[OT] Sep. 11th was the day that I...

I feel that as a non US, but still western, citizen my view on the events might shed some light on certain things.

I just had a class (Dutch English translation), and it was 3 in the afternoon, Central European Time. At five I needed to be at my very first "Philosophy of Science" class, in the biggest lecture hall of the University of Amsterdam.

A friend called on my cell as I stepped out of the university building: "A plane crashed in the WTC!". I thought a single engine plane rammed into one of the three 12 floor buildings of the Amsterdam WTC. He clarified the situation, and then I thought it was just an incident, as did he.

In the next two hours he continually gave me updates on the situation, and an accident had been ruled out as I took my seat at the lecture. I think 300+ people were present.

The professor started talking through his microphone: "I hoped I wouldn't ever have to start a lecture like this, but here goes. For those of you who have not yet heard the news: Four planes crashed in the United States, Two of them in the Twin Towers, one on the Pentagon. These plane crashes are, according to the media, most likely terrorist actions."

After the lecture, we (about 50 students) watched CNN at the university. Most of the others went home to do the same. After tony blair's emotional speech I rode my bicycle home on the deserted streets of Amsterdam, accompanied by a few friends and fellow students (we still needed to get dinner) .

After we recovered from the shock of seeing so many people die when the towers collapsed, we started thinking about what was going to happen. The next emotion almost everyone of us felt was fear. What were the United States going to do?

Images of Japanese people being put in concentration camps in 1942 came to someone's mind. Extreme Right wing "patriotic" US citizens harrasing Muslims (or doing worse things to them) came to mine.

A few weeks later I was pleased to find that we were wrong about those assumptions, but now, a year later:

Edited out political commentary. Apparently, I can't say how I feel . This thread has a nobler goal than political discusson, I apoligize if this would lead to a hijacked thread.

Rav

I was at the unemployment center to apply for my unemployment benefits. They were about to wheel in a tv for us to watch while waiting and the supervisor runs out and wheels the tv back into her office. There was a lot of hushed whispers but no one told us anything.

Once I finished my paperwork I left and as I was leaving the unemployment center I saw six guys run out of a Chinese restaurant into an electrical appliance store. When I went to see what was up I came in just in time to see the first tower collapse on a large screen tv. I was in complete shock.

Rav said:

The US used to be the only pillar of democracy and freedom. It still has those traits, but it now shares them with other countries. US isolationism towards those countries just doesn't make sense to me.

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Argh, please keep your political opinions to yourself.

I am losing too much blood biting my tongue.

Or go to nutkinland or
Closed threads at EnWorld

FD

edit - removed my angramainyu - Rav was kind enough to remove his comments to which this responded. I'd like to keep this thread open if possible, but that mean no political commentary.

Storm raven, I don't want a political discussion. I stated how I felt. It just feels that way, that not taking place in any of those things the US feels isolationistic to me and lots of my countrymen. Please edit out your political commentary, as I did mine. This thread has a different topic. To me, sptember 11 conjured up those feelings.

Rav

edit - removed my angramainyu

edit - removed my angramainyu

On September 11th I got married. Mind you that was back in 99, but it certainly makes for lousy anniversaries. OTOH, I suspect I will have an easy time with dinner reservations in the future.

Buzzard

Rav said:

Apparently, I can't say how I feel .

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Yes, you can, but the editorializing is inappropriate to this thread.

What was september 11th?

I was in college waiting for a class on Shakespeare to start. The prof came in and told us that a plane had crashed into the WTC. I was horrified, but at the time, all we knew was that it had happened... our class started only a minute or so after the news first went out.

I wrote my essay and left, in the hall were people gathered around televisions set up wherever they could find a cable jack. I gathered around one and asked a friend what I had missed.

From there the day went strange.

I left college after that; most profs cancled their classes for the rest of the day. I went home and flipped on the television and alternated between that and EN-World for most of the rest of the day.

When it became clear that it was terrorism we were dealing with, I remember I was in basicly a cold rage for the rest of the day... I was outraged, but there was nothing at all I could do to effect anything in the slightest, and that was the hardest pill to swallow.

*edit*

My group still gamed that night, but the mood was subdued. I remember the DM kept putting us up against easy little assassin type characters that we mowed our way through, as sort of a stress outlet.