story10921.xml
Title
story10921.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2004-09-11
911DA Story: Story
I was in Brooklyn doing consulting work for Allied Waste. I witnessed the attack and sent out two e-mails about it to family and friends. Here are my e-mails:
(This first one I wrote @ 1:30 am Wednesday, 9/12/01 when I couldn't sleep after the attack)
Tuesday, September 11, 2001, 8:55 am Brooklyn, NY
A woman told me that a plane had crashed in to the World Trade Center. I opened the blinds of the office window and looked at the WTC, 5 miles away. The towers were framed by the window, as though I had a front row seat at a show, only this was real.
The right hand tower (#1) had a thick plume of black, black smoke blowing to the south (my left). It billowed out from the upper floors of the building. It appeared that the plane had struck the building 15-20 floors from the top. I could see the antenna array on top of the building but I couldn't see much of the damage or the top of the second tower because of the smoke. Several of the people in the office and I discussed how such an accident could happen. Its kind of hard to not see a tower 1,350 feet tall.
I set up my laptop and work files and occasionally watched the building from my front row seat. Then I noticed a black plane flying low, just over the tops of the nearby buildings. I thought to myself "He's flying awfully low." Then I realized it was an attack on the second tower seconds before the plane rammed into the building.
I watched helplessly as the plane hit the building and a line of flame streaked through the building. This wasn't television or a movie special effect I was watching. The real horror was the realization that such scenes are "entertainment" in our culture except this time it was real. Real people, real fanatics, real murder, and very, very deliberate.
The flame and smoke seemed to roll up the building from the point of impact and join the smoke from the first tower. We watched the sky, fearful of other attacks. The smoke continued to pour from both buildings. A stream of black, oily smoke stretched across my panorama, from one o'clock to ten o'clock. Tower # 2 appeared to have been hit 45 floors from the top. I was afraid that one or both buildings would lose the floors above the impact points. I wasn't prepared to lose both buildings.
Tower #2 collapsed about 30 minutes after it was hit. The black smoke continued to pour from the building and then the building bulged out below the impact point. It appeared to transform itself from a solid building to crumbling chalk, emitting thick clouds of white dust/smoke that billowed up and covered both buildings. It looked like a sand castle that was crushed by a giant hand, so that the downward pressure caused the middle to "blow" out and disintegrate. It took 10-15 minutes for the cloud to settle. Tower 2 was gone, no rubble (from my point of view), no shell, no stub of a building, nothing. I thought of the rescue workers around the building, firemen, police, EMT's and I wondered how many were buried.
Thirty minutes later Tower #1 collapsed. I could understand the collapse of Tower 2. I thought Tower 1 might lose the top floors but no more. Again, the bulge started below the impact point, smaller than the first one. For a moment I thought that perhaps the collapse would be limited to only the top half of the building but the debris pushed down through the remainder of the building and again a dust cloud rose. When it cleared (about 11:00) there was no sign that the World Trade Center towers had even existed.
I keep thinking about that black plane and watching it explode in the tower. I think about what the people sitting at their desks saw and thought before they died and I think about the terror of the passengers on board the plane. And I also think about the criminals who committed these acts. How do you stop an attack when your attacker is committed to killing himself? I imagine being on one of those planes and the frustration and anger at being able to do nothing about it. Perhaps that is what makes me the angriest, the use of our own people to attack us.
(The second e-mail I wrote Wednesday night, 9/12/01 after considering my daughter's comment)
When I called my family Tuesday night I talked to each of my kids about the terrorist attack. My two teenagers, Matthew & Kathleen, had an appreciation for what had happened without being melodramatic. I was not sure about what my nine year old Maryellyn would say. She is the melodramatic one who resists all change and has the greatest empathy among my three children. Maryellyn even cried when we got rid of our old refrigerator. So I was somewhat concerned when I asked if she had watched the news reports. "Yes" she replied. What do you think about it, I asked. "Daddy, did you really see it happen?" Yes, I saw everything after the first plane struck. "Cool!" she replied
Needless to say I was a little surprised by her response. I expected tears for the victims, or even calm indifference for something that didn't affect her world, but never "Cool!" At the time I attributed it to the attitude of a nine year old who only knew that her father had directly witnessed a historic event. I thought she didn't really appreciate what had happened and that if she did her answer would change.
Maryellyn, I was wrong, it is Cool.
In our church we use a phrase, a litany (if Baptists have such things). "God is good...all the time. All the time...God is good." We generally use the phrase in worship or when we are particularly joyful, to acknowledge God's bounty. It is not just about God being good but also doing good to a sinful mankind.
If we believe that God is good, all the time and that All the time, God is good. Then we must believe that God is sovereign, and sovereign all the time. For how can God be good and do good all the time unless He is sovereign and able to ordain that He is good and wills to do good, all the time? "All the time" means that nothing can interfere or change His desire for our own eventual good, not this world with devils filled or earthly powers or the prince of darkness grim can change God's character or will.
This is our joy. This is why in prosperity we praise God, in turmoil we praise God, in joyful celebration we praise God, and in the midst of pain and grief we praise God. I don't know how God will use this but He will use it. Look at what has already occurred, a public acknowledgment of prayer in our government, a sense of unity among our nation, a president who speaks openly of his faith. All things work together to God's glory, even this crime. And that is Cool.
God is sovereign...all the time. All the time...God is sovereign.
(This first one I wrote @ 1:30 am Wednesday, 9/12/01 when I couldn't sleep after the attack)
Tuesday, September 11, 2001, 8:55 am Brooklyn, NY
A woman told me that a plane had crashed in to the World Trade Center. I opened the blinds of the office window and looked at the WTC, 5 miles away. The towers were framed by the window, as though I had a front row seat at a show, only this was real.
The right hand tower (#1) had a thick plume of black, black smoke blowing to the south (my left). It billowed out from the upper floors of the building. It appeared that the plane had struck the building 15-20 floors from the top. I could see the antenna array on top of the building but I couldn't see much of the damage or the top of the second tower because of the smoke. Several of the people in the office and I discussed how such an accident could happen. Its kind of hard to not see a tower 1,350 feet tall.
I set up my laptop and work files and occasionally watched the building from my front row seat. Then I noticed a black plane flying low, just over the tops of the nearby buildings. I thought to myself "He's flying awfully low." Then I realized it was an attack on the second tower seconds before the plane rammed into the building.
I watched helplessly as the plane hit the building and a line of flame streaked through the building. This wasn't television or a movie special effect I was watching. The real horror was the realization that such scenes are "entertainment" in our culture except this time it was real. Real people, real fanatics, real murder, and very, very deliberate.
The flame and smoke seemed to roll up the building from the point of impact and join the smoke from the first tower. We watched the sky, fearful of other attacks. The smoke continued to pour from both buildings. A stream of black, oily smoke stretched across my panorama, from one o'clock to ten o'clock. Tower # 2 appeared to have been hit 45 floors from the top. I was afraid that one or both buildings would lose the floors above the impact points. I wasn't prepared to lose both buildings.
Tower #2 collapsed about 30 minutes after it was hit. The black smoke continued to pour from the building and then the building bulged out below the impact point. It appeared to transform itself from a solid building to crumbling chalk, emitting thick clouds of white dust/smoke that billowed up and covered both buildings. It looked like a sand castle that was crushed by a giant hand, so that the downward pressure caused the middle to "blow" out and disintegrate. It took 10-15 minutes for the cloud to settle. Tower 2 was gone, no rubble (from my point of view), no shell, no stub of a building, nothing. I thought of the rescue workers around the building, firemen, police, EMT's and I wondered how many were buried.
Thirty minutes later Tower #1 collapsed. I could understand the collapse of Tower 2. I thought Tower 1 might lose the top floors but no more. Again, the bulge started below the impact point, smaller than the first one. For a moment I thought that perhaps the collapse would be limited to only the top half of the building but the debris pushed down through the remainder of the building and again a dust cloud rose. When it cleared (about 11:00) there was no sign that the World Trade Center towers had even existed.
I keep thinking about that black plane and watching it explode in the tower. I think about what the people sitting at their desks saw and thought before they died and I think about the terror of the passengers on board the plane. And I also think about the criminals who committed these acts. How do you stop an attack when your attacker is committed to killing himself? I imagine being on one of those planes and the frustration and anger at being able to do nothing about it. Perhaps that is what makes me the angriest, the use of our own people to attack us.
(The second e-mail I wrote Wednesday night, 9/12/01 after considering my daughter's comment)
When I called my family Tuesday night I talked to each of my kids about the terrorist attack. My two teenagers, Matthew & Kathleen, had an appreciation for what had happened without being melodramatic. I was not sure about what my nine year old Maryellyn would say. She is the melodramatic one who resists all change and has the greatest empathy among my three children. Maryellyn even cried when we got rid of our old refrigerator. So I was somewhat concerned when I asked if she had watched the news reports. "Yes" she replied. What do you think about it, I asked. "Daddy, did you really see it happen?" Yes, I saw everything after the first plane struck. "Cool!" she replied
Needless to say I was a little surprised by her response. I expected tears for the victims, or even calm indifference for something that didn't affect her world, but never "Cool!" At the time I attributed it to the attitude of a nine year old who only knew that her father had directly witnessed a historic event. I thought she didn't really appreciate what had happened and that if she did her answer would change.
Maryellyn, I was wrong, it is Cool.
In our church we use a phrase, a litany (if Baptists have such things). "God is good...all the time. All the time...God is good." We generally use the phrase in worship or when we are particularly joyful, to acknowledge God's bounty. It is not just about God being good but also doing good to a sinful mankind.
If we believe that God is good, all the time and that All the time, God is good. Then we must believe that God is sovereign, and sovereign all the time. For how can God be good and do good all the time unless He is sovereign and able to ordain that He is good and wills to do good, all the time? "All the time" means that nothing can interfere or change His desire for our own eventual good, not this world with devils filled or earthly powers or the prince of darkness grim can change God's character or will.
This is our joy. This is why in prosperity we praise God, in turmoil we praise God, in joyful celebration we praise God, and in the midst of pain and grief we praise God. I don't know how God will use this but He will use it. Look at what has already occurred, a public acknowledgment of prayer in our government, a sense of unity among our nation, a president who speaks openly of his faith. All things work together to God's glory, even this crime. And that is Cool.
God is sovereign...all the time. All the time...God is sovereign.
Collection
Citation
“story10921.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed December 19, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/4712.