I've Got My 9/11 Story. What's Yours?

For the past eight years, the most important story regarding 9/11 has been locked away, hidden, out of sight.  Today is the time to open that drawer and take that story out and share it with the world.  That most important story is your story.

I am going to ask you to share your story of 9/11.  Reflexively, you might initially refuse to do so.  This is understandable.

But, before you tell your 9/11 story, let me tell you mine.

On September 11, 2001, I was in New York City – just 30 blocks north of the World Trade Center.  My wife, Pamela Yoder, and I are filmmakers and entrepreneurs, and were then running CameraPlanet, which had become a large, successful film and television production company.  We had made a career documenting other peoples’ issues and challenges, but we had never been faced with a personal tragedy of our own, so close to home.

 

 

 

Since that day – with its fire, fear, smoke, and pungent smell – there was a palpable sense that the “world as we knew it” would never again be the same.

Chance are you felt the same way.  You feared for your children's safety.  You mourned the loss of friends, or loved ones, or even people you had never met.  You feared that your nation might have been inexorably broken.

And, as the smoke cleared, and the rescue and recovery efforts shifted to the start of construction of the 9/11 memorial and museum - you began to think that maybe, just maybe,  those memories and your story could stay in the proverbial shoebox forever.

 

 

 

Pam and I did what filmmakers do when they find themselves near big, scary, dangerous things.  We walked closer to the danger.   We began with the film and still images that we'd collected at CameraPlanet.  We began to reach out to filmmakers, and then to average New Yorkers, and asked then to share their stories and their footage with us.  We organized, catalogued, dubbed, and protected more than 500 hours of first-person videotape.

We made conscious decisions along the way.  We didn't want to record just the day of 9/11 - but most importantly the days and weeks after.  We felt that the way in which New York and the nation responded to 9/11 would be the real legacy of that terrible day.  History will determine if we were right.  But, historians needed this raw material in order to properly reflect, with the benefit of time, on September 11, 2001, placing it in historical context.

And this proper historical context is where you come in.

You have a story to tell.  A memory that deserves to be shared.  A video.  A still picture.  Maybe a dinner at Windows on the World?  Perhaps a photograph of the towers in light, or shadow, or as a backdrop to an important family portrait.

It's your turn now.

Pam and I collected 500 hours of footage.  We called it The CameraPlanet Archive.  We catalogued every shot in it.   We even made some films of which we are proud:  I directed ‘7 Days In September,’ and Pam directed ‘Witness 9/11.’ Both films captured our memories, our emotions, our families’ responses to the tragedies, and our collective pride in our fellow Americans’ abilities to pull together and become stronger.  Our older son Max is in "7 Days"  -- his tiny, scared brave voice forever remains my most poignant and personal 9/11 story.

What's yours?

The National September 11th Museum is doing something truly remarkable.  They have created the first Open-Source Historic Archive that is ready to accept and embrace a nation full of memories, digital artifacts, and shared memories regarding 9/11.   It's a huge undertaking; for a nation and a world of 9/11 survivors who have stories to tell.  After all, we all survived 9/11 and its aftermath; those of us here to tell the tale. The September 11th Museum opened their arms to gather and protect our collective memories,  and for that both Pam and I will be forever grateful.

 

Today, we are donating to the National September 11th Museum the rights to protect, preserve, and display The CameraPlanet Archive.  We're taking our shoebox of memories - so many hours of material that even Pam and I have not seen every frame of ever reel of footage - and entrusting it to the collections staff at the Memorial.

We know that this is where the collection belongs.

For us, the decision was complicated and a long time coming.  We've known since we began gathering the story that our children's children would need to have access to every frame, every image, every possible perspective and point of view to determine for themselves what they think and feel about 9/11.

But where should that public place be?  The Smithsonian? The Library of Congress?  An academic institution or university?

It is only after getting to know the staff at the National September 11th Memorial Museum that we decided that they, and only they,  should be the guardians of the most documented and digitally gathered story in history.

They need your voice, too.

I've seen the drawings and renderings of the Memorial and Museum, and I am deeply impressed by the genuine understanding of the evolving nature of the 9/11 story.  The museum is a vessel that captures the content that we have today, and the stories that you and your family will contribute.

You can share your stories here.

Upload your photos. Share your videos. Record your audio remembrances. However you choose to contribute your 9/11 story, know that you are contributing to something remarkable, and lasting.  Whatever you do,  don't let your 9/11 story remain in a shoebox.  Add your content to the museum collection.   Pam and I are proud we did.  We hope you will too.

 

 

Follow Steve Rosenbaum on Twitter: www.twitter.com/magnify

Comments

[H215]

Thank you, Steve, for this article. I will indeed consider it, to record what I saw and experienced that day.

[thegypsy]

i got a phone call that a plane had hit the wtc. i turned on fox news - at the time, it was presumed to be a horrible accident. then the second plane hit. it was a warm morning here in coastal nc, and a lot of people had their windows open. it seemed like our whole little town was screaming. when the pentagon was hit, our house went quiet. one of my cousins worked there. we were past anything but crying. it seemed like everybody cried for days, at least until we heard from relatives in new york & dc. and everybody here has people in one, the other, or both.

i remember my 10-year-old who loved to fly, explaining what burning jet fuel would do to the dead. "mom, the won't find any bodies," he explained with huge eyes. we have not even been to an airport since, much less on a plane. we have driven to texas, new orleans, cape cod - but not flown.

[SonofLiberty1]

My first thoughts of relatives were for my sister Anne who had moved to Providence a couple of years before from Brooklyn and still visited friends in Brooklyn from time to time as well as NYC...

She wasn't there that day:)

My Uncle, who did work in NYC, and used to work at "The Plaza" for American Express told of having to walk instead of ride the subway and how it took hours and hours to get home to Stamford CT.

And much later, Iearned of a first cousin, with family in tow, who was actually on a flight from Boston to Walt Disneyworld in Florida...no one hijacked that plane thankfully.

Other neighbors in my township of Lower Makefield, Bucks County, PA. were not so lucky.

The pilot of one of the jets lived just streets away..

The son of one of our Township Supervisors lost her son.

In total, 17 neighbors who lived in Lower Makefield died that day.

And we now have a "Garden of Reflection" memorial for all of them.

[SonofLiberty1]

rI was doing stuff on my computer and didn't have a tv or radio on.

My mother called me and said to turn the tv on...

And I did and watched mesmerized...

Going into work that day at noon as I was on 2nd shift, it was a quiet day on the phones
as everyone who needed to call for technical support of Panasonic products was glued to
their tv sets...

During the next few days after work my question was ...what's new?

And, as the news from my relatives and my neighbors in my township trickeld in, we found out how lucky we had been.

[brixtony]

I live 1.25 miles from what still feels like the hole in the sky, across the river in Brooklyn. I teach another 1/4 mile in from it. We breathed and smelled the smoke for over 2 months when the wind was blowing southeast. I have now taught 4 children whose fathers died there and have several friends and aquantances who were there, including one who almost got hit by a falling body as he rushed out of the train station. My son, 24,going to work in the city, was stuck in a train under downtown Manhattan after the first tower was hit. We didn't know what had happened to him (my wife teaches there too). We stayed at the school, quietly freaking out, as the kids left one-by-one with their parents. He showed up with another faculty kid because he knew we'd be there. Here's the email he sent :

hi. i cant get through on any phones, but i wanted to
let you know i am ok. i saw both the towers fall, and
someone at work saw the plane hit. it was unreal...i
thought i was dreaming.

ill keep trying to get through, you can try me at
212-xxx-xx­xx...someo­ne is letting me use their phone
in the office and i am going to stay here for a bit.
if not, try my cell phone.

ill be home as soon as i can get there.

[KoiPondering]

9/11 was a strange day from the start for me. I was living in Spokane Washington at the time. I was woken up by a phone call at 4:11 am from the Seattle police department telling me the found my car which had been stolen four months prior to that time. So I was up very early unable to go back to sleep I flipped on my computer some time between the first and second plane strike. From there it was like a hush settled over the entire city. I worked in a callcenter and as we were all waiting to hear, praying for hope and good news. I grabbed my little alarmclock radio and the two 20 some odd call center stood huddled around the little blue radio all morning.

People were lined up around the corner to give blood and that night I left my blinds up and a candle lit in a little hurricane lamp.... I walked out and looked up the hill that makes up the south side of spokane and dotted along the windows and appartments and even hospitals as far as I could see were the same golden glow. Little prayers... and blessings.

[surfcitysteven]

I was driving in to work in Boston and the radio announcer said, "Micheal Jordan is expected to announce that he is coming out of retirement today, but I don't think that is going to matter if what I am seeing coming over the wire is true..."

[LanceThruster]

My 9/11 observation is rather mundane. I've driven the commute into downtown LA for over
20 years. I saw something that I had never seen prior to 9/11 and that was other drivers treating everyone else on the road with courtesy.

And much like clean air after the rain before the smog returns, it lasted EXACTLY a day and a half.

I think that illustrates what’s wrong with this country better than almost anything else.

[otto756]

Here's my 9/11 story:
On Sept. 11, Bush's solicitor general Ted Olson said his wife Barbara called him twice from her cell phone while she was abourd flt.77. She told him that "Arabs with box cutters" had taken over the plane. This is the most famous of all the calls placed from the planes and it whipped the country into a state of Arab-hating rage.
Except it never happened.
When informed that cell phones could not operate from that altitude, Olson said his wife must have called him twice from the seat back phone.
Except her flight did not have seat bak phones.
Today, even the FBI admits that the calls never took place.

Why is no one asking Olson why he made this story up?

[LanceThruster]

X2

[randyjet]

As an airline captain, I can tell you that cell phones DO work in the air. The only requirement is that the plane not be too high so that other repeater towers are not activated. You CAN use that cell phone down low, just as you can when you are taxiing to the gate. I suggest YOU try it next time you are on a plane. When the plane is descending to land, get it out and try to use it. You will find that at lower altitudes it WILL work.

[ImNotThere1956]

http://ow.ly/oYoS =

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Notice-of-continuation-from-the-President-regarding-the-emergency-declared-with-respect-to-the-September-11-2001-terrorist-attacks/

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
__________­__________­__________­__________­__________­__________­__________­_____
For Immediate Release September 10, 2009

NOTICE
- - - - - - -
CONTINUATION OF THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY WITH RESPECT

TO CERTAIN TERRORIST ATTACKS

Consistent with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act, 50 U.S.C. 1622(d), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency declared on September 14, 2001, in Proclamation 7463, with respect to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States.

Because the terrorist threat continues, the national emergency declared on September 14, 2001, and the powers and authorities adopted to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect beyond September 14, 2009. Therefore, I am continuing in effect for an additional year the national emergency the former President declared on September 14, 2001, with respect to the terrorist threat.

This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress.

BARACK OBAMA

THE WHITE HOUSE,
September 10, 2009.

[mperl95]

That day stays edged in my mind as if it were today except I am not going down to where I worked.
Sadness came over me today as I listened to the TV and all names with photos flashed across my TV.
That day back in 2001, Leaving west 57 Street, on my way to work and I passed the Dagostino's and heard the delivery men listening to a radio saying a plane hit the 1 st Tower of the World Tade Center. Did not think at that time it was terriorism and thought it might be a plane that had malfunction.
Got off the subway to my final destination at work 10 West 33 and heard people getting around a radio saying another plane hit the other tower. At that moment I had no doubt that we were being hit by terriorism. I ran up to my office and told eeryone that we would have to leave because the city would be closed down. The controller of my company did not believe me but did when it was officially closed down. Everyone on ths streets looked in disbelief and lost. The anger did not set in at that moment.
Thanks for asking.

[JerryLevy]

My 9/11 story is the shock that I felt sitting in my Sacramento Hotel and watching two women in business suits jump out of the 100th floor of the World Trade Center. That turned into extreme anger the next day when I saw films of the thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank celebrating the attack. I could not stop thinking about it for weeks.

[CoffeeIsMyLife]

I was in my 8th grade tech class. I remember I was walking to class when I heard people talking about a plane hitting a building. Whenever I got to my classroom and saw the second plane hit my stomach dropped to my feet. I didn't really comprehend what had happened, that so many lives had just been lost and that everyone would remember this day. I knew when I saw the second plane flying towards the tower that it was not an accident. My 13 year old brain just couldn't understand why anyone would purposely do that to not only themselves but to others as well. I still don't understand. I remember seeing people jump from the towers. It broke something inside me. I remember my teacher wanting to turn off the television but my class protested and we watched from a classroom in Missouri in shock. The horror of that day and the feeling of helplessness has stuck with me.

[getoffthecross]

I was working near Boca (the 5th burrow) when I got a call from my boss, home that day to take care of his sick wife and their kids. He urged me to find a television to see the footage of a plane that had just hit the WTC. While still on the phone, he exclaimed, "The other tower's been hit! Get to a TV!" and hung up. It turned out his cousin was in the second tower.

We found an executive's office with a television and dozens of people stayed glued to that for well over an hour. When the towers collapsed, we all just stared in horror. Walking back to my desk, every cubicle had a different radio channel on or website up with information on the Pentagon and United 93. When I went to lunch, someone began screaming that gas stations were blowing up all over Pittsburgh. It was a Fortune 500 company with a national presence, and we were all sent home shortly after.

My wife and I watched the coverage the rest of the afternoon and we cried. Later, I found a picture of myself on the top of the South Tower from just a couple of years previous. I went outside for a smoke and looked at the picture and then looked up and realized that I couldn't remember a time when there were no planes anywhere in the Florida sky. It was eerie. And it never left me. I doubt it ever will.

[Janetshusb]

I don't have a story for the day 9/11 happened. My story is about what happened to us and our country after 9/11. I watched with a horror and a fear greater than the day I saw the towers fall at the people we became: vindictive, isolationist, war hungry, xenophobic and afraid. Not all of us certainly but enough to tip the balance so that those wanting to understand 9/11 were excoriated as anti-American or worse enough so that we invaded and destroyed another country for no reason, enough so that we curtailed our own constitutional freedoms, enough so that we approved torture and accepted hate as an acceptable cultural characteristic. We became a people so irrational, so aggressive, so hateful that most of the world looked, not at the terrorists with horror, but at us. And I wept that we had lost ourselves.

[HalfBakedSushi]

Please know that we are not all like that. And those of us with compassion and empathy and a desire to understand the Other are working to bring those characteristics back to the forefront. The road is hard and long and we will not undo in a year what it took 8 to accomplish, but we are trying.

[Janetshusb]

And I am thankful!!!

[incognito-ergo-sum]

Janetshusb, if you don't write for a living you should. Not only is this a beautiful post but it shows a clarity of thinking that I wish I had.

[CatTheGadfly]

Right after 9/11, it was repeated that "our world had changed forever", and I admit to considering this melodramatic. Such irony, looking back.

Clearly, 9/11 was an immeasurable tragedy for the victims, and a wake-up call for our country. I simply saw no fearful change. If anything, some very fearful "unknowns" had become clarified. History: I was indoctrinated since childhood on stories of WWIII, nuclear winter, impending annihilation, etc. We had a stocked bomb shelter. "Hiroshima" was a bedtime story. I had been anticipating an attack for years, and in dealing with the anxiety, been effectively "inoculated" against 9/11. Not against empathy, or against the horror of what happened. But I didn't see the attack itself as "world-changing". I had never had an illusion that the world was a safe place, or that we were safe from attack. I'd though it inevitable; only its form was unclear.

However, your post says it well. 9/11/2001 did indeed change the world as we knew it. Our world would never again be the same.

Not directly (aside from the lives of the victims and families). Not because the terrorists had dispelled our illusions of security, as the statements intended, but for the reasons you mentioned.

Indirectly, because of how people interpreted, and used, the events of that day.

Therein lies a monumental tragedy. 9/11 and its immediate aftermath brought out the best in people. I only wish I could say "What happened?"

[SonofLiberty1]

Not all of us became irrational, probably most of us were not irrational.

But, half of us had just elected a president who couldn't even have the decency to win correrctly
"by the book" which should have told us something.

Sadly, very sadly, this turned out to be a premonition of things to come.

[rivahcat]

My (now ex-) husband had the news on that morning, and he called me over to see the report on the first tower hit. I remember thinking, "How did that big a plane get so far off course?" Then, of course, as we watched, the second plane hit, and we were both saying, "That was NO accident!"

When I heard about the plane going down in Pennsylvania, I emailed an old high-school friend who lives in the Pittsburgh area, mainly because he is a firefighter and EMT and I figured he might have been called to the scene. He emailed back that he hadn't been at that time, but that he fully expected to be.

Also, my husband had a friend whose wife worked in the Pentagon and who lost her life that day.

Yes, it's burned into my memory, just like JFK's assassination (I was 10 at the time) and the Challenger explosion. My 92 year old father is also one of the last Pearl Harbor survivors, so he's seen all of these in his long life.

I don't know who was truly responsible for 9/11, and I doubt I (or anyone else) will ever know. I consider that, in itself, a tragedy.