nmah5167.xml

nmah5167.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-29

By nature I am not a morning person. As a general rule I refer to the hours between 8:00 am and 11:00 am as "The Middle of the Night" I could never have imagined the horror I would awaken to on that Tuesday. About eight people called me that morning (Or was it one determined person?) trying to wake me but to no luck. When I finally fell out of bed at about 11:30 am and heard the messages I just couldn't believe it. All I can think of is, "What's next for us?!" Watching the images on the news, even over a year later, it's so difficult to believe it really happened. Although the attack on the Pentagon and Heroism displayed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania were part of the bigger picture of that Tuesday morning my mind returns to lower Manhattan.

A few weeks previously I had been introduced to on a Caribbean vacation to three people who made their homes in New York City. After a week you start to learn about people and friendships are forged. It was impossible not to think of them during that first week when we knew so little about what had occurred. My mind also wondered to a good friend from High School who worked in the Financial District. We had become friends during that turbulent and troubled time known as adolescence. I was very lucky that all of them were safe physically though I can perhaps never know mentally the traumas they may have received.

The first week our senses were flooded with images of that day. Ash, paper and grief washed over the city with a great vengeance. I have another good friend who I occasionally do bookkeeping for who is a stock trader in West Palm Beach, Florida. Three days before I was visiting him at his home and helped him pay bills. When I saw the footage of clouds of debris filling the canyons of lower Manhattan I wondered if perhaps an envelope I had addressed or a check I had filled in was part of that great, stirring mass of gray.

As former History Major I cannot help but think about how the events of the past year will be remembered. It is said that History is written by bitter old men but I beg to differ. One of my best friends, who is, like me in her mid-twenties, were discussing by what name we would call the War that will eventually follow. I would like to throw the following suggestions into the public arena: "The War of Remembrance".

How could you not display a flag during the weeks to follow. In the Central Florida area it was if the whole community wrappped itself in the flag in much the same way a child does for comfort and protection.

PS
I would like to applaud you for this incredibly important collection you are building. I often use the resources available to me on-line through the "American Memory" program and am so glad that these remembrances of the people are being preserved. How wonderful it is be to know that on the one hundred anniversary of these events future generations of my family will be able to better understand the mood of a Nation.