nmah301.xml

nmah301.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-08-19

My wife and I were on our way to Columbus, Ohio to babysit with our grandson. As we were sitting at a bank, I heard on the radio that a plane had crashed into the WTC. As we were driving we thought it was simply an accident. In a few minutes, news of the second plane hitting the second tower again left us stunned. A terrorist attack was not in my mind at that time. It wasn't until we heard that the third plane had crashed into the Pentagon that I thought "Oh my God." The only thought that came to my mind was to pray. When we got to Columbus, we sat and watched the TV the rest of the afternoon. I remember going to a nearby gas station because there was a fear that there would be an oil embargo. I rushed to the sation to see nearly 30 cars in line. Next day, I made up a sign on a piece of 4 x 8 plywood and wrote the words "God Bless America" on it. After I placed it out near the road, I sat down and cried. A couple of days later a local newspaper reporter stopped to ask about my sign and if he could take pictures of it. I told him, this was not for publicity, but just my own personal way of expessing myself. When he asked if I was angry I told him "not yet. Right now, I'm just sad." It's been nearly a year and I think most of my anger has channeled itself into sadness. It's just so sad that we as human beings resort to this kind of things to one another.

I'm more aware of the fact that we might someday be seeing the kinds terrorist bombings in Israel here in the US. I think once that happens, my feelings will change. I'm still in a sad mode at this point, but I know deep down that that feeling will turn to anger and vengence. Especially if someone I know is hurt. If that happens, the anger will become rage and I pray God that never happens.
I'm not in favor of a knee jeerk reaction. I truly believe we need to get to the "Root cause" for all this hatred toward us and find ways to address it. Not everyone in the world wants to be like us and we should realize that.

I'll never forget watching fathers and mothers, wives and husbands searching for their sons and daughters that day. One man in particular will remain in my mind forever. He was just an ordinary man, a man who you could tell was a kind man. He had tears streaming down his face and fighting back his emotions while holding a picture of his missing son. I have a son about his sons age and I broke down crying. The tragedy of Sept. 11 was that it didn't just happen to the people of NYC, it touched all of us because the people we watched on tv that day could have been us and we all know that.

Yes, I've flown it. I'm a veteran and proud of my flag. I think we needed to send the message to the rest of the world that the United States of America had suffred a great hurt but that we will recover. We are not quitters.
This isn't simply a matter of patriotism, it's a matter of the human spirit. I think everyone in the world hurt that day, because we're all human beings. Once we lose that feeling for one another, we've lost it as a species.
My wife and I went to NYC 3 weeks after the tragedy to take some socks to some fire stations. I don't know what compelled me to decide to do this just that this was such a tragedy we felt we needed to do something even if it was just to deliver socks. It wasn't a morbid curiosity to see the site, rather it was to experience the history and the feelings of it. I felt I was in the center of a great tragedy and needed to experience what others were feeling. I'm glad we went. And seeing the pictures outside the firestations of the young men who died helped bring a sense of closure for me. It was so so sad but I needed to link to those men in some metaphysical sense to let them know that even us folks out in Ohio were hurt and that we would not forget them. I do not remember their names, but I will always remember their pictures and thinking that I had in some way connected with them and in my own way, carried a little part of their lives back with me. Sounds a little nutty perhaps, but I needed that connection.