In the days after Sept. 11, 2001, as we attempted to grasp the significance of the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., Americans seemed poised to come together in a spirit of unity and common suffering.
This was true in the greater Tampa area as well, as citizens calling themselves the Bayshore Patriots gathered to wave flags at those passing to and from MacDill Air Force Base, as families sent loved ones to war, even as usually irritable commuters took turns being courteous to each other on the road.
Ten years later, The Tampa Tribune asked readers to tell us how their lives have changed in the decade since the attacks.
In general, you shared that you feel more vulnerable and less optimistic. Your distrust of government and the media has grown, even as your faith in the necessity of sending young people to die in Iraq and Afghanistan has waned. You are out of work, disillusioned, tired of losing liberties in the name of safety. You are losing confidence in our country and in those elected to represent it.
For some, especially those who moved here from New York City after the attacks, the world has become a scarier place. Crowds, closed-in spaces and buildings are frightening. Retirees have found their world has shrunk, as they feel too old and embarrassed for the traumas of air travel. Some who have lost loved ones in the wars feel they died in vain.
Then again, as one reader put it, maybe we all should stop being a bunch of whiners.
Here are excerpts of your thoughts and stories 10 years after the terror, as everyone learns to live in America's new normal.
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Thomas Paradise of Wesley Chapel was a trader on the American Stock Exchange on 9/11.
"That morning there was a floor broker meeting at Windows of the World. My wife would have been there, but she had just resigned from her job a month earlier. The saddest thing from that morning was a broker who called his father on the floor of the exchange and told him he was trapped on top of the tower and could not get out, to take care of his wife and children, and then he jumped to his death.
"I felt anger at the people who did this and at the fact that trading was not suspended, which caused many people to be trapped in the second tower and myself to be locked in the exchange. When the second tower was hit, the sound was thundering. We heard there were snipers and suicide bombers. It was terrifying. Soot blackened the windows and debris from the towers blocked our exit.
"A couple of us got out, covered our mouths with cloth and headed for Battery Park. We got on a tugboat, which took us home to Jersey City. That moment when I saw my wife and family waiting for me filled me with joy.
"That day affected every aspect of my life afterward, my marriage, health and my job. I was not right for months afterward. I am still plagued by nightmares of that day and every time I hear jets flying close by, I jump. I avoid crowds of people."
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Melanie Gambone, a flight attendant, and her pilot husband, Joseph, started dating after 9/11. They married in 2002 and are raising their three children in Valrico. "I try to think of [this as] something positive that came from that horrible day. Still, talking about it or looking at pictures from that day make me cry."
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Mark Kijas of New Port Richey, who worked security in the Chelsea section of New York on 9/11 and was trained as a first responder, joined other civilians in heading straight for the towers to help. He later got a tattoo on his arm to honor those he calls the true heroes of that day.
"My cell phone rang – it was my wife and she said, 'Don't you dare go down there!' Later she told me she knew I would go, but she just had to know that she tried to stop me in case I did not come back.
"As we came by the perimeter barricades on 12th Street, there were hundreds of people waving to us, thanking us, and almost all of them were crying. They were holding up signs that said, 'You are our heroes,' and upon seeing this we all broke down. We weren't the heroes, the heroes were the ones we lost.
"You have all seen the videos and still shots of that day in New York, but I can assure you that you have no idea what it was like to see HELL first hand."
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"I was a firefighter in New York City for 33 years. I have known many of the 343 members who succumbed at the tragedy. They will never be forgotten, for on that day, they acted the same as they lived all their lives, coming to help others without regard for themselves. Yes, 9/11 changed my life. It showed me to live your life with virtue, honesty and showing help to others bears its rewards."
Retired Battalion Chief Jim Schuppel, Tarpon Springs
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"I am a World Trade Center survivor. I worked in Tower 2, on the 23rd floor. I moved to Hudson in 2005. I couldn't handle going into Manhattan every day for work. I take anti-anxiety medication to help me get through. I, of course, lost many nights' sleep, and the second I found out bin Laden died, I cried my eyes out."
Christina Guarneri, Hudson
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Kellie Harmon was wed on Sept. 11, 2000, and spends her anniversary every year remembering the horrors of 9/11. Her husband called her after the first plane hit the tower:
"I think of what I was doing the moment my husband tells me on the phone, 'Turn on the TV.'
" 'What channel?'
" 'I don't think it'll matter.' "
Kellie Harmon, Brandon ____________________________________________________________________
"As a WWII veteran, I have found the numbers of suicides amongst our troops extremely disturbing. We are not killers by nature, and the extreme angst among our own participants in these killing actions is the root cause."
Roger Freeman, New Port Richey
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"As a hazard material truck driver (gasoline tanker), I've had to jump through hoops to renew my driver's license and other background checks. As a dependent born overseas to a military dad, I've had to dig up documents to clear security. Some of these steps are just feel-good measures."
Jerry Martin, Apollo Beach
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"In addition to feeling the shock and horror that everyone experienced, I became extremely angry. I decided that as an individual, the only way I could fight the terrorists was to render them irrelevant. Paranoia, hatred and provincialism were not victories I was prepared to give them. I got on a plane as soon as airspace was reopened. The purpose of the trip was to thumb my nose at the bad guys and to reassure myself that I was still a free, self-determining person. Since then I've traveled in the Middle East, visited mosques, shopped in souks and met lots of people who view the world from an entirely different perspective. It's something I probably never would have done otherwise. My new normal is that I live my life exactly as I see fit, and if a terrorist has a problem with that, he's going to have to drop an airplane on my head."
Deb Hall, Clearwater
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"Made me enlist in the Marines in 2004 instead of going to college and playing football. Two tours in Iraq and now I am currently working for the government in the Middle East. Still bringing the fight to them and the global war on terror. My goals in life have changed 180 degrees since 9/11. I am a proud Marine and if I could do it all over again, I would! Semper Fi."
Bobby Watkins, Orlando, Middle East
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"C'mon, we're becoming a country of WHINERS."
E. Jacobs, St. Petersburg
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"My nephew was just 16 years old on Sept. 11, 2001. The events of that day would affect him deeply and set the course for his life. He joined the Army on Sept. 12, 2006, and was deployed to Afghanistan in August 2009. A few weeks into his mission he encountered a suicide bomber that snuck onto his base. He suffered a traumatic brain injury but completed his tour and returned home in May 2010. He passed away in July due to complications of his injury. He was a terrific, kind and gentle young man with loads of potential. Our family will never be complete without him. He is as much a victim of 9/11 as anyone killed that fateful day."
Marcia Santino, Odessa
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"It moved me to seek an answer to many questions that were stirring in my heart. I found that answer in Jesus Christ."
Terry Bitter, Lutz
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"I have witnessed media cover-up of item after item. I have watched our representatives vote on laws they have never read or discussed. I have watched the laws passed create bureaucracies over which there is no control, nor do Congress people try to rein them in. I've watched wars created on the flimsiest of evidence."
David Gertsch, Port Richey
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"How has 9/11 affected my life? Exactly as the brotherhood of darkness envisioned. Our liberty is lost and tyranny is rising. The assault on the American republic began in earnest on that bright September day as the heroic firefighters, police, and citizens just like you and me were murdered. If anyone really looks at the evidence of that day, the verdict is clear. 9/11 was a false flag synthetic terror operation designed to strip you of your freedoms and enrich the elite corporate interests that run our government."
Anthony Connor, Spring Hill
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"Every time I get a full body scan, I feel as if the terrorists are sitting behind the screen pleased that an American is subject to this kind of search all in the name of 'national security.' "
Marianna Stephens, St. Petersburg
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"I was a 9/11 emergency responder to the Pentagon. Everything has changed from how we work to how we look at people. We are a more suspicious society."
Tim Thompson, New Port Richey
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"Ever since the attack, I feel an overwhelming sense of pride when I see our flag flying and hear our national anthem sung."
Lee Casteris, Tampa
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"I was flying into JFK that morning on a 7 a.m. flight out of Tampa and saw the Pentagon burning from the air. A man in the row in front of me was reading the news on his Blackberry and said that terrorists were shooting planes down. I've never fully recovered from the fear and strange silence that swept through the plane when the pilot announced we had to make an emergency landing as they started grounding all flights."
Scot Nichols, Brandon
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"It was one of the worst days of my life. I lost 11 friends and approximately 30 more who I knew. It was incredibly difficult and challenging to process so much death at one time. To this day, I don't know how I did it.
"It plunged me into a very dark place. I became extremely distracted and agitated. I had a hard time concentrating and focusing and getting back to the business at hand."
Dina DeMaria, Clearwater
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"When we have a fire drill in our building and because I'm on the 33rd floor, I think of all those people trying to get out of the World Trade Center and can't even begin to imagine what they went through or what they must have been thinking that day. Even with the passing of time, it stays with me. It is always with me and time will never erase it, nor do I ever want to forget what happened on that day."
Sharon Mikolay, Tampa
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"We are a retired couple who enjoy traveling, but we no longer wish to fly any more. This has become such a hassle as to what you are allowed to pack and bring with you, having to remove your shoes in the airport – which can be quite difficult for us elderly people at times with bad backs, knees, etc., then to have to be bodily searched for weapons. We realize the importance … but this can be so embarrassing, time-consuming and demeaning."
Richard and Marie Hartley, Sun City Center
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GayLee Mendenhall of Tampa is a teacher at Tinker Elementary School on MacDill Air Force base. She remembers 9/11 with perfect clarity, even recalling what she wore that day to class. She never wore it again.
"The biggest effect on me was attending the funeral of a student, Jonathan Rossi, who had been killed by a roadside bomb while serving in Iraq. Nothing has the effect like seeing a kid in a casket dressed in his dress uniform. I remember having him sign a piece of artwork he had made in fifth grade, so when he grew up and became famous, I had an original."
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"My husband is a pilot and our lives were forever changed. I worry about his safety every day. And, while I'm fine being scrutinized going through a security checkpoint, I think the TSA is irresponsible with its screening process. Recently, my 2-year-old was patted down at Cincinnati 's airport. It's absurd. There's too much PC nonsense going on and not enough reality-based profiling. We should profile, because it was radical Muslims who killed our citizens.
"I thank God every day that my husband is alive and that he wasn't one of the pilots who had his throat slashed on Sept. 11, 2001.
"The best way I can describe my feelings is innocence lost."
Jill VanderPol, Ruskin
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