September 11 is one day many of us will never forget. Because of the significance of the events of that day, some of us remember second for second what we were doing or thinking that day. At least those of us in the United States. I would like to solicit responses from you, my dear readers. Share with 'according to' what you were doing, who you were and how the events of September 11 affected or changed you. You can leave your post in the comments section or send an email to ada_achumba@yahoo.com. I will post your responses along with my September 11 blog entry on what I was doing, did and who I was on that day. It is a very interesting entry that you don't want to miss. However that magnificent post is only contingent upon your participation (yes oh na by force o). I have to get at least 5 related stories....otherwise :). Ok Ok, I am just kidding, but I would really like to read from you. Thanks for participating.
In other News
Arnold Admits Latinas and Black are Hot.
Unfortunately for him, he forgot he was in America, where many just don't like to hear 'other' truths. He had to apologise for 'complimenting' black and Latinas women with the word 'hot'. More perplexing is the flack he is getting over it. Supposedly the problem as I gather from other news reports is the word he used 'hot'. Ok!?! and what's wrong with that. Should he have used the more visual term such as sexy, feisty, pretty. I am not sure exactly what he was trying to say but from my little inference, I guess politicians cannot say other politician are 'hot' especially if they have 'Latino blood' or 'black blood'. Perhaps it was just a slow news day that there was nothing else to report.
Local news has been very depressing. Two children died after being hit by cars. One was a typical toddler, a 22 month old who just ran away when his mother turned her back. The other was a 12 year old who was riding his bicycle to school and got hit by a driver whose view was obstructed by glare form the son. I have to make calls to the hospital to check on their conditions and every time I am always praying, God please give me good news, let this child/person survive. I have not been very lucky with getting good news but the worst part is when you have to go from being human to being a journalist and have to either make that call to the parents to get a picture or a bio of their child. Gosh, I must say that's probably the most challenging part of being a journalist. Showing that you really commiserate with them for their loss at the same time having a job to do by getting their story. It's a juggling act and some people do it well and others are just cruel about it (see that Columbine Movie).
Anyways I have to drive 2 and half hours to Malibu to attend my co workers wedding. THE DRIVE OH THE DRIVE. I went to bed last night thinking I would just call and say I can't come. But I woke up and said a prayer and now I am all dressed up and ready to hop in my car. I hope the car does not act up on the road because it is due for maintenance, which I have been postponing because I just can't find time during the week. I may branch to LA but I am thinking I may decide to just drive back home. I am not up to being tempted to shop, plus crashing at a hotel, will make a deep $100 cut into my wallet. Not to mention gas and food so I might be coming back tonight but there's some Nigerian birthday party (owambe-ish) that sounds too tempting. I can just smell the Jollof Rice and Peppersoup. My long throat will probably come into play over my senses and I'll probably just bone up. But that $100 could buy me like 5 servings from Nkechi's kitchen, if only I could find my way there.
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10 comments:
It's been 5 years already! Unbelievable.
I was on my way to see my grandparents and I was puzzled when my Granny was weeping while watching TV when I got to hers... until I saw all the the smoke and the replays of the planes crashing into the twin towers.
It was scary and I wasn't even in the same continent.
Hope your drive was fine and you enjoyed the wedding.
*Sigh* Sept 11, 2001. I just arrived in the US a few weeks earlier to start school. Was on my way to class and I saw everyone crowded in front of the TVs. All these TVs ever showed were local ads and campus news so I began to wonder what was so interesting...I was late for class so I didn't even wait to look.
In class my instructor broke the news to us. At this point only the first plane had crashed now so we still thought it was an accident. But later we discovered otherwise. This was the first time I cried over a natural disaster. It wasn't even my country but they were people, that's all that mattered.
Since then needless to say I have been very cautious while travelling. And as much as I hate to admit it, I have become a racial profiler. The other day I sat next to an arab lady on the plane. There were like 4 other arabs there. And I started worrying. To make matters worse they kept changing seats. I decided to strike up a conversation with my girl next to me. Even if they planned to blow up the plane I could at least try to talk her out of it. Cus the heaven I know aint got no virgins waiting for no body. She turned out to be a med student in columbia, I felt so bad...dang Osama! Why?
Lets see....hmmnnnn...September 11, 2001 where was i......Think it was the begining of fall semester for me..it was in my Sophomore year in college. Woke up early that morning and headed for my 9:00am Accounting class. Drove down to campus and i met everyone in utter disarray. There were people sitting on the sidewalks crying thier eyes out, everyone seemed to be on thier cell phone....i didn't get it....at first i thought the Chancellor had passed or something...i picked up my cell and made an attempt to reach my class-mate who resided on campus to find out what the fuss was all about...couldn't reach her, all lines were busy....finally i mustered up some courage to walk over to some white chick who was sitting on a bench crying her eyes out....asked her what happened...she told me New-York city was on fire and she feared her folks where dead...."New-York was on what????".....i was freaking out....my sister was completing her internship with a finance company in NY ...dialed her number....couldn't get through...called my aunt who lived in Staten Island....phone lines where dead...i was scared shitless.
Campus police finally came around to get everyone to gather at the student union building, where we met with the chancellor, who stated all classes where cancelled...it was there i learnt... "the united states was under terrorist attacks...and all classes where suspended till further notice...everyone was urged to stay off thier phones and people who had family in New-York would be notified of any new developments"...
My phone was going bananas....moms and pops calling from naija....mom had already started cry 'cuz she couldn't get through to me, nor my siblings....i told her i was okay...she couldn't stay calm though. She told me to keep trying my other sibling and call her as soon as possible....Got a call from my bro in TX he was scared as hell too...told me to go home and hide...lol...still can't beleive he said that....my mom's sis also called she even asked ...gosh..she was so dramatic...even claiming she was ready to get on I-95 from MD to come pick my sis and i up..as if i told her something was wrong....i started getting scared after i couldn't reach my sis...my mom was calling every 5 minutes...she was hysterical...i finally caught the bug and started crying too...i really thought my sister was dead....anywayz around 7:20pm my sis called in to check on me, i was overjoyed....for me Sept 11 would go down as one of the scariest day of my life and the day i learned to appreciate my siblings and my entire family in general.
Sorry i took up so much space...lol...got emotional there for a minute.
Yeah!!! I agree with london Buki. Cant believe its been 5years already. Was cocooned in Law School when the planes crashed and remember tuning permanently to CNN for every bit of news. I fully understood the anxiety of Americans then when the london tube bombings occurred and all forms of telecommunication was cut off and so there was no way of our loved ones to get in touch with us or our mobiles and landlines to confirm if we were still alive and hearty. My heart went out to Anthony Fatayi-Williams mother as well as all the other parents and relatives who lost loved ones in the tube bombings as I could understand the anxiety and heartbreak she(they) must have gone through when her son's mobile went constantly to voicemail.
My heart goes out to all the affected Americans and I pray they are able to heal all wounds and pick up the pieces of their various lives.
Drive safely and enjoy the wedding as well as the Owambe if u finally make up ur mind to attend. (smile)
I was a student at the university of Houston at that time ... I was getting ready for classes as I turned on the TV. I actually taught it was a preview of some movie. I headed out of the house. I got to school and was told that my school was closed. Thats when I switched from my cassette player to the radio in my car- and heard the news.
I started to call my cousins and family in the east coast - I could not get through.. That was when I started to panic .. I was glued to the TV all day.
My cousin was close to the twin towers site and said that he saw people jumping out of the building-he was so shaken.
My prayer for families affected is that God should restore and comfort them.
i was a new student at UNC Chapel Hill with zero friends except this one guy, javeir, that I had met a few weekends before school started. he was joining the army that day, and called to say bye and inform me that he would begin training for war immediately because the WTC had been attacked just that morning. i called him a liar and wished him good luck in his endeavours. then i couldn't call anyone else because the lines were jammed and i saw everyone around me being frantic, so then i realized that he might have been right after all. they rolled out the big TV screens on the Pit and i realized that sh*t was about to go down for real in the world. i remember being very calm though. not scared, but extremely interested in what would happen next. i guess i didn't have a problem with death at the time; i was depressed. i wonder what happened to javeir....
I am currently listening to John Mayers "Waiting on the world to Change"...It's what is inspiring me today..Lost a couple of people 5years ago today but It is well...
I hope everyone else is getting through the day and appreciating life, love and happiness a little more.
I knowm, what i'm about to say might get some people a little upset, i just think there is too much emphasis being put on this 9/11, durring the period where 1 million people died in Rowanda over nothing in a month, we don't see people crying all over the world because of that and personally i think that is way more tragic, we have so many things going on in the world, but i have to get my priority straight, we have people going tru worse stuff all over. Durring the cause of the war, over hundreds and hundreds of innocent iraqs have died, my heart goes heart to those who lost thier familly on 9/11 but we all just got to think deep down and move on...
@ moriam, I admit too that there are worse things going on in the world, but 9/11 created an urgency in the world that is almost incomparable to anything else. Because we know that it was caused by some wicked people that are still on the prowl. Even the tsunami killed more people, but that was a natural disaster, not much could be done about that. Same goes for the bubonic plague in europe that killed more people than the holocaust. But the holocaust is spoken about more today because it was initiated by one man.
Such things are just scary because we all like to think people are generally good but when we find out how mean some of us can be, it sends shivers through the souls of the world. That's my humble opinion.
I was actually in NYC (and still am!) for Sept 11th...fortunately I was uptown, but one of my best friends worked around the financial center and it was quite a traumatizing experience for her and me worrying about her. I guess my lesson was to really take advantage of the moment...you never know what the next moment brings.
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