story5082.xml

story5082.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I wasn't on a plane or in an airport. I wasn't in NY, Washington D.C. or Western PA. My family members, though at the center of the attack in NY all survived. My friends, though running for their lives, and watching with sickening horror at the events unfolding, lived. I am one of the millions so close to the events of that day, yet so far. I watched with horror at the World Trade Center burning, the Pentegon crumbling in on itself, and the smoke rising from a field. I kept walking back to my desk from the TV and making calls. One to my mother. One to my best friend from high school who worked in NY. One to US Airways to cancel the flight I was supposed to take Friday, September 14. One to my best friend who lived outside of Pittsburg. I didn't see the Towers fall. But I saw the aftermath in the firefighters' faces as they went back in to rescue those they had lost.

I didn't think I had a right to grieve. To be angry, and upset and vengeful, yes, but not to grieve. Then I saw two fighter jets patroling the skys over NY and Washington, DC. And a carrier ship was making its way up from Virginia to NY. And it struck me that in an instant, when the first plane was hi-jacked at 8:46 AM that morning, MY world had changed. Our airspace would forever be patroled. We would forever be wary of another attack being carried out on a beautiful, random day for no reason. There would be alerts and warnings and things being done by our Government that we don't even want to know about to protect our borders, our interests, our lives.

So I mourned. I still cry when I see the images of the havoc wrought that day. And I grieve, along with those who lost loved ones, for the lives lost, for the innocence lost, and a world changed.