Everybody is posting about how they heard the news of the 9/11 attacks, six years ago. I was still in TV news at the time, working an afternoon/evening shift. I had just stepped out of the shower to hear the Today show crew begin to describe what was showing up in the first video from the scene. I threw on my clothes, knowing it would be a long and busy day at work, but not knowing how EXTREMELY bad the situation was going to become. On the drive in, the Pentagon was hit. By the time I arrived at work, it seemed all hell had truly broken open. And the next 24 hours became a fog of video feeds, live shots and the reality of becoming part of one of the most horrifying stories of my lifetime. Now, other thoughts from other writers:
On September 11, 2001, six long years ago, like many people I watched my television with horror and disbelief as first passenger planes flew into the World Trade Center, and then the towers collapsed, like giant Jenga puzzles, one after the other. Before that collapse, I saw the flames and smoke spurting from those damaged skyscrapers and the people clinging to the outside of those wounded buildings like tiny ants. I even watched the long slow fall of those who decided death by falling 90 stories was preferable to being [...]
9/11, grief, and the politics of victimhood
Nestled in the New York Times on Labor Day weekend was an extraordinary article asking, "As 9/11 Nears, a Debate Rises: How Much Tribute Is Enough?": "Again it comes, for the sixth time now -- 2,191 days after that awful morning -- falling for the first time on a Tuesday, the same day of the week. Again there will be the public tributes, the tightly scripted memorial events, the reflex news coverage, the souvenir peddlers. Is all of it necessary, at the same decibel level -- still? [...]
America Gathers To Remember 9/11
Relatives of World Trade Center victims bowed their heads in silence at a small park Tuesday to mark the moment exactly six years earlier when the first hijacked plane struck the towers. The dreary, gray skies created a grim backdrop, and a sharp contrast to the clear blue of that morning in 2001. "That day we felt isolated, but not for long and not from each other," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said as [...]
A day robbed of its rightful meaning
It's impossible to appropriately comment on a day like today. One wants to think about this day differently, somehow, despite the fact that its impact and effects confront us endlessly. One wants to be able to think about this date, this anniversary, without partisan overtones and instead [...]
Tags: 9/11, World Trade Center, Pentagon
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