Many of us live in or are from the United States.  Without getting terribly patriotic, where were you?

I was at an ex girlfriend's tiny apartment by the Sea, near Santa Barbara, CA, someone from her work called and woke us up told her to turn on the TV..One of the Twin Towers was on fire.  I got in my jeep and headed off to work.  Howard Stern was live and uncut, the delay of broadcast feed from the east coast was turned off, Howard Stern was talking live.  Think what you will about Stern, he was very emotional and distraught. He had just found out the second building was attacked.  It was surreal.  I went to work, and my boss let everyone go at 12:00.  Definitely felt like a day of mourning.  Very sad.

I was still in college.  My mom woke me up telling me that planes had crashed into the WTC and the Pentagon.  I remember getting up and seeing the first collapse while she was in the other room on the phone and going to get her and tell her to come look.  Definitely very surreal.  I had a class after that, so I went in to school, which they kept open for the remainder of the day, despite nobody really being in a mind frame to get anything done.  I was also working as a tutor in the university writing center and had a lot of students come in for writing sessions who just wanted to talk.  It was especially difficult because one of my students was a fairly recent immigrant (I specialized in working with ESL students) who was completely distraught because she moved to the US because it was safe, etc..

I remember not hearing about it until 11:00 in the morning. I was on the C-train, going to high school (grade 11) when I overheard some people talking about terrorist acts. I didn't realize how close to home it felt for everyone else. I was too shocked to mourn with everyone else. More like I was trying to wrap my head around the enormity of it all.

Most of all, I remember the racism that I witnessed later that week. Saw an increase in violence against some of the Lebanese and other Middle Eastern people in my school. In one instance that is burned into my brain, I remember a woman on the bus swearing and yelling at a small Arabian boy. At the time, I didn't think it was my business to say anything to her, but now I wish I did. The one thing that I find myself no longer able to tolerate is that kind of thing.

Along with the Nazi Holocaust, and the bombing of Hiroshima, and now 9/11, this century has seen more than its' fair share of hate-related violence. I can't tell you how much I wish it'd stop.

9/11 occured in a different century though.  We've not had a good start on this one.

Idolores, I thought you were Canadian.  For some reason, I'm shocked that you would witness such stuff there regarding an event in the US.  I'd understand sympathies and all, but a spurring of racism and especially violence there just seems odd to me.  I'm from the Southern United States and I never saw any racism or violence directed at any individual, although some comments regarding "them", such as "blowing them away" and "turning their land into a sheet of glass" were overheard.  Not unexpected considering the "you're either with us or against us" crap that came from the White House.  The us vs them mentality isn't unexpected when your nation is attacked by foreign terrorists.

Of course, I wasn't in high school were such silly things are to be expected.  I had a retail job at a mall at that time, but again nothing there regarding it.

I had just started my third year at college. Even though New York is three hours ahead of me, I didn't realize anything was wrong until I had made it to school (around 10 AM) and everyone was gathering around a television in the commons area. It was surreal. I did a lesson with a singer (as if either of us were able to function) and right after that, classes were cancelled for the day.

Based on the term "C-train", I'd imagine he's in the same city as me, which would indeed make him Canadian.

I was in my school's library at the time (grade 12), refactoring a program I was working on for fun, when one of my teachers started running around, distressed, trying to gather as many students as possible to go sit in front of a small television to watch the events.

I'm not going to talk about my feelings on the matter, since anything I could try to add would sound cold, and that's probably the last take on it that anyone posting in this thread wants to hear.

Suffice it to say that the event, its footage, and related discussions dominated the vast majority of our media for a long time after it took place.

I was in grade 11 English class at the time.  It was around 11AM.  No one in the class knew and business was usual.  This kid in my class came back from the bathroom and he was like, "Marcel, dood, they blew up the World Trade Center and the Pentagon."  I remember that kid always used to make bullshit up so I just laughed at him and told him to shut the f--- up.  He didn't insist that it was the truth, so I assumed he was just lying until our principal came on the PA system and told us all what had happened.  Suffice to say, that was the end of that school day.

When the first plane hit, I was sitting in an art classroom and my professor was late. This was at LaGuardia Community College, which is almost right across the river from Manhattan. He came in and told the students about the attack and I remember going pale. Of course, everyone was dismissed and people throughout the building were freaking out, trying to get to a phone when their cells weren't working, relatives of WTC workers bawling... I remember it pretty vividly. Students huddled around televisions, sympathy hugs and all that. I was still a smoker back then and gave out my whole pack one-by-one to whomever asked. Saved the last two for myself and decided to suck it up, go outside and take a look for myself.

I walked the crowded bridge near the school and saw the towers, both decimated, but still standing. I was just stuck in a surreal numbness. Surveying the crowd reactions. Some people were shocked. Others laughed in jaded fashion. It was crazy. Then the first tower went down and the gravity of the whole situation just crushed me. Something told me the second one was going down and I didn't want to stay and watch.

All mass transit was halted, so I lit up and decided to start my 3 1/2 hour walk home. I remember just staring at all the buildings around me, feeling like everything in the city was made of paper. It felt like it could all come down with the breeze. It was the beginning of a pretty devastating depression that lasted a few months.

Later I found out that a friend of mine had just dropped off her best friend at the Towers before they went down. She dealt with some mean survival guilt and she hasn't been the same since.

Yeah, I probably posted this before, but it's probably the historical event I tell kids about when I'm old and liver-spotty. I gained alot of perspective on the human condition that day. Serves me good to remember, no?

Ryu, you may not know this, but Canada (or at the very least, Calgary) is a shitty excuse for a progressive country. For all our talk about being a cultural melting pot, there's still a lot of discrimination. Racism may not be as rampant as it is in the southern states, where chapters of the KKK are still active, but it's still a strong feeling for some. Particularly towards Asians, Natives and people of Middle Eastern decent. It sickens me to no end. Any man what judges another based on the colour of his skin, his religion, or his sexual orientation ain't fit to be called a man. That's that.

Somewhat late to the topic but .... eh...

The previous night (9/10) I had my 3 best friends over for a late-night Smash Bros. fest.  We played late into the night and slept in fairly late...  I remember waking up around 8:00 and turning on the TV.  My mind wasn't really awake, but I remember thinking "Why is the same thing on every channel?"  Then I actually stopped and paid attention.  I wish I could remember if both targets were hit (8:00 pacific time = 11:00 eastern time, right?  Then they probably were), but I digress.  I immediately woke up all 3 of them and said that something bad went down.  We all just stared at the TV for the next hour before separating for college and work.  None of us were in our right minds after that. 

The following year at work, some corporate d***head made a real insensitive joke during an all-hands meeting on the same day (9/11/02).  He said "I was a little hesitant to take the morning flight to Vegas today," during which nervous laughter filled the room.  Then, he said "Let's just hope they don't do it again."  I know it doesn't sound bad, but he was trying to make light of the what happened.  The entire room got dead silent and I lost all respect (what little I had) for that man.  What a corporate douche.

That doesn't sound too bad AYB. In a meeting just a few days after, a guy 'reinacted' the event with a slinky, pausing for laughter at the end. Utter gobshite. But then he worked in advertising and I've never met idiots the likes of which I met while doing ads. The one that sticks in my head is a bloke who make racist jokes while pitching for an anti-racism campaign.

I was starting the 12th grade but wasn't back in school as we went back really late that year as they were doing some heavy duty renovation to the building and the teachers went on strike to boot, which added to the fun of my senior year ending really, really late.

Since I wasn't in school I was working part time as a insert folder at the local newspaper as I was trying to raise some money to build a new computer (which I finally laid to rest this year after the RAM finally went.) Didn't get that much work done that day like most, being glued to the TV screen and all.

Man, that sucks.  You gotta move to Toronto or Vancouver.  I'm Native *and* Asian and because I'm part white, I *look* Middle Eastern.  To the point where people in the subway here will just come up to me and speak Farsi without a second thought.  I've been to the South, too, any no one's ever said anything to my face and they've all been rather polite.  How bad is it out west, anyway?  (Sorry to change the topic)

I was in high school, Spanish class. Announcement was made over the P.A. by our principal. I didn't think it was nearly as serious as it later became throughout the day when most of the TVs were tuned into the news channels instead of school cirriculum. School was aborted for the day and most of the ensuing classes were largely on the topic of what we were seeing before our eyes.

I've never felt horror like I did on that day. I remember feeling uneasy whenever I heard planes in the sky shortly after airspace was resumed. Add the anxiety regarding my mother, who was out of state held at the airport for days, my brother colleged on Long Island. I, then, was very confused, perplexed, had questions but ultimately didn't feel very secure anymore. If anything, it certainly woke me up to the world that day. That day, one thing you really wanted to be be was with other people and just attempt to process what happened together.

I was also in the midst of a Final Fantasy VII replay, a game which now unfortunately always makes me think back to that day especially since the game has terrorism components in it.

I was at work, in the Sears Tower in Chicago.  Someone a couple cubicles over was talking about the first plane strike, and when the second plane hit, we started thinking that our building might be next.  Soon after, there was an announcement telling everyone to leave the building, so we did.

I, too, live in Calgary, the same city as Idolores, and I really haven't seen many visible signs of racism. "Like me" bias and cultural stereotyping, sure, and if you can show me a place where those things don't exist, I'll, like, say something, but I've yet to see or hear about outright slander or hate crimes the way he seems to be making it out to be.

Granted, Alberta is a very conservative province, but it really doesn't seem all that bad.

(For the record, I am not caucasian)

W00t, same age! I was also starting my senior year of high school!

I WAS in school, like most, however. My second period class that day, which was some easy food-fundamentals elective I took, was spent with the TV on the entire day. Every class I went to for the rest of the day was basically discussions with the teachers, counselors stepping in, etc. They might have been just as well off cancelling school that day (or the next day). But they didn't.

The day had very little impact on me. All I remember was me being in the minority over the coming weeks for being a pacifist and saying we should "forgive them" blahblahblah, everyone wanted to punch me. Ah well.

I'd probably punch younger-me, too.

Ramza

I was blissfully asleep since it was my day off and I'd be damned if I was getting out of bed before 2pm.  Or, I should say I would have been blissfully asleep if I hadn't been woken up by my neighbor banging on my door repeatedly until I groggily came down to see what all the fuss was about.  She was ranting and raving about "attacks on America" and whatnot.  Being barely conscious, I seriously thought it might be time to call the nursing home for her.  After I got rid of her, I decided to turn on the TV to see if there was any truth to her mutterings.

I was in college.

I had an exam on 9/12.
Unforunately, I was more focused on the TV than on my textbook.
Who wouldn't be?

We still had to take the exam.
I had been hoping they would postpone it to another day.
They didn't.....
I still managed to pass the class though.

I was in college and for some reason I always liked to watch FOX news morning show before class this particular semester, so on this morning I turned on FOX News and was made aware of the surreal situation.  The ironic thing was probably not even a week prior one of the hosts of this show made comments about how we could better allocate money and resources used for the military for other things like education because "when was the last time somone attacked us."  That will always stick with me because I honestly agreed with the host when he made the comments.  I think basically all of America had been lax about the personal safety of citizens for like forever and we believed we were this impenetrable floating fortress in the sky.

Should probably clarify. You ever been to Bridgeland? For quite a while you couldn't look at a building and not see "Join the Ayran Nation" posters. And they led all the way downtown. I worked the 7-Eleven night shift for two years, and got harassed constantly because I have "Jewish" features (curly hair, but that's about it). Even got a couple of death threats. It's been cleaned up the last few weeks, but you still see racist skinheads down there in groups sometimes (you can tell by the symbols they have tattooed on them).

On top of that, I also worked at the Second Cup down in Deer Run, for half a year and there was a lot of anti-Asian sentiments there, too.

Also, you probably heard about the Anti-Racism rally we had in Kensington, too? The Calgary Aryan Guard themselves made a special appearance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryan_Guard Article here discusses it. Small group, but noteworthy.

I really don't mean to sound rude, Red Hamster, but if you don't notice, you're not paying attention. Although, to be fair, a lot of the instances I see of it are at night (when I'm most active), so that could be it, as well.

I actually drafted a lengthy post this morning, but it was lost when it was revealed that the outlet my laptop was plugged into wasn't powered. In it, I mentioned that if there was focused racism, it would probably be concentrated in the lower-range socio-economic areas, a category in which Bridgeland falls. But that's pretty consistent with everything I've read about pretty much every other major city everywhere.

I've always lived in the far southern reaches of the city, and my days are spent in academic environments, with 'round-town wandering occurring almost exclusively during daytime. So I'll definitely grant that I have had limited direct exposure to Calgary's nightlife, especially in the northeast. (Though I have wandered around the Sunridge area many times 'til as late as 20:00, yet I haven't ever felt threatened or observed anything that seemed hateful)

From what I've seen in my environment, this city seems average.

I do routinely screen the local news, and the number of racially motivated articles still seems to tend to a level I consider to be pretty low, though I did manage to miss details about that group's "participation".

Of course, the news won't cover personal death threats or non-severe acts of violence, so I'll concede this to your experience.

-Edit-
I forgot to note that I have been in the Bridgeland area for work-related reasons on a number of occasions, yet, while I did see a few posters, they all looked old and unmaintained, so I paid them no heed.

My bad. I actually misinterpreted your words before, anyways. No hate crimes, or anything that drastic, just localised bouts of violence in my school and on transit and sometimes in work environments I still see quite a lot of it, though, and that's enough for me to say that this country (or city, I can't talk for other cities and provinces) is not as progressive as people make it sound. That's all I was trying to say. I didn't mean for it to sound like we were terribly overrun or anything.