DEBATES: Life Since Sept. 11 (very revealing comments)

On May 26, The New York Times printed "102 Minutes: Fighting to Live as the Towers Died," a chronology of the hour and 42 minutes before the World Trade Center buildings collapsed. In order to reconstruct the timeline, The Times compiled phone conversations, e-mails and voicemail messages of those on the high floors of the twin towers, where the effects of the hijacked planes were the most devastating. For almost all of those quoted, their words were their last to the outside world, as very few people from the upper floors of the towers were able to escape.

Readers were asked to contribute to the forum about how their lives have changed since Sept. 11. It was flooded with personal accounts, from readers as far away as Australia and Seoul, and as close as those who worked in the World Trade Center itself.

Below are posts, published in their entirety, written by survivors, witnesses and loved ones of those who died.

Rjjb7: I still cannot go to the roof of my Greenwich Village Apartment, where on a day as beautiful as today, I watched in horror as the towers fell.

For me, the magic of the City has never returned. I have lived in NYC 10 years, yet perhaps I lack the resiliency of a native-born New Yorker. In one month, my family and I are moving to the Southwest. I will continue my medical practice there. There is too much sadness for me here.

Valhouse On the deceivingly beautiful morning of Sept. 11, I was preparing to go to my nursing class, when a neighbor told me what was happening across the river. From where I live in Northern NJ the Towers were a regular backdrop. I stood in the corner and watched in horrified amazement as the towers burned and later fell. I am a native New Yorker and have lived in northern jersey for most of my life, and I can assure you that people that live on this side of the river are reminded daily of our terrible losses. Many of the people that perished lived in my neighborhood. We lost more than our skyline that day, we lost too many of our finest citizens and friends.

Bchehir : It is a time of sadness, a time of deep unyielding sadness. First the pile; now the pit. I have gone to more wakes, funerals and memorials in the last eight months than any ten people have gone to in a lifetime. Four this month and five next. Nor is the end in sight. FDNY Retired

RickDSmith : Every siren, every loud boom, is noticed in my office since the attack. Being downtown, and within 3 blocks of ground zero, most of us witnessed the second explosion, saw the bodies, and participated in the exodus from Manhattan.

It is impossible to measure the grief, and the emotional impact of this destruction. Many of us still talk about having nightmares where we are in buildings that are exploding, or where buildings are exploding around us.

Each day I walk to the bus, which takes me to my home in New Jersey. Every day it is difficult to walk through the crowds of tourists. It is so hard to take. Most of them seem to be coming for a souvenir of some sort.

Downtownsb : My sister worked in World Financial Center. We thought she worked in the World Trade Center (my mother has since requested building addresses, floors and desk location of all of our jobs). After trying in vain to get in touch with my sister, I walked uptown from midtown, and turned into the first church that I saw, which, ironically, was a Southern Baptist Church (my family is from the South, and indeed, is Southern Baptist). I "knocked at midnight" and the pastor let me in. She let me pray in the chapel, and let me check my e-mail. She prayed with me. I was trying to be positive and trust in God, but for moments at a time, I was hysterical with the thought that my sister was dead. Finally, I located my mother though e-mail, and joined her in the apartment that she had gone to. At 12:30, we found out my sister had run through Wall Street and across the Brooklyn Bridge. She was okay, thank God. I still can't really allow myself to remember what it was like to think she was dead. Now, we talk at least twice a day.

That weekend, I took a long walk down Steinway Street, in my neighborhood in Queens. Steinway is predominately Arab-American, and predominately Muslim. It was late in the evening, and the cafes were filled with men smoking sheesha. I waved at everyone I saw, and said "Hello" to anyone I could make eye contact. They knew why I was waving, and smiled back. I wanted to let my Muslim neighbors know that I knew the Muslims whom the government was saying did this were very different from most, if not all, of the Muslims who are just workaday schleps like myself.

I am an elementary Catholic schoolteacher, and 9/11 comes up almost everyday. I can't explain to the children why this happened, but I don't allow the students to make fun of Osama or Saddam. The Muslim students are especially anxious to do so, to prove themselves. No child should have that burden. I just feel that whoever is responsible for 9/11, (the real mastermind not the brainwashed soldiers) is beyond ridicule. I don't know the answer, and that's hard when children are asking you questions. I truly feel that education, the liberal kind that forces you to analyze, investigate and defend evidence, goes a long way towards eradicating prejudice. What if one hijacker simply said "You know what, Mohammed never said to kill innocent people. You got it wrong, man. I read the Koran for myself." Same goes for the Bible and Torah.

Remle8 : Every so often when the "little things" start to build up and bother me, I remember that day. I think of my cousin and so many others who were taken from us, so many lives touched so quickly and so deeply. Those "little things" shrink back to their rightful size and place.

Eric Mandelbaum : My wife and I lived about 500 meters due east from Tower 1. We saw everything but the first event (airplane #1) and the last event (collapse #2).

We saw all this from the same place that we met, and got married, and where I lived for 19 years. We have since left, however…

There are a myriad of complex feelings and adjustments that we have had to make in the wake of this gloomy assault -- remember, these grim attackers wanted the whole world to be Taliban-like. Some vision.

First, I think two groups' needs are severely underestimated, and this is a shame. These groups are: the people left behind (yes, them!), and Chinatown. The residents and workers in Chinatown are far more economically marginal than those of the Financial District, often tend to live AND work in Chinatown, and also have major health and air quality issues to deal with. And for some reason, the powers that be are grossly underestimating the value of a thriving tourist spot like Chinatown. A $7.6 million cultural expenditure on Wall Street, but nothing for Chinatown?

Second, in a knee-jerk response to make everything ok, our leaders and too many who are removed from the scene are hastening to say "everything’s all right." This leaves the people most negatively affected professionally and/or residentially with the feeling that even the institutions that are supposed to help wish that we would either shut up, disappear, or die. We are so inconvenient to their plans for making this all turn out to be a triumphant experience in the end.

And thus, we are now at war with our landlord, the EPA, the DEP, the courts, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and others too numerous to name, including at Times, the press. Believe it.

Ashman31 : I live near Ground zero, I remember the second tower falling down just as I turned my corner to my street. I had a full view of it, the people were running at me as I turned my corner, hundreds it seemed and you could see the smoke billowing towards you, I couldn't move, I had to stand and watch it. I remember walking home earlier that Morning before the towers had fallen, I couldn't stay at work, so I left and walked downtown from 23rd street. Everyone was walking uptown as I got further downtown, but I was walking towards it. I remember Sixth Avenue and Canal Street was wall to wall people. They were like an army marching uptown away from the smoke and fire. I cried for a while on a side street after the first tower fell. People took videotape of it like it was a family outing or some show for their amusement, it made me sick to see. I was unable to move for sometime, I finally made it home, to see the first tower fall, everyone in my neighborhood seemed to pull together as best they could, people around here are still not feeling well, I don’t feel well, but we are alive. I can see ground zero from where I live, I see it everyday when I wake up. Some days I wake up and still think the trade centers are there. I grew up with them I suppose that makes it harder. Every time I hear a plane fly over head, I cringe, I am hoping that will stop someday. I used to love living here, now it seems like a place of ghosts. It’s tangible. I still mourn for all the brave people who died that day I think we all do. Lets hope we heal, but never forget.

And all other journalists who cover 9/11 without regard for New Yorkers - please stop it. On behalf of many of us here in the city, I’d like to state that your article "Fighting to Live as the Towers Died" is as premature as the HBO special "In Memoriam" that is planned for tonight, but that is not my concern. I simply cannot believe that you would publish that particular photograph to accompany the article.

Those of us who were here in New York on 9/11 need not relive that day again as much as you would like to believe that. I saw the image and I thought "What if that was my loved one clinging for life?" and I put myself in the shoes of those parents, siblings, wives, husbands and children who can identify those people as their lost love ones and it is horribly painful. I can see what they are wearing and imagine a wife would know what suit her husband left in that morning. We are still not ready to be force-fed horrific images.

Perhaps these articles are a good reminder for those who weren’t here that day, but you need to remain responsible to the sensitivity of those who were here. Your article would have been better served with a less graphic depiction of the attack. Publishing this photograph as an accompaniment cheapens your intention and just leads me to believe you are out to sensationalize a story that certainly does not need to be sensationalized.

We are not yet healed. All these 6, 7 and 8-month "media memorials" are not necessary to guide us to healing. We are grieving every day. We were told to move ahead with our lives and show we can move ahead, but frankly to this very day, it has been a struggle. A struggle made even worse by the media: the magazine covers you can’t avoid when checking out your groceries, a visual of the towers in flames when seeking a weather report on TV, etc. We don’t need it. Our reminders are here: torn "missing person" billets still remain on mailboxes throughout the city, faded flags hang from windows and not a day goes by where it isn’t referred to in conversations, whether at home or in an office meeting.

You try to justify your intention by stating "Iliana McGinnis, whose husband, Tom, called her from the 92nd floor of the north tower, said, "If they can uncover even one more piece of information about what happened during those last minutes, I want it." Perhaps Ms. McGuiness does want the information and respectfully, she should get it, but it does not mean we all want it or, more so, want it delivered in this fashion. I don’t know that Ms. Guinness would approve of your abusing her endorsement.

This may be construed as an attack on your reporting capabilities, but it is not intended in that way. I am just asking you as fellow New Yorkers to please be a bit more sensitive to those of us who don’t need such blatant reminders.

Squantz : I live in Oslo, Norway, and on 11/9 we had the TV on about 2:30 PM (8:30 AM in NY), waiting for the final results from the elections to Parliament on Monday. I glanced up just as the first tower was hit - thought it was a film or remake from the time a small plane ran into the Empire State Building! But this was for real, only I couldn't understand how we could be watching it on TV (THAT was totally surreal). Then the second tower was struck.

I immediately called my daughter's office on 40th Street in NY; she hadn't arrived yet. Of course not: on her way she had looked over at the WTC, with thoughts of her husband who left earlier that morning to prepare for a meeting on the 106th floor of the North tower - and she saw the plane strike.

Then there was a round of calls, to her office, to his office, from office to office - uncertainty, horror seeping through, lines going dead, friends calling here, trying to get through to NY. Then she underwent the whole routine that many were experiencing, of first calling to, and then rushing around to, hospital after hospital, crowds of people - of course he's OK, maybe he hit his head, and doesn't remember his name, maybe he's rambling around, maybe, maybe. "Is there someone who can stay with you tonight?" I asked. The first feasible plane I could get would leave on the 20th.

Reality turned out to be a futile hope that anything at all tangible might turn up, The family center down at the pier was where one applied for a death certificate - and when that decision was finally made, one could get on with trying to piece life together again. Rent and utilities had to be paid, help was required to open on-line bank files, etc. Some were lucky, like my daughter, to have a large circle of friends and acquaintances who rallied around her.

But nothing will ever bring him back. "And we never even get to tell about our trip to Japan and Korea - we got back so late on Monday!"

On Sept. 10 we stayed up late watching the results of the election on TV, and somehow I switched over to a channel that was showing a film on people's reactions in times of stress, in particular during earthquakes and fires. One case was a fire in a catholic school in Chicago some years back that cost many lives. For example, when one nun found the rear exit door in the classroom locked, the children were told to sit at their desks and fold their hands in prayer. Had they run for a seldom-used staircase in the hallway, they would probably have come out safely.

Its message was that we are bound by our habits: not leaving a restaurant until we have paid the bill, going back for a purse, not trying any unusual route. In an emergency, just GET OUT as fast you possibly can, and in any way you can - if you can!

Orchid21b: Such a CHEAP ploy, a true P.T. Barnum tactic- that's what this NY Times Article is.

It's written for those seeking that "feeling 9/11" high; People who never got beyond the glass of a television screen or the knob on the radio who want to know what 9/11 "felt like".

I am so sorry for the family members you persuaded to air their loved ones' most HORRIFIC, tragic and last moments on the planet. Twisting their sadness in such a way, to capture a part of the day you can't compute cause you don't have the experience, is so screwed up I can't find a curse word strong enough to utter it.

BE WARNED: I, like other readers, can tell you're aware of your stunt because the meat of the article is launched using Iliana McGinnis's quote, "Whose husband, Tom, called her from the 92nd floor of the north tower, said, "If they can uncover even one more piece of information about what happened during those last minutes, I want it."

I could do nothing, NOTHING at all, for the people leaning out of windows. Pause and just think of what that feels like. To know HELPLESSNESS as a physical sensation and not a word you've read.

The men who peered around the columns and could see each other, "photos reveal", that's a detail this article uses, isn't it? You're trying to "feel 9/11".

Do you know you could actually hear some of the screams and cries from above? The two that held hands- the jumpers that vanished...imagine them living on in your mind and NOT via an analysis of photos collected for some article.

Do you know the fear of the human stampede that occurred around Vescey and Broadway streets as the first tower fell and being sucked toward the Brooklyn Bridge. People physically ran over each other. Imagine being elderly for short in such a situation. Now imagine living with the thought you too might have trampled someone.

If The New York Times is "not sure" about the harm/good factor of such articles, simply look at the responses in your readers forum. Those who respond with "observations" from that day are your best audience because there are millions of them and they weren't down there. They won't hate you for the exploit. We, the "small" group who were there that day, come out on the short end of the stick.

You KILL us again and again with such painful writing. And it's pain words can't capture. That's the irony here, you want to feel it but we can't express it to you. I wish we could cause you'd stop seeking it. It's a pack with the devil that you're looking to strike.

If you want, New York Times editors, I gladly offer trading places with you since you want the physical sensation of "feeling 9/11". And I'll go back to being what you were that day - office workers glued to a television screen.

Victims in foreign disasters get more consideration that what you're giving to New Yorkers. Please, stop hurting us. How about an article on why we DON'T get some time to heal? It hasn't even been a year yet.

You are more than entitled to your opinion, of course, but I was down there too and I have yearned for this kind of information. I, my husband and nearly my entire company (we sadly lost one man) managed to escape with our lives, all the while bearing witness to the incredible horror. Barely a minute goes by that I don't think of the people who were trapped in that building and especially the people who I witnessed jumping. My husband saw the man and woman jump together. I'm constantly agonizing over whether people were alone or with colleagues who could support them; if they got to hear someone say "I love you," before the end; if they were relatively peacefully overcome by smoke; if they thankfully never knew what hit them. I literally think about this all day. For me, it's helpful to get more of an idea of went on in there and if the families are willing to share it I thank them. It so easily could have been me or my husband in there (I frequently had meetings in 1 WTC); maybe that's part of why I want to know as much as possible.

Parigo : My life changed in a way I wish that it hadn't... You see, I lost my brother - my friend on 09/11/01. He worked for Marsh, and died doing what he loved to do. Now, I simply pray for peace and understanding as to the reason why... I miss my brother, and I will every day I am on this earth. Now, I keep all the WTC victims and their families in my daily prayers.

Bill Heitman : I was working on the 81st floor of the North Tower that horrible morning. By God's good graces, I was able to escape, unharmed. I was about 50 seconds out of the building when the South tower came down. We lost 3 of our co-workers that day and it has been a difficult 8 months, trying to put this into some kind of tangible perspective. I just don't think it's possible. I keep asking myself, "Why?". I haven't found an answer. I don't believe that there is one. I lived in Weehawken, NJ, which overlooked the Manhattan skyline, but have since moved away from there. What was once a beloved, breathtaking view to me had suddenly become to bear every time I left the front of where I lived. I have since moved to a quiet suburb, and the healing continues. My heartfelt sympathies go out to the people who lost family and friends. GOD BLESS AMERICA.

CWoodall : I lost my brother on 9/11. I still think about it every hour of every day. I am a high school teacher in Colorado and was told the news as I arrived at school that one of the towers had been hit. I turned a TV on and noticed it was the North Tower, and my brother worked in the South Tower. My wife and father had already called my office to deliver that same information. As I prepared for a department meeting, I saw the horror of the South Tower being hit as well. My father left another message on my machine that my brother had called, and said that they were trying to find a way out. I remember thinking that I was certain that my brother would find a way out, regardless of the circumstances, he would find a way out. We held our meeting, with eyes glued to the TV. As our meeting drew to an end, I spoke with my wife. She asked if I thought I should come home. I said no. As I entered my classroom where teachers were watching the TV reports, I noticed a different picture. "Where is the South Tower?" I asked and got no response. "Did the tower fall?" A colleague of mine gave a slow sorrowful nod. It was then I decided to go home. My wife and 8 week old daughter came to pick me up. I pulled my daughter from her car seat and the three of us embraced. All I wanted to do was hold my family close. All I could muster was, "We don't know anything for sure yet." For the next few days I was glued to the TV and jumped through the ceiling when the phone rang. We never heard anything. It wouldn't be until April that we would be told that my brother was identified. How has my life changed? I hold my baby girl a little bit closer, tell my wife I love her more often. Make the extra phone call to family to say hello when it would be easier to put it off to another day. I have learned, very painfully, that no one is guaranteed another second in this world, and that I should spend every moment I can with the people I love. My brother did not expect to die that day, none of the victims did. So in my brother's memory, I will put more time and effort into my family. Every day I get to hold my child, hear her laugh, or kiss my wife is a gift. This experience has taught me to view it that way. That is the legacy I have chosen for him. I think he would be very proud.

KPelt0: It was 7:05 a.m.Pacific time and I was lying in bed breastfeeding my baby when my husband who was already up with our two-year-old came into the bedroom. He said "Honey..." in a very distressed, out of breath way and I immediately knew something was very wrong. "What!?", I said fearfully thinking some had happened to our two year old son downstairs. "Nathan's fine", he said "...the world trade center...something happened...it collapsed...oh my god..." He was totally stunned, shocked and out of breath and he turned and went back downstairs. "What...?", I thought in disbelief as I quickly got up with the baby and went downstairs. I had not yet realized that my brother-in-law, my husband's brother, worked in the world trade center.

I will never forget my husband's shock and pain that morning. Neither will I forget how I felt when I realized that we might never see Mike again or the terrible call to inform my in-laws, Mike's parents, of the horror of what was happening in front of us on the television.

Life will never be the same. Our family has lost so much. His beautiful wife and children have lost so much. There is a hole that can never be filled and so we are just trying to adjust to our lives without Mike. We are going on because we have no choice, we have beautiful, precious children in this family but life will never be the same.

LewWillard : I did not want to be a 911 survivor, but I became one anyway by pure chance. I wasn't at work on that fateful day like the many victims, but was visiting the offices of a former employer in 6 WTC to obtain a signature on a mortgage insurance form when the first plane literally flew over my head and struck the North Tower. What I witnessed in the next few hours was both horrific and surrealistic and forever etched in my mind, particularly the close up view of the UAL jetliner before it struck the South Tower and the maelstrom of the collapsing buildings as it engulfed the firefighters as we fled up West Street with my former co-worker in a wheel chair to ultimate sanctuary in the James Walker Park on St. Luke’s Place. I was also in the Trade Center during the 1993 bombing and I wonder whether there was purpose to all this. Maybe not, but others have suggested that my presence on that day might have been the difference in whether my stroke stricken former co-worker in the wheel chair survived or not - I hope he forgives us for dumping him from the chair when we were trying to negotiate a curb south of Canal Street. Although I have read many accounts of that day and the aftermath (notably articles by Eric Lipton, etc.), I still won't view TV documentaries of the tragedy just as I have resisted counseling. I am not ready. Maybe someday, but for now I am glad I was there and in some small way made a difference.

AKMelick: I will never forget September 11th, ever. I will never forget the lessons I learned about life, ever. September 11th changed my life and my husband's life in more ways than one. We lost a friend that day, Steve Genovese on the 104th floor at Cantor Fitzgerald. We lost our innocence as Americans with everyone else that day, but we lost our innocence as parents as well. We took our 1-month-old baby to the ER that day. When we got to the hospital it was set up for overflow from NYC. The triage nurse said they were not coming, that they were all dead. As we struggled with our child's severe illness, we grappled with the loss of life, the loss of a friend, a father who will never see his daughter or wife again. I will never forget that we are here to love each other and we pray for peace everyday. I have two boys, will they grow up to be firemen or policemen? Will I loose them as they try to save others someday? The way that some parents lost their boys as they tried to save all those people? I pray not. I only hope that everyone remembers we are given this incredible gift of life and that we need to put out into the world as much love and joy as we possibly can everyday, through our children, through our memories of those that died that day, through our actions and our words. I cry all the time when I think about everyone who is gone. I cried when the man and his two beautiful twin daughters sat down next to us at the local breakfast joint and my husband turned to me and said, "his wife died that day". I cry when I think of how to explain this to my boys, ages 2 1/2 and 9 months. How do I talk about such hatred? How can I explain it? There is a great hole in my heart for all that are gone. But I have great faith that we will change the world, one person at a time. That love will overcome hatred and evil and that peace will come to us. Steve, we all miss you and, yes, you were right about my boys. Thank you for letting me put this here.

KTracy0: I was working midtown. My husband is a NYC Firefighter on duty that morning. We had just returned from a four-day vacation in Boston at 1Am the morning of September 11th and my husband reported to work early, around 8AM. My husband survived. I feel guilty when I look at the wives who can't say that. I attended their husbands’ funerals and listened to their stories, all the time thinking thank God that wasn't mine. I didn't see my husband for days, when he did come home he had changed and he would only stay an hour or so and then go back. In between he attended funerals. He worked Christmas through January at the Trade Center, now he volunteers for the landfill. My husband will never be the same after loosing so many, and seeing so much and living the horror. He has changed. My whole family has changed. And I HATE these people for what they have done, not only for those who died both uniformed and civilian, but for what they have done to my family. I will never feel truly at peace. I don't need the papers, TV or radio to tell me how bad these last 8-1/2 months have been, I look at my husband's eyes, the reality is there and will be for the rest of our lives.

EGrosss9: My name is Elaine, I am a survivor of the 9/11 attack. I had just moved to the NY area in August to start what was supposed to be the job of a lifetime. I was in my office on 9/11 when the first plane hit. I ran to the window, when I looked up it was like the world was coming down. I remember seeing people clinging to the window frames and then just letting go and falling to the ground. It still sends shivers up my back when I think about it. I was never the most demonstrative person, but that morning I was insistent. Minutes after the first plane hit I told my new boss that we had to leave immediately get everyone out down the stairs. He told me to stay put. I knew that the plane that hit tower 1 was not a small plane. I kept telling him I'm a private pilot, that’s not a hole made by a small plane, we have to get everyone out now. Like the good soldier I am I listened to him, I stayed. A few minutes later at about 9 a.m. my boss ran up to the next floor where the big chiefs sat. As he came back down stairs, back to our floor the second plane hit tower 2. At that point he finally agreed we needed to leave the building. After we got out of the building he told us that when he had gone upstairs earlier everyone was gone. The people responsible for us, the big guys upstairs had left the building without checking to see if we had gotten out. What I can't get out of my mind is that the people who were supposed to be responsible for us didn't care. How could I trust these people with my career if they didn't even care if I lived or died?

Laurelb34 : I'm a 34 year old native Staten Islander. My aunt survived 9/11 because of a friend who convinced her they should leave the 93rd floor of tower 2. My family can never repay this woman who saved my aunt's life. The sadness & emptiness, the children who lost parents are so overwhelmingly heartbreaking. The thought that these vast buildings are gone is so deeply saddening.

Karl Brennan : My second day at a new job as a nurse in a north Jersey Hospital stared with out a hitch I was in a conference room and my pager went off, I am a paramedic also and I work at a few hospitals I called the number and I said "what’s up" the person on the other end said didn’t you hear we are under attack, I said what? he progressed to tell me the details of the incident, I said Oh my God, and hung up the phone, I took off to the ER lobby as I knew there was a TV there, I had arrived to watch as the second plane struck the other tower, I ran into the ER we were in disaster mode and people were scrambling every where, I asked my supervisor what should I do? I was told to go back to the conference room and wait till we were called for casualties, Needless to say We were never called, That day I had lost 3 co-workers and brothers in arms the 3 were paramedic police officers all who had worked for the port authority police dept, Mike, Bob and Dave gave of themselves to serve and help others in need, That day all of them were doing what they loved helping others, My brothers I will never forget the ultimate sacrifice you had made to help your fellow man. The rest of the day was very depressing almost surrealistic exempt that I went to the roof to see the burning rubble which confirmed the reality of the event. I berated my self for weeks to come saying that I did not do enough, crying and sobbing. I was told I did what I was supposed to be doing, Helping others in the hospital. I remind myself of that every day I am here to help those in need. Some how it works too say I did my part to help, maybe not in recovery but in caring and support of those who did come to the hospital after the events that unfolded on the 11th of September, a day I will never Forget.

I'll add my own comments.

I live about 35 miles from Ground Zero. Someone at this board had commented that, in concentric circles, the amount of anguish felt by folks due to this can be measured.

Please do not misconstrue this as a put-down of folks in "fly over country"; I'm the first to admit they're the most patriotic and caring "salt of the earth" folks in the nation - but just as I can never truly understand the grief of the escapees and eyewitnesses, others will never know what I feel.

The love and support that poured in from Middle America, both emotional and financial, was unprecedented. Please do not feel insulted or short-changed: feel lucky.

I do.

I could do nothing, NOTHING at all, for the people leaning out of windows. Pause and just think of what that feels like. To know HELPLESSNESS as a physical sensation and not a word you've read.

You are right, we'll never know the pain you must feel. But it must be horrendous because our hearts are still breaking for you all.

Eight month after 9-11 the tears still spring to my eyes every time I see a fire engine. I can't even imagine what it must be like for the people of New York. If it brings any comfort, you should know that the folks in flyover country realized how much we all love our fellow Americans and your pain is our pain.

I am amazed at the difference between the east and the mid west. I am in Minnesota this weekend and I am shocked at the lack of flags and signs of patriotism.

I don't doubt the patriotism of the people here either, I do think the proximity has made a difference in how people look at these events. My father and I were talking about this today. He lives here in Minnesota and thinks that because most people here didn't personally know people that died in the massacre, it is harder to really grasp the scope of what happened in NY, DC, and PA. I think that the closer you are to the carnage, the more likely you know someone that died. The other factor is that life has basically just gone on. After the initial 24/7 coverage, people just have gone on with their normal lives. We didn't get the financial depression that could have happened, and we haven't been directly attacked on our own soil again.

That there hasn't been mass panic and financial mayhem is a great credit to the current administration, but I fear that most of the country has already gone back to sleep. (Excluding FReepers of course).

Perhaps it's because I originally hail from the east coast.
Perhaps it's because I drove by the Pentagon every day for years commuting to and from work.
Perhaps it's because I have friends and family in NY.
Perhaps it's because I've seen up close and personal just what suddenly losing a member of your family feels like.
Helplessness. You want to do so much. You want to change it-make time go backwards and somehow change the events that unfold, but you cannot.

This was a life changing event for us all. How we reacted was personal and unique.

I'm out here in flyover country and there are still many flags flying.

Senator, thanks for the post.

I don't know how things are in the midwest, but here in the southwest patriotism is a way of life. True, we've take the flags off our cars but that's because summer is coming and the sun would fade the flags faster then we could replace them.

Don't believe for a minute that we've forgotten or that we don't feel this as deeply as those in the east. Remember that most of the military comes from flyover country and we've all got someone we know who is in harms way right now. We go on because, well, that's what we do. But we haven't forgotten, we will NEVER forget.

That's it in a nutshell.

Living in California, I was far away from Ground Zero. Yes, it effected me, and changed my life forever too, but I know that for those of you who live there, the pain and grief is much worse.
I never saw the Twin Towers, and for you to see the skyline all of the time must be reminder of what happened that day.
I understand most of you knew someone who died that day, I did not.
I will always feel a solidarity with NY'ers now that I didn't before. I saw a side of them that I didn't know existed. The caring, the reaching out to help strangers and the courage exhibited by New Yorkers is an inspiration to the rest of the nation.
My heart goes out to you all. I can't imagine what being there must have been like, and I know how lucky I am to be so far away.
God Bess New Yorker's!

Hey, I'm originally from the midwest. There is a distinct difference between here (MN) and home (PA). As far as displays of patriotism anyway. In PA, there are still flags on cars everywhere, not necessarily waving ones, but stickers or magnets. Here, I have seen very few. Like I said, I'm not saying they aren't as patriotic, just farther removed from the tragedy.

In my experience, there were always flags flying in Pennsylvania, a state filled with patriots! I bet it's even more so now. I still recall visiting small towns like Lititz, walking downs their streets and seeing all the flags waving proudly! I love central & western PA.

Minny Sota! is the land of da swedes, ya. They are a breed onto demselves, ya.

The military is the reason that people that aren't news junkies and political junkies have been able to go on like it was before Sept. 11th. The fact that it does seem so normal is a credit to the military and the administration. I don't think people have forgotten, I do think it is just different in some ways for people on the east.

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