On a clear, beautiful morning like this...
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Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, 8:46 am EDT, couldn’t have been a more beautiful morning in the north eastern United States. The sky was clear; the weather warm. A week after Labor Day and the end of summer, folks were settling into school and their jobs. It was business as usual as daybreak gave way approaching 9:00 am when the whole working world is buckling down. The NFL season had just started. The New York Yankees were atop their division heading for another World Series. What could be more normal and seemingly perfect?
In Baltimore, Maryland, an employee for the finance department of a rising corporation pulled into the parking lot at his office listening to the local news-talk station, just prior to 9:00 the morning host interrupted his discussion, a plane had hit the New York World Trade Center. That seemed so odd. How could that happen? Surely it was as clear and lovely a couple hours up the highway from Baltimore. These kind of weather systems usually covered most of the northeast. By the time he walked into his office, his immediate area was bedlam. Fellow staff members were frantically talking on the phone. Others were tuning in radio stations and scrambling on the Internet. Everyone wanted to know what happened in New York. Did some pilot go hopelessly astray?
A moment later just after 9:00 am an office mate slammed down her phone and screamed, “Holy shit, a plane just hit the other tower.” Almost on impulse, the fellow who had just come in from the parking lot impulsively screamed, “Fucking Arabs.”
Nobody wanted to believe what happened, but intuitively not only did we know we were under attack, but at least had a pretty good idea by whom. Nobody else could be so dastardly and suicidal. Televisions were turned on the next floor up. The wretched images of the twin towers were bellowing dark demonic looking smoke as the reports came across of people hand in hand leaping to their deaths. There were tens of thousands of people working in that complex. How many would make it out alive?
As the horrible reality sank in more gravely came another shocker, and huge explosion in Washington, DC. Just across the river, there had been a blast at the Pentagon and quickly all knew a plane had crashed into the headquarters of American defense. Our country was under attack while that sinking feeling set in, “What next?”
That same fellow in Baltimore shed a tear thinking the White House or Capitol could be under attack. He once taught school. A former student he dearly loved was working on the professional staff for the House of Representatives. Meanwhile, everyone at his office was starting to come to grips with the situation wondering what in Baltimore might be a likely target. A huge high rise hotel had just opened two blocks away. It stood out like a sore thumb on the Baltimore skyline, but Baltimore had its own World Trade Center, much smaller than the one in New York. Quickly, Baltimore was going into emergency status. The expressways leading in and out of the city were closed down in case they’d be needed to move emergency vehicles. Schools were preparing to shut down as most businesses in the area closed down. Every station on television it seems turned into a news channel, even ESPN and ESPN2 were broadcasting the feed from ABC news. All events were cancelled and planes grounded until further notice. Then came the word of another episode in western Pennsylvania. Early reports indicated passengers were able to wrestle control of Flight 93 away from its hijackers and were able to force the plane to the ground. A new class of citizen warriors had become the first killed combatants in the war on terrorism.
Baltimore was absolute gridlock as the working life blood of the city’s downtown business district attempted to ride home with major arteries clogged with traffic. Similar stories were repeated from the east coast to the west, but those stuck in traffic for hours were the lucky ones. The horrors in lower Manhattan and Arlington, Virginia were beyond comprehension. Then came even another terrible report. One of the WTC towers collapsed and soon after that, the second tower collapsed. The whole nation had images of thousands of Americans crushed or burned to death. In the rubble of the twin towers in New York was buried America’s innocence. We were at war but no one had a clew how this would play out.
The President was in Florida promoting education reading a story to school children. His chief of staff whispered in his ear. For a moment he appeared as dumbstruck as the rest of us as he has scurried off to an undisclosed location. Security advisors did not want him returning to Washington DC, there could be more attacks. The Vice President was scurried off to a secret location which turned out to be a bunker in the Vice President’s residence. As afternoon set in, there was a mournful silence from coast to coast. No more attacks, but everyone was thinking, what next?
As the afternoon progressed, families assembled together many glued to the television. Military officials, intelligence experts, and prominent leaders weighed in on the retched tragedy. There was even the image of congressmen on Capitol hill who had been locked into vicious partisan fighting a day earlier joined together singing “God Bless America.” Baseball games and virtually all other events were called off. Americans travelling across country were stranded unable to get air service elsewhere.
We were quickly putting the horrors of the day into perspective. Many said this was this generation’s Pearl Harbor, but when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was a distant American territory and they attacked a military target, a naval base. On this horrible day, ordinary people simply going to work to earn a living in the Nation’s largest city and its Capitol were murdered in the most savage of circumstances.
The President turned up at the White House and prepared to address the nation that evening. He spoke calmly but forcefully urging calm and resolve among the American people determined to avenge the horrors of that day. As night settled in, chaos continued in New York and Arlington while the rest of the nation attempted to get an uneasy rest.
When they’d awaken on the morning of September 12, they would arise in a new, darker world. The horrors of death and war chilled the otherwise beautiful air. The United States would never be the same.
In Baltimore, Maryland, an employee for the finance department of a rising corporation pulled into the parking lot at his office listening to the local news-talk station, just prior to 9:00 the morning host interrupted his discussion, a plane had hit the New York World Trade Center. That seemed so odd. How could that happen? Surely it was as clear and lovely a couple hours up the highway from Baltimore. These kind of weather systems usually covered most of the northeast. By the time he walked into his office, his immediate area was bedlam. Fellow staff members were frantically talking on the phone. Others were tuning in radio stations and scrambling on the Internet. Everyone wanted to know what happened in New York. Did some pilot go hopelessly astray?
A moment later just after 9:00 am an office mate slammed down her phone and screamed, “Holy shit, a plane just hit the other tower.” Almost on impulse, the fellow who had just come in from the parking lot impulsively screamed, “Fucking Arabs.”
Nobody wanted to believe what happened, but intuitively not only did we know we were under attack, but at least had a pretty good idea by whom. Nobody else could be so dastardly and suicidal. Televisions were turned on the next floor up. The wretched images of the twin towers were bellowing dark demonic looking smoke as the reports came across of people hand in hand leaping to their deaths. There were tens of thousands of people working in that complex. How many would make it out alive?
As the horrible reality sank in more gravely came another shocker, and huge explosion in Washington, DC. Just across the river, there had been a blast at the Pentagon and quickly all knew a plane had crashed into the headquarters of American defense. Our country was under attack while that sinking feeling set in, “What next?”
That same fellow in Baltimore shed a tear thinking the White House or Capitol could be under attack. He once taught school. A former student he dearly loved was working on the professional staff for the House of Representatives. Meanwhile, everyone at his office was starting to come to grips with the situation wondering what in Baltimore might be a likely target. A huge high rise hotel had just opened two blocks away. It stood out like a sore thumb on the Baltimore skyline, but Baltimore had its own World Trade Center, much smaller than the one in New York. Quickly, Baltimore was going into emergency status. The expressways leading in and out of the city were closed down in case they’d be needed to move emergency vehicles. Schools were preparing to shut down as most businesses in the area closed down. Every station on television it seems turned into a news channel, even ESPN and ESPN2 were broadcasting the feed from ABC news. All events were cancelled and planes grounded until further notice. Then came the word of another episode in western Pennsylvania. Early reports indicated passengers were able to wrestle control of Flight 93 away from its hijackers and were able to force the plane to the ground. A new class of citizen warriors had become the first killed combatants in the war on terrorism.
Baltimore was absolute gridlock as the working life blood of the city’s downtown business district attempted to ride home with major arteries clogged with traffic. Similar stories were repeated from the east coast to the west, but those stuck in traffic for hours were the lucky ones. The horrors in lower Manhattan and Arlington, Virginia were beyond comprehension. Then came even another terrible report. One of the WTC towers collapsed and soon after that, the second tower collapsed. The whole nation had images of thousands of Americans crushed or burned to death. In the rubble of the twin towers in New York was buried America’s innocence. We were at war but no one had a clew how this would play out.
The President was in Florida promoting education reading a story to school children. His chief of staff whispered in his ear. For a moment he appeared as dumbstruck as the rest of us as he has scurried off to an undisclosed location. Security advisors did not want him returning to Washington DC, there could be more attacks. The Vice President was scurried off to a secret location which turned out to be a bunker in the Vice President’s residence. As afternoon set in, there was a mournful silence from coast to coast. No more attacks, but everyone was thinking, what next?
As the afternoon progressed, families assembled together many glued to the television. Military officials, intelligence experts, and prominent leaders weighed in on the retched tragedy. There was even the image of congressmen on Capitol hill who had been locked into vicious partisan fighting a day earlier joined together singing “God Bless America.” Baseball games and virtually all other events were called off. Americans travelling across country were stranded unable to get air service elsewhere.
We were quickly putting the horrors of the day into perspective. Many said this was this generation’s Pearl Harbor, but when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was a distant American territory and they attacked a military target, a naval base. On this horrible day, ordinary people simply going to work to earn a living in the Nation’s largest city and its Capitol were murdered in the most savage of circumstances.
The President turned up at the White House and prepared to address the nation that evening. He spoke calmly but forcefully urging calm and resolve among the American people determined to avenge the horrors of that day. As night settled in, chaos continued in New York and Arlington while the rest of the nation attempted to get an uneasy rest.
When they’d awaken on the morning of September 12, they would arise in a new, darker world. The horrors of death and war chilled the otherwise beautiful air. The United States would never be the same.
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