MyPersonalVPS.com

It’s an odd feeling writing this and remembering exactly where I was and what I was doing on this date exactly 7 years ago today. But worse, I still cringe now when I think back to that day, and the events that have imprinted today’s date so firmly upon my mind.

It was 9/11. That’s the 11th of September in English money. It was just after 2pm (us Brits are 5 hours or more ahead of the folks in the USA). I was in a shopping mall in the suburbs of Manchester, UK, and strolling past a TV shop where all the TVs in the window were haphazardly tuned to various different TV stations we have available here in the UK. So why were they all showing the same picture? Because a skyscraper in the USA was on fire. It was news. A few of us gathered outside the window of the TV shop and watched. Then, out of the corners of all our eyes we watched in amazement as a plane flew into the picture and hit the skyscraper right next to the one on fire.

This can’t be right. It’s just a film, right?  Within a few seconds the guy in the TV shop opened the doors and beckoned us inside. The volume was turned up and we started to hear (but not understand) the commentary behind the news story.

And then there were the gasps from all of us as we each began to understand what we were watching.

My cellphone rang. It was a pal of mine in the USA who was near the Pentagon. He told me to turn on my TV. I told him where I was and what I was watching. He made some silly remark about where he was would not make the news then, if there was something bigger going on elsewhere. And then it all became clear.

7 years later I can still recount every second of every minute of that day. And I was just a watcher.  I got a phone call telling me that all American airspace had been closed to all flights – All planes were heading for Canada. I can still remember saying “No way!”. Silly really, but the sheer massiveness of what had happened was still sinking in.

That evening we watched the news round-up of the day. We saw again the plane hit the second tower. We saw the firemen and cops covered in dust, and weeping. We saw the convoy of ambulances. We saw the smoke.

Only later did the full realization that a handful short of 3000 people died sink in.

To the people of America, and elsewhere, that lost loved ones, or know others that lost loved ones, God bless you. You must still remember this day, even more vividly than I can.

To the people behind this, or of a like mind, I have only one message. Idiots! If you thought you were “fighting for peace” or fighting some sort of holy war, you’re idiots. Go f!!k yourselves. You have brought the might of the USA and the World against you and, with those odds, you don’t stand a chance. Beware, because you have brought upon yourselves the absolute certainty that we’ll come find you, and deal with you, possibly more humanely but certainly no less decisively. As sure as those 3000 people are dead, you can be sure that you’re heading the same way.

RIP all the innocent victims of 9/11.

It’s an odd feeling, today.