Were you swept up in "fear! fear! fear!" because of September 11, 2001?

[phylny]

150. I agree, elleng.

I lived in Loudoun County, Virginia, and the school I worked at was a few miles from Dulles Airport. We were put on lock down, the sheriff's department came to see us, we had parents coming in droves to pick up their kids, and the ones whose parents couldn't come to get them were confused (we said nothing to them about what was happening, since it was an elementary school). My own children wanted to know why I didn't come to pick THEM up at their various schools, and I told them I was taking care of other children while I knew their teachers were taking care of them.

It was surreal over the next few days. School was canceled. There were no airplanes in the sky with the exception of fighter jets, which was freaky. I remember thinking at the time, "Life as we know it is over" (and I was wrong).

Many families of our school system lost family members at the Pentagon. Many Muslim parents were afraid to send their children to school until our (Jewish, btw) principal called them and assured them that their children were part of our school and not one person would cause problems for them, and that we didn't "blame" them for the attack. My brother was supposed to be at a meeting at 1 WTC, but had to discipline an employee back at his office, so he wasn't there. He was terrified wanting to know how his employees were (everyone got out safely). I was terrified because I couldn't get through to him or my sister-in-law to find out how he was. My husband watched the Pentagon burn from his office.

For people not in the vicinity of NY, DC, or PA, the experience was different than what we experienced that day.