story1138.xml

story1138.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-19

Where to start? I was away from my normal job on September 11th, volunteering at the Southern Governor's Association meeting in Lexington, Kentucky. I'd been there since the 9th of September and the 11th was the last and closing day of the meeting. I woke up that morning around 7:30, dressed, and headed over to the Marriott where the meeting was being held. I expected a busy day driving staffers and personnel back and forth to the airport for their flights out of town. Around 8:50 a.m. my cell phone rang...it was my mother. This wasn't unusual since she called me just about everyday. We talked for a minute, then she said (very nonchalantly) "You should turn on a t.v...a plane hit the World Trade Center a few minutes ago". I finished up my conversation and told everyone what she'd said. No one else had heard about it either. We headed for the bar area of the Marriott and commandeered a television. What I saw blew me away. There it was, one of the buildings smoking profusely. I thought, this is weird...why would a big plane fly into the tower on such a clear day? Terrorism never crossed my mind. That all changed a couple minutes later when the second plane came into the shot and plowed into the other tower. By this time there was a sizeable crowd in the bar and all the tv's were on. You could hear an audible gasp. God, that gasp...I'd never heard anything like it. That's what sticks in my head. It was like it hit home to everyone in the room right at the same millisecond. We then knew it was terrorism.

You see, none of us thought about it at first. Then, gradually, people started talking about where we were. I mean, we had 9 southern governors right there in one location. Hell, just the day before, on Monday the 10th, Vice President Cheney had been there giving a speech. You have to remember, at that moment, anything seemed possible. Then someone reminded us that the official itinerary showed that the Vice President would be there on Tuesday, September 11th. Now what? Would whoever was doing this come after the hotel we were in? I know, it's Kentucky...like anything like that would happen here. But again, anything seemed possible at this point and people started to worry.

By this time, the other two planes had gone down too...into the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania. The security details for each governor scrambled to get everything together and get their "packages" home ASAP. Then came the word that the airports were closed...indefinitely. That's when the real panic set in for us. I mean, we had 9 governors there. How are we supposed to get the governor of Louisiana home without a plane? Are we just supposed to drive him home or something? In fact, that's exactly what they did. Each security detail commandeered a rental vehicle that we'd been using that weekend. Nearly all of them started off by noon towards their state lines. That was the plan...each governor would drive to the next state line where that state's troopers would take over his security. They were responsible for getting each one of them through their state until they got to the next one, and so on and so on. Everything went off without a hitch and all the governors got home safely. To say the ones, like me, that were left behind were shaken up would be an understatement.

So where does this leave us? I mean, the threat of terrorism is still just as real, if not moreso, than before September 11th. I've become facinated with the whole ordeal...reading everything I can get my hands on, watching every show devoted to it, looking at the video as much as possible. I try to find everything I can about the people on the planes, the people in the towers, the Pentagon, Shanksville, and those brave souls who rushed in without a thought about their own safety or lives. I hope I never have to see a day like that again, although that may be a wishful thought in the day and age that we now live. One thing's for sure...I won't let people forget...I won't let people become passive to September 11th. That day is my generations Pearl Harbor. I want every generation to come to remember those people, those firefighters and policemen. I want them to remain angry (in a constructive way) at the terrorists and the factions that cause this pain. I want them to understand that not all people of dark skin, Middle Eastern decent, or Muslims are terrorists. Most of them are just like us, they just want to live and let live. But most of all, I want them to understand that we control what happens...that we can't keep acting like we're above everyone else. This only breeds contempt and hate. And that's what leads to September 11th's.