September 11th 2001.
I was on holiday in Turkey and had spent the day on an excursion to Gallipoli. We saw the graves of the men who had died in this First World War campaign and had even explored the trenches in which they fought. The conditions were brutal and unforgiving. I remember snippets of conversation, 'nothing so tragic should ever happen again', 'the loss of young lives' and so forth.
When I returned to the hostel I noticed the big screen in the communal room. I paid it little attention, and headed to my room to put down my bags and relax for a while. It was only when I returned to the lounge that I noticed the television was still showing the same images. It wasn't part of an action film, as I had first thought, but live footage of the first plane hitting the Twin Towers. It must have been about 5pm in Turkey, while it was early morning in New York. As the evening went on, everybody stayed in the room, transfixed by this act of pure devastation.
This act of destruction and terrorism was of a whole new level. Destroying lives and changing the world as we knew it in one single blow.
I don't personally know anybody who was affected by 9/11, but I have been moved reading some of these memoirs. Let's have some hope for the future.
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