September 11th Project

M. Leigh

Rookie
May 15, 2006
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I hope this is the right place to put this as it's technically history now. However, if it isn't I will (of course) move it. Thanks!

September 11th Project​

What it is: For a long time I’ve been meaning to collect personal accounts of what people’s experiences with and reactions to 9/11 were. I think that the profound impact that it had on a lot of lives, certainly mine, should be documented and gathered together. Regardless of whether people had relatives die in the attacks or were simply sitting at home watching on their televisions, everybody had a unique experience. I’m also very curious as to how people of different age, sex, location, and belief were affected differently. Therefore, I am proposing a collection of short, personal memoirs based on your experiences that day and the lasting effects that it has had on you.

Goal: I am in an advanced history class, and we are doing independent research projects for the last month of school. I’ve had this idea kicking around for quite a while and I thought that I could use it for my project. I am hoping to collect as many accounts as possible so that it is possible to then make some conclusions based on the information provided. As stated above, I’ll look at age, location, etc. I’m obviously not going to totally generalize them, and it’s certainly possible that when I get them there will be nothing to conclude, but that’s my hope. Even if I can’t make some conclusions, I would still love to have the memoirs and I’m sure that I could write an effective paper to go along with them.

What I’m looking for: I have set up an e-mail address to use for this, [email protected]. Anybody who wants to participate would write one to two pages based on their experiences. An account of that day and the lasting impacts it has had on you would be ideal, but if you have nothing to say about one part, to do only one half is okay. I would also like your first name, age, sex if it isn’t obvious, approximate location at the time of the attacks, and political party/religious affiliation if you have one. If you are not comfortable providing this information, that is fine. I really would appreciate it, and I promise I won’t stalk you, but obviously this is entirely up to you. It’s really a great personal favor to myself for any of you to do this at all, and believe me I am very grateful. I will be keeping copies of your e-mail address in case I need it, and could put up these memoirs on the web. IF YOU DO NOT WANT ME TO DO SO, PLEASE TELL ME. I will absolutely honor your request and I completely understand.

Here is a fictional example of the format if you want to look at it:

Name: David
Age (at the time): 17
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Political Party: Democratic
Religion: Jewish

And the memoir would go underneath.

The project is due June 12, so I pretty much need them ASAP. However, if you see this later than that and would still like to participate, please e-mail me, because I would love to have as many accounts as possible regardless of the project.

Et cetera: I am going to be posting this everywhere and I apologize to you if you visit a lot of political forums and see this a billion times, but I really do need as many people as possible to participate. If you like this idea and know somewhere that I have not already posted this, such as forums, websites, and blogs, etc, and would like to post it there I would be INCREDIBLY grateful. If you know someone who you think might be interested, e-mail them. PLEASE. The more memoirs, the better. I have created a community at community.livejournal.com/sept_11_project and will be posting all of this information there. If you need to reference anything or would simply like to circulate that link, that’s fine.

If you are planning on participating and/or posting this somewhere, please leave a comment so that I have a rough estimate of how many memoirs I’m going to have.

Once I am done with the project, I will post it at that community.

As I said, I consider this a great personal favor and am eternally in your debt if you participate. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time and I think that normal, every day people’s experiences are valuable and unique and should be documented as well as possible, and every single one is moving. Thank you so much for helping.
 
I don't like to give out my email address so I went directly to your web site and replied there.

Never forget.
 

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