One september morning...
Sep. 11th, 2002 11:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eustaciavye77It was 9:10 AM. K came into class late as usual, looking rushed as usual, and apologized for being late:
"I'm still shook up about that plane going through the World Trade Center."
shocked looks. then she explained. It took me an hour to realize that this might mean that my family and friends in NY were in danger. at 10:30 class broke for 10 minutes and I tried to call mom. All the lines were busy. Finally I was able to get through to mom and find out that dad was safe and on his way home. After class ended someone rolled a TV out into the student lounge. and I watched the towers fall. I tried to eat some lunch and then walked to work, hoping the lab would be closed. It wasn't. My coworkers had projected the TV feed onto the lab movie screen and I watched Dan Rather cry on TV. I looked at the skyline with those two gaping holes. I couldn't cry over something so unbelievable so I turned to my computer screen and waited for the lab to close. It didn't. Everyone else went home at 4 and I was left alone till 6 to watch the lab like normal. No students used it. I broke the "No AIMing on shift" rule and talked to people while I waited to leave. The whole afternoon I kept thinking how unreal it all was. When I went outside at 6 to get the bus, the streets were full of people on cell phones talking about the situation. I called Sami and she told me that there was some confusing news about what was going on in Kabul. I thought "Oh shit, we're already at war." Then I went to Kristen and Katy's where I found several people already drunk. I figured drinking was a BAD idea so I just sat and watched the news updates go by. Then I went to Sami's to hang out with her and Mark and try to forget. By that point we'd figured out that Mark wasn't getting home any time soon. We watched Comedy Central.
My workplace (internship one) handled the whole situation really poorly. They did and said all the things to make themselves sound sensitive but there was NO suppot I went into work the rest that week and the next and tried to ignore how dumb people were being. I went to Davis Sqaure four or five times in those two weeks. Then I got to watch our president be a moron. Lemme tell ya, that helped, sure. :P
I'm not going to get into whose fault this is because I realize that among some factions, my opinion is rather unpopular. Actually, I think among most, it is unpopular. Suffice to say I do not think it is fair when people say "American derserved it." There's this whole concept of personal responsibility. I don't care about the politics, I'm much more concerned about the victims and their families and what this has done to people's sense of safety. This means a lot of liberals hate me. I don't think this justifies us taking away personal freedoms or attacking random arab nations. Thus conservatives hate me. I've got Muslim friends and I detest the tought of them being harmed, thus relgious zealolts aren't too fond of me either. And let's not get into Jerry Falwell who tried to blame it all on gay people.
Today, I'll just try to relax and not get too angry, and avoid any tall buildings. Except I've already been doing that for a year.
"I'm still shook up about that plane going through the World Trade Center."
shocked looks. then she explained. It took me an hour to realize that this might mean that my family and friends in NY were in danger. at 10:30 class broke for 10 minutes and I tried to call mom. All the lines were busy. Finally I was able to get through to mom and find out that dad was safe and on his way home. After class ended someone rolled a TV out into the student lounge. and I watched the towers fall. I tried to eat some lunch and then walked to work, hoping the lab would be closed. It wasn't. My coworkers had projected the TV feed onto the lab movie screen and I watched Dan Rather cry on TV. I looked at the skyline with those two gaping holes. I couldn't cry over something so unbelievable so I turned to my computer screen and waited for the lab to close. It didn't. Everyone else went home at 4 and I was left alone till 6 to watch the lab like normal. No students used it. I broke the "No AIMing on shift" rule and talked to people while I waited to leave. The whole afternoon I kept thinking how unreal it all was. When I went outside at 6 to get the bus, the streets were full of people on cell phones talking about the situation. I called Sami and she told me that there was some confusing news about what was going on in Kabul. I thought "Oh shit, we're already at war." Then I went to Kristen and Katy's where I found several people already drunk. I figured drinking was a BAD idea so I just sat and watched the news updates go by. Then I went to Sami's to hang out with her and Mark and try to forget. By that point we'd figured out that Mark wasn't getting home any time soon. We watched Comedy Central.
My workplace (internship one) handled the whole situation really poorly. They did and said all the things to make themselves sound sensitive but there was NO suppot I went into work the rest that week and the next and tried to ignore how dumb people were being. I went to Davis Sqaure four or five times in those two weeks. Then I got to watch our president be a moron. Lemme tell ya, that helped, sure. :P
I'm not going to get into whose fault this is because I realize that among some factions, my opinion is rather unpopular. Actually, I think among most, it is unpopular. Suffice to say I do not think it is fair when people say "American derserved it." There's this whole concept of personal responsibility. I don't care about the politics, I'm much more concerned about the victims and their families and what this has done to people's sense of safety. This means a lot of liberals hate me. I don't think this justifies us taking away personal freedoms or attacking random arab nations. Thus conservatives hate me. I've got Muslim friends and I detest the tought of them being harmed, thus relgious zealolts aren't too fond of me either. And let's not get into Jerry Falwell who tried to blame it all on gay people.
Today, I'll just try to relax and not get too angry, and avoid any tall buildings. Except I've already been doing that for a year.
