Nine eleven

I'm not American so you'd think it would be hard for me to understand exactly how much pain 9/11 caused the people of the United States.
But I get it. I watched some documentaries I recorded a few days ago and they shocked me. Every year around this time, I do the same thing. I watch programmes about September 11 and succumb to the total emotional shock these kinds of programmes bring.
Seeing the towers collapse never gets any easier. Today, watching them collapse in a matter of seconds felt like someone was stabbing a knife into my chest.
Just in those 10 seconds, thousands of people lost their lives, just like that. BAM, vapourised.
I guess that's the hardest thing for me, the fact they never even had a CHANCE to get out, they were killed instantly and not only were they killed, there weren't even bodies for grieving families. There was NOTHING left of most people and if there were, there was only a finger or a bone that was left for possible identification. Some people are probably still missing.
The programme that affected me more than anything was New York mayor of the time Rudy Gulliani's account of what 9/11 was like for him as the man in charge.
The president, Mr Bush had been evacuated to some safe space or some such thing and Gulliani was the only person in power at the coalface, with the people. Running away with them, trying to keep them calm, telling them to be strong and unafraid.
I can't even imagine what he was going through, trying to be strong and never crying in front of cameras, even when he continually found out more of his close friends were dead. He just had to be a pillar of strength for the whole of America despite how much intense emotional pain he must have been in.
Nine eleven always makes me want to listen to My Chemical Romance. They were created in 2001 after Gerard (lead singer) saw people falling from the towers. That day he wrote Skylines and Turnstyles. A song that accurately fits the feeling of the day in my mind. The skyline that was so peaceful, bright blue sky, the hot, sunny day being destroyed by smoke and destruction.
People changed their lives that day. Gerard decided he wouldn't sell his soul to a big corporation anymore and that he wanted to save the world. He did. And 10 years later, My Chemical Romance are still going strong, saving the lives of teens all around the world with their music and about to release a new album before the year is out.
New Zealand just had a tragedy of our own. Okay, it was NO 9/11 and no one died but many lives were changed by the Canterbury earthquake of 2010. Thing is, as this article shows, the quake brought New Zealanders closer together.
I spoke to an American on 9/11 this year who said the event really changed Americans and in particular New Yorkers.
New Yorkers are not known for being particularly kind, patient or caring but 9/11 changed all that.
She said she saw people helping people and people sharing cabs, something that had not been done before or since.
But they were so changed by their losses, their shock, that they were calmer, they were more caring, they were more sensitive.

Let's just take some time to remember the thousands of people who lost their lives, the firefighters who went up into the second tower even though they knew they would die when the tower collapsed and the civillians who never did anything wrong.

Varelai.