story9855.xml

story9855.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-09-11

At first I didn't take it seriously. In fact, when a coworker told me a plane had hit one of the Trade Towers I thought it was a small plane, and that it was an accident. For a second I thought it was a sick joke being aired as a publicity stunt for a radio station, you know, like War of the Worlds. No one in management said anything. When I got to take a break a couple of hours later, I saw the tv coverage on CNN. I sat down, stunned. The news was saying that maybe 10,000 people were in the buildings.
I felt so helpless. I'm trained in Red Cross Disaster Relief and I'm a first responder. I wanted to get to the city and do something, anything. In the end I had to go back to work and finish my shift til 6pm. I remember a young girl coming in with her mother - she was pale and quiet. She politely asked me if we had any American flags. I took her over to a 3 month old display that was still full of flags that had been reduced in price because they weren't selling. She picked one out and turned to go. That was the only item they had come for. Those flags sold out within the next two hours and we were out of stock for months after that - selling through each shipment of flags before they'd barely reached the sales floor.
It was a horrible day, but one that made me think. What is the price of freedom? What is the value of humanity? What are Americans made of, and how can we share that with the world in a positive way?