| Where was I on 911? At 9:15 am in my upper westside office, my collegue approached me asking, “Did you hear about a plane that hit one of the World Trade Center Towers?” I was puzzled. I thought that it must have been a freak accident and we would find out more about the details through out the day. My collegue returned less than five minutes later to tell me that there was yet another plane crash to the second tower. It was clear to everyone then that the crashes were excuted by terrorists, but who, and why? The last enemies of the United States that I could remember were the Russians, but that was in the eighties. I hadn’t been alert to current events at the time and was completely unaware of any enemies the country could have had. In a way we were isolated in that building. We were having trouble loging on to the internet as well as making and receiving phone calls. There wasn’t a television in the building, but we only had radio transmissions to fill us in on what was going on down town. Minutes later, we were reminded that there was an office on our floor that had a breathtaking view of Manhattan. Immediately, we ran to that room. We stared with our mouths agape at the sight of the towers ingulfed in smoke as the fires raged from within. The radio in the room blasted the tramatic moment like a magnified third eye. There was an overwhelming sense of helplessness and outrage. I kept thinking of those wonderful helecopter rescues that we often see on tv and the movies. Where were they? Where where the helicopters with water hoses and the rope-ladders to bring people to safety? It was evermore surreal as I heard the radio announcer describe the dreadfulness of those who were terrified enough to leap to their deaths from their burning office windows. As the ground level evacuation continued there was at least some hope that those who worked in the floors below the fires would all make it out alive until one of the towers crumbled before our eyes into a cloud of concrete dust. At that moment, I knew that the rising death toll took a new shape claiming the lives of those who were inside and around the building. I was crying hysterically as I prayed to God that the last tower would stand just a bit longer… and just a little more. I prayed down to the second, I watched the last standing tower topple over. The devastation in the land, bringing one of New York City’s landmarks to back to the earth where it began was a symbol of the comfort we once had and will never feel again in this generation. However, most importantly, the lives lost to this act of terrorism, unfairly brings a war’s front lines right to the doors of victims unaware that there is even a war going on. ************************************************** |
 |
| : WTC Tribute |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |