This is Cynthia, your erstwhile host here. Can it be two years ago when I last posted on my National Diary Archive website? This week I would like to post the rest of my diary entries from the week of 9-11-2001. I will only edit non-essential writing that is about friends. I may be contacted and your comments on these entries may be sent to eclecticreaderbooks@gmail.com
Previous post – the day of September 11
September 12, 2001
We are all basically helpless to change the changes in our world. What a different place from the time I was in high school, 40 years ago. My daughter lives with the understanding that one can be shot to death at school, or that international terrorism can strike, and devastating viruses are lurking from the jungles of Africa to the jungles of American cities.
I had this counter thought: a citizen in the 1600s had Indians, bears, wolves, disease, and accidents, with no hospitals nearby to fix them up again and no insurance. They didn’t get to live as long as we do either.
W. (my renter) seems depressed this morning. Couldn’t sleep. She said the enormity of the terrorists acts is overwhelming.
This was an act of war, yet everyone is stepping around that word. Why? Because we don’t know who to accuse? If we knew who, would we go to war? My cynicism here: is it because we don’t need a war (as all wars are based on business/economic need and not religious or moral causes)? It would appear to be good timing for a war, as the economy is said to be slipping.
Have heard no news this morning. The day begins pretty.
On the news, 9 a.m. — Ok. Now they have switched to calling this an act of war. Yet they still don’t know who is behind it. The fire at the Pentagon still burns! They believe 800 people may have died there.
A car with Arabic language material has been found at the Logan airport in Boston where two of the flights originated. There was a book on flying commercial airplanes.
September 13, 2001
Flight 11 – Boston, 175 – Boston, 77 – Pentagon 190 dead
New estimate of the dead: 5,000
My only access to the news has been the radio. I have seen no papers. My tv has only one channel and it was fuzzy. I saw a blurry video of the airplane hitting the World Trade Center. It looked like a Hollywood action movie, a simulation.
They just announced the airways will be reopened at 11 a.m. today. It is a sobering reflection on the unprecedented magnitude of this event that all air traffic in the U. S. has been suspended since Tuesday morning—two full days crippling our economy and our individual lives in many ways.
The heroism and courage of those involved in this terrible event have been inspiring. The human stories are beginning to emerge. There is much talk about last minute cell phone calls from people on the planes. I don’t know the details yet. I am trying to imagine what it would be like to be on one of those planes and have just enough time for one call.
10 a.m. On the radio, a commentator remarked that it took only four hours for our attackers to shut down the most powerful nation on earth.
The most interesting story: what happened on the fourth plane that seemed to have been aborted in its attempt. Cell phone conversations lead to this scene—the passengers were planning to overthrow the hijackers, knowing they had nothing to lose, that they would die anyway. I believe they succeeded in causing the plane to crash before it reached its target.
New York, Manhattan—still a surreal landscape with smoke and dust rising from the towers. A bombed out war zone.
W. mentioned it this morning—the lack of humor about this tragedy. A commentator just said he noticed the total absence of typical New York wisecracks.
to be continued
National Diary Archive 
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