Monday, September 10, 2007

Rembering 9/11

Tomorrow will mark the 6th anniversary of 9/11. I am still to this day horrified by what the terrorists did. I am not living my life in fear of what may come, but I am aware that this country that I love is in danger. I think that too many people have forgotten the feelings that they had on that day. Living in California is like living in a whole other country. Because the attacks happened in New York, people here seem to be very removed from the whole fear and anger that people on the East coast and even in the Midwest felt that day.
I will always remember that I was at work and Michael was in the cubicle next to me. All of the sudden Michael poked his head over his cubicle and told me that he had just heard that a plane hit the world trade center. I turned on my radio as did several other people in the office and we were listening to reports when the second plane hit the tower. We all went to the break room and turned on the television and saw the media showing the second plane hitting the building. We all knew at that point that it was a terrorist attack. I called Ben and woke him up and told him to turn on the tv because 2 planes had crashed into the trade center. He thought I was joking at first. I left my office and drove to one of the workshops to visit clients and there was literally NO traffic on the streets. It was very eerie. When I got almost to the workshop I saw a man dressed in fatigues driving toward downtown to the National Guard station. I made my visit and headed back to the office. It was hard to concentrate that day not knowing what was going to happen next. Then came word that the pentagon had been hit and there was at least one plane still unaccounted for. All other planes had been landed safely. We all waited to hear reports of where that last plane was. When we heard that it crashed in a field there was almost a sense of relief, because at least another building hadn't been hit. Now, all the planes were down, but were there more terrorists on some of the planes that landed that were now going to carry out some other horrible act. Also, there was concern over whether the president would be coming to Omaha, since there is a safe bunker there for him. If the terrorists knew about that, would they come to Nebraska? I wanted to go home, but I had meetings that night and when I finally got home at 7p that night I hugged my child and my husband and sat entranced in the images of the day. I never want to forget that feeling, because it keeps me aware that the United States is no longer completely safe from terrorists.
A family friend had a daughter who died in the trade center that day. So in rememberance of her and all the other people who died that day I wanted to say that I have not forgotten.

3 comments:

A said...

Wow Jules...I don't think I had ever asked where you were THAT day. It was good to read your words. I have a pit in my stomach every year around this time. I can't help but think of the innocence we all lost that day. I remember being thankful that I didn't have children old enough to have to try to explain all that to, when I myself struggled with making sense out of it. The world got a lot smaller that day, didn't it, when we learned that Jennifer was among the many who died. I have not forgotten and never will. I think that even here in the midwest many have forgotten...and that is so sad. We can't afford to forget and let our guard down, can we?

So glad to hear that I am not alone in my rememberance of this day and my desire to never forget.

Love ya!

Melanie D. said...

I was in that very same office with you. I remember I visited CAN and then ended up taking "lunch" at my sister's to catch the news. It was surreal. Funny, I was just thinking about this today too. We planned a lesson about 9/11 to do with our students.

Michelle said...

thanks for sharing your memories of where you were that day, it's still unreal to me too.

I have been meaning to thank you for your comment on my "Hope and Normalcy, Part 2" post (I know, that was quite a while ago!) but your blog link doesn't show up in your profile. I finally got around to asking Melanie and she was nice enough to share it with me :) I know I had found it once before on her blog, but haven't had the time to search her archives! I am so far behind with emails and comments right now - hopefully I'll be able to catch up soon! But thank you again for your comment!