nmah3886.xml

nmah3886.xml

born-digital

story

yes

no

2002-09-11

I was on the summit of Haleakala on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

I had left my hotel in the middle of the night to watch dawn at the summit,
and had driven with the radio off, enjoying the feel of the darkness and
silence of the night. As usual, quite a crowd had formed to witness the
sunrise.

Around 5:30 am someone in the crowd mentioned "The World Trade
Center is no longer there." I thought this was a curious thing to say,
and assumed the person was talking about some movie -- how
could anything like that be true? -- and I joined everyone else in
observing the fiery sun emerge through the clouds.

The normality of the whole thing was striking. People were laughing, taking
pictures of each other. But I felt increasingly uneasy and, with the sun
finished with its performance, I made a bolt for the car, put on the radio,
and heard the dreadful truth.

The military closed the top section of the park -- there is a research base
called "Science City" up there -- and remaining visitors were ushered down.
A group were setting off on a bike ride, as per normal, but most people
left the park altogether. I paused to consider what to do with the rest of
the day, and decided there was little to be gained from watching TV in
the hotel room -- there would be enough of that in the evening. So I
took a 12-mile hike down and across the crater floor.

The place was almost deserted. I hardly saw another soul the whole day.
It is an environment of alien colors and strange shapes and forms. The
experience was at once beautiful and surreal and troubling. The terrorist
events of the day seemed far away yet ever present, and the horror
seemed both unimaginable and reflected in the imposing natural forms of
the Hawaiian landscape.

A park ranger spotted me as I completed the hike and kindly gave me a
ride back to the car. Then I returned to the hotel, and stayed glued to the
TV like everyone else, the reality which had not wished to quite confirm
itself during the day -- we really don't want to believe such evil can happen --
finally sinking in.

Each and every person who was injured or died or lost a love one together
will all who contributed bravely to the rescue effort should be remembered
for ever.

The terrorists deserve no memory. They merit only oblivion. But their
evil must be preserved in communal memory so that such events
can be prevented from happening ever again.