Image via WikipediaIt has been nine years since terrorists hijacked four passenger airliners, crashing two into the twin towers in NY City, one in the Pentagon, and one, thanks to the brave actions of some passengers, crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.I remember so much of that day and the aftermath of it. That particular morning, I was sitting in my office at work when the phone rang. It was my wife. She called to tell me that an airplane had hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. I immediately turned off the music I was listening to and found a station covering the breaking news.
Shortly after the first plane crashed, a second plane crashed into the second tower and then the Pentagon. I was numb. I found that I was unable to do anything except to continue to listen to the reports that were coming in over the radio. My son and nephew were both attending a special school in Baltimore, a few blocks from the Inner Harbor, home of the Baltimore World Trade Center. Fearing an attack in that area, my brother in law headed up to Baltimore to pick up the boys. Traffic in the area was gridlocked.
As I said, I was numb at that point. I was pretty much worthless as far as trying to accomplish any work of substance that day. Most of the executives of my company were out of town on a business trip. They were due to fly back that day, but all flights were grounded. I remember getting calls from some of the executives encouraging us to take action to try to capitalize on the fear generated by the attacks. I couldn't help but think how crass it was to try to use the attacks as a way to generate sales.
At the time, I worked for a grocery chain, and they thought people would be paranoid of terrorist attacks on the water supply, and I was to arrange for bottled water to be shipped to the stores. They were afraid there would be a run on supplies and we would not capture all the sales we could. The one good thing I remember from work was the public affairs manager asking me to arrange for bottled water to be sent for the workers who were helping with aftermath of the Pentagon attack.
The other thing that I recall from that time was how united the country was. It didn't matter your political party or your religious ideology, we were one country, facing a tragic event. We were truly the United States of America. In nine short years, we seem to be more divided than ever, and that is tragic. We need to remember how we felt that day and in the days immediately after that. We need to never forget the events of 9/11/2001.
Great post & tribute on this tragic day. Thanks for writing it.
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