The inevitable survey.
Sep. 10th, 2002 10:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camwynAaah, furkit. I knew this was gonna come up sooner or later. Might as well get it out of the way.
1. Where were you when you heard about the attacks on the pentagon and WTC?
At the offices of the American Red Cross of Metropolitan New Jersey, installing service pack 1 for our antivirus software. No, seriously. I'd done two computers already that morning and was wondering why everyone was filtering into our Board of Directors Meeting Room as I went to install it on a third, so I took a detour and saw the television.
2. What country or group did you suspect immediately?
Didn't occur to me to suspect anybody. I wanted in my heart to suspect White supremacists. I'd thought of them instantly when I heard the news about the Murrah building in OKC; I'd even yelled at someone on FurryMUCK for making a comment about Arabs. (I didn't have access to CNN at the time, but I did have net, and Furry was the biggest place I knew of. I figured there were enough people wandering around the West Corner of the Park that someone would have a TV on and would be talking details. I was right.) At least if it'd been people like that, they could have been dismissed as homicidal morons who could be found and stomped on like big squishy bugs without any sense of guilt. All I could think that had anything to do with suspicion or blame was 'someone's country is going to end up glass for this - right or wrong someone's country is going to end up glass for this. . .'
3. Who were you with? How did you react?
Was with the rest of the staff. All of us except the receptionist migrated into the Board room, 'cos that's where the office TV is. I believe my exact words of reaction were 'holy God, holy Mary mother of God', followed by 'excuse me, I have to go change my shirt' - I'd thrown a Red Cross shirt with ID patches on both sleeves and the front, and a HUGE ID patch on the back, into my car the day before. I figured we'd be going. . . oh, and I admit I went outside and peered in the direction of New York City to see if there was anything on the horizon. We're 25 miles or more from the city, so I saw nothing, but I had to try, you know? But before I went to the car to get the shirt I went to my desk and made some phone calls.
4. Who did you call first?
My mother, at her office; then a friend of mine on the West Coast, who I apologized to for waking up.
5. What did you do the rest of the day?
Changed my shirt. Went into the city on the ERV. Handed out water, cookies, crackers, granola bars, lemonade, etc. at the intersection of Duane Street and West Broadway to any firefighter, cop, or soldier who asked. Explained that they'd sent us out with a can of percolator grind coffee rather than instant, and that we had a few cans of Sterno and if the nice sgt. was somehow able to use this to make coffee I would gladly let him do it but otherwise our only caffeine was in the iced tea mix. Made periodic phone calls from the last working phone in lower Manhattan, or at least the last one I knew about. Watched #7 World Trade Center collapse, sorta - I didn't realize that's why everyone was standing there with their arms over their heads. Guarded the ERV. Wondered if I could get into an abandoned Payless and leave a check because I was wearing office shoes and desperately needed sneakers or boots or something. Apologized for not having enough face masks to go around. Made mental notes to the effect that I could understand now why ordinary soldiers wanted berets like the Rangers, because damn, they looked cute. Tried not to cry when a fighter jet would streak overhead, because I had never wanted to live in a country where warplanes ruled the skies.
Avoided actually walking the six blocks to the site until 11 PM, when Derrick, the ERV driver/commander/Person in Charge returned, grabbed me by the elbow, and said 'you have to see this, you absolutely have to go down and see this'. He was muttering under his breath, a lot of swears involving 'God' and 'damn' and 'Jesus Christ'. He never blasphemes. He just uses unprintable words. This time, though - different story.
6. Did you have any friends or family killed in the attacks?
No, thank the Gods. My cousin David was supposed to be there for a nine-thirty meeting; he's a lawyer. He's also a football fan. He stayed up late the night of the tenth to watch the game, then decided to go in late, as his presence wasn't vital. Got some freaked-out calls the next morning from his mom.
On the other hand, there was a family around the block from my house who did lose someone. The father of the family was a Port Authority police officer. Mr. Infante didn't come home.
Mayor Giuliani was at the funeral.
7. Do you think 9-11 should be a holiday?
No. Pearl Harbor Day isn't. If we make it into a holiday, in five years some asshole is going to make it into an excuse for a sale on used cars or refrigerators or something, and then I'll have to find them an' beat dem wid a big club wid nails in, so. . . no.
8. Do you think even a % of the money donated really made it to the families?
Feck yes. I saw the people who'd been affected coming in for help. I saw the checks this Chapter wrote being handed over to the families who came to us. I saw the mental health counselors working with these people to make sure that they were able to handle the process of getting the money - a hard and painful thing even under the best of circumstances, because of how it forces you to face the loss again and again. I saw the people getting their money here. I'm damn sure the same stories played out everywhere else. It got there.
9. Did you feel an increased sense of patriotism? Did it last?
I wouldn't call it patriotism so much as an increased need to actually serve. The American people needed help, dammit, and that was what I was there for. What was the point of my job if I couldn't get out and do something for these people?
Still doing that. Still a little mad that I got pulled off the job two days in to work the computers back at the Chapter. Dammit, sometimes being the only geek around sucks.
10. Have you flown since the attacks? How soon did you fly again?
Late December, when I went to visit my grandparents in Florida. I had no need or reason to fly before that; I wasn't planning on going anywhere anyway.
11. Have you been to Ground Zero?
At 11 PM or so on Sept. 11, 2001, I walked down West Broadway to the site. I stepped on pieces of metal that had been blown out of the buildings. I passed what Derrick told me was one of the engines. I got God-only-knows crap all over my feet and inside my shoes, because I couldn't avoid walking in the grey disgusting water that had pooled up where the firefighters' hoses backsprayed. I was given a NIOSH particulate respirator by someone I'd never seen and still don't know the name of, a man in surgical scrubs and a white doctor's jacket and a respirator of his own. I saw the actual flames in what was left of the buildings, I remember thinking of a line from the Exiles comic book - 'God's a long way from here today, Calvin' - and then thinking 'no, he's in there, he's hauling hoses with the rest of us'. . .
Yes. I've been there.
1. Where were you when you heard about the attacks on the pentagon and WTC?
At the offices of the American Red Cross of Metropolitan New Jersey, installing service pack 1 for our antivirus software. No, seriously. I'd done two computers already that morning and was wondering why everyone was filtering into our Board of Directors Meeting Room as I went to install it on a third, so I took a detour and saw the television.
2. What country or group did you suspect immediately?
Didn't occur to me to suspect anybody. I wanted in my heart to suspect White supremacists. I'd thought of them instantly when I heard the news about the Murrah building in OKC; I'd even yelled at someone on FurryMUCK for making a comment about Arabs. (I didn't have access to CNN at the time, but I did have net, and Furry was the biggest place I knew of. I figured there were enough people wandering around the West Corner of the Park that someone would have a TV on and would be talking details. I was right.) At least if it'd been people like that, they could have been dismissed as homicidal morons who could be found and stomped on like big squishy bugs without any sense of guilt. All I could think that had anything to do with suspicion or blame was 'someone's country is going to end up glass for this - right or wrong someone's country is going to end up glass for this. . .'
3. Who were you with? How did you react?
Was with the rest of the staff. All of us except the receptionist migrated into the Board room, 'cos that's where the office TV is. I believe my exact words of reaction were 'holy God, holy Mary mother of God', followed by 'excuse me, I have to go change my shirt' - I'd thrown a Red Cross shirt with ID patches on both sleeves and the front, and a HUGE ID patch on the back, into my car the day before. I figured we'd be going. . . oh, and I admit I went outside and peered in the direction of New York City to see if there was anything on the horizon. We're 25 miles or more from the city, so I saw nothing, but I had to try, you know? But before I went to the car to get the shirt I went to my desk and made some phone calls.
4. Who did you call first?
My mother, at her office; then a friend of mine on the West Coast, who I apologized to for waking up.
5. What did you do the rest of the day?
Changed my shirt. Went into the city on the ERV. Handed out water, cookies, crackers, granola bars, lemonade, etc. at the intersection of Duane Street and West Broadway to any firefighter, cop, or soldier who asked. Explained that they'd sent us out with a can of percolator grind coffee rather than instant, and that we had a few cans of Sterno and if the nice sgt. was somehow able to use this to make coffee I would gladly let him do it but otherwise our only caffeine was in the iced tea mix. Made periodic phone calls from the last working phone in lower Manhattan, or at least the last one I knew about. Watched #7 World Trade Center collapse, sorta - I didn't realize that's why everyone was standing there with their arms over their heads. Guarded the ERV. Wondered if I could get into an abandoned Payless and leave a check because I was wearing office shoes and desperately needed sneakers or boots or something. Apologized for not having enough face masks to go around. Made mental notes to the effect that I could understand now why ordinary soldiers wanted berets like the Rangers, because damn, they looked cute. Tried not to cry when a fighter jet would streak overhead, because I had never wanted to live in a country where warplanes ruled the skies.
Avoided actually walking the six blocks to the site until 11 PM, when Derrick, the ERV driver/commander/Person in Charge returned, grabbed me by the elbow, and said 'you have to see this, you absolutely have to go down and see this'. He was muttering under his breath, a lot of swears involving 'God' and 'damn' and 'Jesus Christ'. He never blasphemes. He just uses unprintable words. This time, though - different story.
6. Did you have any friends or family killed in the attacks?
No, thank the Gods. My cousin David was supposed to be there for a nine-thirty meeting; he's a lawyer. He's also a football fan. He stayed up late the night of the tenth to watch the game, then decided to go in late, as his presence wasn't vital. Got some freaked-out calls the next morning from his mom.
On the other hand, there was a family around the block from my house who did lose someone. The father of the family was a Port Authority police officer. Mr. Infante didn't come home.
Mayor Giuliani was at the funeral.
7. Do you think 9-11 should be a holiday?
No. Pearl Harbor Day isn't. If we make it into a holiday, in five years some asshole is going to make it into an excuse for a sale on used cars or refrigerators or something, and then I'll have to find them an' beat dem wid a big club wid nails in, so. . . no.
8. Do you think even a % of the money donated really made it to the families?
Feck yes. I saw the people who'd been affected coming in for help. I saw the checks this Chapter wrote being handed over to the families who came to us. I saw the mental health counselors working with these people to make sure that they were able to handle the process of getting the money - a hard and painful thing even under the best of circumstances, because of how it forces you to face the loss again and again. I saw the people getting their money here. I'm damn sure the same stories played out everywhere else. It got there.
9. Did you feel an increased sense of patriotism? Did it last?
I wouldn't call it patriotism so much as an increased need to actually serve. The American people needed help, dammit, and that was what I was there for. What was the point of my job if I couldn't get out and do something for these people?
Still doing that. Still a little mad that I got pulled off the job two days in to work the computers back at the Chapter. Dammit, sometimes being the only geek around sucks.
10. Have you flown since the attacks? How soon did you fly again?
Late December, when I went to visit my grandparents in Florida. I had no need or reason to fly before that; I wasn't planning on going anywhere anyway.
11. Have you been to Ground Zero?
At 11 PM or so on Sept. 11, 2001, I walked down West Broadway to the site. I stepped on pieces of metal that had been blown out of the buildings. I passed what Derrick told me was one of the engines. I got God-only-knows crap all over my feet and inside my shoes, because I couldn't avoid walking in the grey disgusting water that had pooled up where the firefighters' hoses backsprayed. I was given a NIOSH particulate respirator by someone I'd never seen and still don't know the name of, a man in surgical scrubs and a white doctor's jacket and a respirator of his own. I saw the actual flames in what was left of the buildings, I remember thinking of a line from the Exiles comic book - 'God's a long way from here today, Calvin' - and then thinking 'no, he's in there, he's hauling hoses with the rest of us'. . .
Yes. I've been there.
