10 Years

Today is 10 years since the 9/11 attacks of 2001 on the Wold Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.  I haven't watched to much of the coverage but in recent days I have been asked and recounted several times where I was on the morning of 9/11/2001.  I can't remember if I've related my experience here on the blog already or now but here goes...

In September of 2001 I was a Junior attending college in Bristol, R.I.  This year I had moved into one of the new dorms on campus with my roommate from the previous year.  Move-In had likely been late August so the routine of classes, work, etc. had begun to take hold. Somewhere along the line my roommate had set the clock radio to wake to a public-radio channel which typically did news at the top of the hour.

I probably had a 9:30 class so that morning radio had gone off perhaps 8:30 or so. The radio went off and I stayed in my top-bunk for a while listening to the newscast. Among the stories was that there were early reports that a plane had hit one of the towers of the World Trade Center. I distinctly remember on hearing this first report not being alarmed in anyway. I knew in the back of my mind that small planes had in the past hit the higher buildings in NY, I assumed that this was probably an amateur Cessna pilot.

Eventually reports started to come in that the plane was at least a 737 size possible 747. I was more awake now at this point and that didn't seem possible to me, how would a plane that size being guided by air traffic make that kind of mistake? I climbed down from the top bunk and logged into my computer and pulled up the TV-Tuner app, by this point the CNN Anchors were on the roof and you could see the smoke billowing from the top of one of the towers. Eventually my roommate joined me by the TV and we realized what a big deal this was, then in the midst of debate, watched the second plane hit live over the shoulders of the CNN Anchors at about 9am.

I don't think anyone was quite sure what to do at this point but I ended making it to my 9:30 class some kind of math or accounting if I remember right. If there was a TV it was one and after that one class the university canceled all classes. I stuck with my routine and headed to work at IT where everyone was similarly glued to TVs and was soon sent home from work.

...From there I remember mostly isolated events and not the exact timeline.  I remember watching TV and flipping through the channels and every channel except I think Nickelodeon and Cartoon network had transformed itself into a news channel.  I remember hearing rumors of military activity so we went down to the Naval base in Newport, R.I. to see if we could see anything.  I remember watching the House and Senate sing "God Bless America" on the steps of the United States Capitol. I don't remember if I saw the towers come down live or not but in recalling things this week it struck me how unprepared I think anyone was for that there's just no precedent for it two giant sky scrapers collapsing. It was all completely beyond imagination at the time.

I remember thinking in the initial days after that this would be something that America would move on quickly from. I still can't put my finger on why but I really believed that 10-years later it wouldn't be a big deal America would go on as it always had. Perhaps that was my way of rationalizing it all. I remember my parents and teachers being able to recount exactly where they had been when President Kennedy was shot and thinking how I'd never experienced that...until September 11th 2001.

To my knowledge I didn't know anyone personally who died in any of the attacks. To those that did I can't begin to imagine what it must have been...what it must be...like. It is important of course that we stop and remember them, their families, and the public servants who all sacraficed more then anyone should ever be asked.

* * *

I look back on those 10 years and my life has changed perhaps as profoundly, as has this country. We hear it a lot but hey a lot can, and did, happen in 10 years.  I made it to California and back, with a different job and a different state to call home upon my return. We've entered two wars as a country, elected the first African American President, and said goodbye to the national icon that was the Space Shuttle.

I must admit that when I look back I can't help but think of the Election of 2000. If it ever was a secret that I voted for Gore it must be the worst kept secret in history.  I vote for Gore as did a majority of the people in this country. The Supreme Court chose to throw out 200+ years worth of democratic principle and install a new president. Several independent investigations of the votes left uncounted in FL have indicated that in all likelihood had they been counted Al Gore would have been president.

There's no doubt in my mind that would have set the country on a vastly different, I believe more prosperous, track. Some might just say "Let it go already!" We can't let if go because if we let it go we may be doomed to repeat that piece of history and we may never find our way out of the wilderness it is clear to many we are fumbling through right now as a country.  We need to find a way back to "of the people, by the people, for the people" and not "Big Bad Government" v. "people" if we can't find our way back there then this great experiment has failed and we have failed all who have come before us and sacraficed for it.