I was in the Dallas airport.
http://toatftbg.blogspot.com/2007/09/where-were-you.html

Sent by Paul | 7:54 PM ET | 09-11-2007

A native New Yorker, I relocated to Los Angeles in 1998 and three years later, came back east for an extended visit. Over Labor Day weekend 2001, my mother and I drove across the Brooklyn Bridge and she marveled, ???What a beautiful skyline.??? I remember looking up and nodding in agreement, but because I???d grown accustomed to seeing the Twin Towers, I didn???t really savor the moment.

I overslept on the morning of September 11th and as I ran out to catch the bus from my friend???s house in South Orange, New Jersey to the city, I heard a newscaster report that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. It was just weeks after Aaliyah???s fatal plane crash, so initially I believed it might be an accident. In fact, I thought perhaps a small aircraft had hit the building and spiraled to the ground. I remember feeling concern for those walking on the downtown streets, but because I was running late, I was just trying to get out the door.

I waited at the bus for a half hour, annoyed. Then a couple drove up and asked if I knew whether the bridges and tunnels were open because they???d heard that two planes had hit the Towers. At that moment, I knew something wasn???t quite right, but when I couldn???t call out on my cell phone, my first thought was a selfish one ??? ???Damn, did I pay the bill????

When I walked back in the house and turned to the television, the first tower hit the ground. I was in shock, but I really couldn???t believe what I was seeing. Then the second tower fell and I heard the newscasters gasp, then there was silence. Everything just seemed to get really quiet. I scrambled to call family and friends and when I finally got through to my uncle, who???s based in Queens, he said, solemnly, ???Well, kid, you???ve just witnessed history.???

I recall being embarrassed that I was so caught up in my life that I didn???t stop long enough to notice what was going on in the world. And just to think, while I was trying get a signal on my cell, there were thousands of people only miles away from me who were struggling to stay alive.

What a sad, sobering day.

Sent by Regina R. Robertson | 7:55 PM ET | 09-11-2007

I am a native New Yorker who has lived in Philadelphia for the past seven years. On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was getting dressed when a friend called and told me to turn on the television. What I saw did not immediately register. Reporters announced that a plane or planes had struck one or possibly both of the towers. I saw an image of one tower on fire. There were rumors about an attack on the Pentagon as well. Although my mother worked on 57th street (some distance from lower Manhattan and Washington, DC) still I was terrified for her. I tried to call her at work. The lines were busy--somehow I couldn't get through.

Then as news started to trickle in that there was possibly a third or fourth plane, I redoubled my efforts to reach my mother. Thankfully, I managed to get through and I told her to get out of there--just leave work now and go home. She did. That was around 11AM. I also touched bases with other family and friends to make sure they were safe.

Thankfully, they were all okay. I would later learn, however, that a young man around my age who also grew up in my building had died in the attack. He was a decent brother and it was awful for his family.

Sent by KNG | 7:59 PM ET | 09-11-2007

These comments are about your 9/10/07 program which I hear on KQED, San Francisco, CA. [I will not become a member of that station because they air your show at midnight, which I consider "Ghetto Hours". They need to air it much earlier, and I keep telling them this, but they don't listen, oh well. too bad. I lose lots of sleep trying to stay up till 12am to hear your show.]
Here are my comments about your Glorification of The Military on last nite's show: Horrible! Despicable! Terrible! Shame on you Farai and your staff! I am seriously considering not ever listening to your show again, but........I love it. And, it's the only Black program on KQED, on of the only stations I get in my home, as I live in a very rural area.
You need to do much better about War and POLITRICKS, The Military, our young People (especially of Color) dying for capitalist/corporate GREED and OIL, period! I could not believe that you would, in this terrible time of death and WAR, let those people speak on and on about how "great the military is for young men and women of Color!" Again, SHAME ON YOU ALL! You should at least balance and counter that program by having some YOUTH OF COLOR from THE PEACE MOVEMENT/ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT on your show, for God's sake! What are you thinking? Please do a show on how many SOLDIERS ARE COMING BACK WITH PTSD and are KILLING THEMSELVES because of it!!! War is horrible! How can you glorify it? I just don't get it? I am shocked and expected much more from you and your show! As News Media Professionals, I feel it is your DUTY to speak for PEACE & JUSTICE! you need to do it much more! Please! Take your mission more seriously! Lots of folks are listening to you! Have some social/political CONSCIENCE/CONSCIOUSNESS, for goodness sake! Please!! Thank you. I hope you will read this email on the air. Please do!

Sent by DJ Sister Yasmin | 9:53 PM ET | 09-11-2007

In Los Angeles, preparing for work. I woke up in time to see the plane crash into the second tower, could barely process it. About an hour later, I went to work, and reported all day and well into the next day before I went home for a few hours' rest before returning. I had to call a number of people whose friends and relatives were on the United and American flights, and it was heartbreaking work. One woman committed suicide shortly after she discovered her husband had died. They'd only been married for a year. Another couple lost their only child, who'd begged to be allowed to fly with her class on a trip to Los Angeles. Six years later, i's still hard to proces.

Sent by Karen Grigsby Bates | 10:44 PM ET | 09-11-2007

I was in Miami at work. I was talking to one of the guys in the finance department that morning when another guy who I will call J arrived for the day's work. J looked at both of us and said "you guys are carrying on while your country is been bombed." We looked at J as if he's falling off the wrong side of bed that morning because he's quite an eccentric character. Then he said he was very serious and that he heard the news on his car radio. There was no TV at the finance department. Then I remembered my Boss had one in his office and I had the key. The three of us rushed into the office and turned on the TV. What we saw made us freeze. There were no words spoken for several minutes.

Then as the day wore on, I found out that one of the planes that hit the WTC came from the Logan Airport in Boston. I've flown in and out of that airport several times to see family and always had to take a connecting flight in New Jersey or New York to get back to Miami. I didn't want to imagine been on that plane. I remember once in the late 90s when one of my Uncles picked me up at Logan, I had to express my concern about the very little security or fan fare passengers were put through. A vast difference from Miami International Airport. He told me Miami is supposed to be filled with security with all the drug trafficking, etc. I rolled my eyes and told him to get the image of "Miami Vice" off his head.

So all the times I went through that airport crossed my mind on 9/11. I remembered just feeling numb the whole day. Thank God classes on my college campus was cancelled from noon to a couple of days later. Though I had a class that night, I doubt anything would have registered. Also, my office decided to close early; no productive work could be done that day given the country's sad state.

Sent by Moji | 11:03 AM ET | 09-12-2007

I remember I was in college in Los Angeles on my way to French class. On the way to class I passed a construction site. The workers were listening to the radio, and Howard Stern was on, talking about the Twin Towers collapsing. I thought in my head "Alright, this guy is over the top today. Talking about some hypothetical where planes make buildings collapse in New York is just plain cruel." But sure enough, I got to class, and even though none of us knew what had happened, we knew something very bad had happened. Neither did our professor, who made us stay throughout the whole class. This was before I had a cell phone, too, and when I got out of class, my roommate was standing right outside. She had driven over to my school to come get me. She wanted me home and I wanted me home too. We didn't have a television and she had been watching the neighbor's television all morning. That day, I went out and bought my first television.

Sent by Taylor Chapulin Orci | 11:58 AM ET | 09-12-2007

What I remember most about that day six years ago is the surreal quality it had. The sky was an otherworldly blue--like crystal--the air had that wonderfully crisp hint of fall to it. The trees were showing the very first hints of the autumn to come.

It wasn't until I left my home office to join my husband for a noon yoga class at his company, that I realized everyone was moving robotically through a day that made no sense. "Did you see?" people asked as if someone would say "No" and break the spell. The roads were empty and there were helicopters and military jets flying frequently overhead.

Gina, our yoga instructor, moved us from pose to pose in silence. There was nothing she needed to (or could) say. I'd resisted all day, calling my husband and begging him to return home (we're in the 12th largest US city and he works for a major firm). At the end of the class, as we lay there waiting for our breathing to return to normal, I listened to my husband's breath as he lay near me in the class. And I cried.

Sent by Lalita Amos | 12:24 PM ET | 09-12-2007

I was getting ready for work when Bob Edwards interrupted a story about Social Security. I knew he couldn't be joking, but the story seemed too weird to be true. I turned on the TV and saw the collapse of one of the Towers. I went to work, but came right back. Spent the day calling family & friends, listening to the news on the radio & watching the pictures on TV.

[N&N is on KALW 91.7 at 11 am M - Th.]

Sent by KALW Country | 1:53 AM ET | 09-13-2007

I was working at Queens Hospital, but had called in sick on 9/11. I watched everything unfold live on TV and remember spending the morning just shaking my head in disbelief. I remember most, the millions of fliers of the missing posted all over the city and the impromptu memorials outside of many of the firehouses.

9/11 changed me forever. Not much later, I moved back home to TN to be near my family. The events of that day forced an urgency to be close to the people who matter most to me and helped me to really understand how unpredictable (and precious) life really is.

Sent by James McKissic | 9:47 AM ET | 09-13-2007