Where were you on september 11 2001

I was with the coast guard in a small boat out in the middle of the gulf coast watching the sky's ... With many other coasties...50 Cals mounted to every sortie . Just watching for hours hungry and tired and thirsty ...just watching .... Just watching all day and all night , just floating for days . Never a word never a song never a misplaced word, just waiting . That was my where was I

As usual I was in bed watching the late night news before going to sleep, mid 20's working in Sydney, must of been just before 11pm ish and the presenter crossed over live after the first jet went in, I assumed/hoped it was an accident, a light aircraft at first, as knowing JFK, LGR and EWR were nearby I knew it shouldn't have been something larger. No-one knew it was a terrorist attack at the time seemingly.

She kept returning to the live feed as she broadcast the other news... and happened to have it up as the second jet went in which I watched live, and we all knew what was up at that point. Needless to say I got no sleep that night....watching the live news feeds non-stop until the next morning.

My mother got a phone call. We were homeschooled, so we were studying in the living room. She gasped and turned on the T.V. I remember seeing a tower aflame.

And then another plane. I saw the second plane hit live.

I didn't understand what was happening. I remember that. I was so young, around eight years old. My mother told me some bad men had flown those planes into the buildings to kill people.

I didn't understand. I didn't understand why people would kill each other. I was young and ignorant.

Now here we stand, sixteen years later. I've served in the Forces, trained to take out extremist terrorists like those bad men. I've had to grow up being told by ignorant people that all Muslim people were responsible... and only learned differently when I served beside one. I even ended up dating her for a time.

Bad men like those men are like us, they're doing the right thing in their mind because they've been led to believe they have no other choice. I wonder what I would have done in their situation. I wonder if I could have done any better.

I didn't understand then, but I understand now.

I was in science class. We were talking about electromagnetic fields on planets. The principal entered the class and talked with us about what happened. She didn't tell the whole picture. I found the rest out after I got home and turned on the telly.

I was living with a man I didn't love. He called me on the phone from work and screamed to turn on the television; I watched the second tower and the pentagon live. The man I was living with immediately became obsessed with it for the next two weeks, barely speaking about anything else because he was afraid of being drafted. I realized what a self-involved coward he was and left him.

I was just a kid, excited for my birthday the next day, and it didn't really sink in. But as an adult, I recognise that the damage didn't stop with crashing planes.

The next day, my birthday, the speech turned to "a war on terror", and "the axis of evil"... The rhetoric used after Sept 11th in the English speaking world leaves ongoing scars in peoples' perceptions of other cultures, and other cultures' relationships with the English speaking world.

It does not matter if I write "Not in my name". People will judge if I choose to wear a nikab to go to work here, which was never a problem in Jordan. The need for understanding and compassion - hard compassion, fearce compassion - a compassion that sees the human behind what has been dubbed "enemy" for too long - that is what is needed now. And I think that's something Jedi should be good at; not just for themselves, but for their communities. Arisaig seemed to have grasped this in his post above.

I'm sorry for everyone's losses. I'm sorry people felt violated by terrorist flown planes. I'm sorry the whole world's defence forces wouldn't have been able to protect the twin towers. But please let's not speak of 'us' and 'them' as in this thread's opening. I welcome rememberence, but I refuse to be identified with an 'us' if it excludes me when I choose a different hat.

Osama bin Laden wore Timex watches. It would be ridiculous for me to judge, or even hate, all Timex watch wearers for the destruction terrorism has brought us.

Twigga wrote: .... But please let's not speak of 'us' and 'them' as in this thread's opening. I welcome rememberence, but I refuse to be identified with an 'us' if it excludes me when I choose a different hat.

Osama bin Laden wore Timex watches. It would be ridiculous for me to judge, or even hate, all Timex watch wearers for the destruction terrorism has brought us.

The only us and them I read into the OP was the attacked and the attackers, which side one aligns to would seem to be up to the individual reading it I would have thought?

I was a freshman in high school. I went to school not knowing but, it was buzzing around school that we're attacked in New York City. As information rolled in from teachers and friends we realized the full extent of what happened. Around 9 am we all gathered to watch on TV in the classroom. Around noon time everyone was in such remorse including the principal and staff he declared early dismissal and we all went home.

I have never seen our country during this time so united. Nothing separated us at that point in time as a country it was amazing and still brings tears to my eyes thinking about it. We haven't been united like that since then. I sure wish America could have a wave of revival of that Unity in our country today.

High school pre-cal. I didn't understand why everybody was crying until they said that some people they knew were in the towers. I didn't realize how heavy that was and didn't say anything. Then, they wheeled in a TV so we could watch the news.

ren wrote: I was in college. It interrupted my meal. Public transport terrorism was nothing new to me, and in the grand scheme of things it seemed unimportant. I had not yet understood the true power of generalised hysteria, or that dead rich people matter a great deal more than regular ones.

In my short time here at the Temple I have gathered that you are a relatively important figure here Ren. But posts like this do nothing to further the heart of this place.

I will go ahead and assume you aren't from the US without trying to investigate...because if your entire take was that it "interrupted your meal" and you couldn't feel the significance of the moment that 3,000 innocent "rich people" were murdered; then, partner, your touch to the Force is lacking significantly.

I have far more respect for the reflections of those like Twigga and Arisaig here, than the attitude you offer. Zero humility or compassion for one of the greatest attrocities of our time. Damn near disrespectful.