Next Door to Disaster: How Participant Observation Changed the Observer

One woman relates how observing the World Trade Center terrorist attacks on Sep. 11, 2001 changed her life. Upon seeing the first jet strike one of the towers, her first reaction was that she was watching a movie. Her next concern was that her husband worked in a building very close to the towers and that his safety might be jeopardized. After her husband reached their apartment, they left the building and became refugees in their own city. For the first few months after the attacks, she was haunted by horrible dreams and images of the day. Six months later, she still had trouble sleeping and her emotions were very close to the surface. Many of her friends have responded to the attacks by moving away from New York City to homes in the suburbs so that they can enjoy a different pace of life.