My Thoughts On 9/11
My memories...
I live in the Mountain Time Zone which is two hours earlier than the Eastern Time Zone, so I hadn’t actually been up very long when my Mom called me to tell me that she'd heard on the radio that a plane had hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center. I turned on TV and saw some of the early footage of the smoke and flames from the first crash, and my first thought was that it was some terrible and tragic accident, but when I saw the second plane hit the second tower, I knew it was no accident and it had all happened on purpose. At work we all listened to the radio all day and that was where I heard about the plane that hit the Pentagon and United 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania.
I remember the whole week felt really strange and weird...I can't really explain it. At the time, I worked just a couple of miles from the airport and could see planes coming and going from the windows in my office, but that week it was weird to not see any planes at all. There were no rush-hour traffic reports from the local radio stations' helicopters. And the skies were totally silent for the first time since the advent of air travel...long before I was born.
The Walt Disney Company and Verizon Wireless had the most moving and respectful commercials I have ever seen on television. They both had moving images of a country in mourning, and their company names didn’t even appear until the end where they had beautiful messages of condolences to the families of the victims and our nation as a whole. I was very impressed by their sensitivity. I honestly wish I had recorded them.
On that Friday afternoon, at work we had a short candle-light memorial in the parking lot outside of our building. We aren't allowed to light candles inside the building, so we went outside and I remember it was a clear, blue-sky day and we all stood in a circle and just said whatever came to mind…our feelings and thoughts on the events, and then had a few minutes of silence in honor of the victims.
I don’t personally know anyone who was personally affected by the tragedy. A friend of my sister spent most of the day agonizing over the welfare of her son and daughter who were in New York, staying at the Marriott Hotel that was part of the World Trade Center complex. She didn’t hear from them until sometime that evening, and yes, thankfully, they were ok.
September 11th is one of those days that, if you were old enough to really know what was going on, you will remember where you were when it all happened for the rest of your life. I can only imagine how much more is felt by people who actually saw what happened. And I can’t even imagine the feelings of the survivors, or the families of the victims, or how they cope with the memories.
In the years since, whenever the events of 9/11 are discussed, it seems that most of the discussion is about the World Trade Center, mostly ignoring the plane that crashed into the Pentagon and the passengers on United 93. This is probably because the World Trade Center was the most visible. The passengers on United 93 were heroes who did what they could to thwart the intentions of the hijackers, and whether they knew it or not, they saved a lot of lives. No matter where the hijackers intended to crash the plane, there would have been so many more lives lost.
I think we need to remember that 9/11 was not just an attack on the World Trade Center. It was an attack on the entire United States of America. And that is not in any way intended as a political statement of any kind. As a rule, I do not discuss religion or politics, and this is not meant to start a discussion of either of those things.
There is a whole section on the Snopes Urban Legend web site about rumours and facts related to 9/11, and for several months, I checked it on almost a daily basis. (http://www.snopes.com/rumors/rumors.asp)
There used to be a website that you could go to and see the view from the roof of one of the World Trade Center towers. Someone sent me the link months before 9/11 and I enjoyed the view that I knew I would never see in person, not because I had any premonitions or anything like that, but just because I'm so extremely afraid of heights that I knew if I ever went to New York, I'd never go up to the roof of the World Trade Center. For several weeks after 9/11 that site was still there. Obviously, it wasn’t a real-time camera shot or it wouldn’t have had a picture after that. But I was very saddened when the site was taken down. I think it would have made a wonderful memorial.
I live in the Mountain Time Zone which is two hours earlier than the Eastern Time Zone, so I hadn’t actually been up very long when my Mom called me to tell me that she'd heard on the radio that a plane had hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center. I turned on TV and saw some of the early footage of the smoke and flames from the first crash, and my first thought was that it was some terrible and tragic accident, but when I saw the second plane hit the second tower, I knew it was no accident and it had all happened on purpose. At work we all listened to the radio all day and that was where I heard about the plane that hit the Pentagon and United 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania.
I remember the whole week felt really strange and weird...I can't really explain it. At the time, I worked just a couple of miles from the airport and could see planes coming and going from the windows in my office, but that week it was weird to not see any planes at all. There were no rush-hour traffic reports from the local radio stations' helicopters. And the skies were totally silent for the first time since the advent of air travel...long before I was born.
The Walt Disney Company and Verizon Wireless had the most moving and respectful commercials I have ever seen on television. They both had moving images of a country in mourning, and their company names didn’t even appear until the end where they had beautiful messages of condolences to the families of the victims and our nation as a whole. I was very impressed by their sensitivity. I honestly wish I had recorded them.
On that Friday afternoon, at work we had a short candle-light memorial in the parking lot outside of our building. We aren't allowed to light candles inside the building, so we went outside and I remember it was a clear, blue-sky day and we all stood in a circle and just said whatever came to mind…our feelings and thoughts on the events, and then had a few minutes of silence in honor of the victims.
I don’t personally know anyone who was personally affected by the tragedy. A friend of my sister spent most of the day agonizing over the welfare of her son and daughter who were in New York, staying at the Marriott Hotel that was part of the World Trade Center complex. She didn’t hear from them until sometime that evening, and yes, thankfully, they were ok.
September 11th is one of those days that, if you were old enough to really know what was going on, you will remember where you were when it all happened for the rest of your life. I can only imagine how much more is felt by people who actually saw what happened. And I can’t even imagine the feelings of the survivors, or the families of the victims, or how they cope with the memories.
In the years since, whenever the events of 9/11 are discussed, it seems that most of the discussion is about the World Trade Center, mostly ignoring the plane that crashed into the Pentagon and the passengers on United 93. This is probably because the World Trade Center was the most visible. The passengers on United 93 were heroes who did what they could to thwart the intentions of the hijackers, and whether they knew it or not, they saved a lot of lives. No matter where the hijackers intended to crash the plane, there would have been so many more lives lost.
I think we need to remember that 9/11 was not just an attack on the World Trade Center. It was an attack on the entire United States of America. And that is not in any way intended as a political statement of any kind. As a rule, I do not discuss religion or politics, and this is not meant to start a discussion of either of those things.
There is a whole section on the Snopes Urban Legend web site about rumours and facts related to 9/11, and for several months, I checked it on almost a daily basis. (http://www.snopes.com/rumors/rumors.asp)
There used to be a website that you could go to and see the view from the roof of one of the World Trade Center towers. Someone sent me the link months before 9/11 and I enjoyed the view that I knew I would never see in person, not because I had any premonitions or anything like that, but just because I'm so extremely afraid of heights that I knew if I ever went to New York, I'd never go up to the roof of the World Trade Center. For several weeks after 9/11 that site was still there. Obviously, it wasn’t a real-time camera shot or it wouldn’t have had a picture after that. But I was very saddened when the site was taken down. I think it would have made a wonderful memorial.