Every generation has its engraved moment when the day time stood still and will infamously live in our minds as if it were yesterday and can tell you with crystal precision about what transpired the whole day. I can recall four of them, and two still haunt me to this day. The first was when Space Shuttle Challenger exploded upon direction from mission to “go throttle up” – I was in Grade 10 and just got out of one of my mid-term examinations when our class walked over to the far reaches of the parking lot to look slightly to the northwestern sky. We immediately noticed the plume from the launch looked awkwardly different from any previous mission we watched over the years past. It was when some of us went to the library after exams, we were quite shaken to hear the “vehicle exploded” during launch. It was so quiet, that even a mouse dropping a mouse sized pin could scream in it’s silence. In my lifetime, only one event surpassed this silence in the library that morning, it was the numbness and the emotional deadness with anger I felt on September 11, 2001.
On September 11, 2001 I was at a child care trainer’s meeting sponsored by the local training coordinating agency and several other agencies, including my YMCA. One of the students asked if we could turn on the television in the room as they thought they heard a plane accidentally flew into one of the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. Almost, within minutes of turning on the television we saw live footage of the second plane hitting the other tower. We all congregated closer to the television and within minutes noticed this was no longer an accident but an intentional act. Our meeting was dismissed, I returned to my YMCA office to find my fellow colleagues in the conference room all in tears and asking how could something like this happen on our own land. Within a short while, our CEO told us if we wanted to, we could go home and be with our families. I stayed for a little longer, still try to get my head wrapped around this whole incident as I watched the current happenings on live television and the explicit explosion now being repeatedly replayed on almost every television and radio station. Afterward, I went to be with my parents at their home and they were behaving the same way as both my child care training and my YMCA family did while watching the television. This day, much like a cartoon seemed to play in exaggerated slow motion and if anything, it was the day, time really did feel like it stood still.
I listened to my Dad’s comment about who could do such an evil act on our great country. Within moments of him saying this, the news anchor mentioned it possibly could be someone who knew how hitting our such critical landmarks would more than likely cripple our country its core by hitting our financial and military strongholds. Throughout the whole day I was trying to get hold of my best friend, a journalist living in Washington DC. It wasn’t until much later in the evening, I finally was able to get hold of him. It’s a good thing he has an awful sense of direction and was able to stay clear of the Pentagon and other key buildings in the area.
For the next several weeks, perhaps even months, the media reported how one in every seven Americans had some connection to what was now labeled as the greatest terror attack on Americans on our own homeland. I too had more connections than I would have ever thought I had with this infamous day. I mentioned my friend, the journalist living in Washington DC was the first direct relationship. A fellow student who I took post grad school courses with and fellow colleague whom I co-taught with also had a connection. She was recently married to her high school sweetheart. Her husband just secured a job at Cantor Fitzgerald, who held offices in the World Trade Center in July 2001. She just finished packing up the last of her belongings at the university after the completion of teaching the full summer term and was looking forward to joining her husband in New York City. Just two weeks before the demise of the Towers, she finally moved the last of her household belongings to New York City to start her life as a newlywed. My final connection to this day was with a previous supervisor who escaped from the first tower before it collapsed and lost many of his colleagues. He continues to suffer from post-traumatic syndrome, whenever he hears fire alarms, first responder sirens or a jet plane’s engines thrusting by. Together with his hearing, his other senses were heightened like a blood hound fixed to his sense of smell. The smell of jet fuel burning through the Towers and its contents to the radiantly bright orange flames pushing through floors and feeling its intense heat at every corner he passed. From firsthand accounts of what my friends told me to the intense media coverage, I felt as if I was shoved to the front of the theatre of all that was happening.
Our lives have changed in so many ways that the days prior to September 11, 2001 are no longer even etched in our minds. The most notable change was the airport security and scrutiny we go through upon arriving at the airport to the moment we board the planes. I personally feel the trained eyes of employees at the airport and the airlines themselves have an eye on each and every one of us. In a moment’s notice we can all be extricated from a flight for the slightest suspicion. From how we pack our bags and what we can bring on to an aircraft and how we clear security takes patience and a clear head. We all have become a little more apprehensive of the person we sit next to and may even have nervous conversation to calm our own fears. It’s become a “know something – say something” climate in not only in our travels but living our everyday life. General Colin Powell had stated “You can be sure that the American spirit will prevail over this tragedy.”
Over the next several years, what seemed like a much shorter period time, not a day would not go by without something new being revealed of day’s events. Whether that identification of the last human remains being found, to naming the culprits of this terror or even the pledge of rebuilding stronger as a tribute to all those lives lost, each day seemed to keep reliving the day as if it were on an old vinyl skipping a track and repeating over and over again. We as a nation, pledged “we will not forget” but over time it’s not that we forgot, but other newsworthy items began to take the lead in the morning newspapers and on the evening newscasts. Soon, it was only the days leading up the anniversary and the live coverage and the distinct sound of a bell being rung with each name being announced in a perfectly choreographed memorial ceremony.
I don’t believe Americans have forgotten this day as we’ve learned to live around the day.
As our country embarks on the twentieth anniversary since the September 11, 2001 terrorists’ attacks, some of us will still cringe and shake our heads wondering how something so despicable could happen despite all the evidence found this was building up for years before the actual attack. Others of us may look at this as this was the wakeup call which our overly patriotic, proud country needed to be remind us of our freedom is not necessarily free while others feel this was an inside conspiracy with intention to create internal strife and tension with the current federal administration. I am the one, when I see the plane aiming for the second Tower, I still jump in my seat, have a tear in my eye, still as hurt as the day it happened and not fully grasp the whole global political purpose and the consequences this caused.
The life’s lessons of this day were not as important to me as the outcomes in the following days. It was this day, many of us reflected on when we all united as were Americans. We wore our patriotism stronger than any day in recent times and we forgot once for which political party we belonged to and what divided our nation, but took time to reflect on us, us as Americans, who truly “pledge allegiance to my flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” and to live by President Kennedy’s words, “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
For me personally, I learned to take time to greet people and sincerely ask “how are you doing?” and patiently wait for the reply before continuing my way. I pick up the telephone more frequently (still not quite enough) to reach out to family and friends to just catch up from the last time we connected. I don’t take for granted my today, my health, my freedoms, I just try simply be better than my yesterday. Looking back to where I was to where I am now, I became more spiritually connected and mindful of the present. Although, I don’t stop to think of the events transpiring that actual autumn day, I will always remember September 11, 2001 as the day the entire Earth skipped a heartbeat and the day that time stood still, albeit for a brief moment in time.
On this anniversary, I challenge you to find at least one way to make yourselves not only a better American, but a better member of the human race. When tomorrow’s sunrises, I will find one of my local happy places and take time for reflection, remembrance and find inner peace on this milestone anniversary. God Bless our United States of America.
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