There are many events in your life that warrant celebrations… anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas, New Years, and so on. Most ancient individuals my age remember where they were when John F. Kennedy died, and quite frankly my recollection of that particular tragedy was always a little clouded, being only 4. My JFK tragedy moment was actually 5 years later when Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy died in 1968. But the adult version was years later in 1977 when Elvis died. So remember thinking as a child, does all politicians and important people in history meet tragic demise? Fast forward many years to September 11, 2001. Having just flown to and from New Orleans a month earlier, the essence of flying was fresh on my mind. There wasn’t much happening in the news, the Chandra Levy scandal was the biggest, not much else. Waking up that morning was very uneventful, grabbing a cigarette and coffee, surfing the net on my giant desktop, not quite certain it wasn’t dial-up. Getting ready for work, and back then getting up late, going in late. Watching the Today show, breaking news came across the screen, “Plane crashes into the World Trade Center”, not really thinking that much about it, and just getting out of the shower the thought crossed my mind, you know, those towers are so huge, I’m really surprised this hasn’t happened before now. By this time it was, 8:45am Eastern time, my time was 7:45am, walked out of my house a little after 8:00 still thinking it was a small plane. Turning on the Bob and Tom show, a syndicated daily comedy broadcast, there was a very solemn air in all of their voices none like had ever heard before, what, no laughing, no flaking off, joking, whats up? That moment the world as we knew it changed forever, a second plane had indeed hit the world trade towers. Finally, at work, everyone was glued to the TV, no one had i-phones or androids to watch separately, everyone watched together, as one. Then the news of a plane in Pennsylvania that was “shot down”,
then obviously we all found out days later that the brave souls on that plane were the first casualties of the war on terror. After watching in horror as mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters alike jumped to their death. Then came the kicker, both towers falling just minutes from each other. What a sight, that image burned in my mind forever. September 11th 2001 will be forgotten by no one. The days after the tragedy were quite frankly our most euphoric feeling ever experienced as a human, people were very kind to their fellow man, helping each other, spending more time with their families and loved ones, less murder, less stealing. You know, life has its way of teaching us about ourselves, slow down, love your family, your work will be there tomorrow, your problems will always be there, let the person go ahead of you in line. Isn’t it so ironic that out of something so horrible, comes good?
There were heroes made that day 10 years ago, lessons learned and lessons taught, from flight 93 in Pennsylvania to the brave police and fire fighters in New York and Washington. We all learned many lessons that September day, not to take the day for granted, not to take life for granted. What has ten years out done to us as a nation? We have tighter security at airports and have become prisoners in our own country, we all have individual i-phone televisions and computers we carry around, we have all reverted back to our old ways of arguing, fighting, killing and stealing. The economy in shambles, our credit rating reduced, health care problems, baby boomers getting retirement age, the only bright light in the whole equation, we killed Bin Laden! Did we not learn anything? Did all those individuals die in vain? Some of you might not want to admit that someone is in charge of you and this world, but there is. Not getting on a religious rant, but during that time 10 years ago, when we were under attack, and not knowing what was in store, who did YOU turn to? My point is, the next event we have will make 911 look like a cocktail mixer, whether it be economic or another terrorist attack, so don’t take your fellow-man for granted, hold your tongue when you start to say something negative about someone, be kind and less jaded because we are all just a blink away from a 911.
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