9/11/12

Today is the 11th anniversary of 9/11, otherwise known as the day I avoid the television, because I am still working on my lifetime goal of never again seeing the footage of the planes hitting the towers, the planes crashing in NY and PA again and the resulting destruction

However, its a pointless endeavor because around this time of year I can see the footage every time I close my eyes.

I was lucky.  One of my classmates died, who was a firefighter, but I have  friends who lost siblings, spouses and other loved ones.

I remember being in the waiting area of an emergency room when the planes hit, because I had taken an employee who had been in a car accident on the way to work to the ER, and trying to explain to a group of non New Yorkers just how big the towers are (were).

I remember getting sent home from work early and doing a massive food shop, because some how, surrounding myself with boxes of Kraft Mac N Cheese was going to make this better.

I remember the frantic phone calls, trying to track down my brother and friends who worked in the city.

I remember holding my son, who was a little over a year and wondering what kind of crazy world he was going to be a part of.

But being a bright side person, I try to think of 9/11 as a day when ordinary people did extraordinary things.  People often wonder if the circumstance arose if they would do the right thing.  The people who died that day were able to answer that question in the best way possible.

I also try to remember September 12th.  It was a day when everyone was a little kinder and a little less rushed.  It was a day when the whole world was a New Yorker.  Everyone hugged their loved ones closer and seemed a little more patient.

It was a time when the Yankees went to Fenway for a game and no one yelled “Yankees Suck”

However, it seemed that we lost those feelings such a short time after 9/11 as the even became politicized

Even now, we all try to grab that 9/12 spirit as the anniversary approaches, but the spirit tends to pass with the day, as people use the day for political gain.

My goal for the 11th anniversary of 9/11- Try to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice by keeping the 9/12 spirit alive.

2 comments

  1. I remember I was going into work, late that day, so I watched it on TV. I remember calling my Mom and Dad and my brother, because I needed to reach out to family.

    I remember my aviation brothers and sisters, who were the first to know. And I remember wondering where my now ex husband, a Flight Attendant, was working that morning. It was our 2nd wedding anniversary, that same day.

    And I remember the day at Canadian airports when we welcomed hundreds of airplanes from around the globe, which were en route to the United States, but couldn’t land, as American and then North American airspace shutdown, for the first time ever. I remember the quiet, as we worked at an airport with no takeoffs and landings for 3 days. I remember taking displaced crews to the mall, to buy food and necessities.

    I remember the bewildered faces as people got off airplanes in this little Canadian city, that they’d never heard of, and were put on school busses to go to community centres and school gyms hastily equipped with Canadian Red Cross cots and donated food from the locals. I remember heading over to my old university, where one of the gyms had been transformed into a shelter, with tupperware containers full of chicken salad sandwiches. Because in my part of the world, when someone dies, or unexpected neighbours drop in, you bring food.

    And I remember, when after 3 full days of silence, the planes started to take off, again. I remember being summoned to help process all those people to get back on airplanes. I remember handwriting passenger lists and hugging strangers as they nervously waited for the most intense security screening, and boarded airplanes.

    Your Canadian friends and neighbours remember too.

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