I think. Most importantly, Pearl Harbor wasn't an exclusively civilian attack. Those were veterans. Secondly, Pearl Harbor didn't have the nationally broadcast and absolutely poignant image of the towers burning and falling. Plus, 9/11 was just a decade ago, as opposed to seven decades.