story7676.xml

story7676.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-16

I was at my mother's home dropping off my 1 year old son. I only worked on Tuesdays. I just started working and he wasn't used to being anywhere but home for long periods of time, so I came over an hour early. When I arrived, my mom had the news on. She said, I think some plane or something hit a building in New York. I thought it was a small plane that an amateur might have crashed or something. When the newscaster said it was a passenger plane, I thought maybe the controls on the plane had gone seriously awry and this was some sort of freak accident. There was no way I was ready to beleive that this was an attack. Then I saw the other plane hit. The news cameras were rolling. It was live coverage--no editing. I saw people begin to scream on the streets. Then I saw people jumping from the building. Some were holding each other. My sister said she saw a man and what looked like his son jump to their deaths. I thought, there must be a platform or something they are jumping onto. Again, I just couldn't conceive the full horror of it at first. I didn't want to beleive that people were jumping to their deaths because it was better than dying in an inferno. What a horrifying choice. I just sat and cried. I didn't know how I would be able to work. I am a counselor. I tore myself away from my son and went to work about a mile away. I saw clients that day and all they wanted to talk about was the bombing. So did I. My client cried and I had to fight to comfort them instead of breaking down myself. We had a wave of clients with anxiety problems after this incident. Every day four or five different referals came in for this issue. I wondered if the already vunerable population of people with elevated anxiety were pushed to their limit of coping after September 11, 2001. Later that day, my husband came home. It was his birthday and we planned to celebrate that night. We cancelled the baby sitter and ate chocolate cake while we watched the news all night. He had been in the federal court house. He's a lawyer. He worked next to a major power source in Baton Rouge. I was worried about him. My twin sister was in Greece, where my family is from. She said she had an American friend over on September 11. Her second child had just been born and it was loud. Her freind was watching the news. My sister wanted the television and all other noise to cease. Her freind with tears in her eyes explained that America was under attack. She cried for an hour along with her newborn. My cousin George was on route to New York (where he lives) back from Greece. He was re-routed to Switzerland for one week. In typical the New York hutzpah fashion he wanted to get back home. I remeber not knowing what would be attacked next. I had never experienced this kind of fear having grown up in America. I couldn't relate to my parent's stories about war in Greece. President Bush gave me hope. I know that sounds corny in this cynical age, but I really felt secure knowing that he was fighting back. I never said the pledge of alligiance before because I thought it was silly patriotic bullshit and that I was an international citizen, not just American. A year later I find myself waving the flag and singing the national anthem with pride and feeling. I used to make fun of the old WWII farts who were so patriotic. I grew up in the 80's after Vietnam. War and patriotism were old fashioned and outdated in an international world. I now think much less of the Vietnam protesters. Hippie dippie soldier haters. I know some of them really were trying to stop the killing, but why did it become so unfashionable to serve your country? I just didn't understand the WWII's at all. Now our soldiers and heros are rescue workers. Terrorism. Who would ever have thought it would come to our soil??? The anniversary came and went, but I will never forget that day. I will always remember the terror of the people who were in New York that day. What a nightmare. I hope it will remain a memory! By the way--God bless America!