nmah5680.xml

nmah5680.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2003-09-10

I had just flown in around midnight or so from working out of the Country. I lived in Atlanta at the time, and I remember what a beautiful morning it was; cool and clear blue skies. It seemed to be the first break from the heat. On my drive in to work I was running late and had neglected to turn on my usual morning radio show. Traveling up the usually unbearably congested I-85 I remember wondering if I was running much farther behind than I thought. No one seemed to be in a rush and there was a remarkable eerie stillness to everything. Turning on the radio immediately confirmed that something was wrong. I could hear the panic and confusion in the voices even before I heard that the Pentagon had been hit. As I drove up to my office building I heard about the World Trade Center, then the second plane. A shock of disbelief and a wave of panic numbed me. I walked on the central reservation floor of our Company, wanting to see the normal bustle of a mid-morning work day.
Dead silence. Everyone sat quietly, listening to news. I joined them and together we tried calling friends in New York: family in the Trade Center, friends working across the street, old roommates in school there. And then we began using our headsets, our planes grounded, passengers stranded, cancellations, inquiries. I still cannot conceive of a reason a conviction, a religion that could inspire such a travisty.

Aside from the changes in all of our lives with changes in security, I am a bit more fearful and a bit more willing to help my fellow man.

The love, support, and heroism of our Nation during that time was truly too moving to capture with words. I think that everything in our lives, for every one of us, is now stained with the permanent sting that everything is temporary and everything is unpredictable. We are so small..What matters most is how we treat each other.

Yes.No