# Under Construction
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I shall refrain commenting further on this or the initial node, since I feel it is better to say nothing at all than be inflammatory (and note I'm not disrespecting the WTC victims at all). Just please do remember that at least as many souls die an unjust death every day that passes as in that single incident. The amount of blood spilled each day on average makes us rather a more savage society now that we call ourselves "civilized" than ever before.

No, the WTC bombings were not insignificant. I just have the awfully recurrent impression that people lose sight of the much larger picture when the much larger picture takes place outside their doorstep.

To anyone who lost friends and relatives in NY last year, my condolences.

Makeshifts last the longest.

The difference is that that many people died an "unjust" death in two very high profile places in a very high profile way. I would like you to point out 5 such days in the past 365 where 2000 plus people have died within one square city block in under one hour. Such an occurance is actually fairly rare and worth remembering.

Each life is special, each death important to those it touches. These deaths touched many, it is truly that simple.

It would be interesting to learn what an average Perl monk did on that day?

I was playing the piano when my dad called from work and said to turn on the TV. If I remember right...no sooner had I sat down behind the TV, than the plane flew into tower #2. I remained behind the TV for 2 days until I realized that me watching it wasn't going to help anything.

Joshua

BTW, 9-11-01 was the day I started learning Perl. I received my first Perl book from Amazon.com that afternoon.

Got up, showered/shaved/etc -- caught the Metra into town to go to work. It's 10:00 EST by now, but I have no idea whats going on. As I'm exiting the train, I hear a lady on her cellphone say something about a Boeing plane being hijacked. I live in Chicagoland, and assumed that it had something to do with Boeing's recent relo. to Chicago, someone protesting against globalization or something. I paid it little mind.

Left the train station, hit the street...kind of eery, static-electricity charge to the air. Like a thunderstorm was about to hit (but an absolutely beautiful day, weatherwise). I approached my building (LRG financial trading institution), and see some traders running out to catch a cab. STILL paid it little mind.

I enter the coffehouse to get breakfast. I hear lots of chatter (mostly in Spanish), but did hear someone say a plane hit the Pentagon. And also heard the word tres. Got to my office (10:10 EST), and everyone is standing around, chatting.

"Hey", I said, "a plane hit the Pentagon". I was quickly informed of the unfortunate incidents in NYC. I called my fiance, told her I was ok, and, within about 10 mins, was evacuated.

I spent the next two days in front of my TV. I cried some. Not just for those that perished, but also at this thought:

What sort of race we are, us human beings, that we can perpetrate such heinous actions against ourselves.

And I envied the innocence of my cat, who, completely oblivious to the world's events that day, busied himself with his usual meticulous cleaning.

ÅßÅ×ÅßÅ "It is a very mixed blessing to be brought back from the dead." -- Kurt Vonnegut

Well I awoke to Howard Stern talking about it. I thought it was a prank or something but after a minute or two. I figured this was serious. I ran to the TV and turned on CNN just intime to see the first tower fall.

I spent the rest of the day trying to track down my sister and her husband who live near there and wander about that area. As well as friends who worked in the WTC.

My Boss was exceptionally generous in that he gave me the time off.

By the second day everybody was accounted for. They either got out or did not go in that day. Those that were near only got a few bumps and bruses.

A friend in Malaysia had his fiance in the WTC. He went Beserk trying to locate her especially since the country was sealed. I had friends looking for him. Luckily she turned up a few days later.

Probably the one thing I will always remember is the footage from some person's minicam. The first building had collapsed and it showed firemen picking themselves up all covered with Dust. The captain simply looked at them and said "All right guys, let's go" and they ran off towards the second building. Don't know what happened to them.

I cruzed into the office atbout 0700, and was met by a 10x10' projection screen outlining the events. I just stopped and stared, my initial thoughts being, "wow, cool effects."

It was only after i heard some commentary, i realised it was real. I couldnt believe what i was seeing. I was shocked, and amazed. I couldnt and still cant understand why someone would do this. I still have a vivid mental image of a lady in the middle east with large glasses dancing and rejoicing at the fact.

I called my partner to let her know:
"Hi, Put the TV on.."
"Which channel?"
"It doesnt matter."

At one stage, every free to air channel was running with CNN footage of the disaster. After a while each channel broke to individual feeds and commentary, however the footage of the planes flying into the buildings was a continually replayed.

Needless to say, I did no work at all during the day, and kept my computer pinned to www.abc.net.au, and www.cnn.com which were timing out quite frequently.

Even in Australia, so far away from the event, driving thru' residential streets, you could see american flags at 1/2 mast, and in some cases amerian and australian flags flying side by side.

This is my generations version of "Where were you when JFK was shot."

I was on the phone with a friend, and he interrupted me and said "Someone just told me a plane crashed into the World Trade Center."
"The WTC in Amsterdam?" I said. "No, ", Dennis replied, "the big one in New York." It was quite hard to believe, but turning on my TV confirmed what I had just heard - and a few seconds later, the second tower got crashed into. I stared at my TV for hours, not being able to comprehend what I saw.

I tried to remember if I was here to use the chatterbox back then. But (even though it's hard to imagine) it seems that I didn't even know about Perl Monks on 9/11/2001.

- Yes, I reinvent wheels.
- Spam: Visit eurotraQ.

It would be interesting to learn what an average Perl monk did on that day?

Here in Perth, Australia, it happened at about 9:00pm from what I can remember. I visited a news site about 1/2hr later and saw two headlines such as "WTC attacked". For some reason I thought absolutely nothing of it and went to sleep.

The next morning I woke to the radio with live coverage from NY some 10hrs later.....