story20384.xml

story20384.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2006-09-10

I was living in Belize in 2001, where I owned a restaurant. I slept in late that morning because we had worked late the night before. My wife always gets up before me and on this particular morning, she woke me up to say that something strange was happening in the U.S. We lived in a rural area, so we had no TV, only radio and dial up internet. She said the radio stated that all flights into and in the U.S. had been cancelled. I simply did not believe her and assumed she had heard the radio wrong. But as I listened, we realized something serious had happened. As the stroy unfolded, I went into shock. As an ex sailor, I was at Beirut when the Marine Barracks was destroyed, and I had seen my share of destruction. For the first and last time in my life I wept. I knew that this was going to change the world and my country forever, in what way I did not know. But I was afraid it was going to be for the worse. Five years later, my eyes still well when I think of it, and I refuse to watch the endless TV shows reliving the events. I pray my country comes out of this better and stronger.