I was at work on the day of 9/11. It was a nice early fall day in a small town of New England where I worked. On that day, there was no stirring of wind, everything was calm as fall's rays shedding its last remnant of summer, and mellow ray of fall was shinning. The news of the incident spread out quickly in the company on that morning. Upon hearing the unfathomable incident happened, people in the building stirred up, flocking up in the dinning area to listen to a radio placed on a dinning table. The tone of voice heard from the newscaster was reflective of the chaos unfolding in the NYC. The tone of the voice was raised 10 decibel higher when the 2nd building of the trade center was hit by another airplane. On that morning, we were all in the state of shock and became speechless.
The company dismissed all the workers early one O'clock in the afternoon. It was very unusual that the dismissal was due to something other than Tornado or Nor Easter snow storm that would normally be attributed to dismissal. A hit of a cloud in clear blue sky reflected on the glass window as I was getting in my car. On the highway, heading back home, not much traffic was encountered that would have been savored in total contrast the heavy traffic encountered earlier in the morning. The thoughts of the incident happened in NYC was swirling in my mind, wondering who might have committed such horrendous act. A flash of memories of a news that I had seen on TV some 18 years earlier occurred in my mind, where the WTC was reported to have been placed with a bomb and search crew with snipping dogs were dispatched to look for it. As I was heading into the town where I lived, couple of fire engines were running in frenzy with loud siren sound as though some other disaster had happened somewhere in the town, adding more anxiety; it almost made me to think that they were heading to NYC at the scene of the chaos, unable to tell them apart. To me, the totality of chaotic scenes heard and seen before arriving home induced a high level of anxiety. The anxiety may come in all different flavor, but it almost tasted like once when I was wrongfully accused of a shoplifting in a shop being taken into an office in the corner of the store not knowing how to speak in English nor how to defend myself, standing in front of watchful eyes being looked at suspiciously by shopkeepers.
After the incident, the media kept on putting high rhetoric of fighting against terrorism and then the rhetoric evolved further going to war with Iraq and Afghanistan despite no direct correlation seems to have been found. People's frustration was running high due to the attack; I could see many cars fluttering American flags - that would normally be seen on wooden flower pots here and there - on so many cars on the road. Witnessing the horror of two airplanes going on suicide missions heading to the twin towner soon followed by incidents of hate crimes against non-whites. Some of the cars had oversize flags. In the media, there was talk of crackdown of terrorism day after day and year after year. G. Bush drove up the rhetoric of going to war. And in the midst of all this, a Rock'n Roll girls' band group mentioned a political statement opposing to go war and their remark was brutally bashed by the media.
I could feel the resentments and hatreds brewing in the air like a teapot that was about to make whistling sound and overflow. As the media reported that who were the suspects, many non-white were not living normally as eruptions of the resentments occurred, and its shard of struck me on one day, several years later when the brewing had not stopped, to a person who has nothing to do with 9/11 and wished that it never happened, living in a small town in New England:
My family made a weekend excursion to a tourist attraction in New England. As we were strolling in the area, me sipping coffee as I was walking holding a camera in the other hand. There were a group of young mens in 20's were hanging out standing in front of a tavern talking, giggling cracking jokes. They got drunken on that Sunday afternoon holding beer bottles on their hands. Seeing us walking by, one of the young man shouted, "He is holding a handgrenade!" and the rest of the group started laughing. Their voice was loud as though they were thinking that we were tourists who did not understand English. As I heard them laughing, I confronted them and walked up to them. I demanded that the person who made the statement come forward; the group of young men who made the statement should come forward and show his face in front of me, but the young man would not come. I told the group that the person should come forward and then moved over 20 feet away them and waited the person to come. After a while, a young man came and apologize. I demanded that the very person man who made the statement should come forward, not him. After waiting for five minuted, I walked into a restaurant and called police. By the time policeman arrived, they all fled.
The company dismissed all the workers early one O'clock in the afternoon. It was very unusual that the dismissal was due to something other than Tornado or Nor Easter snow storm that would normally be attributed to dismissal. A hit of a cloud in clear blue sky reflected on the glass window as I was getting in my car. On the highway, heading back home, not much traffic was encountered that would have been savored in total contrast the heavy traffic encountered earlier in the morning. The thoughts of the incident happened in NYC was swirling in my mind, wondering who might have committed such horrendous act. A flash of memories of a news that I had seen on TV some 18 years earlier occurred in my mind, where the WTC was reported to have been placed with a bomb and search crew with snipping dogs were dispatched to look for it. As I was heading into the town where I lived, couple of fire engines were running in frenzy with loud siren sound as though some other disaster had happened somewhere in the town, adding more anxiety; it almost made me to think that they were heading to NYC at the scene of the chaos, unable to tell them apart. To me, the totality of chaotic scenes heard and seen before arriving home induced a high level of anxiety. The anxiety may come in all different flavor, but it almost tasted like once when I was wrongfully accused of a shoplifting in a shop being taken into an office in the corner of the store not knowing how to speak in English nor how to defend myself, standing in front of watchful eyes being looked at suspiciously by shopkeepers.
After the incident, the media kept on putting high rhetoric of fighting against terrorism and then the rhetoric evolved further going to war with Iraq and Afghanistan despite no direct correlation seems to have been found. People's frustration was running high due to the attack; I could see many cars fluttering American flags - that would normally be seen on wooden flower pots here and there - on so many cars on the road. Witnessing the horror of two airplanes going on suicide missions heading to the twin towner soon followed by incidents of hate crimes against non-whites. Some of the cars had oversize flags. In the media, there was talk of crackdown of terrorism day after day and year after year. G. Bush drove up the rhetoric of going to war. And in the midst of all this, a Rock'n Roll girls' band group mentioned a political statement opposing to go war and their remark was brutally bashed by the media.
I could feel the resentments and hatreds brewing in the air like a teapot that was about to make whistling sound and overflow. As the media reported that who were the suspects, many non-white were not living normally as eruptions of the resentments occurred, and its shard of struck me on one day, several years later when the brewing had not stopped, to a person who has nothing to do with 9/11 and wished that it never happened, living in a small town in New England:
My family made a weekend excursion to a tourist attraction in New England. As we were strolling in the area, me sipping coffee as I was walking holding a camera in the other hand. There were a group of young mens in 20's were hanging out standing in front of a tavern talking, giggling cracking jokes. They got drunken on that Sunday afternoon holding beer bottles on their hands. Seeing us walking by, one of the young man shouted, "He is holding a handgrenade!" and the rest of the group started laughing. Their voice was loud as though they were thinking that we were tourists who did not understand English. As I heard them laughing, I confronted them and walked up to them. I demanded that the person who made the statement come forward; the group of young men who made the statement should come forward and show his face in front of me, but the young man would not come. I told the group that the person should come forward and then moved over 20 feet away them and waited the person to come. After a while, a young man came and apologize. I demanded that the very person man who made the statement should come forward, not him. After waiting for five minuted, I walked into a restaurant and called police. By the time policeman arrived, they all fled.
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