9/11 experiences

[Enervation]

Is it actually that big of a deal outside the US? Im seriously asking.

 

Probably not, and frankly I'd be very afraid if it was. Every country has their own damn problems to deal with, and America is no different.

 

It is, actually. Not so much because of how many people died as for the events that it in turn caused.

 

Besides, I think you're both underestimating how much american culture the rest of the western world imports.

 

You do have a point there. Sometimes I forget that America is a lot more diverse than I really think it is.

[AllYourGame Nick]

I was in math class and was 15 years old. I'm from NY (Long Island) and had some family in the city at the time, so I was very concerned about what was going on. In fact, pretty much everyone in my school knew someone who worked/lived in the city, so it was a traumatic day for everyone. Firefighters from my town gave their lives at ground zero (I was a junior firefighter, but wasn't allowed to go in to help). My own sister worked in the city at the time and watched the towers fall with her own eyes while she stood on the roof of her office building (thankfully nobody I knew personally was injured that day). They had locked the city down for obvious reasons, so she wasn't allowed to come home that evening.

 

There was a lot of sorrow in NY for a long time, as we'd lost a lot of good people due to an act of hatred. The place that I call home has forever been changed because of it.

Edited September 14, 2011 by AllYourGame Nick

[fuchikoma]

I'd finished high school and recently ended a job that I'd taken afterward, so I was at home, unemployed before starting college. I was just sitting at home killing some time and I decided to see what was on TV, and I saw the first tower smoking... I didn't believe it was real. I figured it was some kind of action movie or something, so I changed channels and realized it was on all the news channels... then I was pretty much transfixed as I picked up details the anchors were recapping. I was concerned for the people in the building, but not jumping to any conclusions yet. Eventually I saw the second plane hit and I just felt a chill - at that point it HAD to be an attack. I just hoped that it wouldn't lead to a thermonuclear war, and so far, so good... Of course I had no idea how much damage it would do to our way of life overall (and I'm in Western Canada...)

 

I'll try not to get too political like the OP asked, but really, it seems the world was softer before 9/11. You could do things without worrying about being mistaken for a terrorist (as a teenager, I was actually pretty fond of making small bombs and fireworks... never mind what they do to people who take photos of landmarks now.) Even what I remember of the cold war, life pretty much went on normally without special considerations - though I'm sure some people looked at people from socialist states like they'd look at those from Islamic states now. TL;DR - I definitely felt the world change after the event.

 

After staring at the screen for a while, I phoned a friend to tell him about it, and right away, he said "this had to be Osama Bin Laden." Of course, I'm the only witness to that, but he's always been into history and politics and had told me before about the CIA's dealings with OBL. I didn't even remember who he was talking about, but sure enough, in time he was the one singled out.

 

While it was a horrific spectacle that changed lives all over the Western and Arabic worlds, it's important to remember the real odds though - could it happen again? It certainly could, even with all the new precautions. A determined attacker will always find a way. Are any of us likely to die in a terrorist attack? No - it's virtually impossible since it's so rare. I'm only afraid to fly internationally now because of what happened to Mr. Arar, not for any terrorist risk.

[Mr W Phallus]

never mind what they do to people who take photos of landmarks now.

You mean people have been arrested or something for taking photos?

 

But I agree that the world has certainly lost a certain amount of naivety. On a flight to Paris recently I was sat next to a guy who was of Middle Eastern ethnicity. Throughout the flight he was acting agitated and nervous. Now I didn't really think he was a terrorist, and I knew he was almost certainly just scared of flying, but I still had that niggling thought in the back of my mind, what if he's nervous because he's smuggled a bomb on board and knows he's going to die. It sounds really stupid, and mildly racist too I suppose, but the point is before 9/11 that kind of thought wouldn't have even occurred to me (and not just because I was too young to think about that kind of thing), we can no longer just see the innocent, most likely explanation for something, the more sinister explanation is always lurking in the back of our minds; unattended baggage is a bomb threat, anyone displaying unusual behaviour in an airport is a potential terrorist and so on.

[fuchikoma]

never mind what they do to people who take photos of landmarks now.

You mean people have been arrested or something for taking photos?

 

Arrested, or harrassed and threatened, often with their memory cards confiscated. You can find a lot of cases by searching for "War on Photography." Since it's still quite legal, I think most result in no charges being laid, but the chilling effect has been very real.

Edited September 14, 2011 by fuchikoma

[Battra92]

never mind what they do to people who take photos of landmarks now.

You mean people have been arrested or something for taking photos?

 

Arrested, or harrassed and threatened, often with their memory cards confiscated. You can find a lot of cases by searching for "War on Photography." Since it's still quite legal, I think most result in no charges being laid, but the chilling effect has been very real.

Indeed. I got harassed for taking pictures of public Christmas displays.

[CorgiShinobi]

First I've heard of being harassed or arrested for taking photos of landmarks.

 

Heck, I went to New York City in early 2006 and took a bunch of pictures of famous landmarks. No one said anything, and in fact, I had people trying to push their photographic "service" onto me.