you know, whenever i would get to a level of reflection with adults as a kid, someone would undoubtedly start the conversation of where they were when president kennedy was assassinated. they knew every detail.
for my generation, early on, we could all tell you where we were on january 28, 1986 when the challenger disaster occurred. i was on a field trip in washington d.c. and was actually in the air and space museum that day. i remember everybody talking about it on the bus on the way back. they were really pushing the space program in school at that point because of christa mcauliffe, the teacher, going up. one of our teachers at our elementary school had actually submitted to be on it. it was crazy for us to fathom as kids.
it was a disaster, by no small measure, but i am not sure that the magnatude was enough for a yearly recognition or anything of the like. it was about a week before the tasteless jokes about the tragedy started to surface. maybe that was part of the healing process, i don’t know.
i remember the earthquake a number of years later during the world series and seeing the collapsed freeways that had pancaked cars. but i couldn’t tell you what year it was or how many people may have lost their lives.
i remember the OJ white bronco chase the night before a bunch of us were getting ready to go to senior week down in ocean city, maryland while a bunch of us kids sat in daryl foxhoven’s living room.
unfortunately, we were all given another life milestone on september 11th, 2001.
i was working for j.a.jones construction as a document control clerk that was transitioning to a purchasing agent. it was a big move for me that would eventually become a career of sorts and bring me to charlotte, nc. they had asked me to start sitting in on meetings with the field superintendents, engineers, and merck pharmaceuticals representatives to learn about the materials that i was going to be buying and allow me to understand the urgency of those materials.
i had such a meeting at 9am that morning. on my way to it, sheila buttor (the purchasing agent that i would soon replace), stopped me in the hall and said that a plane had hit the world trade center. i was shocked, but sort of brushed it off as a crazy accident. a freak occurence. maybe they had engine trouble or something. we didn’t have a lot of details. and i needed to get to my meeting.
at 9:03, the second plane hit.
i was in my meeting and unaware.
on the way back to my office in the trailer complex, there was already a noticeable commotion. sheila had said that a plane had hit the towers at the world trade center. “yeah, you said that before,” i said. “no, a second one. we might be under attack,” she replied.
my heart sank into my stomach and i immediately started thinking of my family and friends. i got to my office and jumped on the internet. with the entire country doing the same thing, all the websites were moving extremely slow.
i got a phone call from my fraternity, andy wehr, down in philly and they were evacuating the trade center in philly since they had no idea what targets were coming next. news of the plane hitting the pentagon came and a sense of helplessness and panic started to settle in. we went home. my roommate mike and i just sat on the couch and watched the devestation unfold.
the people who were trapped on the upper floors trying to find refuge in broken windows to breath. eventually giving up hope. plunging to their deaths. even now, ten years later, i cannot come close to understanding a person taken to that point by a situation. a normal person that just came to work in their cubicle that day then being faced with the decision of burning to death or plunging to their death.
then the collapsing of the south tower. and then the north.
watching on television as ash covered rescue workers tried to make sense of what was happening and decide a next move. no training could possibly have allowed those firemen, police, and transit cops to be prepared for it.
we were paralyzed.
with the shuttle disaster, i could understand it. these were special people that had trained to do something that amazing. space travel. it came with inherent risks and they all understood that when they suited up that day.
this was normal everyday people that were going about their day. just like i get up to do everyday. you see something in the paper about a woman killed in a solo car accident because of a leaf spring that came loose of a passing truck. and you think how tragic it is for her family and friends to lose someone to such a freak occurence. you may be able to sympathize or empathize. accidents happen.
this was different. never before had a mass homicide hit our shores like this. all those people taken out of an unfounded spite? none of those individuals lost were responsible, personally, to justify such an act.
i didn’t lose anyone that i knew personally. i was fortunate in that sense. but it still gets to me when i see the towers in an old movie, or hear the star spangled banner, or think about the pointless loss of life and those that sacrificed in order to save someone else as the events unfolded that day.
“never forget”
how could i? much like JFK for my parents, that day will be etched into my memory for the rest of my years.
that day changed all americans’ lives in years to come for sure…
oh, how the evolution of insanity had spun out of control in these last ten years. fear driven. hate driven. ignorance driven. politically driven. we all stand on common ground that some cannot see and others won’t admit is there. clinging to threads as if they were lifelines. some will tout the progress we have made while ignoring continued injustices. so many lines are blurred that not only to do you not know where to stand, you cannot tell where to make a stand. and that is the uncomfortable feeling that accompanies my grief that is associated with that fateful fall day in 2001…