A Sunny September Day

I woke up about the usual time, but wasn't going to work immediately because I had a Dr's appointment on the south side of town. Therefore, the normal rush to get ready for work wasn't part of my routine that day. I could take my time. I made myself a cup of coffee and turned on the news. There it was, a plane had hit one of the twin towers in New York City. Initially, I didn't realize what type of plane, I assumed it had to be a small private plane and I figured someone passed out,or had a heart attack thus losing control of the plane, because how could anyone get so off course as to hit something so obvious, so visible, something that dominated the landscape of New York City the way the towers did.

I got up from the couch and started doing things around my apartment while listening to the continued news coverage. It was then that I heard it was a commercial jet that hit the tower. I don't know what everyone else was feeling at that moment, but I knew then we were being attacked, i knew it just wasn't possible that a commercial jet could actually hit the towers. A plane would never even get that close to them, you have a pilot and a co-pilot, and air traffic control; an error of that magnitude just wasn't possible. I knew that the unthinkable had happened, but I didn't know the horror that was yet to come.

By the time I left for my Dr's appointment the second tower had been hit, as well as the Pentagon. I can't explain very well what I was feeling at that point. I wasn't feeling anger yet, I wasn't wondering about the loss of life yet, I wasn't worried about anyone in my family and whether they were safe or not. However, that's just me, I'm sure a lot of those feelings were consuming the hearts and minds of citizens all over the country. I guess at that point I was just numb.

I started driving and turned on the radio to listen to the news coverage. Like you have heard so many times, the weather that day was perfect, absolutely beautiful. I was driving around I-465 on the south side, shortly before getting to my exit at Emerson avenue, the first tower fell. It had not even entered my mind in anyway shape or form that something like that would happen. When it did, it all started to sink in for me. To this day, I'm not sure, but I don't even think I ended up going into my Dr's office. I remember driving and saying "oh my God." I said it out loud. Different people show their emotions in times like that in different ways. I cried. It hit home what was being done to us, what the loss of life was going to be, and that we had finally experienced a terrorist attack in a way that I doubt many of us thought could ever happen here. Not here, not in the continental United States, not in our biggest city. It just couldn't happen, not to us.

The next emotion I remember feeling was fear. I had no way of knowing if it was all over or not, if other areas of the country were being attacked, or what might be next. I immediately went to the home of my 1st wife and mother of my two oldest kids who were 11 and 6 at the time. I needed to make sure they were okay, I needed to find out if the school had called, were they on lock down, were they safe or not. Once I felt comfortable, I left and went to my mothers house. Mom would have been alone, Dad was working. I grew up in that home, in every way it represents the innocence of childhood to me, and I wanted to be there to check on my mom, and in some way that I cant explain, I felt safe there, I just felt it was where I needed to be at that moment.

I eventually went to work, I wish I hadn't. It annoyed me that people were actually still calling about their insurance claim, wanting to know the status of it and when they might receive "their money". It's kind of sick really, that anyone would still be thinking of something so trivial. I remember talking to my kids, I needed to hear their voice.

Today, I watched some of the replay of the live coverage that was being shown on MSNBC. Thumbs up to them. Frankly, i think it should be shown every year. I don't believe in dwelling on that horrible day, but I also don't believe in forgetting it either. I realize nobody can literally forget such and event, but, sadly, I really think we are back to a point in this country where many people think that it can't happen here, not again anyway. I really hope I'm wrong about that, but I don't think I am.

I lost no friends or relatives in the attack, my wife did lose friends and co-workers that she had worked with at the Pentagon. I hope for all of the families that lost loved ones and friends, that they are finding some sort of peace as the days and years go by. It was later on that we learned of the effort of those everyday ordinary citizens who lost their lives over a field in Pennsylvania and what they had done. Every single account I have ever heard about that portion of the tragedy was about men and women, calling him to check on their family and to make sure that they would be okay, and to simply say goodbye. There are no accounts of phone calls being made that consisted of cries of help, or panic, or questions of who was going to help them. I don't know if they knew exactly what the results of their actions would end up being, but those normal, average, everyday citizens probably saved thousands of lives, by giving there own. If that isn't a reflection on the greatness of this country then I don't know what is.

With all of our scars, this is still a wonderful country, there is no place else that I would rather be. God Bless America.