nmah149.xml

nmah149.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-18

In San Francisco:

I woke up to the sound of my phone, hearing the answering machine turn on. "Jeff, turn on your TV." (It was my stepfather, calling from Oklahoma.) "Someone's flown some planes into the World Trade Center Buildings in New York."

I got up, picked up the portable phone and started dialing as I turned on the television. The picture appeared on the set just as my stepfather answered the phone, and I saw an image of the first tower with a large horizonal black gash about 2/3's the way up. "This is an act of war," I thought, long before the media said that phrase.

We talked, and I turned the computer on to see the New York Times web site's coverage of this. A story was already on their site, with sketchy information -- honestly, that they were already putting the electronic copy up there was quite a task, in itself.

By then, a friend had arrived at my place to do some work on my windows, and was watching the coverage in my living room. I heard him yelp, and then shout, "come in here, Jeff!" and went to see one of the towers collapse, leaving only 1 WTC. (I have the ability to pause/replay my TV feed, so we watched it a few times.)

I went back to see the NY Times site, and after a few minutes, hit `reload' to see any further news they had. On one `reload', it stopped half-way through and returned an error.

The second tower had fallen, and my IP link to the NY Times had been interrupted at that moment.

And, through the miracles of modern technology, I was an involuntary eyewitness to a mass murder. I replayed it on my television a few times, cried a lot, and after Thursday, turned off the television news and haven't seen video footage of that day, since.

I've seen a lot of "The Simpsons" reruns of late. It helps.

In the face of the September 11 tragedy, I've had to ask what's worth spending my time on.

I don't have an answer, but am going to start teaching Math to middle school students next week. The pay's awful, but it's one way I can help make life a little brighter for the next generation.

They are the generation that will have to build a world out of what we're leaving for them.

The way that the meanest, hardest, nastiest folks in this country - New Yorkers - behaved like mature, giving, terrific folks in the face of unspeakable horror.

The way that a group of passengers on the last plane forced it down, ending their own lives, because they knew that the plane was to be used as a missile against their own country.

I didn't, because I'd just moved and too much was in disarray.

I will, however, fly one as appropriate.