Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?

[GiovanniC]

Okay, so I heard this song again on the radio this morning and for some reason I actually thought about it this time. I had been hired at a utility company but I didn't start work until the next week, so when the attack started, I was home at my parents' house. My mom called me from another room to tell me an airplane had hit the World Trade Center. I came out to see what was going on and I saw the second plane hit on live television.

The rest of our day was spent glued to the television and the telephone. We could not be pulled away. We had to know every little scrap of information about what was going on and what had happened. Wild horses could not drag us away.

What if I had said, "Hey, sorry mom, I cannot be bothered with planes hitting buildings, as I am in the middle of this children's book"? I am not the leader of the free world, but my ass would have probably been taken to some mental health professional or something.

There was nothing I could do but sit and watch and call family and friends. But that's what I did on 9.11.2001. I wanted to do more. I wanted to go and help those people. I wanted to do anything I could, but I was just a kid in Michigan.

The President of the United States of America sat there listening to a story about a little girl who really hoped her dad would let her keep a goat.

How diabolical is that? What in the world would your family and friends THINK of you if that's how you had reacted to terrorists attacking our country? Why in the world does his reaction alone -- forget LIHIP and forget MIHOP for a moment -- not disqualify him to run a Dairy Queen, much less this nation? What kind of sociopath--?

I digress.

Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day
Out in the yard with your wife and children
Working on some stage in LA
Did you stand there in shock at the site of
That black smoke rising against that blue sky
Did you shout out in anger
In fear for your neighbor
Or did you just sit down and cry

Did you weep for the children
Who lost their dear loved ones
And pray for the ones who don't know
Did you rejoice for the people who walked from the rubble
And sob for the ones left below

Did you burst out in pride
For the red white and blue
The heroes who died just doing what they do
Did you look up to heaven for some kind of answer
And look at yourself to what really matters

I'm just a singer of simple songs
I'm not a real political man
I watch CNN but I'm not sure I can tell you
The difference in Iraq and Iran
But I know Jesus and I talk to God
And I remember this from when I was young
Faith hope and love are some good things he gave us
And the greatest is love

Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day
Teaching a class full of innocent children
Driving down some cold interstate
Did you feel guilty cause you're a survivor
In a crowded room did you feel alone
Did you call up your mother and tell her you love her
Did you dust off that bible at home
Did you open your eyes and hope it never happened
Close your eyes and not go to sleep
Did you notice the sunset the first time in ages
Speak with some stranger on the street
Did you lay down at night and think of tomorrow
Go out and buy you a gun
Did you turn off that violent old movie you're watching
And turn on "I Love Lucy" reruns
Did you go to a church and hold hands with some stranger
Stand in line and give your own blood
Did you just stay home and cling tight to your family
Thank God you had somebody to love

I'm just a singer of simple songs
I'm not a real political man
I watch CNN but I'm not sure I can tell you
The difference in Iraq and Iran
But I know Jesus and I talk to God
And I remember this from when I was young
Faith hope and love are some good things he gave us
And the greatest is love

I'm just a singer of simple songs
I'm not a real political man
I watch CNN but I'm not sure I can tell you
The difference in Iraq and Iran
But I know Jesus and I talk to God
And I remember this from when I was young
Faith hope and love are some good things he gave us
And the greatest is love

The greatest is love
The greatest is love

Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day

Alan Jackson

[CitrusLib]

1. Would it be really sappy of me if I offered

you a hug?

:hug:

At the exact moment the first plane hit, I was in my ob/gyn's office listening to my son's heartbeat during my 8 month checkup. I was exactly one month away from my due date. The sad irony of celebrating a new life at the moment so many lives were snuffed out has never been lost on me.

I first heard the news as I was driving to work after my appointment. At that point, I thought it was a little Cesna or something. The reports weren't clear. The temp who was to replace me during my maternity leave started that morning and she and I sat glued to my radio listening to the events unfold.

My sister lived in Fort Lee, NJ at the time and called me positively hysterical after she saw the second plane hit live. I stayed in communication with her off and on since she had access to CNN, the BBC, etc.

Several of my friends worked in NYC several blocks from the WTC, so I spent the day trying to reach them and praying like hell they were OK.

After all the news came in, I discovered one of my father's co-workers perished at the Pentagon and in college my sister dated the brother of one of the passengers of flight 93. I was living in southern New Hampshire at the time and all around me were direct friends and relatives of the victims. It was such a sad and emotionally overwhelming time. I barely remember the last month of my pregnancy because of the aftermath.

Seeing what's been done in the name of that tragedy since then constantly turns my stomach and enrages me. I feel your anger.

[babylonsister]

2. Ah, such sad memories. My husband and I

were in the second day of a vacation in Bali, Indonesia. A friend who works there called us up at 10:30pm to tell us to turn the telly on. We didn't believe him when he told us why.
The following 10 days were a nightmare. It was tough being so far from home and loved ones, knowing it would be impossible to get home for awhile. There was a sports bar across from the hotel we were staying in with multiple TVs. For our entire time there this place was open 24/7 with BBC and CNN being played non-stop. This place was full of people, Balinese and foreigners, at most times. Along with my deep horror, I remember how kind everyone was to each other, and how genuinely outraged regardless of their nationalities. The US had the world's sympathy and attention, and they blew it with their future actions.
When we finally did get home, I OD'ed on news for weeks, and cried pretty much non-stop. To this day I can't watch a show on 9/11 without getting all choked up.

[KG]

3. near as i can tell, the world never stopped turning.

but my first thought was 'how did dick cheney pull this off?'

[END_HATRED_NOW]

5. Bush knew about it - duh

Bush said two times that he had "seen" the first plane hit...
how was that possible? His limo has satelite tv, but no major tv
had aired the first attack!!...leads me to wonder... There was only one tv crew which had actually captured the first attack and that wasn't aired until 15 hrs later!

THIS SITE HAS THE BEST VIDEO I'VE EVER SEEN THAT SHOWS THE TOWERS FALLING IN SLOOOOW MOTION. YOU CAN ACTUALLY SEE DEMOLISION EXPLOSIONS GOING OFF AS THE TOWER FELL....TAKEN FROM A NEWS HELICOPTER!

To see the video you will be required to download macromedia flash 7 player, but you can remove the active X file later from your computer if you want.(reccomended)

OPEN THE HOME PAGE, LOOK IN THE UPPER RIGHT CORNER FOR THE VIDEO CALLED,
"9-11 MYSTERIES VIDEO", ON THE NEXT PAGE YOU CAN CLICK ON THE FLASH PLAYER. it took a long time to download (39MB) but if you want to see 100% proof the towers just didn't fall from heat or fire or the plane hitting it, this is it!

(I AGREE WITH EVERYTHING THE VIDEO SAYS HAVING DONE LOTS OF RESEARCH EXCEPT ONE THING AT THE VERY END. ( WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PEOPLE ON FLIGHT 77 THE PENTAGON)

HOWEVER,THE THEORY PRESENTED IS "EXACTLY" LIKE THE PLAN WHICH HAD BEEN MADE TO START WAR WITH CUBA. IT IS DOCUMENTED IN THE NORTHWOOD TOP SECRET PLANS WHICH WERE RECENTLY RELEASED---THAT A PLANE WOULD LAND AND THEY WOULD SWITCH IT WITH A DRONE.(that's the only piece to the puzzle I have figured out yet - what happened to the people ;see below for northwood document)

ALSO PUT YOUR SOUND NOW BECAUSE WHEN THE PAGE OPENS, YOU WILL WANT TO HEAR BUSH SAYING HE 'SAW' THE FIRST TOWER BEING HIT....

THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN IMPOSSIBLE, NO TV SHOW HAD AIRED IT @ THAT TIME!

http://911blimp.net/aud_BushImplicatesBush.shtml

[END_HATRED_NOW]

7. KG

KG >>"but my first thought was 'how did dick cheney pull this off?'

You have a good intuition !

I was at home getting ready to go to work, I had the tv on and saw the second plane hit. My boss called me later & asked why I wasn't in work yet. I asked him if he had the tv on? He said yes then he had a fit and hollered I need to get to work...
...needless to say I don't work for him anymore!I stayed home the whole day & watched the tv!

[woodsprite]

4. Hubby and I have offices next door to eachother

Someone came in the office and called all employees into the conference room where we had the cable feed playing on the video screen. That was on all day at work. We sat there shocked. I was in my office on the news sites when reports of the Pentagon being hit came in. We all went back in the TV room. One of our employees is a lay minister. We had a prayer circle with anyone who wanted it. There was a prayer vigil going on several places all over campus. Some of our alumni and parents of currents students were killed that day.

My youngest was in daycare and it took us over 4x as long to get there than usual. Traffic was packed. My oldest was in school 15 miles away and we had to inch our way home. The Gov closed all schools and suggested that all businesses close. The thought was that family needed to be with eachother at this time. Of course, to go get our kids, hubby and I had to take vacation time since the this place didn't close. I was really ticked at that. It should have been a non-issue if you weren't trying to do something funky. Our employers know we had 2 kids and know that the Gov closed all public schools and government offices.

This place is considered private when it suits them and public when the budget decisions are afoot.

[LizW]

6. I was on the phone with my mom when the 2nd plane hit

We weren't saying anything, we were both watching our tvs. Mom watches ABC every morning, so she had that on, and I had on CNN. She said when the second plane hit, Diane Sawyer said, "Oh, my god."

I remember trying to understand what was happening, because, like lots of people, my first thought was that it was a small plane, and that it was an accident. But when the second plane hit, it all became clear that this was something so very horrible.

The second shock was when we saw people jumping or falling. I couldn't believe I was seeing that on my television. What horror had to be going on in those buildings to cause people to jump -- its just unimaginable.

Any thoughts of "maybe it isn't so bad, maybe people are getting out" were gone.

Another jolt came when the towers fell. We were watching in silence, and then my husband started saying, "What's that? What's happening?" and then "I can't believe it. I can't believe it." I don't think I ever stopped crying the whole day.

[GiovanniC]

9. Can You Imagine Listening to Someone Read About a Little Girl & Her Goat

Instead of watching the news coverage?

What kind of person can ignore their own country being attacked, and just sit there listening to a children's book?

[SammyWinstonJack]

15. One who doesn't give a shit.

The same kind of person who can lie about taking a nation to war where thousands upon thousands of innocent people are killed. Again a person who doesn't give a shit about anything save himself.

[LizW]

16. According to James Bamford's book

Bush was out of touch practically the whole day. Incredibly, communications didn't work very well on Air Force One. The reporters on board were forbidden to use their cell phones (Secret Service agents took away all their batteries), so once the plane took off in Florida, they had no idea what was happening, or where they were going. They were actually peering out the windows trying to get a look at the ground to get a clue where they were.

Apparently, Bush had NO direct contact with any military or government agencies once he got on Air Force One. Cheney did, but not Bush. The only info Bush was getting was from Cheney and Rice, and from intermittent network television reception on the plane.

A Florida Congressman and the reporters on the plane were shocked when the plane banked to the west and it became obvious they weren't going back to Washington.

Karen Hughes, at the White House, tried to call Bush on AF 1 and was told, "We're sorry, we can't reach him."

The reporters on the plane were told that they would be landing at an undisclosed location and that they could not tell anyone where they were. However, moments after they got off the plane in Louisiana, they saw video on CNN of themselves landing. The only people in the world who didn't know what was going on were with Bush on AF 1.

[noonwitch]

8. We were watching it on TV at work

I was in a staff meeting from 8-9, and coming out of it, someone told me that a plane had crashed into the WTC. I went on-line to see what's up while others hunted down a television to plug in. We saw the second plane strike and they started evacuating high-rises in downtown Detroit (the state, city-county, and federal buildings, along with the Ren/Cen). We were worried about our supervisor, who was en route from Dearborn, because there were rumors of a riot among the arab population (in times like that, rumour frequently gets treated as fact by the local media-they told us on one radio station during the blackout that it was a terror attack).

I was watching the whole thing rather dumbfounded-it was very difficult for me to accept that all those people waving from the top floors of the towers were about to die, even when they started jumping.

Most of my coworkers went to pick up their kids from school. I stayed at the office all day, watching the news or following the story on-line. When we'd go outside for a smoke, it was very quiet, with no planes flying overhead and very little traffic on the streets.

[MadHound]

10. On my way to work when the first plane hit.

I remember Katie Couric coming on at 7am and stating right off the top that four planes had been hijacked, and were flying around in the NE air corridor, had turned and were headed back for NYC, and further down the coast. Didn't think much about it at the time, though I did wonder what the hijackers were going to demand.

Heard about the first hit on the way to work, and knew that this wasn't your normal hijacking, that this wasn't good at all. Got to work, and got caught up in getting the early shipment up, and it wasn't until after it had been hit that I heard that the south tower, and the Pentagon had been struck. By that time there was a video feed up in the big conference room, and people were slowiy gathering and watching.

Saw the towers collapse, and thought to myself, "There it is people, the Big Lie. Those one hundred plus stories are going straight down into their own footprint. Im-fucking-possible, unless you've got a good demolition set up going. I didn't say anything, for I knew that it wasn't the time, but later that day, talking to fellow co-workers, I found out that I wasn't alone in my assesment. Granted, it wasn't the majority viewpoint, most people were in shock, and suseptible to the spin already taking place. But for those of us who still retained our critical thinking skills, we knew the Big Lie when we saw it, when we saw those towers go straight down, and later when WTC 7 did the same thing.

Well, that was pretty much our day, and in fact our week. Our product depends on same day shipping, air transport, and when all flights were grounded, we were screwed. Company ate many many thousands during that time when all flights(except for Air Force and the Bin Laden family) were grounded.

It still amazes me how many people still can't see the Big Lie from that day, even when it has been played over and over again. I suppose that there are people who just don't want to acknowledge the truth, even when it smacks them in the face.

[livetohike]

11. In bed with a killer migraine headache and my husband

was on his way to work. He came upstairs and said, "Something happened in NYC. Looks like a plane hit the WTC." It was early here, of course, so that was the first plane that hit. I got out of bed, did my Imitrex shot and went down to watch the news.

We lived outside of NYC back in 1993 when the WTC was bombed.

I was glued to the TV after that. I was wondering how many people that we worked with while living in NY may have had friends or family at the WTC on Sept. 11.

[Horse with no Name]

12. I worked nights and I was sleeping

I received a phone call from a friend who knew I was sleeping and they apologized for waking me up.
Told me I better turn on the television.
After that I went and filled the car up with gasoline, bought some non-perishable food and bottled water.
I didn't know what to expect at all. I just remember not feeling safe.

[Straight Shooter]

13. I found out about it when I turned on my Internet connection.

I don't watch TV, and our radio station local is too right wing.

I read the report of the WTC collapsing (first tower collapses), and at first when I looked at the link I thought it was a financial collapse of some sort in the financial district, I couldn't wrap my brain around it. When I read the story, my jaw dropped and kind of stayed there for the rest of the day.

I told my friends the next day, get ready for the biggest knee-jerk patriotism this country has ever seen. I had no clue it would get this bad, though.

[MsTryska]

14. hmm...I was working at the Deathstar....

(GE) when the first plane hit. one of my coworkers said - hey a plane just flew into the WTC - we thought it was an accident, since a plane had jsut crashed at Laguardia was it? or JFK just before.

Then the second plane hit, and all hell broke loose - everybody started streaming MSNBC and we were stuck to our PCs. I was a member of another forum, and we had a thread going, and it was insane.


I remember I was on a conference call with the rest of my department - i was the only one at my PC they were all in a Conference room, and it was hard to focus - I told them when the first tower fell, and everybody gasping. i remember my boss saying we had to focus on the business at hand -


the rest of the day was a blur - i remember buying soem haagen dasz and going home and being glued to the set while eating ice cream and talking to my Mom.

[Bridget Burke]

17. And the Bushes went to bed at 11 that night.

Apparently his regular bedtime. After his stressful day of listening to a story & fleeing around the country.

How many of us lost sleep for weeks? Even those with no friends or family in danger?

[King Coal]

18. I was in Denver at a hotel in LODO.

The previous night we were at the inaugural game at the brand new Investco Field. A Monday night game between the Broncos and the Patriots. I turned the TV on in the morning right after the first plane hit. We had hangovers the would haved killed mules. I woke my buddy up and we watched CNN as if we were watching a UFO landing. We went down to breakfast and continued watching. Lucky for us we had driven to Denver that time instead of flying as we usually do. We drove through the Springs, right past NORAD, and were amazed at how empty I-25 was. We got as far as Walsenburg and decided we needed to see some television, so we got a room in a run down motel. There, we watched the tape of the second plane hitting. I will never get that out of my mind. We left to get a meal and passed a gas station where the locals were filling all of the Jerry cans and vehicles they could find, because a radio station in Denver said that gas would hit $5 a gallon in the morning. When we saw that, we looked at each other and my buddy said, "We're at war."