JWs behavior on 9-11

els

I keep reading references to JWs drawing the blinds, etc during the attacks on 9-11. Does anyone have concrete accounts of such behavior? els

that morning like zillions of people were walking over the brooklyn bridge, lots were covered with dust and cryin' and panicing,a lot of people shut there doors or were selling bottled water and cellphone calls or cab rides for a fortune,newyork can be weird like that, i work right there for a city agency and we helped anybody we could, and i know people from the wathtower buildings were doing the same.

Dizzy Cat

Even JWs are human. Try not to clutch at straws looking for justification for walking away from the Borg'anization, feeling happy and righteous as you go.

My remaining friends in the org' would not turn their backs on suffering when witnessed.

We all bleed the same. Believe it or not.

Shakita

I know a family whose husband worked in NYC that day. After the towers fell, he went across the bridge to Bethel. The brothers there had locked down the place. The brother knocked on the door and when the bethel brothers came to the door, they asked him some question about a JW book to see if he was really a JW. When this brother answered the question correctly, they let him in the building. God, what a bunch of ninnies! Must have had orders fromt he TOP to not let any infidels in! We wouldn't want to help our fellow man, would we? Geeze.....

Another personal story.......on 9/11 I was working for a couple in North Jersey. The husband worked in NYC one block from the WTC. His train had not reached the city before the attacked happened. He was late for work. When he arrived home, he was in a state of shock. He lost a good friend in the towers that day. My husband has a neice who also works in NYC. We thought originally she worked in the towers, but it turned out she worked across the street. She also was late for work that day. When she was coming out of the subway, she saw people falling or jumping out of the windows. So......that day was a very personal one for me. Jump ahead to having to go to the grocery store that night. We met a JW in the parking lot. He seemed almost ecstatic about the attack! I was completely dumbfounded! Here is this guy saying...Oh, this is the beginning of the end...Oh, I tried to talk to my son about this being the beginning of the end......God....NOT one word of sympathy for the thousands of people who died a horrible death that day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just made me sick!

So many moms and dads and children and uncles and aunts and grandmothers and grandfathers and so many relatives and friends who never got to say "I love you" to their loved ones ever again. So sad to remember that day.

Mrs. Shakita

ronin1

Here is my story on that day:

The day began like any other work day. I had worked downtown Manhattan at Pine Street and Maiden Lane for three (3) years. I usually travel on the Long Island Railroad to Atlantic Avenue/Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn and then travel on the No. 2 or No. 3 NYC Transit subway lines uptown to Wall Street. The day began like any other work day.

Because I am accustomed to arriving at work early, I would sometimes walk the two (2) blocks to Broadway (near what is now referred as ground zero) to do my errands. But on this day, I decided not to walk to Broadway. Instead I continued on down to Maiden Lane and was entering my building when I notice many persons just standing in the middle of Maiden Lane looking up towards the sky. A co-worker of mine quickly pulled me to the street and said to look up at the World Trade Center Towers. To my surprise and dismay, one of the towers were burning-downward-it was surreal. This tower was burning downward in slow-motion. I could not believe it-but we thought that it was a aircraft accident. Watching this burning tower we realized that people were dying in the tower. (Our company, AIG lost two (2) underwriters who were in the Towers meeting with other insurance brokers).

I ran inside my building to my department on the third floor-all radios were attuned to what was happening not only in downtown Manhattan but across the country. We came to realize this was not just one act or accident.

Not long after that the second Tower erupted and went down. Our building was covered in darkness with black smoke outside and there was panic inside. People were running to get out-down the stairwells- in the elevators (bad choice), etc. Soon the elevators were shut down and only one (1) was working.

We looked outside to see people running down Maiden Lane from the World Trade Center sites towards Water Street and the Brooklyn Bridge covered in dust and debris screaming.

By the time many of us got out of our building it was 1:00 P.M. in the afternoon. We put AIG caps on our heads and cut-up AIG shirts, watered them down and tied them around our faces to protect us from the dust outside. We then walked down Water Street until we hit the Brooklyn Bridge-walked across the Brooklyn Bridge until we reached Brooklyn. As we walked across Brooklyn Bridge in haste we could see thousands of people walking across the Manhattan Bridge-in haste. When we reached Brooklyn the atmosphere was one of confusion, fear and soberness. Along the routes of Water Street and the Brooklyn Bridge on into Brooklyn people were giving out wet towels and water. No one could really absorbed what had happened that morning. We just wanted to get out of the area and make it home safely. I finally reached home in Jamaica, Queens, NY about 4:00 P.M.

Employees in our company (AIG) did not return to work until approximate 1 to 2 weeks later. When we did return the feeling was eerie and we felt unsafe. We felt like targets. It wasnt a good feeling. We worked in slow-motion mode. All we could think of was the many lost lives and how no one was safe anymore.

Over a year later, it is still not the same. Many persons are extremely nervous whenever they hear sirens. Fire drills are taken more seriously. No matter how much new or refined security measures are instituted in our buildings since September 11, 2001 (AIG has at least five (5) buildings either owned or being used by its employees within a five (5) block radius), persons still have no confidence and do not feel safe.

September 11, 2001 was certainly an Event. To say it changed our lives is an understatement.

(Just a note: at no time did I see any JWs from Bethel helping out or giving out wet towels or bottled water).

Ronin 1

wednesday

Actually, the only reference . at the KH made about it was "this is the last days, as we have recently seen". After the meeting, a few people were talking about if any JW were in there and if they survived. Perhaps they were all in shock, like a lot of people. Sure seemed cold.I kept trying to talk to others about it, and i heard stuff like"we must stay neutral..." Sort of like those pic the tallyman had on his site-showing happy people walking away from destruction.I actually noted an almost indifference, except for if any JW were involved.then again, perhaps it was shock-we all felt overwhelmed.

undercover

I wasn't at the meeting that night(as usual) but a week or so after the attacks, a letter was read reminding the friends not to assume anything. The attacks did not mean Armagedon had started and it was not prudent to go around proclaiming that. I found that interesting since at the next circuit assembly and district convention they used that fear to remind us that we truly are in the last days and nobody knew what would happen next.

I heard that the Society used one of it's buildings as some kind of HQ of sorts for some of the rescue workers and that they served meals to workers(non-JW). I thought that that was a true act of charity and trying to be part of the community. Can anyone verify that this really happened?

bay64me

Just after the attack on the WTC, I recieved a visit from an elder and his wife. Her comments on it were......"Thankfully, it appears that there were no witnesses killed"....(I don't know how true that statement actually is as she is prone to speaking gallonfulls of shit)!

My response to her was, "oh fancy that, the mormon down the road said there were no mormons killed either!" (another statement that is probably laden with heaps of crap)!

Tinkerbell4125

Robin1 and Shakita, I'm so sorry that you had to experience that on 9/11. I know from where I sat, it was in no way a comparison to what you went through. Unless you were there, you just can't imagine what it was like. It's still hard to believe it happened.

LB

I know my son said people at his hall were grieving when they heard a couple of witnesses were killed on 9-11.