GAIL (Minnesota, USA):
I was at Khobar Towers, Saudi Arabia five years ago when it was bombed. My deepest condolences goes out to anyone who witnessed the attack.

TATJANA (Germany):
My heart is out there with all the men and women.

ANDREA (Kentucky, USA):
On September 11, 2001, our country was the victim of an incredibly vicious and unjustified act of terrorism, committed by an enemy who hates us for no reason other than what we are and the values of justice, liberty, freedom, and tolerance that our country represents. But, we will not be bowed or destroyed by this act, but instead will take the best justice on these cowards - by promoting the values that they so clearly despise until they are the norm all over the world. I applaud your honoring of our brave heroes, and the innocent victims on your Sentinel site, and ask that you include my condolences on the same.

CINDY (Kansas, USA):
The radical extremists of all flavors are the noxious weeds of the world. I'm talking about those who advocate hatred to all who are different from the speaker in one way or another and who advocate or commit violence against others. (Whatever the difference - religion, race, country of ancestor's origin, choice of lifestyle, clothing or personal decoration)

The extreme violence and desire to destroy all in a given target area is not native to any of the world's belief systems, as I understand them, and we must stop the continued growth of these noxious human weeds.

The offers of support and aid from governments and people of all religions and no religion (Cuba and China) give me hope.

CATHY (Australia):
Being here in Australia I used to feel a world away from most countries. Not anymore, this tragedy has brought the whole world together. It has affected everyone. I don't honestly think that anyone feels safe anymore. Every country has planes and if it can happen in America why can't it happen here. The word 'solidarity' is quite apt and I hope that the world continues to unite. I also hope that the world, especially, New York, can move on - but never forget - from this tragedy.

My heart goes out to all the families of the people that are lost.

Please let them find definitive proof of the perpertrators of this so that the WHOLE world can accept the findings.

Nobody wants another war.

KATHY (Alaska, USA):
Our thoughts and prayers are with all those who lost their lives, their families and those that continue to help.

V. McNaney (Canada):
May God bless all the souls lost and the ones left to grieve. Our thoughts have been with you since the beginning.

Bettie (Missouri):
Our prayers and hearts go out to those families effected by our national tragedy.

Ruth (New York):
For over 30 years I had a deep seated fear that someday my home town would be the target of some kind of unspeakable attack. Anybody remember Fail Safe? I grew up during the whole Soviet Union versas the United States thing.... even woke up a time or three because of the proxsimity of La Guardia Air Port and the flight patterns over my house and nightmares of exploding bombs.

Back in the day, so to speak.....we believed that we knew the enemy, I don't know that we can really say that just now, but I want to tell you all that I was in Manhattan just a few days ago.

I'm proud to be a New Yorker.... Its a wonderfull town people just keep going and going much like the energizer bunny!

Oh damn......well they were going about their usual New York aren't we so cool, but my throat started to hurt really bad...you could taste the air...well so much more that usual...all those people dead and their ashes mixing with the wind coming up Broadway.......

Its a horror let no doubt enter into your minds. But please.....not revenge. I personally can't think of anything worse. New York is a City of absolute resource and a will of astounding strength. I want to thank all of my favorite Sentinel sites for their warm support for my home town. Love to you all.

Bye the way, this is so not about religion..

Love all my favorite TS writers

Friederike (Germany):
To all the friends in the United States

In these times of terror we all are with you. We grieve with you and we feel so sorry for the many victims, their families, and everyone concerned. No one can take away your pain, but you will not be alone. We will keep you in our prayers and thoughts.

We hope that you will have good friends and family to lean on, to share your pain with. I myself have a lot of American friends, and even though they are thousands of miles away, I feel like they are very close to me. I can imagine how much it hurts. I hope that time will ease the pain and that you will have the strength to pull through and to look forward.

My heart and my Love is with you.

In deepest sympathy
Friederike Bach and family

Chrissie (Virginia):
My first thought was: "What the hell was THAT?"

I was having a slow morning. Hadn’t yet turned on the television or the radio, and so hadn’t heard anything about that morning’s activity in Manhattan. My father had gone grocery shopping to get what we consider necessary for our daily lives: various food, various medicine, tons of catfood.

I was in the pantry when I felt the house shudder. I watched doors and windows rattle in their frames, felt a vibration deep in my bones, and heard -- actually HEARD -- the sound of a loud explosion.

"What the hell was THAT?"

THAT was the hijacked jet that crashed into the Pentagon. I live in Alexandria, VA. About five miles, as the crow flies.

I felt it happen. Heard it happen. And knew bad stuff was going down.

Not long after I finished putting away the groceries, the TV came on. And I learned then what had been occurring while I had been in my cocoon of cluelessness.

Two planes had been rammed into the Twin Towers. Hijacked planes. Carrying innocent people on board, who had taken off from Dulles International -- Dulles! So close to my home and where I had gone a few times to greet incoming traveling friends! -- with the intention of heading out to Los Angeles.

Instead, those poor people found themselves taken on a death mission to Manhattan, New York; unwilling accomplices in a terrorist attack.

Then I saw the footage being played about the attack that had been perpetrated on the Pentagon, and I realized I had the answer to my question.

"What the hell was THAT?"

THAT, as it turned out, was another planeload of innocent people hijacked on yet another death mission, used in a terrorist attack on our nation’s seat of military power. The Pentagon. A building I had never been in, but always wanted to visit some day. A building I had always recognized with respect for what it symbolized, for the workers who roamed its halls, for the feeling of security it gave me. A landmark that I had taken for granted all of my life. One I thought was invulnerable. The realization that it isn’t is one of the most sickening sensations I’ve ever felt in my life.

I was in a state of shock for a few moments. I kept thinking: "This isn’t real. I’m having a dream. This isn’t real."

A few moments later, that mantra changed to: "No. Please don't LET it be real. Please don’t let it be REAL."

My mother works on Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Patuxent River, Maryland. After coherence sunk in, my first thought was: "Contact Mom. Find out what’s happening. Find out if, God forbid, her base might be a TARGET."

I e-mailed her and found out that she and other "non-essential" personnel had been sent home. Given that traffic had already become a congested mess due to worry and mass exodus, I knew it would be a while before she got home, but she WAS coming home, and safely.

That frantic worry taken care of, my brain then supplied another helpful nugget for me to be concerned about. My friends who worked in, around, or near the Twin Towers. Those Towers that were now GONE. No longer part of the Manhattan skyline that I had also taken for granted all my life; had even visited on one occasion during my 8th grade year. I had felt such awe then, as I looked up at those towering giants. I felt such despair as I watched them come crumbling down via video feeds in the area.

I have never felt so ill in my life as when I realized that, possibly, my friends might have been murdered just because they had shown up for work this morning. Thankfully, a few hours later, I received messages from them stating that they were okay. Alive, mildly injured in a couple of cases, but most definitely ALIVE.

And I finally stopped crying.

However, I didn’t stop feeling mournful. I continued to watch the news reports and saw the devastation and destruction that had occurred. I saw people deliberately leaping from the Towers, falling to certain death, desperate for at least SOME hope of survival, of escape, and finding it in death instead. I saw the footage, shown over and over again, of the second plane crashing with murderous intent into the second Tower, and cringed every time in abject horror. I saw the despair and the shock; the tears and the grief; the sheer disbelief on the faces caught on camera in both New York and down here at home. And with each report of estimated loss of life, I thought: "How utterly unfair," and cried again, knowing that it will probably be days before I stop crying.

People I know are safe and relatively okay. I thank God for that. My prayers, at least, have been answered. But my heart breaks for others who, that day, had their worst nightmares confirmed and their hopes destroyed. My heart breaks for them; I don’t know as I could live with grief of that magnitude.

Reports came in around the nation of shock, disbelief, grief, worry, confusion; demands for retribution and frantic calls from people asking: "How can I help?"

There were times, growing up, that I would read about terrorist attacks occurring in the Middle East, or in Europe. I read the history on Pearl Harbor and occasionally, a thought would surface in which I wondered when someone was going to try to attack America, our government, our seats of power. And like most young Americans -- hell, like most Americans of ANY age -- I believed that we were powerful enough that nobody would dare. Or, if they dared, our military powers and our government would halt the threat to our nation in no time flat. I guess that this is why the September 11th events came as such a shock to many of us. These terrorist attacks came with no warning, with swift and deadly accuracy, and no immediate chance to fight back, to deliver retribution. We were AMBUSHED. Our nation stabbed in its back when it wasn’t looking. Of all the dirty, underhanded, cowardly, despicable acts to pull -- this was one of the worst.

I cannot speak for these people who have witnessed this first hand. I can’t begin to say I understand what they experienced for themselves this morning, even though I felt and heard the attack on the Pentagon, because I wasn't THERE. I was safely at home.

All I can say is that I grieve for them. I grieve with them. I pray for these people.

I pray for all of us.

I pray for our Nation.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands: one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all...

Regrettably, not all of my friends were as safe as I had hoped. I received confirmation that two friends died in the Pentagon. A neighbor who lived right around the corner from me was on the flight that crashed into the Pentagon. It is the most bitter of ironies that he WORKED in the Pentagon, and his was one of the offices they crashed into. A friend in New York, whom I hadn't even known was there at the moment, was pulled from the wreckage as a recovery, not a rescue.

I have seen people across this Nation and around the world grieving for the Americans; showing support and sympathy in our time of need. I have watched my fellow Americans break down into tears of gratitude for this show of support from around the world. And it has done much for me, since I was quickly becoming downright cynical, believing no one had any patriotism left. I'm glad to see I was proven wrong.

Alix and Casey (Indiana, USA):
The devils of this world never realize that the very worst they can really do is to make more angels. - Alix Thomas

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