Comments about September 11th:

i feel so freaked out that no one knows anything and the news doesn't say more than what everyone already knows. it seems like the US has already targeted bin laden and everyone wants blood. it made me shiver when the first thing my parents said is "we're going to war." ok, so this makes every american feel more nationalistic than they did before and i'm just scared of people's reactions now, towards us and us towards each other.

— Christy, an American living in Sweden


I've been worried to death. Waiting to board the plane from Madrid to JFK, I found out about the news. Obviously, all the flights to the States were cancelled. People were running around the airport frantically with cell phones in hand, and I couldn't contact anyone at home—confused, disoriented and broke, to boot. I'd been staying in Barcelona for the last couple of weeks, with my old roommate. Finally after many frustrating hours in airport world, I decided to return to Barcelona until all this madness settles down. I feel a bit stuck—it's difficult enough for me to board planes. Anyway, it's too early for me to really understand what's going on—what the climate is in the States. It's unbelievable. I guess we're all just waiting to see what happens—it still doesn't seem true. By the way, I'm moving to Florida—New York is a mess, I'm a mess when I'm in New York, and now, well, it's just not an option for me.

— Natasha, who lives in New York but is writing from Barcelona.


My skin still warm from the glow of constant CNN coverage, it's interesting to read the thoughts of people who have something else to say besides "Oh, it's so horrible! Those poor people!" I'm not saying it ISN'T horrible, but we should really try to understand WHY this happened, what is it about the US that makes people celebrate our suffering?

— Stef, writing from Raleigh, NC


I laid in bed and listened to the coverage all night long. finally fell asleep about 3am, trembling and panic stricken.. still... *DO NOT* let the media or your government sway or trick you into some false sense of patriotism. in this time of extreme emotions, it is easy to jump on bandwagons, to cling to something, anything. don't let yourself cling to something so thoughtless and easy. think for a moment. its too easy to say "These people died for freedom! they are martyrs of democracy! God bless america!" I AM NOT UPSET and scared and confused because my FREEDOM is at stake, I am terrified and I am inconsolable because of the loss of human lives.

— Karla Anne, writing from Raleigh, NC


i feel that the next couple of weeks are going to be quite a trying time for everyone but especially for those of us whose political ideology veers more to the left.

— John, writing from Columbia, SC


I'm sitting in my bedroom trying to go to bed but unable to stop listening to the news. I'm gutted and I'm outraged. And I feel sick inside. Bastards.

— Richard B., writing from London


So many conflicting feelings—abhorance, anger, disgust. It's like watching those dogs fight, that's just what they've been trained to do. Scanning cable channels last night I finally found a few people who alluded to the fact that this is in some ways a defensive strike, a retaliation for our past policies and atrocities—an ex-FBI agent on BET and someone I only half-heard on BBC. I think most people have had good things to say—Guiliani, Tony Price, even Bush. The rhetoric has bothered me. It is barbarism but not necessarily cowardice. Then I feel guilty for thinking of semantics in the face of other people's tragedy.

— Richard F., writing from Raleigh, NC


Yes, I'm alright. No reason to be down there. In fact I never went into them at all. Except the basement. We were woken up by my roommate after the second one hit and I went up to my rooftop with my camera, and as I was looking through the zoom lens the tower started to collapse, which we had no idea would happen. People started yelling and my legs gave, but I just kept shooting pictures. Jessica and Mike went downstairs, but I watched as the fire on the second one spread across and upwards and some floors just melted and gave way causing the whole top to fall and squash in a mushrooming cloud all of the floors below. I could see glass and metal flying out over the other buildings even from here. Mike and I went to get breakfast at Little Poland and walked into two men screaming at each other. One blaming all money-grubbing republicans for causing this and the other telling him to go 'bang his spoon' somewhere else. After that died down, a lady sat obviously crazed and said how she was 10 minutes late for work, in the WTC, and as she entered the bottom the building shook and someone said a plane had hit the building, which she didn't believe, then the second one hit and was very loud and low in the building and everyone went mad. She herself had walked probably 40 blocks to then sit at Little Poland with her friend who was teary eyed and wouldn't speak. Everyone was mostly quiet, or on a phone, and listening to the radio. The streets were very strange. Filled with people and no cars, except police, fire trucks, ambulances, buses transporting volunteer firemen, even jail transfer buses. And these were flying down the street at a great speed and frequency. Some cars were blaring their sirens and driving up the avenue. So many on the street were covered in soot and ash, with bent bodies, and blank faces. A crowd was gathered around a van with a blaring radio trying to keep up to the minute on what was happening. There were lines at payphones with people trying to reach their loved ones. We went to go give blood and the line was almost a thousand people long, so we got Chinese. Everyone is communicating though, talking without pretense, apologizing profusely if they bump into another, and wearing their hearts on their sleeves. This is a rarity in this city. It's just impossible to imagine the huge pile of metal, glass, plastic, and people in the rubble. We still can't see any of it since the smoke rising and covering all of lower Manhattan is huge and black and gray. Bush just spoke and I don't feel better. Every person seems to have very different reactions as to who's to blame and what we should do as a country. It's good to examine all of this stuff. We spoke with Sandy from Ashland earlier today. She's the one with the parents hugging Paul Bunyan. Her mom asked us to pick up a copy of the New York Post for her. Funny.

— Scott, writing from New York

I was a few blocks away watching the whole thing (I work on Wall Street)...total chaos...people running everywhere...trampling each other... I saw many people jumping out of the building to escape the fires...it was total chaos...

When the first building collapsed I was fairly close by...none of the thousands of people looking up had any idea that it was going to just collapse like that. The damage from the airplanes was horrendous but still the buildings didn't look like they'd just topple out of the sky. They did and when it happened it was totally devastating. A wave of ash and building material spread out through the area where I was. I ran like hell with this gigantic wave of hot ash and debris chasing me down the street. As it was catching up, I jumped down a side street only to have both of my exits cut off by the debris and then the side street got totally enveloped in hot ash. I lost my vision instantly (contact lenses gunked up) and breathing became very difficult. I just ran like hell with hundreds of people panicked and trampling each other running under cars, anywhere they could get shelter...windows were shattered everywhere and big shit was falling around. I scrambled northeast as fast as I could, clinging to walls for direction as visibility was zero. Eventually, and not until I got into
Chinatown, did I begin to be able to breathe and see normally. This was the craziest thing I've ever been in! I'm lucky to be alive. Anyway I'm safe in Brooklyn right now...a bit shellshocked but safe and ok.

— Rumi, writing from New York

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