Ok, I have been thinking about this post for a few days now and am finally coming to grips with posting...
September 11, 2001 was a very difficult day for me as well as numerous other Americans. As with all of us we will not forget where we where or what we were doing when the Towers were hit. I was in my office working when I overheard a co-worker talking about a plane hitting the one of the Twin Towers. I was thinking this must be a joke, so I decided to call a family member to see if he was telling the truth. Well the reaction on the other end of the phone wasn't what I expected at all. She turned on the television and said, "Oh my God! Melissa, let me call you back!" So here I am sitting in my office going, what the hell is going outside of these four walls? We don't have cable or anything in my office so it was up to the radio to relay the message to us all. I finally get a call back in what seemed like an eternity obviously confirming what my co-worker was saying. I remember trying to get onto CNN.com, MSNBC.com, etc. with no luck. Their sites were bogged down with all of the hits trying to find out what was wrong... So again, back to radio... Now I know what my elders went through when JFK was assassinated. They didn't have the luxury of television or DSL. They heard it on the radio. Not being able to see what happened was really bothering me. I am an extremely visual person and like to relate that way. In the industry that I am in I didn't have time to stop working. I had to continue although I just went through the motions. I was grabbing a file when I heard another girl in the office shout out; one of the Towers has fallen. Chills went down my spine; I couldn't believe something so massive could be destroyed within hours. These two buildings were engineering marvels and to lose that in such a short about of time is devastating.
To think of all of the people in those Towers who lost their lives who didn't even have a chance to say good-bye to their families say that one last I love you. We all go through the leaving pissed off at your significant other... How do you live with that or yourself if you were in that situation?
And then to hear of Flight 93 essentially flying over my office building? Talk about scaring the shit out of you! Here's the path of Flight 93. My office is near the far left dot or referred to on the site as #10. My office overlooks Lake Erie and I see planes fly by all of the time as we are over Cleveland Hopkins International Airport landing/take-off flight pattern. So to see planes are nothing. Thankfully I didn't exactly see the plane, but to know that it so "close to home" is freaky. The planes where then grounded... It was eerily quite for that duration of time. I would hear the Coast Guard flying by and you'd think that it was the end of the world. You thought that it was going to fly through your window and you were going to be next. It put a state of fear in everyone. I mean my office building isn't 100 stories high or anything. It's 5 stories, but to be elevated at that point in time wasn't the best feeling in the world.
Throughout this whole time I was thinking about my daughter at home... She wasn't even three months old and here she is an innocent infant living through history. She will be reading about this in her history books in the future. Like me living through the Challenger explosion. I was in school sitting around the television cart all excited to see this space shuttle take off and then it explodes in front of my eyes.
Lunchtime comes around and we decide to pick up some salads from a local Italian restaurant, Danny Boy's. They happened to have two televisions in there, which I didn't notice until that day... My boss and I were watching the accounts unfold on the screen... We couldn't believe our eyes. We almost didn't leave we were stunned. We mustered it up to go back into the office and to barely eat. To see what they were explaining on the radio was so devastating.
I understand that we have lost the whole patriotism, with a quick hurry I might add. But to see all of us unite for a short amount of time was truly rewarding. We didn't have race cards thrown into the mix. We all Americans and we acted proud of our country... What happened to that? What has happened to us 4 years later? We are the same old greedy bastards who want more!
I have made a few trips out to Las Vegas and every time I go to the corner of New-York, New York. I like to view the memorial our fellow Americans have created there. The very first time I was there it was so depressing. You were engrossed in the music and reading the quotes that were said during this horrific event. With all of the hustle and bustle of Vegas and the strip you totally forgot where you were for a brief moment and I was actually crying. I finally came to realize that I couldn't torture myself like that and decided to leave... Thank you Las Vegas for the memorial. It is truly touching and something that I will never forget!
My heart goes out to each and every police officer, fireman, paramedic, EMT, employee of any of the businesses/company and family member of the Twin Towers. All of you are my heroes. You gave up so much for us, your fellow Americans.
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