9/11 - Remembered

It’s hard to believe that eight years has past since that fateful day. I still recall the horror and the feeling of helplessness as the world watched what transpired in New York City, Washington, and Pennsylvania.

I was actually traveling that week and was in Washington attending a training class that day a few miles from the Pentagon. It was during a break in the class that someone said, “Hey look at this!”. They had surfed to a site that had pictures of the first plane hitting the twin towers. At that point, it appeared to be only a horrid accident. Within minutes though we heard of the second plane into the World Trade Center and then the plane crashing into the Pentagon a few miles away. We knew then that these couldn’t be mere accidents. That awful realization drummed up a singular feeling of dread that we all shared, tasted and had to react to.

The training class I was in was summarily dismissed with the message “It might be canceled altogether but, please access this web site this evening for more information”. At that point, the class was certainly the furthest thing from our minds…as the first tower fell.

The traffic in and around Washington DC became an almost instant snarl. Every major artery was filled with cars trying to get out of the Washington DC metro area. Back to loved ones, to safety… just away.

I had no means to immediately get mobile. Nor did I have any inclination to do so. Like many other folks in that situation, I spent the rest of that day in a hotel bar staring at CNN, watching the next tower fall and hearing of all the other related activities that were transpiring around the country.

Surely this was something that would not go unanswered. We needed / wanted to know who was responsible and who were are adversaries. The term “Terrorist” wasn’t something we were used to discussing on American soil. The news agencies reminded us of the bombing at the world trade center back in the early 1990’s. I had forgotten that incident, (almost) this was surely something we all would never forget.

In all, I’m told that just shy of 3,000 people last their lives that day including the 19 hijackers. This is a staggering one day death toll regardless of circumstances but, even more galling because of the manner and targets chosen for this attack. In the days, weeks and months to come we would become very acquainted with the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization which have become the boogyman in this episode. The quest to find their leader, Osama bin Laden, and bringing him to face the charges for this attack became synonymous with reasons to go to war with Iraq/Afghanistan and the beginnings of the “War on Teror” which we are still embroiled with today.

We shall never forget this event or the way it has shaped the balance of the past decade. It has surely changed the way we look upon much of our daily lives and the way we view the world.