Kickas.org Forums Ankylosing Spondylitis General Discussion #1 AS Web Support Group Passed by Ground Zero Today

Rampant spongecakes are the thrid? How does one discern you everyday ordinary affable spongecake from a rogue rampant spongecake so as not to mix the two in their Apple Spongecake freezer?

Hmm, maybe I only think that I'd written of his experience - if I did, it would have been after the fact since I wasn't a member here then.

My brother traveled there fairly regularly to teach. He teaches QNX, TCP/IP Network Administration, and Security Admin for Solaris, on contract... he is a seriously bright techie-geek programmer!

He was on the 18th floor of a small building (a few blocks south I think? maybe you know it, a few floors were Dept of Justice.). They all went to another classroom on the opposite side, where there was a direct view between taller buildings of the closest tower with smoke pouring out. Being a bunch of techie-types, and not imagining it would ever happen, they calculated the approx height of the towers (300 metres?) relative to the distance away (800 metres?) and decided they were safe if it fell.

Once they evacuated, he didn't know where to go, since he knew most of the subways had stopped running, he started heading for the one that runs up the side of the island.. he was just turning onto Broad St. to head south (from Pine I think, aiming for Water St.) when he looked over his shoulder and saw that the grey billowing cloud of smoke wasn't in the sky anymore but on the ground and coming fast. He did not hear or realize that the 1st tower had fallen or what he was running from. It caught up with them just as they reached the waterfront, he climbed up the raised highway and saw the crowds waiting for ferries and realized he had to turn head towards the Brooklin Bridge to escape (he had his shirt up over his face but needed to get to clean air, he has bad asthma), but this meant heading back inwards too. He had a view in between buildings and saw the second tower fall.. and only then realized what he'd been running from.

Late that night he went out to Times Square, looking for a restaurant and said it was eerie with only a handful of people. He bought a bunch of train tickets out of a machine, in hopes that he might get lucky and he did! He gave the rest away the next morning, when you couldn't buy a ticket to save your soul. We met his train when he arrived in Toronto (it was stopped and well searched at the border twice, once by the Americans and then again by armed(!) Canadian border guards. They had to disembark and open their suitcases before the train was allowed to cross the border.)

We were so happy to have him home! That day really influenced their lives and they both made a conscious decision to play more and work less. His wife quit her job and got her pilots license too (they own a little cessna)... saying that "Life is too short to be a passenger".

Sorry, didn't mean to write so much!!

I will never forget the day the Towers came down. My son called me from his work to say to turn on the TV. He said a plane hit one of the towers. I couldn't believe my eyes as I watched the 2nd plane flying into the 2nd tower. I realized that this wasn't just a terrible accident. I remember sitting, sobbing. I couldn't bear to look, but I couldn't tear my eyes away. How could man treat his fellow man like that? I will never understand. This turned into a time that pulled this country together. For a while, we were all brothers and sisters. We somehow felt closer to God. We all hung out our flags.

Now, with the 10 year anniversary coming up. I hear about some squabbles as to how it should be commemorated. Some people don't want any prayers because they might "offend" someone. How can you have a memorial without prayer? Among the wreckage were some girders that formed a cross. That formation was to be saved to be placed at ground zero. Now some people are trying to prevent those girders from having their rightful place.

Has anyone asked the families of the fallen, or the survivors how they want that day to be memorialized? Politics and "lets not offend anyone" seems to be forming the decisions, instead of just good sense. I wonder how long it will take before some start saying 911, like the Holocaust, didn't happen.

I was holding a 14 day old baby in my arms while watching the news unfold that morning....terrified of what the world had become.

My baby boy turned 10 on Friday and thankfully 9/11 made our country a better place in some ways. I bet the terrorists didn't bank on that.

Thanks Steve. I agree about AS shaping us in ways better than before, even if a little bent.

Mig,

Thank God he was safe when so many others lost their lives.

I have heard MANY survivors say that they they are going to enjoy life to the fullest..a lesson we all could learn.

Watching the specials last night I remember the first time I saw the walls with pages and pages of the missing loved one and how overcome with emotion I was..its hard enough just losing someone to the natural circle of life...

Hugs!

I had heard that they weren't going to allow current responders, officers, and others I am HOPING that is NOT right...I feel that anyone that was affected even someone like me that is just so passionate and would like to be there just to pay respects to the fallen should be able to come...I just dont know.

Hugs!

Steve,
Thank you!
It would be keen to see if those old posts are still there, from that day. In time, there will those who say, this did not happen either...

can't believe its been 10 years already. and that day, like today, was such a picture perfect day, weather-wise. one of the things that struck me was how quickly the day turned. also, remember that it took the first tower being hit, the pentagon being hit, and then finally the final tower before i realized that this was no accident. it just never occurred to me that anyone could do something so calculatedly cruel. hope i never gain the ability to understand.

most of our students' families were ok. but we did have a student who's father worked for Cantor Fitzgerald and of course did not make it that day. but then fortunately more stories with happy endings. like one of my research students, who's mother worked very close to the trade centers, between walking and taking what buses she could, finally arrived back home in brooklyn later that night, to a very worried but relieved family.

Sue,

Didn't Cantor Fitzgerald as an employer suffer the greatest loss of life from one company? I think they lost most of their people didn't they?

Been watching more specials tonight with President Bush only interview on it and about the bombers and how they came to plan it.

Hugs!

I really hope this doesn't offend anyone but these sorts of things make you question religion. Why is it that 3,000 people were taken on this particular day. Most of which would have been good people and probably prayed everyday. My Grandmas neighbour has cancer and hes only 18 years old. My Dads' doctors' daughter also just found out that she has cancer. Its like the holocaust. 6 million people killed. I dont know it just doesnt add up.

R.I.P to all the good people that were taken.