Then and now

September 11, 2001, I was driving to my first full time job listening to the Kidd Kraddick morning radio show when I heard the news that a plane had struck one of the Twin Towers. Of course, I was sad and I was trying to take in everything that they were saying, but it didn't give me that deep sick feeling until I got to the office and saw the plane, lodged inside the tower with smoke brewing from the plane.  You see, while I was driving and listening to the radio, I had a visual in my head that it was a small plane that crashed into the building and as tragic as that thought was, nothing compared to what I felt when my eyes actually saw what was going on in New York City.

I got to work just in time to witness the second plane hit the second tower.  Tears kept trickling down my face, as I knew that this couldn't have been an accident.  And as I kept my eyes glued to the TV, I watched people jumping to their death, I listened to the shear panic of the reporters and eventually, I witnessed both towers come crashing down to become piles of cement rubble.  I kept thinking this is America — why would anyone do this?  And then the eye witnessing reports came in as the Pentagon was hit and how another plane went down in Pennsylvania, which was reportedly headed for the White House.

Work was released as reports of gas prices were rising and I, like everyone else, drove panicky to the nearest gas station in Marion to fill up the tank in my car.  The fear was not only that the gas prices were going to double, but that there might be a shortage as well.

And then I drove home.  My home at the time was my first apartment.  I had just moved out of my parents’ house the week before 9/11 and I was enjoying my freedom, until that day.  That Tuesday, I wanted to move back home.  I wanted to be where I felt safe from the terrorists who came over to our great country and started turmoil.  However, I stayed put.  I sat on the first piece of furniture I had ever bought, a love seat, and I watched TV and cried and continued doing that until the next day.  Sleep never happened that night.  The fear of another attack somewhere else, somewhere closer to home was in my mind.  How do you prevent it from happening again?  Who was responsible for this deadly hate crime?

And in the coming days, we realized who was responsible for that day.  That person and his followers were responsible for families being ripped apart as they went on with their daily tasks not knowing their fate.  I still remember seeing on TV the people who were rescued from the debris, the American flags flying and hearing the heart-breaking stories of families who received phone calls from their loved ones in the towers before they met their maker.  And I will never forget this statement:

"I can hear you, the rest of the world can hear you and the people who knocked these buildings down will all of us soon." ~ George W. Bush

And almost ten years later, those lives that were lost on 9/11 and those lost fighting for our freedom and safety — they have not died in vain!