My first phone call after the towers fell.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

A friend called early that afternoon and asked what I thought was up.

My reply was:

1) We are at war with Afghanistan.

2) The Republicans will treat this as their Reichstag fire and try to impose one-party rule.

3) Today is now safer then we've been in months... this was a big coordinated operation. There is no second act... no more than a string of US warships were sunk after the Cole or another round of embassy bombing the day after the two African bombings.


My suggestion to put one armed peace officer on each flight if you want (recruited from local police if need be) but either way resume flying as fast as possible--like in hours--to restore a sense of normality and minimize economic disruption.


That's a nice thing about conversations. You can remember the words you said. Unlike unvoiced thoughts, words you spoke are less subject--not immune, but less subject--to the ever-changing mythology that the culture makes of even our own past.

It really wasn't complicated and mysterious until people with an agenda started making it complicated and mysterious.

[Fumesucker]

1. My daughter was a Marine wife at the time..

I'm on the East coast, she called me from CA where her husband was stationed, I hadn't had the TV or even the computer on that morning and knew nothing but she was utterly frantic that he was going to be thrown into a war immediately, he had already been called to the base on an emergency basis.

I spent at least an hour calming her down and telling her that an NCO in charge of a helicopter maintenance shop wasn't going to be turned into a grunt trigger puller. I didn't turn on the TV until after I was done talking to her.

When I realized what was going on like you my biggest fear was how our government would react to the attacks that day.

Unfortunately my fears came true.

[Ishoutandscream2]

2. You were spot on and extremely rational

I was all over the place, and I even said "Nuke the whole lot of them!" I was completely shocked and stupid. I, of course, gave myself a day, and I regained my composure.

[47of74]

4. I was PISSED

I don't know how familar you all are with Babylon 5, but at first my reaction was similar to that of Delenn when her friend and mentor was killed by humans, "...they struck without provocation, there was no reason...animals...brutal! They deserve no mercy. Strike them down! Follow them back to their bases and kill them, all of them. All of them! No mercy!

After a day or so I calmed down too and wanted us to be measured and humane in our response. Of course Bush and company fucked that up when they refused to take bin Laden down when they had him cornered in Afganistan. They fucked that up when they engaged in waterboarding and other war crimes.

[DURHAM D]

3. My first call was to a friend who survived the Oklahoma City bombing.

We realized this was not a domestic terror act and for some reason that seemed to make it less difficult to begin to process.

[LiberalLoner]

5. I was living here in DC at the time. My husband, an Army Officer, called me and said,

"turn on the news - turn it on right now." Then he said "I'm okay, call everyone and tell them we are okay." I turned on the news, thought, "Oh, my God, no" and then started trying to call his relatives and my relatives to let everyone know we were safe. The lines were insanely busy and it was so hard to get a connection to get through until much later in the day.

I remembered wondering if we would be hit again. Feeling anxious in general.

[Imajika]

6. After the initial shock...

...I remember thinking how many conspiracy theories this event would generate.

I underestimated both the volume and sheer wackiness of them.