September 11, 2001 will forever be embedded in my very
soul. I remember the drive to work
listening to 97.3 FM. I remember when
they told of the first tower how I thought that it was such a horrid joke and
didn’t know why anyone would say that on the radio, but the more I listened the
more I thought maybe it’s not a joke. I
tuned the radio to WOWO. No, it wasn’t a
joke. For a moment I almost forgot how
to breath. The air seemed thicker than
usual. My mind was trying to wrap itself
around such a tragedy. As I pulled into
the parking lot of work the second plan hit.
The realization with the rest of the world that this was no accident was
slowly sinking in. I walked briskly into
the building as I had no cell phone at that time and went to the phones set up
in the hallway for employees. I called
my mom and dad and told them to turn on the news. My friend Chris was there with them. I walked into the call center as I did every
day but it was dead silent. That isn’t a
norm for a call center. I found my desk
and was logging into my systems as I saw supervisors wheeling television sets
out onto the floor. None of us could
fathom what was going on. You hear of
war on other soils, but it had been so long since one had been brought to our
lands, at least of this kind. There are
drug wars and inner city wars from gangs but this was a much larger attack on
our country. We tried our best to do our
work. The company was very quick to
offer assistance, people to talk with and breaks from your desk if you required
them. Most of the people who did call into the
center were not aware of what had happened and upon learning no longer had want
of us, but rather to reach out to their loved ones and make sure they were safe
whether they were in this state or another.
Television programming was all eyes on what was happening in New
York. We watched from work as the towers
fell. My mind went back to a few years
prior when I had been in New York and saw those proud towers for myself. The next few days the worlds eyes were glued
to the television screen. All minds were
wondering if we were about to go to a war here on our homeland and everyone
wanted to know how President Bush was going to react. My beloved dog Snickers had died in July of
that year so I hadn’t been outside as often as I had before he did, but it
seemed like that week I stood or sat outside a lot. I looked up at the sky. There was a no fly order. It seemed strange not to see plans in the
sky. The sky somehow looked brighter and
time seemed frozen in that moment. My
heart ached for those people that had died on that day and for their
families. I shed many a tear thinking of
what they must of endured. Before they
censored it they showed people choosing to jump to their death out of the tower
rather than burn. Magazines captured
pictures of people in mid fall. The
horror was all there for anyone to see.
People seemed to come together in that time. They forgot what color they were. They forgot how selfish and needy they
were. Everyone was reaching out to help
the other. Flags were at an all-time
high in sales. Work gave us flags for
our desk. There was no one saying we
couldn’t wave the flag because it offended someone. That really pisses me off when someone won’t
let our flag be shown in our country because it might offend someone who came
here from another country. I say let
them go back. The flag was here and
waving proudly long before they were.
There are whole generations of children that are now adults who were not
old enough to remember. I wonder how
many people went back to life as if it never happened after a year or so. I remember it. I keep it fresh in my mind. Evil exists.
True, pure evil that is meant to do nothing but destroy. I remember the deafening silence. The skies were empty it seemed. My heart still aches for those poor people
who endured that awful and painful journey to meet their demise. The brave men and women who ran into to try
to save lives and the ones who realized that there was no way out for them. I can’t imagine anything as horrible,
although as I stated true evil exists so there are things more so evil than
this was. Never forget was what we said. How many have forgotten or placed this
horrible day in the back of their minds.
As for me, I can still hear the silence.
It calls to me. It beckons me to
remember, to never forget. Yes, I still
hear the silence of that day. September
11, 2001.
