Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Never Forget

I know I said that I wouldn't do any political posts on my blog going forward, but to me this doesn't qualify as political.

Eighteen years ago I was at work at the accounting firm I worked for then. My youngest had just had her first birthday in August. Life was just going along as it always had.  Then someone came into the hall outside my office and said that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. We all went to the conference room to watch the new of this horrible accident.  

Just about the time we had all gathered to watch the live feed the second plane hit, and it became obvious that these weren't accidents. I can still feel the shock followed by the anger that I felt at that moment. No one did much billable work that day as we all watched the news from that conference room.  The work just didn't seem important.

As the days passed and the aftermath of those attacks unfolded, I remember feeling the pride in my country and fellow Americans in how we came together and rallied behind the first responders who were dealing with the mess and the military as they prepared to respond.

Never forget means exactly that to me.

Today, when I look back, I still feel the anger over the attacks. I also feel a sense of sadness in how we have once again divided and battle with each other over the stupidest shit. It frustrates and saddens me that it will likely take something of that magnitude happening again to remind us that we are all in this together and that there are those who would see everything this amazing country has accomplished wiped from the face of the Earth. 

-Wayne


2 comments:

Nuke Road Warrior said...

I was in Washington State. The clock radio woke me with the news that "a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center". My first thought (admittedly still recovering from sleep) was did some idiot in a Cessna get lost and flew into cumulo-concrete? I finished getting ready for work and flipped on the TV. By this time I was aware one, that it was a commercial airliner, and two, a second airliner had crashed into the south tower. No way this was an accident! At the time I was working for a government contractor designing nuclear waste treatment facilities for the Hanford site. Not much work got done as everyone was following the story on the internet. At the back of our minds was the fact that the Border Patrol had stopped the "Millennial Bomber" at the Canadian border in 2000 just north of Seattle, could we be a target? Eventually they let us go home at noon, I think the DOE let all the nonessential worker go home for a half day, and I think the next day as well. No I can never forget, nor forgive.

Wayne said...

NRW - Thanks for sharing your story.

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