When the plane hit the second tower

[Stuckinthebush]

I was watching in Birmingham, Alabama. I immediately jumped out of my seat and ran to the phone. I called my sister to tell her to get out of Boston (she was at a meeting), I then called a friend who knew how to contact a good friend in New York to make sure he was OK and knew what was going on. Then I called to make sure my cousin and a very good friend who were airline pilots were not flying that day and knew what was going on. I think I did this in a span of five minutes because it was obvious that we were being attacked and nobody knew what was next.

And Bush sat on his ass.

If anyone you know makes light of the fact that Bush sat in an elementary school reading "My Pet Goat" for many minutes after the second plane hit, then make them remember what they did. What did you do when you realized what was going on? Sit there?

If you were the POTUS, what would you have done? Not sit there, I'd imagine. You jump up, graciously thank the children, smile and say that you were needed to run the country. Then you leave.

I know we all agree with this sentiment here at DU, but having read accounts of people saying that this was not a big deal, and having seen media members portray Moore as being out of line for showing this segment, I had to go back in my mind and see what I did.

I didn't sit on my ass. How about you?

[jedicord]

1. Immediately went to the internet...

to find out what was going on. Called a friend who's family lives in New York City to make sure they were OK.

Truly, though, it wasn't until the Pentagon got hit that I truly started freaking. That hit meant ANYONE was at risk. If they can hit the Pentagon, they can hit anything. THAT's when I called my husband and my son's school to see if they were OK. AND I WANTED THEM HOME WITH ME!

[thecrow]

21. I was on the internet when the first plane hit.

I went to airlines sites and checked to see which flights had taken off for the west coast. Then I contacted my boyfriend. When the second plane hit, I recontacted my boyfried, and my mom, because I KNEW that all communications would be down soon here in Washington.
Who knew that the Pentagon would be hit?
When it was, my mom was concerned that they were hitting things down the east coast and that my brother in the shipyard at Norfolk would be next.... but of course the phone service was iffy at best at that time, and we couldn't contact him.

(I really sat and read about a pet goat for seven minutes but I am too embarrassed to tell you that...)

[unblock]

2. i imagine what i would do if my house were broken into

let's say i'm sitting, reading to my kids. actually, bush wasn't even reading to the kids, he was just listening to the teacher read to the kids. so let's say i'm sitting with the kids, listening to the nanny read to me and my kids.

mrs. unblock comes in and whispers in my ear, "honey, someone's broken into the house downstairs. we're under attack."

yeah, i think i'd be worried about alarming the kids, so i'd just sit there for seven minutes....

:eyes:

[malatesta1137]

3. My mom in South America

was able to get a hold of me faster than Bush did the FAA.

She woke me up at 9AM sharp that morning (I didn't have to be at work in Manhattan that day until 2pm). I saw the second plane hit the south tower live on tv. I thought I was watching a sci-fi film.

Bush should be warming a jail cell right-now.

[DeadHead67]

4. I was sound asleep . . . . .

. . . since I work as a bartender at night. My sister called. I got up, made my coffee, and turned on the TV. This may seem like an odd response, but my sister had already told me the towers had collapsed. By that time I was fully awake, and the tragedy began to sink in.

[LuminousX]

5. You know... Good Point

Everyone at work either started calling relatives, clamoring for more information, or (just a few) broke down and wanted to go home immediately.

No one just sat there.

[SheilaT]

6. When I saw the second plane hit

I immediately tried to contact a friend of mine who worked at the Pittsburgh airport. I knew it was his day off, but I knew he could call in to work and find out what airplanes had just crashed, and if any others were missing.

I was a ticket agent for ten years at National Airport in Washington DC, and I cannot begin to tell you how quickly news of any kind of airline crash is spread to those working at the airports.

As it happened, the friend had left for a doctor's appointment, but when I spoke with him the next day, he said yes, the people at work did know by then which planes had crashed and what two were off course.

[nostamj]

7. I was in my office in midtown Manhattan

I had heard the report of the first hit but details were scant.

I had just emailed two friends about the hit when the second hit was reported. I mailed a second time: IT'S A TERROR ATTACK

and left the building for a smoke.

then, as I looked at the Crysler Bldg, the MetLife Bldg, etc. I suddenly didn't want to be there at all.

I went back in, emailed the family to let them know I was safe and watched the coverage in horror.

after the collapses I walked *most* of the way home to brooklyn.

that video remains, IMHO, the most damning evidence against *

[Stuckinthebush]

8. Damning, indeed....

Who wants a president like that?

Not me.

[amazona]

9. same here...immediately contacted friends in NY, Chicago, VA

I walked in on people watching the attack on TV and they told me there was speculation that the Sears Tower was next. I immediately called a friend scheduled to travel to Chicago that day and informed him of what was happening (he cancelled his trip). I then tried to get hold of people in NY to see if they were OK. Couldn't get in touch so called other loved ones to see what was happening. A relative had open heart surgery scheduled and I contacted the hospital to find out it had been cancelled because the blood was being sent to New York. So, yeah, I was immediately trying to get information and see if everyone was safe.

If I were the President, I would have assumed I was in danger and putting the children in danger, and I would have gotten away from them as quickly as possible and probably also recommended an evacuation of the school, in case the bad guys thought I was still there. Seems like common sense to me. I would have wanted to be in constant communication with Pentagon and NORAD, and I would have had jets in the air at least getting alongside the other flights and evaluating them. I would not have been sitting on my hands waiting for Dick Cheney to give the order to shoot down United 93. An unpopular decision should come from the top. As far as shooting down the plane headed for the Pentagon, that is a tough call that it could have been shot down without causing just as much or more harm, but at least an escort should have been ordered.

Yeah, I can think of all sorts of things I would do. As soon as I knew, adrenaline hit and all I was thinking of was how to secure friends and family and let them know what was happening. Seems any of us would do the same.

[Sean138]

10. I have to admit...

I was at work that morning (I live and work in DC), and when I heard that the planes hit the towers, I figured it was an accident. When they hit the pentagon, I thought it was the race war (after all, it seemed like something those fuckin militias would do).

I actually didn't really give a fuck about it. I waited a little while and watched the smoke coming from the pentagon (with a little bit of pride; war gamers getting hit in an act of war, you know). Then, they shut the metrorail down, so I called home and let my father know I was going to be home soon.

Of course, the buses weren't running properly either. The S buses were taking frightened folks to Friendship Heights, and the taxis weren't picking up anybody (except for some white women who were OFFERED a ride). I ended up walking two hours to get home. When things like that happen, one tends to care even less.

When I got home, I watched Springer for a while, until UPN got the CBS feed. Then I just watched the channel 5 news for the rest of the day. I didn't know anybody who worked at the pentagon, and I didn't know anyone who lived in NYC, except for my neice. But she was in Brooklyn, so I knew she was safe.

My fiancee, who lived in TX at the time, didn't bother to call or email me. That's when I stopped caring completely. There was no point. I went to sleep.

[DoYouEverWonder]

20. You are lucky you stay so calm

However, I'm glad you're not the President of the United States.

[Eloriel]

40. I have a different word than "lucky" n/t

[Unperson 309]

45. Not calm, indifferent. I See the Point!

The point is this: While I am not black, latino or other minority, I can see how 9/11 could be viewed through a racial filter.

Before anyone jumps on me, let me explain! I am disabled. For me, getting into and out of buildings, up and down steps, etc, is not an abstract concept... it's reality and it's how I get around day by day. When I go into the city, I FILTER my itinerary through "can I get there easily?" and it's the FIRST thing on my mind... I not only don't CARE that the steps are beautiful on that portico, I am actually pissed that they are there! Because I know it will take me a Hell of a lot longer to get inside.

Why is that germane? Simple: Everyone was hollering about America, but it seemed to me that they were concerned with WHITE America. All the heart rending imagery was of white firemen, white victims, white medical personnel, white this, white that, and were I a member of a minority race, I think I, myself might have been rather indifferent.

Note that the writer refers to the fact that cabs were not picking anyone up, but two white women were offered a ride, and the writer walked two hours to get home.

Would I have picked up a black or hispanic person on my way home?

It is to my everlasting shame that I would have to say "Maybe" instead of an instand and unqualified "Yes!"...

And I need to work on that. We ALL need to work on seeing this aspect of America. because unlike many I've spoken to, I REALIZE that race issues DO color our national dialogue FAR more than we would like to think they do. Just as disability issues color everyday actions that I (and many Americans) undertake4 daily.

By the way, blind, wheelchair users, deaf and other disabled Americans were ALSO in the Twin Towers ALONG with many minority members.

Flame away, if you like. This is uncomfortable stuff.

309

[Cheswick2.0]

42. yiu thought two different planes hitting two different towers was an

ACCIDENT?

[Kolesar]

11. Bush should have told the kids there was hellfire and death in New York

...then left.

[heidiho]

12. My friend's RW husband defended it and I asked him

that if his store (he owns some grovery stores) was on fire, would he sit in a chair for 7 minutes and do NOTHING. Of course not. Especially if he knew beforehand that there was a report of smoke in the store (Tower 1 hit).

It makes absolutely no sense to anyone.

[Stuckinthebush]

13. Exactly...

The president of the US is in charge!

Bush acted like a figurehead without any real understanding of what to do in emergency situations.

[ejcastellanos]

14. I shuddered

and thought 'four more years'

[Stuckinthebush]

15. For some reason, that thought didn't hit me until the next day

And then my depression was even more intense.

[laruemtt]

16. i'll never forget it.

i work at home and hubby called me from work and told me to turn the tv on. it took about 10 seconds for it to sink in, and i called him right back and he told me i had to calm down. then i called every person whose number i have! then the crying for days and days. my niece worked in tower 2 and was smart enough to take off after tower 1 was hit. but we didn't know until that night. my sister-in-law worked in tower 7. the hatred i have for bushco knows no bounds.

how i wish i'd known about DU back then........

[damnraddem]

17. But Bush did the responsible thing:

he stayed out of the way so the adults could take care of the problem. Unfortunately, there were no adults in his administration, so the problem didn't get taken care of.

[SheilaT]

18. The fact that Bush sat there

so long, and that none of his aides made any move to hustle him out of that school, indicates to me that he really was no more than a figurehead president. It was Cheney who was immediately removed to a secure place.

[pagerbear]

19. We had just buried my grandmother the day before

I was driving back from NC. I didn't even turn on the car radio until after 11.

[MissAnnThrope]

22. Re:When the plane hit the second tower

I tried to make phone calls to people, but I couldn't get through. I also sat there watching the news, until it was too much to watch. Then I got on-line to see if people I was concerned about were ok.

But what bothered me was, NYC was immediately declared a no-fly zone. Yeah, it made sense to keep planes out of the area, but they could have sent in helicopters. I was furious that they didn't even try to get rescue helicopters to people who were trapped on the upper levels of the buildings. I realize there would have been mass panic if they did that, but they could have saved a few more lives, if they had gotten as many helicopters as they could to the roof for the people who could get up there. In my mind, that kind of rescue effort would have been common sense. No one can tell me why that wasn't done.

[nostamj]

26. there were attempts

but it was impossible.

impossible to land. impossible for many to even reach the roof. wind currents cause by the intensity of the flames and smoke.

[DoYouEverWonder]

23. I heard the news pulling into the parking lot at my business

I went inside and let everyone in my office know that it looked like there was a terrorist attack going on in NYC. We tried to get info from the Internet, but the net was slammed, so we went to the radios instead.

I then called my mother in NYC and by 9:10, I knew where she was and everyone else in my immediate family who live up there.

When the plane hit the Pentagon, I couldn't stand it anymore and left to go get my kid from school. I figured if we were all going to die, I wanted to be with my kid.

The scene at the school was surreal. This is a very small school that goes from K to HS. The middle and high school kids were gathered together watching the TV's. The young kids were out in the yard playing and didn't have a clue. I watched the towers collapse with the older kids, while my own played outside without a care.

[antigone382]

29. I was in school

I was in my junior year of high school then, sitting in my math class. Our teacher came in and told us "a plane has crashed into one of the buildings--no, wait--two of the buildings of the WTC." We turned on the TV, and pretty much all we could do was just sit there and watch, wondering where the Hell the president was. When the Pentagon was hit I suddenly remembered that my older brother was an Army Ranger (he's out now, thankfully). Later on a lot of parents picked up their kids and took them home. I really feel like the principal or the administrators or SOME-body should have said something to us over the intercom, but then, it's not like our schools are supposed to help us get a grip on cataclysmic situations or anything.

[Skittles]

24. I knew it was terrorism when the first plane hits

come on- can anyone seriously believe a plane could hit that tower in that weather by accident? I'm astounded I seem to be in the minority in knowing this.

[Stuckinthebush]

31. I'm sure many of us had that in the back of our minds

But you just don't want to believe it. Your mind protects you from that reality until it can't anymore.

[Skittles]

37. I guess I've always been a realist

nothing seems to protect my mind. :o

[apnu]

25. I closed the 24th floor of the Sears tower.

and left with a ton of harddrives from our servers, just in case. That was the strangest day of my life, thus far.

[Veggie Meathead]

27. Given your description of what you did and those of others,

there is only one possible explanation: Bush had foreknowledge of the event.

[Walt Starr]

28. When the plane hit the first tower

I was driving to a conference. While on the expressway, I heard about it on the radio and immediately dialed my wife. I thought it must have been a commuter aircraft.

She turned on the television and started talking to me. She saw the tower on fire and stated it looked too bad to have been a small commuter aircraft.

Just then, on live television, the second plane hit the other tower.

I knew what the fuck was going on and so did she.

Bush is a moran(sic).

[truebrit71]

30. My parents called me from ENGLAND and said GET OUT!!!

I worked in downtown Chicago at the time, right next to the Sears Tower when my father called me from their home in Kent and told me what happened, and told me to get the hell out of downtown....I had NEVER heard fear in that man's voice until that day....

[Stuckinthebush]

32. That is what my sister said about my call to her

She started to cry because of the fear in my voice and the fact that others around her were starting to panic. I wish I had been able to control my emotions better, but there really was no way at the time.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

33. Conflicting theories on why FratBoy just sat there...

He didn't have a clue as to what was going on, and...

1. He was petrified and wanted his mommy.

2. He was waiting on Uncle Dick to call him and tell him what to do.

3. He didn't want to frighten the children by running out of the room screaming like a scalded chimp.

....OR....

...he knew exactly what was going on, and....

1. He knew that he had to wait long enough for the terrorist attacks to run their course. He was going over his pre-prepared remarks to the nation in his head.

2. He knew that Air Force One was in absolutely no danger and knew that there wasn't any rush to get going.

[ArkDem]

34. Wow, I wish you were protecting our country!

[Stuckinthebush]

36. Hell, ArkDem...

I wish any of us here on DU were instead of the twit in the White House!

[RamboLiberal]

35. I was driving to work in Pittsburgh listening to talk radio

When I heard about the first plane, though it was a beautiful morning in Pittsburgh I thought maybe it was foggy in NY and a private plane had hit ala the B-25 that hit the Empire State building in the 40's. But then when the 2nd plane hit I was screaming at the radio "terrorists" cause some idiots reporting on CNN radio were speculating if it was some kind of aircraft guidance beam that went haywire (note I did not yet know the weather was equally beautiful and clear in NYC at that point yet).

As a someone who grew up in the Cold War and heard the stories of how the President had 30 minutes or less to decide if missiles were truly coming in from Russia and if to retaliate I'll never forgive Bush for just sitting there for 7+ damn minutes. Hell, he never should have went in to that classroom in the first place. He's the one that had the PDB's that warned him. How did he not know even when the first plane hit it was a terrorist attack?!

Imagine if that had been Clinton sitting on his duff - they'd have hung him by now!

[democratreformed]

38. My husband and I were doing some "cold calling" in the very early stages

of our business. At times, when we were around people we knew well, we watched parts of it on their television. The rest of the time, we listened on the radio.

We didn't know anyone who lived there or in any other large city, so we didn't call anyone. We just more or less talked about it everywhere we went.

[TEXASYANKEE]

39. This is what has always bothered me.

Bush and his cronies had months and months of briefings about the very real possiblity of terrorists hijacking a plane and flying it into a building. They had to have known that THIS is what had happened on Sept. 11. Forget the fact that he sat on his bumpkin for 20 minutes after the second plane crashed ... he walked into that classroom knowing full well that the first plane had flown into the WTC. He never should have entered that school room in the first place. I will never ever ever understand the rationale for his actions (or that of his cronies, especially Card) that morning.

[Jade Fox]

47. Don't forget, bush has lied on record about what he did that morning..

Saying he saw the second plane hit.

That he went into the classroom at all makes no damn sense.
Surely they would have understood that he might have to cancel
without notice, being the freaking President of the United States!

Is it possible these people are so dumb they thought the first plane was
just an accident? The minute I heard about it (without knowing any details,
just turning on the radio and hearing people talk) I knew it was a terroist
attack.

[nostamj]

49. let's clarify things...

* claimed in later interviews to have seen the FIRST plane hit. (a LIE unless he had closed circuit video from NYC that KNEW the hit was coming.)

the second hit came while he was in the schoolroom. Card did not wait for a response, nor did * attempt to make any response.

of course, knowing of the first strike and knowing the contents of the PDB, he KNEW it was almost certainly a terrorist strike and continuing with the photo-op was GROSS dereliction.

had they acted IMMEDIATELY and notified NYC authorities, the South Tower could have been evacuated and many lives saved.

[Cheswick2.0]

41. I started crying because I knew we were being attacked

and I thought it was going to be worse than it was. I called my friends and family and told them to put the TV on.

[x-g.o.p.er]

43. Went into the squadron....

got ready to deploy, came home 12 hours later, packed my shit, and deployed for Operation Joint Endeavor less than a week later.

[Unperson 309]

44. Well... I actually DID sit on my ass for about two hours...

but that was because I was on a bus travelling cross country!! I literally could NOT get up out of my seat (except to stretch my legs) until we had arrived at out destination!

But had I been home, yes I'd have been on the phone immediately!

309

[Corgigal]

46. i also remember

I got the kiddies off to school and thought I might sneak a few hours for a nap when my father in law called the house. I turned on the news and watched the second airline hit the tower. I saw straight and level flying and I screamed, a terrorist attack. My husband didn't want to believe it but I saw how that plane was aimed. I then jumped on the phone and called my oldest child in college in New York State.

[Longhorn]

48. I wonder what FDR did when he found out about Pearl Harbor?

Actually, I really don't because anyone with a BRAIN could come up with a hundred things to do besides sit. I swear, the look on Bush's face -- he looked like HE could be one of those children!