Marjorie Keiter of Nesquehoning:

9/11 was my first day of class at the Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia.I called my husband home in Lansford, learned that our son at work in Washington, D.C., was OK, and then walked three blocks to the senior apartment center where my mom lived.There I found her and her peers sitting together in shock, saying we lived through Pearl Harbor and never thought this would happen here.My drive up the northeast extension was eerie with no planes overhead.Sheri Gieg of Lehighton:I was in seventh grade, middle school. In the cafeteria when it was announced over the loudspeaker that due to catastrophic events school would be let out early.That was all that was said. Students cheered, teachers cried. We were sent back to our classrooms until dismissal where we were not to be told of what had happened.Teachers were threatened with termination if they did.But my classroom teacher keeping composure, told us what had happened to stay calm and prepare ourselves as she turned on the TV.The second plane had already hit by then. Tissues were passed around. Some students had family in New York City, some worked in some way in air traffic.My dad said later at first when he heard it on the radio, he was on the farm packing eggs; he thought it was a joke or hoax.Like the radio broadcast from the past, better known as a movie now.As years have passed I do not get scared every time I see a plane in the air and did not then either. I feel safe enough to completely live out my life.I have never since then forgotten my mother's birthday either, as it's the same day.I will also be honest and say also as the years have passed and information has come out, I think our government played a role in the events that happened that day.And I don't think anyone will ever truly know the truth about events that led to that horrible day except the people involved.The normal, average American citizens will only be able to theorize what we think really happened and why.And I'm not scared of terrorism so much as I am the oppression of our own government on its people.When I think of what life is going to be like for my grandchildren and their grandchildren, it's not terrorism that makes me worry, it's what will our country become?And this election cycle is clear proof of what it has become even now that doesn't look bright, it looks bleak. And even more so for the present and distant future.Anthony Shuck of Nesquehoning:On Sept 11, 2001, I was 5 or 6 years old when that happened, and when I was about 12 I saw a video and it's destroyed me so bad. That was the worst day in that time.