nmah1556.xml

nmah1556.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-09

Columbus, Ohio.

On the night before I had been out late with my former business partner. It had been a year since we got together after a tumultuous legal and business dispute that separated us. The long overdue dinner lasted late into the evening. I knew I did'nt have any appointments in the morning so I figured I could sleep in.

I was awoken by the telephone on Tuesday morning by my mother who told me to turn on the TV because the WTC had been hit by a plane.

I tuned in the "Today Show" just in time to see the second aircraft hit. I just sat in bed transfixed like everyone else. When the Pentagon was hit I suddenly felt fear. The phone started ringing non-stop with all my friends calling to exchange information.

One call was from an employee, a college intern, telling me he had overslept and he would be late for work. I told him not to bother and that he should turn on the TV because, "America is under attack!"

I finally decided that I needed to get downtown because at that point it seemed my life would just continue on as normal. This was just something playing out on television.

My office is on the top floor of the tallest building in Columbus.

In the car I heard on the radio that the second tower had fallen. I called the office to see what was going on. My secretary was crying and asked me if I thought "all those people got out?" I told her that I was on my way down and that if she wanted to leave she could. I tried to reassure her that Columbus, Ohio is probably not a top target of terrorists.

When I got into the downtown area, the crises became real and personal to me. The streets around the government buildings downtown were all closed. Streams of office workers were exiting buildings. State government had been shut down. I couldn't get into my building and had to park several blocks away.

As I was going up the elevator, I suddenly thought to myself, "What the heck am I doing?" I got to the office and everyone was gathered around the television in my office. The building management asked us to evacuate the building. So, I told everyone to leave.

I met two old friends at a nearby restuarant for an early lunch. One brought with him one of those Eyewitness guide books which had detailed diagrams of the WTC. We watched television from the bar for a couple of hours and then went home.

When I got home I felt kind of lonely. I just sat on the sofa and watched the news the rest of the day. Late in the day a friend called and told me to look up in the sky fast. I ran outside and there in the sky was Airforce One with two fighters on its wings flying over Ohio on its way back to DC. It was the only aircraft in the sky that day and it just seemed so unreal.

I stayed up most the night watching the news probably like everyone else.

Yes. For weeks after the event I felt so vulnerable. Even when driving I would jump at a horn blowing or any noise. I felt like the country was crawling with terrorists. It was a good month before I felt things were really back to the way they used to be.

The most significant change in my life has been on limiting my travel. I used to travel all the time. I loved to fly. I would go to Europe once a year and travel regularly between New York, Chicago and LA. I was at least eight months before I got on a plane again. I was a little nervous. Travel is no longer fun. It is a difficult and serious task. Where I used to think nothing of telling a client that I would fly out to meet with them, now I do not travel unless I have to.

School children in the future should be made to watch tapes of the live events unfolding on television that day. They should read the individual stories of the victims. As emotionally difficult as that may be, it is through the victims' lives that we best remember and understand what happened. Such ordinary lives individually touch the soul far better than any speech, memorial marker or event. Through their lives we appreciate the most of all our obligations as survivors.

Yes. There was a flag pole in front of my house when I bought it about four years ago. When I moved in a friend gave me a flag that had been flown over the U.S. Capitol as a house warming gift. I never bothered to put it up. I put it up at half staff that week and was very proud to raise it to full staff later. It is still up today.

I have always been one who took seriously what the flag symbolizes. But, today it has so much more personal meaning to me. To me, the flag is the banner which represents the most unique and successful experiment in all of human history. It represents a place more than anything else. It is a place where free will is embraced, where the individual trumps the collective, where all are encouraged to seek happiness, where human dignity is respected above all else.