Tonight I've been watching 'Inside 9/11' on the National Geographic Channel. Hearing the voices of the firefighters and the conversations of the brave men who took down the 4th plane in a field in Pennsylvania just brings back that empty pit in your stomach feeling. I remember driving to work that morning, listening to the radio in disbelief at the reports of the 1st airplane hitting the world trade center and then just in shock and confusion when they said that the 2nd world trade center had now been hit. When I arrived at the office my co-workers had heard from spouses and were all talking about it and we decided to borrow a television from our receptionists mother who lived close by. We watched as the towers collapsed. I remember thinking, how could they possibly think they wouldn't collapse? I mean 2 airplanes just crashed right through them! We were glued to the television but all I wanted to do was go home and be with my family. I remember all of us getting together at my parents' house that night and hugging each one of them with tears. Tears of relief that everyone in my family was safe and tears for all of those people across the country who had just lost someone from their family, some of them who probably wouldn't even know it for days and weeks after.
That night we watched as President Bush addressed our nation. In it he said, "Today, our nation saw evil, the very worst of human nature, and we responded with the best of America, with the daring of our rescue workers, with the caring for strangers and neighbors who came to give blood and help in any way they could." The next morning and in the following days across America we drove with headlights on even through the daylight hours. There were large cranes working on a highway nearby that I saw each day on the way to work but that week they raised flags to the tops of each crane. Those flags stayed there at the top of each crane until they were tattered and worn. A local factory on my way home had put up a flag made of seperate painted banners on their lawn facing the highway. Almost every car I drove by had either a flag sticker in their window or a waving flag attached to the car door. The local country radio station started playing the national anthem or some other patriotic song EACH day at noon and has been doing it every day since.
I don't think it took more than 24 hours for Mary and I to start making plans to fly to New York. Within a week we'd booked our flight and reserved a hotel room in Manhattan for a long weekend stay just 1 month after the attacks. It is a trip I'll never forget. The day we arrived, the air was still thick with the strong smell that New Yorkers had talked about. Seemed to be mostly smoldering concrete from what I could tell. There were still people walking around with face masks and there were service men walking the streets with large guns and army vehicles passing by back and forth to Ground Zero. The trees and bushes in the boulevards were still covered in ash. And when a fire truck would drive by it seemed like everything should stop, like it was an honor just to have been on the sidewalk as they passed by.
Anyway, I wanted to get down some of the personal memories that came flooding back while watching the National Geographic special. I'm going to say a special prayer tonight for all those who lost loved ones that day and for those who have fought to defend our country since. I hope everyone who reads this will do the same. Another quote from President Bush's speech on the night of September 11th says it better than I ever could (probably because he's got some amazing speech writers):
"Tonight I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve, for the children whose worlds have been shattered, for all whose sense of safety and security has been threatened. And I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us spoken through the ages in Psalm 23: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil for you are with me."
