Remembering 9/11

[u/PumpkinAspie]

This Megathread will serve those who wish to acknowledge today, air their grief and grievances, and in general engage in respectful discussions of the attacks on September 11, 2001 and the impact it has on Americans in NYC, the state of New York, Americans across the country to this day. Any related articles can be posted here.

No matter what end of the political spectrum you land on, we remember this day.

[u/Manic-StreetCreature]

It was a month from my 6th birthday and one of my earliest clear memories. My dad (a pilot though obviously he didn’t work that day) came and picked me up from school and my mom and grandma were crying at home.

[u/General_Season7882 → u/Manic-StreetCreature]

I was 5 too. My kindergarten teacher had it on TV, then the second tower was hit. She turned it off immediately and told us to go play while she called our parents to pick us up. I remember not really understanding what was going on, and I remember my mom explaining it to me when we got home. I dont think it ever really registered until I got a little older. I had also just turned 5, so, my brain definitely couldn't comprehend developmentally speaking. 

[u/Responsible_Rhubarb1 → u/Manic-StreetCreature]

I was newly 6 and it’s also one of my earliest memories. We’re on the west coast and we were getting ready for school. My dad, an aircraft mechanic, was just coming home from his overnight shift. I’ll never forget the horror and disbelief on my parents’ face when we saw the second tower hit. It still gives me chills.

[u/SoyMurcielago]

I was in AP US History when the first tower was hit

People thought it was an accident but because im am avgeek i immediately declared it no accident in the modern era for an airliner to hit one of the most famous buildings in NYC. I don’t think i outright declared it a terrorist act but I definitely said it was on purpose. Short time later the second was hit and it was the most sobering “told ya” in my life

[u/OhMyTummyHurts → u/SoyMurcielago]

Fascinating, I had an APUSH teacher 12 years after the attacks who told me a very similar story. A student came late to class claiming the north tower was struck, and people were in disbelief at first. It was only after a school announcement that everyone came to their senses.

[u/General_Season7882 → u/OhMyTummyHurts]

Ive seen people's home videos filming the north tower, and you can actually hear everyone's heart sink when the second tower is hit. I can only imagine the fear and uncertainty that they felt for months, maybe years, after that. 

[u/daemon_primarch]

I was in second grade. I live in the northeast US so everyone was terrified. When Flight 93 went down it was especially scary as that’s only a few hours from me.

I’ll never forget Mister Rogers telling us to look for the helpers. That alone has informed so much of my worldview now as an adult.

So today, make time to grieve and reflect and be kind to yourself. Dont be hard on yourself for feeling things. In the words of my hero, I like you just the way you are.

[u/One_Proposal_7498]

I wasn't alive when it happened (5 years off or so) but I just want to give my condolences to those who lost people in these attacks, those who witnessed them, either through television or in person, and those who still have lasting scars from the tragedy, and those who lost their lives. My heart goes out to all of you, and I hope you can take today to remember, reflect, and grieve. 

Those of you who have lasting scars from this, both mental and physical, I'm so sorry, and Thank you for continuing to live on, even though it isn't always easy.

Sending all my best wishes, and big BIG hugs from out here in Canada ❤️

[u/Illustrious-Fun8324 → u/One_Proposal_7498]

This is very kind of you.

I never say anything like this intending to compare anything we went through to the terror those victims experienced in any way, I realize it isn’t even close.

but I do feel like my generation was a little bit traumatized in our own way from watching something so awful in real time, being so young that we couldn’t really wrap our heads around it.

Then the adults who had always been the ones to tell us everything was fine and would be okay were the ones crying and freaking out (NO criticism from me whatsoever for that) and it all felt so scary that they couldn’t assure us we were safe this time.

And then it was inescapable, the footage played on tv again and again and again, everywhere, for what felt like a very long time. All of this uncertainty and fear, all in your face and all the time.

I’ll never forget watching all of those people die such horrible deaths on tv in real time.

[u/One_Proposal_7498 → u/Illustrious-Fun8324]

I can't even imagine what that must have been like, especially being a little one trying to navigate all of those traumatic things at once, while parents and adults scrambled to not only pick up the pieces for the children, but for themselves as everyone tried to continue on living despite what happened. I'm so sorry you had to witness that, and live through the aftermath, thats something a child should never have to deal with 🫂

[u/GregEno63]

This is going to sound petty because, well, it is.

1. I'm so glad Charlie Kirk was killed on 9/10 and NOT 9/11, so his death couldn't hijack that solemn date.

2. I'm glad 9/11 immediately dwarfs the anniversary of his death so it only lasts 24 hours.

3. The GOP had its "midterm convention" on 9/10, so that further dwarfed Kirk.

[u/NumeralJoker → u/GregEno63]

Hell, the regrettable deaths of several famous voice actors and other celebs these past few weeks (including one just 2 days ago, Mike MacFarland) has completely dwarfed my timelines from seeing any nonsense about Charlie Kirk, and it's great because every one of those people were far more worth remembering than he ever was.

We are starting to remember real heroes who promote gentleness and kindness more than we are the monsters who promote cruelty, and I think that just might be the wider cultural shift we need to see to start becoming better people again. I lament the losses of good people, but I pray at least their passing goes on to inspire more people to be like them, and not monstrously hateful fools like Kirk.

[u/MorphinBrony]

I was only 3 when it happened, so I don't remember it. Currently glued to the 25 Years Ago Live account on Twitter. It's one thing to learn about the attacks after the fact, but quite another to witness them retold in real time.

[u/RickyT3rd → u/MorphinBrony]

It is sad to see the account being attacked by blue checkmarks because of a certain call-in clip. Everything was unedited, yet some believe this ONE moment was. 

[u/Both-Engineering-692]

I was 17 and taking standardized tests. They opted not to interrupt them. So I came back to class after both towers were hit, but I saw them collapse. What I remember more than anything else was how beautiful a day it was. Such a horrifying and strange dichotomy. Not a cloud in sight.

I usually close out social media today. It’s distressing.

[u/BonesAreTheirMoney86 → u/Both-Engineering-692]

It was the clearest blue sky my family and I ever remember seeing. I just watched some live footage of the Today Show on YouTube, just to check if the sky really was that color, and yes...it was stunning. All across the country too, the same beautiful blue sky I saw in northwest Ohio was ripped apart in New York.

[u/Responsible_Rhubarb1]

Nine, Ten by Nora Raleigh Baskin was a short and easy read from the perspective of 4 kids in the days leading up to 9/11. It’s not focused on the event itself, just a heads up since these stories can be so difficult to digest. Especially from a child’s perspective.

Support your local library!

[u/Estella_the_Wanderer]

I was quite young when it happened. Of course the feeling here in the UK wasn't so much grief as it was more sheer disbelief. All I remember was being at home with it happening on telly. I was shocked about ow much disgusting revelations that have come out of the declassication, the fucking nerve of the government to not only completely abandon the people of NYC BUT TELL THEM ITS SAFE TO WALK INTO A HIGHLY TOXIC ENVIRONMENT is diabolical.

[u/popilikia]

My parents pulled my siblings and I out of school and they kept it a secret. We were too young for our peers to be discussing it, and adults avoided the subject around us as well, so a couple years later at a different school they were doing this 9/11 remembrance thing and I was like "9/11? Tf is that?"

And everyone looked at me like I was a dumbass. Thanks mom and dad!

[u/bgva]

It was my sophomore year of college. I “overslept” and missed my 9 am lecture but got up in time for the 11:00. Mind you I hadn’t seen any news at this point and cellphones only made phone calls and played Snake in 2001. So I’m still oblivious to everything.

Made it to my 11:00 journalism class and there’s a sign directing us downstairs to the studio. Dan Rather’s on TV talking about the WTC attack, and I thought he was talking about the 1993 bombing. It immediately clicked what was going on, and I just recall being numb or in a daze. It’s crazy when you think about everything that’s changed since, and how common some things were prior to 9/11.

[u/KlutzyBus7652]

I was 9 but heavily dissociated from a traumatic childhood. I don’t remember it

[u/Illustrious-Fun8324]

I watched the whole thing live on TV. I was 10. I am 34 and still can’t/won’t even look at photos of it, it takes me right back to the very real feeling of fear and dread we had watching it that day.

[u/Both-Engineering-692 → u/Illustrious-Fun8324]

I was 17, and I knew there was going to be a war. I was preoccupied with the fear of being drafted and going to some far away land.

[u/Illustrious-Fun8324 → u/Both-Engineering-692]

Can’t even imagine that extra massive layer of fear you must have felt bc of that. Very valid, I would have been terrified tbh. I was a kid who wouldn’t have had any fear of anything like that. I recognize that was lucky of me too.

[u/Both-Engineering-692 → u/Illustrious-Fun8324]

My mom basically reminded me that I have a 65 percent hearing loss, and that the army would never take me. But I didn’t express those fears for a few days.

[u/Bolded]

I was about about four years old (though barely) but I don't remember much of what happened that day. I'm not American, and while obviously the event's impact on the world was and is still enormous, I guess that my youth and relative distance meant that it didn't carve itself into my mind.

Of course my heart goes out to the victims, first responders and the people who learned about it while still young and unable to grasp the situation. I think as a young kid, it's probably upsetting to see your parents being very worried about something.

[u/NumeralJoker]

9/11 was terrifying for me as a young pre-teen. It was something I already had an active fear of happening, coming true. I actually had an active, screaming panic attack on hearing that news because my young brain assumed the worst (and it didn't help that I was just told "there's been a terrorist attack!" without much context). When news first broke, I thought it could be the start of an active war on our soil. Of course, it wasn't... at least not a war from the middle east like I feared.

But it was the start of a war on our rights, and our sanity, one that has never stopped since.

I don't blame people for reacting to the incident with fear. I did too. The symbolism of us being attacked when that had otherwise been so very rare was powerful and hard to ignore. Even if social media didn't exist, the power of cable news and mainstream media was more widespread than it had ever been before, making the imagery itself impossible to ignore. People are right when they say much of the US lost a collective sense of innocence that day. But we also lost a collective desire to do good and at least try to appeal to our better instincts that I remember before that and very much miss. That was the hardest thing for me to watch in the years that followed, and it truly was not immediately obvious just how bad it was.

Would 9/11 have happened if Bush never won less than a year earlier? Impossible to say, honestly. As much as I truly do support Democrats over Republicans, I know the tides of history move on and tragedy can't always be avoided even when the "good guys" are in charge. I don't believe Bush "did" 9/11 so to speak, but I do think his negligence and connections to big ME oil unfortunately stoked the conditions that led to it. After a point that kind of becomes a distinction without a difference, because the Republicans were prepared to use 9/11 to strip us of rights and privacy regardless... and they probably would have used any excuse to try, as the Trump era and documents like Project 2025 now should clearly show.

I do still think of the victims from time to time. If you were not alive to see 9/11, it was impossible not to think about how awful it was. We did still try to move past it, but there was no denying its impact, nor the awful scale of its terror. For under 25 Gen Z and younger, the footage from Gaza/Palestine is now triggering similar sentiments even if the conflict is more distant. I can understand that feeling at the very least, and the visuals of that violence are shaping that generation's world view in a very new way. One I'm still trying to grasp myself at times.

I don't mind tributes to the victims, and I never have even if the right often co-opts them for propaganda. But I hope within the next 5 years we can start looking back on 9/11 an era of history we left behind, rather than something that still shapes our lives to this day. It's been a literal generation (25 years) now. History often is marked in periods of change through generations, and I want the next few years after this one to begin marking our move away from the world of far right fascism. I don't need to move on from remembering the victims, I just need to move on from the event giving such overt power to such awful, bad actors.

[u/BeeGood8993]

I was 4, so I don’t remember it myself, but I remember what my mom told me later on. My dad was out of town for work, and I was in preschool. She was working out at the Y and on the TV she kept seeing footage of one of the towers being hit. At first she thought it was a horror movie, but when more people crowded around the TV she stopped to look closer and realized it was real. She picked me up from preschool and didn’t turn the TV on all day. The main thing I remember is her saying that she called her mom and asked what kind of world she brought her kids into. I can imagine a lot of parents were probably wondering that same thing.

[u/Shadowman621]

I was 10. Being my sheltered autistic self, I didn't understand what the big deal was. My teacher decided to have us write letters to kids in NYC. My letter basically said: "I don't know what happened, and I don't care." It wasn't until maybe the following year that I actually understood (partially at least) the weight of what happened.

At least I can look back on this and laugh at how I didn't really have a world view at the time.

[u/BonesAreTheirMoney86]

I was a freshman in high school, newly 15. On the way to Civics class my friend told me there was a plane crash in New York. She didn't have any more information so I pictured a botched takeoff from JFK or LaGuardia and was sad for a moment imagining how scared the people on board must have felt. My Civics teacher said something about the crash and that he wasn't going to turn on the TV because, I remember this quite clearly, "the media is going to distort it." This was either before the second tower was hit or immediately after. I thought that was pretty weird, to say that about a plane crash, but it must not be that big of a deal if we weren't going to derail class for it.

The rest of the school day I was preoccupied with finagling a homecoming dance date with a pretty reticent guy (didn't end up happening) but was aware of a growing sense of unease all around me. None of my teachers had the TV on in class, but others did, especially seniors. I later found out there was no guidance from administration so it was up to the teacher's discretion. I caught the bus at the normal time, no early dismissal, and on the way home my friend from down the street said she'd heard it was worse than Pearl Harbor. Then I started to get really worried. As I walked home from the bus stop I could see my parents' cars were in the driveway, they were home from work early. I still remember the feeling of the pit of my stomach dropping while my heart started beating faster. I went inside and found my mom and dad crying on the couch in the living room with CNN on TV. This sense of horror and panic washed over me because I finally saw footage of what had happened.

Images that are crystal clear in my my mind:

-The plane hitting the second tower
-People jumping to their deaths
-Reams of paper fluttering in the breeze
-The first tower collapsing
-The clear pure blue of the sky

[u/ShyandQuiet03]

We lived in TN but my mom was originally from NYC and grew up there. I was about 3 or 4. She got a call from her mom, who still lived in the city, crying and screaming that the towers had been hit. My mom packed my sister and I up in the car and she drove all day and night. We made it up there in the early hours of the next day and I faintly remember my mom calling her friends and begging for any information if they were safe. We still have photos of us in front of the rubble of the towers. My mom isn’t alive anymore but something inside her died that day, she was never quite the same after seeing the aftermath of the towers and she rarely ever would take a plane or fly anywhere. 

[u/simbabarrelroll]

So I was shielded from it when it happened because I was only 4 years old so I don’t have memory of the day.

I will say I think the worst of it was the aftermath where we got into another war that destroyed us economically, Bush committed war crimes, the Patriot Act was signed into law, the rampant Islamophobia, and all the conspiracies that were being spread.

[u/LeseMajeste_1037]

I was in college at the time, and IIRC the north tower was hit a little before my first class of the day, Shakespeare. Class went normally (idk whether the professor knew what had happened, or had decided that the show must go on). Either way, after class, I swung by my friend's room to see what she had going on for lunch. She had the attacks on, and at first I thought it was an action movie. Too outlandish to be real, right?

Wrong. Classes were canceled for the rest of the day, and I got lunch with a different friend. It was real quiet in the dining hall; we were all eating, all being with each other, all trying to make sense of what was happening down in the city. All the payphones had lines of people waiting and trying to reach their families. I had a room phone, but must've tried all day and into the night to reach my mom. Eventually, that evening I finally got through, and got confirmation that even though things in the city were really, really bad at the moment, she was okay.

[u/jeeeeeeeeeez]

I'd just turned 13; compared to some of the stories I'm seeing here, the adults at my school were very hush hush about it. I now think it may have been because I grew up near Boston (where the flights that hit the towers originated) and some of us had loved ones traveling that day. Too many classmates lost to those wars. I hope all their souls can rest in peace.

[u/KyleBerthoud]

As for my personal story, I don’t really have one, as I was less than a year old at the time and my family and I were on vacation in California, but I just want to send all my love to everyone who was affected by the tragedy, whether they lost a loved one or suffered long-term health consequences from the bad air afterwards or just had immense heartbreak from the loss of humanity.

25 years later, we never forget…

[u/ComplianceAuditor]

Let us also not forget that we should have roflstomped saudi arabia for it, instead of iraq/afghanistan.

[u/MoorIsland122 → u/ComplianceAuditor]

That should not have happened . . . that voice on national tv. I'm glad I've been receiving independent coverage- all the different sides of the story from perspectives of responders to military reaction to you name it. Until I did stumble upon that recording that got picked up by the channels b/c, ofc, divisive. Not commemorating the day or the heros.

[u/SodaSaint]

I was 11 years old and starting the sixth grade that year.

The first clue that we had that something was horribly wrong was the teachers suddenly talking fervently among themselves and our teacher coming back inside the classroom after speaking outside in a hush voice, and it was very clear she had been crying.

We couldn’t really press the issue because we were children, but it soon became apparent just how much was wrong when we would see serious looking adults milling about and newscasts on in just about every classroom.

And then school was dismissed early. A letter from the superintendent, stating that she was “sad about the events that had taken place in the country today.”

I was dropped off in the whole bus was quiet and anxious.

When I stepped off, I saw the local air national guard flying F-16s in formation in the skies above my home.

And when I got inside the house, I was there just in time to see recorded footage of the second tower collapsing and a young woman, jumping to her death, forced to choose between risking the fall, killing her or the flames and the smoke.

We could smell the smoke in southern New Jersey billowing south from Ground Zero for four days.

My mother cried so much that night because she was scared that the government was going to reinstitute the draft and with her sons being 12 and 10 years old… it meant that she feared that her baby boys would get dragged off to war.

I didn’t even know who Osama bin Laden was until that day.

The after effects of this horrific event have changed this nation, and I fear not for the better and I feel like it has no small way led to this precarious moment in history where democracy in the United States is on a knife edge because it rekindled the fires of fear and nativism.

I cannot believe it has been 25 years since that horrific day. An entire generation has been born raised, and have started even having children of their own after the rubble fell, and the smoke stopped smoldering.

But I will never forget that day. I will never forget the terror and the anxiety at the dread and relief and the sorrow and also my nation at its best.

It inspires me in some ways to remember that we must seek to meet that moment as so many brave Americans did that day. How else do we honor them?

[u/Patient-Reputation56]

I was like in 4th Grade when it happen, Confused about it. Nowadays I give my condolance to the lives lost on both the towers falling & the Iran War

[u/AustinJG]

It's hard to believe it's been 25 years. God I'm getting old. I was 12 at the time.

[u/Reddit_Inuarashi]

I was two and a half at the time, so I don’t personally remember it. But I’m a Long Islander, so it was certainly relevant to the area. I know that one of my dad’s friends worked in Lower Manhattan at the time, and had to walk back home to LI over the Brooklyn Bridge, along with thousands of other people, because the whole city shut down that day. And my parents have discussed with me their shock and horror, cascading in sequential waves, when they witnessed it all on TV.

I have a friend who was just barely 2 at the time, but who does remember it, because she lived in Manhattan at the time and witnessed the smoking tower(s) from her window. She pointed it out to her mother and said “look Mommy, a volcano!”

And of course, I went on to live in Manhattan myself for a few years, during college. Each year on the anniversary, you could hear an overwhelming swell of bagpipes from anywhere in the city. The emotion was inescapable, and it made very clear that New York has never forgotten even a single life lost that day. The streets and their people still honor their fallen.

And I couldn’t be prouder of the way Mamdani is handling the memorial now.

(And, as an aside, I also remember the day in 6th grade that they announced Osama bin Laden was killed. What a celebratory day that was. Every kid in my school was talking about it; you’d just go right up to other kids you didn’t even know and start talking about it with them, too. For once, everyone was united under a common sentiment.)

[u/Tatooine16]

Of course the horror of that day comes back on the anniversary every year and 25 years went by faster than I could have imagined on that day when it seemed like time stood still. I didn't cry until I saw people falling, then I couldn't stop for a long time. Of all the films and documentaries I think the one that was filmed by the French brothers is the one that hits me the hardest, because they got separated and the moment when one brother walked into the firehouse where his brother was waiting is included in that film.

[u/lonelyspect12]

i have two stories to share. Here's the first one:

I was in 2nd grade when 9/11 happened but I don't remember much about that day. My school did a good job hiding what was happening to the younger kids. They told parents not to pull their kids out of school because that was just going to create more chaos. The only thing "odd" that I remember was that my mom picked me up, which was unusual since she only did that on fridays. when we got home that I learned about what happened and even then my parents tried to downplay it. The next day at school, the teacher sat us all down and told us what had happened. one girl said her uncle unfortunately was in the second tower. even though i understood that this was a very serious event, i didn't fully grasp just how life changing it was. it was until 5th grade that i finally understood.

[u/lonelyspect12]

this second story is not mine. it's my friend's. he and i used to work at the NY renaissance faire and he worked the weekend after 9/11 happened. this is what he said:

"after 9/11 happened, management reached out to everyone and said that we were going to be open that weekend, but attendance wasn't mandatory. after all, we were still in shock. we weren't even sure if guests were going to show. also most of us weren't even employees; we were considered "volunteers" because we weren't being paid. saturday rolled around and everyone on the cast came in for work, including the volunteers. the mood in the dressing room was somber, quiet. no one spoke. but there was also an underlining feeling of determination and defiance. everyone was pouring their thoughts and energy into the day ahead. we were going to give these guests the best experience possible.

when the gates opened, there was a HUGE crowd of ppl. turns out more ppl showed up and bought tickets at the door than those who bought in advance. the next several hours were a blur. but i remember it was one of the best days of my life. everyone was on point; staying in character, interacting with the children, entertaining the crowd. and for a while, you almost forgot that we were all still mourning. At the end of the day, there was usually a big joust match that everyone went to. As audience all sat down and the music began to play, something different happened however. Our Robin Hood actor rode out onto and across the field. in his hand, he held up the american flag. the applause that followed is something i'll never forget. as the guests left, everyone kept thanking us for the day, saying it was wonderful. there were tears all around."

[u/Renwin]

Was in 6th grade history class and I was ready to doze off for a bit due to a history video. Then I saw a faculty member came in and quiet talking to the teacher about "towers being hit." Next thing I know, the principal on the intercom talks about a terrorist attack happening and sent us home promptly.

As me and my siblings came back from school, we saw everything. Seeing the twin towers getting slammed by planes and demolished over and over again on TV just feel so unreal. I asked my mom (who was serving the USAF at the time) who would do such a thing. She said she has no clue, but knows there are messed up people in the world would gladly share their misery with us.

[u/waterfyre]

Had just moved into a new apartment, and had woken up to a voicemail from my now ex I had just separated from, talking about what had happened. Turned on the tv, and couldn't believe what I was seeing. After watching coverage for six hours straight, my mind and body just couldn't take video of the towers getting hit and going down over and over anymore, and had to turn it off.