Reflecting on September 11th

I’m not 100% sure I will get this right, as it has been 2 years, and it was all so surreal to begin with. I’ll attempt to remain unvarnished, and attempt to portray my actual thoughts. So, Click MORE to see what NiteMayr thought of September 11, 2001.

At Around 8:00 AM (EST) I was arriving at my desk on the 7th(?) floor of the office building where I worked. It was a normal day, I had been listening to my Mp3 player, and not the Radio on my way in. It was a typical Tuesday morning.Later, Doug (Sweedish Chef) came into the office and told us that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. We all began to scramble for news, and ran to the TV in the lunch room for news. Sure enough a plane had crashed into it he world trade center. The newscaster was talking about another plane abut to crash, but it wasn’t true, just some smoke.

We ran back to our desks and started scambling for news feeds about what was going on in New York. Luckily the local 24 hour news station had a live feed and it was clear and strong. That feed never halted for the rest of the day.

Now, my recollection of the events become real hazy, as I was blinded by the thought that the US government might have actually “let” some planes fly into buildings to justify some nefarious agenda. And I said as much to the people around me. When we were told it was “palestinians” I was willing to believe it, but found it hard to believe just the same.

When the first tower when down, the newscaster said ” I don’t want to think about what that looked like” It looked like a mushroom cloud to me too.

Around this time the CN tower was evacuated and there was some sort of fire in a parking garage down town. We could see the CN tower really clearly from our office, we thought we might have had a seat for yet another plane crash. The planes never came.

I was a wreck by this point, but we could not leave the office. We had been told to stay and work, as customers may need help.

It turns out that more than a few people did indeed need help with their stupid computers that day. A few people in Virginia earned my undying emnity that day, for knowing what was going on, but continuing business as normal. these were schools… I would have sent the kids home, to be with their families, to deal with this insane day.

The day rolled on, with endless shots of the planes and the buildings…It ground me down.

On the way home. I was sitting on a bus, south on Don Mills, I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that this WAS just like the movies. The streets were empty, the papers were screaming the headlines from that morning…I eyed every arabic man I saw with suspicion.

When I got home I couldn’t stop watching the news, then the ghouls started showing the people falling form the buildings, it was too much, I started crying and blubbering over it, I still do when I see that footage.

You see, I had just been there.

I had just stood there, where the people were falling, and dying.

I was there, just a week earlier.

Now it was gone.

Two weeks before the Towers fell, I was in New Jersey, embarrassed at how impressed I was by the towers, and apparently charming the Taxi Driver by my Awe and embarassment.

Now, these two buildings, that I found so amazing were gone.

I woke up each day in New Jersey, with a view of the Empire State Building and with a little effort of my own, got to see the towers up close, (from where Homer Saw them)

I was devastated by the whole thing.

I would never get to share this experience with my Daughter, never let my wife hold me close in fear and terror from the sheer height of them.

I hated the people who let this happen, I was, and remain sure that the Bush government LET this happen.

Osama needed to be caught, but so did the fools who let this happen.

I still ask myself, how did four planes escape capture or destruction at the hands of the worlds most formidable Air force?

How did the worlds most secure building get hit by a plane, especially after the same thing had been attempted just years earlier at the white house.