nmah5679.xml

nmah5679.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-09-09

I remember that morning so clearly... I was on the drive into work from downtown Cleveland, OH, to Independence. For some strange reason, I was listening to the Howard Stern Show. I normally am offended by his show, so am not quite certain why I happened to be on that station. Anyway, all of the sudden, I heard brief profanity, and heard Howard Stern screaming that a bomb had gone off in one of the towers, and that he could feel it. He had someone immediately on the air that lived in Battery Park, who had a direct view of the towers. That person was screaming that the 'towel-heads' had set off a bomb. I was immediately confused, and turned to NPR to see if this was a joke, or if it was real. Each station in Cleveland that had NPR was simply playing classical music - no one was reporting on any bombings.

I continued flipping back and forth between the chaos on the Howard Stern show, and the classical music on NPR, convinced that this was one of Stern's jokes. Then, at last, NPR caught wind of the news, and I was immediately aware that it was true - We all thought a bomb went off in one of the Trade Center towers.

I immediately tried to call everyone I could to wake them up or get them in front of a TV. I had much difficulty getting through as all of the cellular lines were clogged and making a phone call was nearly impossible. I woke my parents up in Destin, FL, and told them to quickly turn on the TV. As I listened to CNN through the phone, I heard them report that they thought it was an airplane, not a bomb.

I reached the office to find all of our employees glued to the television in the conference room. One of our top salesmen was in tears - his sister and brother-in-law just got back from their honeymoon, and they both worked in the first tower to get hit. As I set my attache down and watched the screen, the second tower burst into flames. I ran to my desk, grabbed my phone book and all the work I needed, and headed back to the conference room to excuse myself for the day. As I stood there talking to everyone, making sure everyone was in touch with their loved ones and giving everyone the option to go home for the day, The Pentagon was hit.

At this point, I went back home and glued myself to the television to watch the rest of the day unveil, horrifyingly, in front of my eyes. My brother and nephew came over, as well as a number of friends, and we all huddled together in the family room for the entire day. Without saying much to each other, we made meals and watched the news. Our biggest fear was that the airlines crashing was only the beginning. As we watched the towers fall over and over again, we each were anticipating the breaking news of another catastrophe, another attack. The fact that it didn't come gave us minimal hope that some semblance of the life we once knew could indeed come back. We were wrong. Life has changed forever.

Since that day, I have a constant awareness now that I never used to have - one that states that I am not safe. Just this past summer (2003), we had the largest black-out in the history of the United States. 1/4 of the country was without power for a number of hours - some cities, like mine, for days. And, as I drove to the office initially thinking it was a local outage due to air conditioners, something was telling me that just wasn't right. As I learned through NPR that it was a better portion of the northeastern United States, my first thought was another terror attack. I turned around and went home to wait for more information. I wonder - if 9/11 had not happened, how would I have reacted differently? Would I have continued driving to work at 4:35pm that day, assuming it was just a technical glitch? I wonder...

While the tragedy will never be forgotton - it has been documented in every imaginable form - the real story is of what DIDN'T happen. We didn't panic. We didn't fall apart. We didn't give up. We didn't give in. And, we didn't stand for it. That is the story of September 11.

Yes, and yes.