<p>Was on the commuter train heading into Manhattan and noticed fellow passengers creating quite a din of commotion about a report of a plane crash at WTC. Once Lower Manhattan came into our view, most of us were startled. When other riders related reports of a plane hit in Washington, that’s when I became very fearful. I did a reverse trip back to my home station, only to find that the second tower was aflame, that’s when all of us standing there watching the horror realized that it must have been no accident, but an attack.</p>
<p>The shock became tears when I saw the second tower crumble with my own eyes. That sound was indescribable. A second later I remembered that there was a pre-school at WTC because friends had their children enrolled there. Impulsively and probably foolishly, I ran to the nearest Firehouse and practically demanded that the officer to let me ride with them into Manhattan because I wanted to get to that school to help. He took the time to dispassionately talk to me, calm me down. “Let the people trained for this handle it son.”</p>
<p>As many of you might have read in the news later, the kids got out all right (I didn’t find out for a few days). I still tear up when I think about that school and the bravery of the school staff and of the children.</p>
<p>I had to fly a roundtrip yesterday, 9/11/13. Both of the planes were relatively empty on what it normally a very busy flight path. I am guessing that some people just choose not to fly on 9/11. I wish I hadn’t had to do it. We are still very grateful that a close friend missed his train to work that morning, or he would have been on the 102nd floor.</p>
<p>The stunning thing about my flight home to NY was that the route we took was very unusual because of the weather. We were routed up the east coast (coming from the midwest) and the flight plan took us up through lower Manhattan. As I glanced out the window I saw the memorial lights from the “footprints” of the WTC, reaching up to the heavens. The plane seemed to be flying at the same height as the lights. Next into vision came the Empire State Building, lit up in red, white, and blue. I felt like screaming out to all my fellow passengers, “look out your windows and remember,” but I stayed silent. No passage of time will ever let me forget 9/11/01 and the images I saw.</p>
<p>Whatever, Cobrat. A lot of “financial and corporate type people” from the awful suburbs died in the towers. I don’t think you understand what I mean by “bridge and tunnel people.” </p>
<p>“3. Some of those vile and IMO inappropriate comments did come from New Jersey suburbanites. However, most of them weren’t the ones from areas dominated by those working in the bridges & tunnels. Instead, it’s mostly finance and corporate type folks with a contempt for NYC/NYC residents for the “Liberalism” and multiculturalist nature of the city…even while they commute and gain their paychecks from working within NYC.”</p>
<p>Are you kidding me? My county lost hundreds of people, both corporate types in the towers and police and firemen. How can you be so insensitive? This was not about “New Yorkers” and “New Jerseans”. It was about AMERICANS and TERRORISTS. Some people will take anything and make an argument about it. Jeez</p>
<p>It also impacted a lot of New England folks too since the planes were flown out of Logan. One of my parent’s neighbors lost their daughter ( she was on one of the planes for a business trip ) My parent’s house became the meeting place for us and we all saw the relatives go there . it was very clear that they were personally impacted.</p>
<p>Cobrat, I am a New Yorker (my remembrance is post 39 here) and I think your message re NY vs NJ is completely off-base. Yes, different people suffered in different ways. As I struggled to get my kid to school every day for the first month after 9/11/01, I remember thinking that people not in the thick of it just didn’t get it. But that was in September 2001 and I was overwhelmed and didn’t have space in my soul to get their loss either. Just as the love a family gives children expands every time a child is born, sorrow and loss are sorrow and loss to everyone who suffers. I think it’s very foolhardy to compare and contrast losses so many years later. It was a terrible day, no doubt about it, to millions of people, each in his or her own way.</p>
<p>It’s real ironic considering the reasons why I felt wary about conversations about 9/11 with non-New Yorkers or those with an axe to grind against NYC/NYC residents is precisely because the suburbanites and those with an axe to grind I was referring to used it to START UNCALLED FOR POLITICAL AND NYC BASHING TYPE ARGUMENTS WITH ME from a few days after that awful day until I got fed up with all that BS being inflicted my way and did my utmost to switch the subject or if the individual got really pushy about it…to tell the to drop the subject after a few months. Funny part is how other NYC natives or longtime residents I knew had similar experiences with those who used the tragedy to inflict the same types of BS upon them. </p>
<p>This wariness isn’t meant to put down those who aren’t from NYC…but a means to shut out all the concentrated BS arguments I was being inundated by a large amount of folks who seem to have an agenda beyond remembering the tragedy and the victims.</p>
<p>I would guess that it wasn’t the beginning of the American revolution that April 19 brings to mind but the Oklahoma bombings.
I’m in Seattle and I knew very few people from NYC then.
I was actually asleep & my mom called to tell me to turn on the tv.
I could have done without that considering it was replayed so often in the months that followed.
It was surreal to have the skies empty of air traffic. I felt I was in a dystopian novel.
Since I didn’t have a personal connection to the victims or their families other than relief/ guilt & sorrow that I shared with others around the world, my thoughts ran more along the lines of vulnerability & even more empathy for those who live & die in war zones.
But I won’t ever forget.</p>
<p>Believe it or not, this thread isn’t about you. Nor is it about “other NYC natives or longtime residents (you) knew”. It’s about a terrible tragedy and those who perished in it. No one is this thread has an agenda except you.</p>
<p>If people started NYC bashing with you as a result of 911 then I’m afraid that’s a reflection on you and the people you hang out with. 911 brought out the best in people. Americans everywhere, and especially New Yorkers, reached out to each other in support and concern, to give assistance, comfort, to be one, to be a family.</p>
<p>I was no longer living in that area at the time of 911 but had friends and family there. Lost friends in the towers. EVERYONE was personally touched in some way by this event. My friends commented how prior to 911 New Yorkers tended to walk swiftly, head down, with places to go and people to see. After 911, people waled more slowly, made eye contact, smiled and nodded to each other, helped others on the street much more than they had previously. I have not heard of ONE instance of anyone bashing people from the area. If your story is true, you might want to give some thought as to why people would say such awful things, and why they would say them to you.</p>
<p>Lost a wonderful young man we had seen grow into a fine husband and father. One of those people you just call “good.” Pentagon crash. We shouldn’t be arguing. Our hearts can go out to everyone. </p>
<p>I don’t want this thread to turn into some one person’s rant about BS. I don’t want to even hear the excuse that, “well, you may not believe it but it’s what happened to me.” Leave it. Wrong time, wrong place.</p>
<p>If you read more carefully, you’d realize those aren’t people I hung out with. </p>
<p>Just acquaintances who were neighbors of suburban relatives and strangers who upon knowing about my background started into their BS. After three months of that, I had enough and decided the best thing is to not discuss it unless it’s someone I know well and can trust to not act that way. </p>
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<p>I wasn’t the only one this happened to after hearing it happened to other NYer friends. </p>
<p>The main commonalities seem to be folks who have issues with NYC being “too liberal” or “too multicultural” in their view and deciding to use the awful tragedy as a springboard to express those views loudly…and to accuse us of being “unpatriotic” if we asked them to stop because it was the wrong place and time.</p>
<p>Word parsing is not the issue here. Obviously no one else has had, or has shared that they have had, the experience you report wherein people you apparently interact with say such horribly insensitive things at a time of national crisis. It might be worthwhile to be a bit introspective and see why people you interact with in whatever format seem to find it acceptable to say such things to you. And Even if they did, to participate in such a dialogue seems beyond the pale.</p>
<p>The only participation I or my NYer friends who had the same encounters is to ask them to stop, try changing the subject, or leave and avoid discussions of that tragic day unless it’s with someone they’ve known for a while and trust.</p>
<p>One unfortunate aspect of that tragic day was how it brought a lot of right-wing loudmouths and those who feel they have a right to exploit the tragedy to obnoxiously express their disdain for their perceived. politics/culture of NYC and its residents.</p>
<p>I think maybe bringing up these kinds of “criticisms” about NY on this thread was a gauche move on cobrat’s part. On the other hand, some of you seem hard on him/her since cobrat made it clear that he/she tries to stay away from these kinds discussions.</p>
<p>It took place spread out over different places and groups of people. I’m not the type to keep associating with individuals/groups once I know them to be that obnoxious and vile.</p>
<p>I think this thread is a place to stay away from this, too. This is not the place to focus on whether one person had uncomfortable encounters. And then hash it and rehash it.</p>
<p>Please. It is not all about this one poster, whether he is right, whether it happened, who did it- just not.</p>
Is is perplexing that someone would somehow find themselves repeatedly in the midst of such awful, hurtful comments about NY in different circumstances over many months. That isnt a victim- thats a participant. That said, agree with others here- its time to let the thread get back to its intended purpose.</p>