May We Never Forget
It was sunny and the sky was clear. That was what was so strange about it, six years ago. I was sitting in my "office," which at the time was literally a production studio about the size of a closet, and the TV over my head was on, but muted, as I scanned the newspaper and the wire and worked out a game plan for the stories of the day. I just happened to look up -- and see the smoke coming from the first tower. I thought it was a fluke. I think most of us did. Until that second plane hit the second tower, which I watched unfold on live television. Within seconds, the phone was ringing and the boss was calling to ask me to go to the federal building downtown, to a small town nearby where of all things a counter-terrorism expert who'd predicted Al Qaida would attack the US lived, to the airport after it was shut down and tourists and business travelers were stranded.
In one sense, it was a day that felt like it went on forever, a day filled with adrenaline. I wrote stories that day that never made it on the air, because the towers collapsed and the Pentagon was hit, and we stayed in "network" news for several days. When I finally did make it home that night, late, I remember sinking to the couch and just bawling.
Gladly, I will endure any inconvenience at the schools, at the airports, and even in the malls -- if it means we never have to face another day like that day. There's a part of me that's a little sad that Sam, who was born after 9/11/01, will never quite known what it was like to be alive before our rude awakening. But another part of me knows we are more vigilant, that we will not let our guard down again, as the unfortunate result of that terrible, sunny day.
May we never forget what we learned and what it cost.
In one sense, it was a day that felt like it went on forever, a day filled with adrenaline. I wrote stories that day that never made it on the air, because the towers collapsed and the Pentagon was hit, and we stayed in "network" news for several days. When I finally did make it home that night, late, I remember sinking to the couch and just bawling.
Gladly, I will endure any inconvenience at the schools, at the airports, and even in the malls -- if it means we never have to face another day like that day. There's a part of me that's a little sad that Sam, who was born after 9/11/01, will never quite known what it was like to be alive before our rude awakening. But another part of me knows we are more vigilant, that we will not let our guard down again, as the unfortunate result of that terrible, sunny day.
May we never forget what we learned and what it cost.