story8708.xml

story8708.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-12-03

I listened as my co-worker's radio broadcast the first tower hit, then shortly, the second tower. Then, the radio announcer broadcast that the Pentagon was hit. Instantly, I thought that we were at war and our lives changed permanently. I left the building and drove home to watch any further news on the television. Luckily, nothing else happened.
The graphic video images came next, and repeatedly were re-run detailing the horrid vision of planes impacting buildings. It was four months earlier when I sat in front of the glass atrium listening to Pete Seeger sing "If I had a hammer" with his grandson Tao-Rodriguez Seeger, and now, just images of a twisted smoltering hell. The shock was great.
Ten days later, I attended the peace vigil at Washington Square and at Union Square, and my nostrils were alerted by the stench of flesh mixed with burned oil and melted steel that drifted on the autumn wind as I rounded the street corners. The event of 9/11 was like a technological volcano where the world of aeronautics and architecture collided as a result of sheer madness.
People in the city still moved about, going their own ways, living their lives, but the horror of the recent past hung over us like a dark invisible shroud.