Today is the 14th anniversary of the trashing of the Twin Towers in NYC. Today, as then, I am at work.
I remember the day. It was a moderate day, so we had a few rooms open. George, the tech, came scooting in and claimed an airplane had crashed into one of the Twin Towers in NYC. George had a reputation of being somewhat of a practical joker, so everyone’s first reaction was,
“Right! We don’t buy it.”
But then he went into Room 5, which faced out onto the center section of the room, and turned on the TV (no one was in the room). There we all saw the TV feed of a smoke cloud coming from one of the World Trade Center towers. We were watching, speculating on just what had happened when we all saw the second airliner impact the second tower. It was a chilling sight. One could clearly see it was an airliner and that it was winging in toward the tower, to impact it directly.
I remember thinking at the time it was the work of Iranian intelligence people. Our relations with Iran were hardly good, and those nasties were known to do crazy things. I expected they had recruited people to perform the deed as part of their continuing war with us. I am still not wholly convinced there isn’t some truth in that.
The immediate aftermath of the event, at least in Chicago, was a form of controlled chaos. It seemed the government had no real idea how it was suppose to react. We fully expected to be told that we were there to stay, at least for a day or two. Instead we ended up simply finishing our shift and going home. Indeed, I believe people all over the country just kept going.
But not the government. They appeared sclerosed. They didn’t seem to have a response. They launched fighters to shoot down airplanes. They grounded the whole air traffic system! A friend of mine who owned a Bonanza was visiting Montana with it and was grounded for 2 days – in the middle of nowhere.
Today, 14 years later, we are still saddled with the TSA. They STILL won’t allow you to take those little key-chain “knives” on board because they are “weapons”. They have this silly 3oz rule simply because they have no idea how to counter composite explosives so they pretend that this measure does something. Indeed, 2 bottles, 3 oz each, of the composite, mixed onboard an aircraft and set off with a simple fuse would blow the whole thing to bits. And it would get through TSA every time.
?So what were your experiences on September 11, 14 years ago.
At my keyboard, when the phone rang; my Dad insisted Mom and I should turn on the TV – something he rarely approved of; Satellite feed from WABC in NYC; horrifying to watch even reporters covered in dust…Gathering for prayer at church that evening, stunned: It was hard to pray with a heart full of anger I had no place to put – I still don’t know what to do with it…