Where were you when the world stopped turning?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq8PBdR3pg4

I was in my 6th grade reading class, front desk, 2nd row from my teacher's desk.

God bless those who have been lost to terrorism (victims or soldiers fighting against it); god bless those under threat of terror. God bless the hope for peace.

i was a junior in highschool. i think i was skipping a class at the time. they announced it on the intercom and stopped classes and turned all the TV's on.

when the world stopped turning? what hyperbolic nonsense.

soldiers can't fight terrorism, because terrorism is an idea. it's like trying to defeat Einstein's theory of relativity by dropping bombs on it.

this entire past decade has been nothing but absolute, complete insanity.

seriously Earth (the planet), wtf?

TAN, now's not the time to insert your idiotic trolling stupidity.

I was in shop class my Senior year of Highschool...

And TAN... Nevermind... Waste of my breath.

I pretty much agree with TAN. I don't think his post is idiotic, trolling or stupid.

Why? Because your sensitive to this anniversary? Because the lives of Americans are more valuable than, say, Iraqis, who are dying every fluffing day, and since sanctions were placed in the early 90s have had millions of people die?

Sorry. Keep crying about 9/11 some more.

Yes, I feel sad for the victims -- no one should have to die for ANY reason. It was very tragic what happened.

But the world stopped turning? Then the world must stop turning every goddamn day in Afghanistan and Iraq.

And that is not to say I don't think the events of 9/11/2001 were terrible and tragic. I just think that it has received a lot of hype, was way over blown, and has lead to a lot of deaths.

I think not burning quran's is a more effective deterrent to terrorism than traditional warfare.

Well, I disagree. Mostly due to the fact that it doesn't belong on this thread, and this thread will NOT degenerate into another pointless terrorism/political debate.

So can it now, while you still have a forum account.

NukEvil, who appointed you God of what belongs and doesn't belong in a thread?

If you want to get technical, this thread doesn't belong in AT -- it should be moved to General Talk.

Now stop letting your emotions bias your job as a mod.

I'm not letting my emotions bias me as a mod, I'm letting them bias me as a human being.

As it seems that you're still bent on hijacking a thread which topic has to do with a rather sensitive event to some of us posting here, I'm only going to warn you one more time:

Stop with the political/terrorism debate posts.

Posting stupid or unpopular ideas is not against the rules.

TAN Angel didn't make a thread so you can spew your personal beliefs. Can't you respect that and either make a new one or keep it to yourself? My guess is that you cannot.

Slagpit, his current strain of posts do NOT belong in this thread. If he wishes to post his ideas, he can post them in a thread where the topic has to do with debating an idea. Not here.

Well TAN etc etc, you do have to admit there was quite a bit attention focused on the event at the time, and even now.

I suggest both sides just CHILL a bit, and answer Angels question in a more focused manner: Where were you on Sept 11, 2001 when you heard the news about the NY attacks?


I heard something on the my clock-alarm radio about a plane hitting the world trade centre; went downstairs to eat breakfast, thinking it was like a Cessna or something; decided to turn on the news, and then like 30s later the 2nd plane hit

He is responding to particular language used by Angel1, so putting it in a separate thread doesn't make a lot of sense. It's a dumb, pointless argument, but think about the freedoms soldiers are fighting to uphold.

@Nuk - I'm a human being too. It's true!

@Req - True. You make a good point. I won't make any more politically charged statements in here out of respect for Angel.

@Slagpit - It wasn't dumb or pointless. It was valid. But I think you mean that it was insensitive -- which is true. I admit it.

I was in an architectural life safety class at NJIT being taught by a leading forensic architect who had previously designed interior fit outs in both towers, and was very familiar with the complex. The day's lecture was on fire suppression systems in high rise buildings.

About 30 minutes into the class, a late arriving student told the class that he had heard that an airplane had crashed into one of the towers. We assumed it was a smaller plane than the one that crashed into the empire state building in 1945 (a B-25, which was about 1/15th of the weight of the planes that hit the towers). The professor described that given the height of the towers, the fire department would not be able to pump water up to the fire, and that the sprinklers would have to put the fire out. Given his familiarity with the towers and the assumption that it was a small plane, he didn't think it would be a problem.

About 20 minutes later, another student came running in and told the class that two jumbo jets had crashed into the towers (one each). The professor immediately said "They're both coming down."

We ran up to the roof of the architecture building (about 10 miles from the WTC), and saw the pillars of smoke rising from the towers. A few minutes later, tower 2 collapsed. When tower 1 came down, I was on my cell phone, trying to contact my grandmother to see if she had heard from my parents (both of whom worked in lower Manhattan). Since the news was reporting that most of the people from lower Manhattan were walking across the Brooklyn bridge, her apartment in brooklyn was a logical place for them to go.

My dad caught the last ferry out of pier 11. He was on the Hudson river sailing towards New Jersey when the first tower collasped. My mom saw the second plane hit from her office window 4 blocks away. She walked up to Penn Station, and eventually caught a train back to New Jersey.

Thanks, TAN.


I was a junior in high school, in Pre-Calculus. We were getting ready to watch a video on the sections of a cone (hyperbola, ellipse, parabola, etc...). Turned on the TV, and there was the Pentagon, on fire.

For the rest of the day, there was this quiet feeling of bewilderment over the student body. Looking up in the sky and not seeing any contrails from jets was a constant reminder.

i was a junior in high school as well.. was driving from one school to another listening to the usual comic radio show. for the first 10 minutes hearing it on the radio, i thought it was all a joke.

got to my other school, walked in the door to see (live) the second plane hit the second tower. the school was quiet the rest of the day.

shortly after, I was at ground zero with The Salvation Army both searching for missing people and attempting to council those who had lost loved ones. I will never forget it.

that said, i believe that TAN has every right to post what he feels about this topic... the other side of the stick may be just as sensitive to him as the feelings i have about 9/11 are to me.

the act of terrorism can never be seen as good, but his point in regards to afghani's/iraqi's etc is very valid and arguable.

i was serving army.... =\

I was just waking up since I lived on the west coast. Came downstairs to hear a plane had just crashed into the first tower. Watched the second one hit from the arm chair.

My girlfriend (who I did not know at the time) was in class. Her dad's office in the pentagon was destroyed, but he was in a meeting in a different part of the building at the time so he fortunately survived.

I live on the west coast, so it was about 6 in the morning when it happened. I usually wake up at around 8 for school. But that morning, I woke up at 6, and had the urge to go down and watch TV.

Basically, I saw it live on TV, and when I arrived in school, and pretty much everyone was doing was watching the TV at the lounge.

-------------------

Now, I am sad that there were innocent people that died that day. But if you are going to spin it and say that the world stopped turning, you have to expect people to come out and say things like TAN did. And I support him in that.

Thousands of innocent people die and the earth stops turning, while hundreds of thousands die each year from natural disasters and it's all right, because it's not in the USA. Oh wait, Katrina was HUGE too!!

It's no surprise that when people that aren't from USA, when asked, will say that the Americans are all about themselves.


You can say that I'm getting off topic, but think about it, it's an underlying issue.

jelly i agree with that.

I was delivering payroll paperwork to various campus offices as part of my job as a student worker for the Texas A&M University System. I was in the company van traveling between the Texas A&M University payroll office and the Texas Agricultural Extension Service's and Texas Agricultural Experiment Station's shared payroll office on the west side of A&M's campus when I heard on the 8am regular news report that a plane had crashed into one of the towers. After making the next delivery a minute later, I returned to hear my expected Perry Como and Frank Sinatra tunes being interrupted by breaking news that the 2nd tower had been hit.

I spent the remainder of the morning in denial, shredding old payroll documents, unable to watch the TV like most of my coworkers. I had a noon English class. The professor was a devout Jew. He had been in trouble previously for espousing his religious beliefs too strongly in the classroom, a no-no in the eyes of both the conservative student body and the liberal administration. Not caring if he got fired, class that day consisted of him saying the Hebrew prayer for the dead - which I am convinced is the most powerful prayer this Methodist will ever experience - a moment of silence, prayers and meditations and whatever led by students, and not a bit of English Literature.

I couldn't bring myself to watch any coverage until late that night.

I was never a dutiful student in college. Eventually I finally decided to stop wasting my father's and my own money. I was sworn into the United States Air Force on 1 April 2003, less than a month after the official invasion of Iraq. I would have enlisted sooner, but I had to recover from a surgery they deemed necessary before they would consider me for service. I entered basic training on 10 June 2003.

I have spent much time overseas since then. From October 2006 to November 2009, I had more than half of those 38 months tax free for being in combat in one form or another. I have officially logged 1447.7 hours in 290 combat sorties, which doesn't account for the mortar fire we were subjected to when we were on the ground. Even if the military didn't block access to sites like this one in my deployed locations, the demands of the mission meant I had no time to play this mere game.

At some point in the near future, I may have to take another leave of absence. I am still a member of the USAF Reserves.


I don't know if the world stopped turning, but my world sure did. For the impact this one day had on the future course of world history, I think we are fools to try and believe that this event didn't turn the world upside down.

I was eating breakfast halfway through Army basic training.

I was a freshman in high school. I watched the second tower fall on live TV during my second period World Geography class.

Thank you all for making your posts and telling us where you were. To those who object to me asking "Where were you when the world stopped turning?" I would ask that you click on the YouTube link below that question which refers to a video featuring a song by Alan Jackson called, "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning?"

The song's title made for a very useful question. It also captures the feeling among most (if not all) Americans (that were alive at the time) had that our world stopped turning for some period of time (whether it feels brief or longer) on that day. Our world is your world too. The world we all live in/on is Earth. When our world stops, the world stops (for us).

I accept that some people may have and pose an issue with the question, but respectfully ask that any real debate occurs on a different thread. Hopefully my explanation will help facilitate this.

Angel1,

Respectfully, I am insulted, that, you generalize the whole world belongs to Americans, even though it's probably true.

A Canadian.

Ever stop to think, us canadians, and americans, are terrorists to the people in iraq???

Besides that, I was at home when the first tower was hit, and just arrived to school when the 2nd tower was hit.

And Jelly, arent Americans always like that? :P

I was on AT.

For real.

-Fooglmog
Guy with no clue.

Dark TwizTid, exactly, and I think that's the underlying issue that all Americans ignore, their ignorance and self-centred motives have caused others to hate them.

Burning a sacred document of another religion?

What do you say if I tell you I'll burn Bibles?

Did you just generalize all Americans as Christians? That's pretty ignorant yourself...

I'll be sure to tell you to read up on your local fire ordinances to make sure burning anything isn't illegal where you're at.

Just like Americans generalize anyone from the Middle East is a Muslim and a terrorist, even if their from India or Africa.

I've been called a Mexican by an American, and I'm freaking Chinese.

Wow, you've been called a Mexican by AN American... good reason to hate them all.

Generalizing an entire countries people IS in fact very ignorant, but don't be a hypocrite and do it to the people you're trying to incriminate...

I actually called the local city hall today and asked if it's legal to burn a Bible.

She told me that it's against the law of the god, and that's when I hanged up on her.

After reading up some research, it's just paper, and burning paper isn't illegal.

Oh look, an American getting pissy when other people generalize Americans, yet is all fine with it when Americans call anyone with a Brown skintone a Muslim and a terrorist.

See, it only hurts if it involves you, and you, are a prime example of an American.

I was 1680 feet underground in a zinc mine in Tennessee. I came to the surface to fill out some paperwork and the mine manager and head engineer were standing in the secretaries office listening on the radio.

Most of the miners did not find out until they were in the change room that afternoon.

-

TAN, I think that sometimes the rest of the world fails to grasp the implications that this attack had on America. Politically motivated violence has become a way of life in much of the world, and as such many other societies have become innoculataed to it. If this attack had happened in Isreal, India, Lebanon, Spain, Georgia, Columbia, Rawanda, etc. it may well have been but a memory in a year or three because they have come to accept that it is a part of life.

We dont.

After December 7, 1941 we ended up killing over a million people in Asia and Europe, we obliterated cities from maps, we dropped not one but two nukes on civillian targets. The US gets really nasty when people fluff with us. Thats why we never had to get used to living with violence - eveybody knows we are the most violent society that has ever lived.

I just looked over my posts, and I seem to be missing the part where I say I'm fine with generalizing ANY people...
I'm glad you've fit me into your hypocritical stereotype though.

I hate to do this in a thread that was suppose to be a solemn rememberance for a very traumatic event in America's history, but it would seem that other people are more intent upon hijacking this thread for their own selfish motives.

The world hates us, because Americans by and large mind our own business? Wow, that's just sad. We are not that controlling or nosey to care about your local issues. If you need help, ask for it. If you want advice, ask for it. You have but to ask; we will do what we can and do the best for what we can do.

Concerning the burning the Koran thing. Have you all missed the condemnations coming from every sector of American life? Have you all missed the condemnations being shrouded in every cause that hits most Americans' hearts? Condemning our troops to death - not a wise idea if you're an American. Burning a holy book (empathetically substituting our own holy books [scroll, etc.] in the Koran's place) - not a wise idea if you're an American. Burning the Koran has been emphatically called un-Christian and un-American.

What more do you want? No, we can't legally prohibit his actions; we have a constitution and we are bound to abide by it (no matter the circumstances).

Now onto me implying that the world belonged to the US. I said that my world and your world are both the world. I then said that the world stopped *SEE THESE WORDS HERE*for us*THOSE WORDS BACK THERE*. Is it so outrageous to say that everyone can claim the world 100% and accept that? We all simultaneously hold a 100% claim on the world. That claim is as valid for me as it for anyone else.

Can we please, please get back to the point of this thread?

America minding their own business? ROFL.
Not controlling and mosey? *points at the whole middle east*

*points to the New York skyline*

*points to the Pentagon*

*points to a field in Pennsylvania*

*points to a few embassies in Africa*

*points to a barracks in Lebanon*

*points to the Philippines*
That's where we choked on any imperial dreams we might have had. We inherited the point role of the Middle East's former overlords *points at Europe*, though we've done nothing to earn the position. The only gripe that the Middle East might legitimately levy at us is our very beginning support of Israel. Is it your contention that that alone is enough to target American civilians? Is it your contention that that alone is deserving of making us their enemy? Is it your contention that it was the right thing for them to poke this sleeping giant? If this is your contention, then maybe you need to reconsider the history and the facts.

Americans are forced to focus on the world and intervene sometimes because the last two times we didn't, Europe reared its ugly head. We are the nation that Europe created and the rest of the world helped transform. You made us what we are today and we're a product of your actions. We as much reflect the world as we reveal ourselves.

As an American i am opposed to restricting anyone's choice to burn anything. It is the right of every man to have his views. I may not personally agree with another persons views but i will respect them.

As a person that lives in the southern united states (mississippi) i am labeled "redneck" daily simply because where i live. i am an educated well rounded individual and think that this does not fit me. but i accept that that is how i am perceived. that being said i am more sensitive to the people Americans are hated by. i have too many friends from other countries not to be aware of how we are viewed. i am sorry that you see us this way. Our leaders make decisions we all do not agree with but we still support those who have to do the things they are told ,like our troops. Are we all proud of our actions, no, but we accept them because we have to.

our country was founded on freedom so i respect all statements made on this thread as your right to speak them, but i do not agree with them all.

Angel1: I am sorry that you very touching remembrance was upset by politics and ignorant view points. To not watch the video first for context was ignorance. ignorance being defined as not having knowledge pertaining to a given subject.

I was homeless and walked into a local shopping mart because some one had shouted to the people out side what had happened. I was watching live on the stores TVs when the second jet hit.

my world most definitely stood still.

Do you remember where you were when the london train bombings happened?

when the madrid train bombs?

the bali nightclub bombing?

the various attacks on embassies.

the attack on the sri lankan cricket team?

every other suicide attack on non-american landmarks or populace?

Didn't think so.

Angel, by aligning yourself with military dictatorships/heavily fundamentalist theocratic regimes, at the expense of elected governments to stop communist aggression and for economic benefits, the USA is 100% responsible for the current islamic fundamentalist situation. To blame Europe for your own errors is ignorant and stupid.

Saying that, I feel for every innocent person who lost their life on 9/11, it was a tragedy of epic proportions. But i want to know where YOUR concern is for all other terrorist attacks.

Also this absurd notion that the USA saved the world in ww1 and ww2 i find highly offensive. It's a slap in the face to every canadian, australian, kiwi, UK, and other allied soldier in the war.

Now, with all of that said can we get back to what the thread should be about, remebrance and empathy!!

If the world stopped turning when 3k ppl died...I think it would have blown up when u guys (USA) invaded 2 nations and killed close to 1 million. get over yourselves.
just saying

not all Americans are in agreement with any war or military actions that our popularly elected officials may incite. To punish us who did not vote the jackasses into office we are hated simply for being born American.

Anti-American sentiments on this thread seem hateful to me, as it was a memorial/remembrance thread that any of you could have made for your own national or natural disasters.

to use this thread to America-bash is probably as short sighted and close minded as you claim every American to be. I would take offense to this but in all honesty it just makes me sad that so many would turn into judgmental hatemongers by a good thought.

I apologize for being born. I see now that being born American is enough for others to justify hating us. I thought that this game brought people together of all nations. I do not hate any of you and hope you will think better of us Americans who are here in the future.

That is one heck of an ignorant post.

You guys are ridiculous. Basically showing no respect for lives lost. How about you guys make threads on days important to your country instead of complaining that no one remembers your events as well? Oh wait, that would mess up some fuel for some of your complaints.

Europe/Africa would be Nazi's and Fascists, and Australia would be part of the Empire of Japan without US intervention :P You are all lucky FDR didn't want to continue USA's foreign policy of minding our own business across the world. You are all lucky that the Japanese decided to wake the sleeping giant. =P It took a noob army of troops and massive FA to the British to win the war.

USA FAs billions to countries currently, you are all so appreciative =P Countries cry and complain to us for help when something goes wrong (natural disaster relief, etc etc), but then later complain afterwards. Its like a spoiled brat :P

WE SHOULD MIND OUR OWN BUSINESS AND LET YOU GUYS RAPE EACH OTHER! But no, we are too nice to everyone else. We are like the big nice guy to countries.

America is soo bad, and yet people flock over here for "the American Dream." How about you all stick a steal toe boot up your asses, and stay outta our country, and stop coming to us for help as well.

Thanks.

BTW, i was in freshman history class in highschool. we turned on the tvs in our classrooms, and had a half day of school as a result.