I can remember that I had just started my shift on the river boat casino that I used to work at in Indiana. I was on the first floor working with a couple of my friends and one always liked to hover near the bar area where the televisions were located. I was filling a slot machine with tokens when he came over and told me New York had just been attacked by terrorists. I didn't really know whether to believe him, because at the time it sounded outlandish. That kind of thing didn't happen here. I went over to the TV and saw where the plane had hit one of the towers. I still didn't believe it was terrorists. I assumed it was a horrible accident. Then, a short time later the second plane hit and I knew this was definitely no accident. It was beyond shocking, not only knowing how many people had died, but that we had been hit on our own soil. It then hit me that everything was gonna change from this point on.

I also learned that day how self centered and uncaring some people can be. A few hours later, my manager made an announcement over the P.A. system telling people what had happened. Remember, this was way before smart phones, so for the posters on the board who are younger, you basically got all your news via the television or back home on your computer. Since the televisions were restricted to a small area near the bar on every floor, some people had no clue what was going on, but by now, most had heard simply by word of mouth. I remember her asking all the people in the casino to stop playing for a moment of silence for the the victims who died on that day. I was sickened by how many customers continued to play and were even complaining about being asked to stop gambling, even for a 30 second during a moment of silence. We even had one irate customer who said he didn't "give a ****" what happened, he was gonna keep playing. We had some real "dregs of humanity" come on that boat.

Unfortunately, I also saw some of the fallout from the attacks directed at innocent people. I worked with a lot of American born people of various ethnic backgrounds and many who had immigrated here as well. One lady was very nice and she had lots of friends on the boat. She was in her early 50's and she and her husband came here from Iran decades ago. Both of her daughters were born in the USA. In the days and weeks after the attacks, she was subjected to horrible verbal abuse not only by gamblers on the boat, but by some of her co-workers as well. She had nothing to do with any of this, yet she faced daily ridicule because of where she was born. I remember seeing her crying on more than one occasion due to the abuse she put up with. About a month later, she quit. She had been working there for 4 years with no problem and in an instant, everything changed for her and everyone else who lived in the United States.

I will remember that day for the rest of my life. Seeing all the policemen, fire fighters, EMT and many other people who risked and lost their own lives to try and save the thousands of victims was something that is burned into my mind forever and I pray it never happens again.

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