10 years ago today...
By Shadoestar 0 Comments
It started out as a day like any other. I was living in Boston and had gone back to school. I woke up around 7AM. Went though my usual, sleep-eyed routing of showering, getting dressed and grabbing a bagel that passed off as breakfast. On the way to class, I stopped by Newbury Comics and picked up Dream Theater's Live Scenes From New York and Slayer's God Hates Us All, both of which had just been released that day. I went straight to class afterwards. So far, nothing too out of the ordinary.
At the end of class, we were informed that the school was closing. A terrorist attack had occurred in New York. the World Trade Center had been hit by planed and the towers collapsed. It was freaked enough just to hear about it. Then I went to the school bookstore to buy my books. The TV in the store had been turned to the news and I got to see the footage myself. It was unreal.
I went back to my apartment and spent hours watching the news. Every network except Cartoon Network was either tuned to the news or gone dark that day. I eventually decided to go out for a walk, figuring it would be good to get away from the news for while and clear my head. Boston almost felt like a ghost town. Everything was closed and there was barely anybody walking the streets.
Those two CDs I just bought sat on top of my stereo for at least a week before I could bring myself to listen to them. They were both connected to the events that day in their own way. The title of that Slayer album seems pretty accurate all of a sudden. The version oh that live Dream Theater album I bought was the one with the original cover, consisting of several New York landmarks, including the Twin Towers, within a ball of fire. I still have that version with the original cover to this day. And no, I'm never gonna sell it, no matter how much money you offer me.
I got a call from my mom, checking in one me. She was working as a moderator for the elections that day. I was wondering if anybody was showing up to vote. She said that people were turning up, figuring that they weren't gonna let the terrorists keep them from voting
.
I woke up the following day expecting to find that the whole thing was just a bad dream. I turned on the TV and sadly discovered it wasn't.
On this day, let's try to forget all the jingoistic, Islamophobic, conspiracy-theory spouting crap that followed. Let's honor the people who lost their lives 10 years ago today and remember that all-too-brief period where everyone seemed to be civil to each other.
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