There are similar 911s occurring across the globe. There is the sentiment that this was indeed an American tragedy that drowns out all others. I recall that Indians held prayer ceremonies to mourn for the victims of 911. However, Americans never did the same when the Bombay terrorist bombings occurred. And oddly enough, most Indians don't seem to hyperinflate their 911 the same way Americans do. Maybe they should? I don't know. All the 911s were terrible events and I agree that there needs to be some critical introspection among theists (muslims in particular) that faith can lead to hate.

Unfortunately the sequelae of the American 911 has IMO has polarized religions and intensified hatred. Would it not be better to leave the event behind in the shadows and people just move on?

My wife and I were both working downtown that day...

All I'll say is that 9 years later, there is still a giant hole in the ground, and most of America can tell you more about Snookie than they could about the events of 9/11.

It is as much time in history as it is a particular religion. You are not going to wipe out the beliefs of billions of people anymore than Islam can wipe out the west, short of a nuclear war, which most humans do not want.

You can blast Islam as you rightfully should, but Islam has not had it's own age of enlightenment like the west has had for the past 200 years.  They need their own Jefferson and Paine. But I don't think it does any good for any human to imply force to make change. I think the only rational thing the west can do is debate, blaspheme and ridicule. But pluralism will exist and is the only pragmatic way to lead.

And I was on my way to work that morning. As usual, I stopped at my favorite deli (two guys from Manhattan who retired from there and moved to SW CT to run a lower key Italian deli) to get my usual breakfast. Two eggs over easy, thick slices of grilled Virginia ham and provolone on a hard roll. Don't bother asking me why I can remember what I had for breakfast nine years ago today. It just works like that.

When I got there, they had the radio on and they said that an airplane had just hit the WTC. I remember commenting that a bomber had hit the Empire State building back in WW2.

Anyway, ten minutes later, I was at work and the normal morning meeting had been canceled so that everyone could gather around the very large TV to watch the news. I got there shortly before the second plane hit. Normally, I don't get into woo stuff like telepathy but at that moment, it felt as if the whole room had the exact same thought. My version was “Shit! We know what this means!”.

I had recently turned my previous post over to a new co-worker but she had an uncle who was employed as a janitor, so she was pretty useless. I jumped back in to do what had to happen. Then I heard about the Pentagon. At the time, my father lived as close to there as is possible to live. I spent the next few hours trying to call him to see if he was safe. Of course, since the phone lines from here to there ran through the WTC, I could not get a circuit.

I finally remembered that he also had a satellite phone, so I called that even though I was sure that he was not traveling that week. That got through. He told me that he had felt the impact but that he thought it was a truck hitting a bridge nearby. Apparently, truck hit that bridge fairly oten and at highway speeds.

Once I was able to close my office down for the day, I went outside to sit with the coworker who I had subbed for. While we were there, a whole fleet of buses ran down the street at about twice the normal speed limit, which did not matter because as it turned out, the police knew they were making the run to the train station and they had the whole route blocked. They did that because we have the closest huge trauma center apart from the ones actually in the city proper.

A couple of days later, while the no fly rule was still in effect, I was outdoors when a pair of some type of fighter passed overhead at not more than a couple hundred feet above the ground. Man, that is fucking a sight to see. If someone lives where there is a real war, they must have to deal with that many times a day. Forget speaking to anyone for a few seconds because that sound is louder than any bar band.

Then, because we are so close to Manhattan, it took a few months for the local newspaper to run the obits.

When my maternal grandmother was alive, she used to tell me that she remembered the full course of Pearl Harbor day and that I should thank my lucky stars that I would never have to live through a day like that. She was 44 then and I was 38 for my day of infamy. Wow! Only six years difference.

First of all, fantastic post Brian.

The day it happened I was pulling into my work parking lot. I was listening to the Mancow radio show (think Howard Stern or Bubba the love sponge) and I thought the first plane hitting one of the towers was a joke ~ The station was often pulling pranks with mixed tomfoolery ~ I smiled, shook my head and headed into my office.

I was getting settled and many of my office mates came in looking terrified and talking about a plane crashing into one of the twin towers. By the time each of them took their seat, we got word that a second plane crashed into the other tower ~ then came the day long TV coverage in our bosses office that many stayed glued to the entire day.

Many of my distributors were from the East Coast so I spent the morning calling them to find out what was going on ~ many of their offices closed within the hour ~ people were scared.

I felt confused , I kept thinking to myself...If a person wanted to "destroy the US economy" why crash a plane into a couple of buildings, what was that going to do?? Do these people think that the whole of America centered around these buildings? Of course we all now know the buildings collapsed killing so many ~

What a sad event leaving 3,000 people dead. The loss felt by those families, the fear placed in the minds of so many across the world~  Not to be forgotten but hopefully learned from.