In September of 2001, I was living in South Norwalk, CT, working for a company called Stone House Productions. As an unsupervised freelance video editor, my working hours were fairly flexible but on the week of the 11th, this was even more so as two thirds of my bosses, John and Craig were in Washington D.C. shooting video footage for a video series to teach students how the government works. I think I woke up between 11 and 11:30 that morning. The first thing I did was to walk into my living room and watch a few minutes of tv to wake up. Upon turning on the television, I was immediately confused. The night before, I had left the tv on VH1, but in spite of this, the logo bug in the bottom right hand corner of the screen belonged to New York's CBS Channel 2 and on the screen was a world trade center building on fire.
Finding this fascinating, I decided to call up Stone House to let the two remaining people, my 3rd boss Cheryl and their assistent Rob, know that they should turn on a tv as they probably didn't know there was interesting television going on at that moment. Cheryl answered the phone and after we said our hellos, I said to Cheryl, "You're not going to believe this but the world trade center is on fire." Using her concerned voice, Cheryl quietly replied, "Dave. They're gone. They're both gone. They got the world trade center and the pentagon." She told me that she had talked to Craig and John in D.C. and they were both fine and I told her I'd be into work in a little bit.
I went into Stone House but I didn't get much done that day. I just remember calling a lot of people that day to make sure they were ok. No one that I called was anywhere near the world trade center but I felt an important need to connect with people that I knew and loved. This was made somewhat difficult because a lot of cell phone services were down.
I remember being hungry for information. It seemed like the news had little to offer and there was a lot of word of mouth information being passed around. There were a lot of close call stories going around. I heard that a former boss of mine was supposed to have a meeting in the world trade center that morning but it had been cancelled at the last minute. A few months earlier, a friend had been let go from his job where he was consultanting in the wtc on a floor that was hit by one of the planes. Another friend worked at a restaurant near the wtc and would have been at the restaurant when the planes hit but she was running late that morning and avoided the tragedy.
As I write this, I'm listening to the Howard Stern rebroadcast of the show he did that morning to help me remember how I felt that day. As I think about it now, reflecting on that day, I remeber almost feeling innapropriate. I remember feeling like I should be devistated and even though the damage was only a 1 hour train ride away, the devistation felt distant. It was something so awful and yet I didn't feel effected by it. In hindsight, I realize though that it was the complete opposite. I practically shut down. I couldn't work and I couldn't do much of anything. I ended up leaving work and made up my time over the rest of the week.
As one would expect, the following days were not the norm. There was no music. All of the radio stations were taken over by the news as the music stations simulcast their companies news stations. There was no flying. The most that I was effected directly by the attacks that a number of my fellow Ski Bears and myself were set to go sky diving the Saturday after 9/11, but this was cancelled as our plane was not allowed to take off.
A huge thing that changed because of the attacks was our view of the government. I mean, I guess for you conservative Republican types, George W. Bush was always your guy, but for the rest of us, Bush was just a bumbling idiot who stole an election and took a lot of vacations in between doing nothing. While I can't speak for everybody, I remember any animosity I had for the President went out the window on September 11th. We were attacked and he was our leader and he had 1000% percent of my support to do whatever he had to do to make things right. I think the craziest thing I recall was all of Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike, standing side by side on the steps of congress, singing God Bless America.
I'm trying to think how my life is different now than it was on September 10th, 2001. Probably the biggest thing is that all devistations seem to be about terrorism now. There was a time when something really bad happened, it might have been the result of a lone crazy nut. That kind of person seems to be a thing of the past. Also, it seems like every year or so, something happens that makes public transportation just a little more annoying. I know the last couple of times I flew, it was more annoying because you had to stand in lines so all of your baggage could be x-rayed. Now you can't bring anything fluid related on a plane. Let me just offer up a huge Screw You in advance to any terrorist organization that makes it so I can't bring my laptop or iPod onto a plane.
As for George W. Bush...I can't say for sure when it happened but there came a time where us blue states stopped offering up 1000% of our support and instead hoped and prayed he'd lose reelection. In addition to never giving us closure for 9/11 by capturing Bin Laden, there was that little Katrina/New Orleans screw up in addition to the fact that he got our country involved with a war with people who had NOTHING to do with the attacks of September 11, 2001.
The thing that I hate the most about 9/11 is that we now know that the US is not bulletproof. Despite our government's best intentions, our world can be turned upside down at any moment by someone looking to make a statement. While I feel it's very important that my protectors have that knowledge...it's a shame that I have to posess that knowledge as well.
That said, Nicholas Cage and Oliver Stone did a great job on World Trade Center and it's worth checking out. Also, I hope all goes well with you and your loved ones on this day of refliction.
Dave
