nmah2878.xml

nmah2878.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-10

I had just arrived at my office in Lafayette, Louisiana and turned on my computer. A couple of minutes later I received an e-mail from a co-worker "Breaking news, 2 planes have struck the World Trade Centers". All of the employees gathered in our conference room and watched the horror play out on TV. At first we all assumed that these were just small planes with some lone nuts on board. But as we saw footage we realized that these were not small planes but in fact commercial jetliners. At that moment someone said "Oh my God there are people on those planes" and we suddenly grasped the meaning of this - it wasn't an accident we were under attack. We all just stared open mouthed some of us starting to cry. A while later we heard that the Pentagon had been attacked. I remember myself and another co-worker running to tell the news to a couple of workers who had gone back to their desks to take a couple of calls. They quickly got off and came back to the conference room. I remember watching just horrified by the reports of people jumping from the buildings. Then the moment came when the towers collapsed and there was just a collective gasp from all of us as we realized that many, many people were dying inside of those buildings. The whole day had a surreal quality to it. We had co-workers who were flying that day and we desperately tried to find them to reassure their families. The 2 workers from my office who were flying that day were found stranded in an airport in Nashville. They had gotten no more than the barest of facts and were absolutely shocked to hear the extent of what had happened. The television stayed on in our office for the next week as we dropped in when we could to check on the latest news and pray for survivors. Days later I cried when I found out (to my surprise) I was pregnant with my second child. I cried because I knew that my son (born May 3, 2002)would likely be born into a world where our country was at war.

I appreciate more the freedoms that we have in our country after seeing just how repressed others live.

The heroism of many people - the firefighters, police, rescue workers, the men and women on Flight 93 who fought the hijackers and in doing so sacrificed their lives so that others could live and Mayor Giuliani I think the leadership of our brave President George W. Bush should be remembered. His faith, courage and steadfast belief that we would overcome the evil of that day gave many of us strength during those terrible first days.

We put up a flag at our house a week after September 11th (the first day we could find a flag since they were hard to come by) and that flag has flown ever since. Somehow it seems very important to have that flag flying every day to show people our faith in this country and to show our support to those men who are fighting to preserve our freedom in the face of evil.