A Day to Reflect

Today, I don't know, I've been crying all morning and kickball and almost everything seems unimportant. September 11th always has this effect on me, even 5 years later. I really don't understand the people who say they are not really effected by it or they didn't know anyone effected. 3,000 people died. 3,000 people who lived in the same country as you, were at work just like you, and didn't do anything but live their lives that day. I don't understand it.

Here's how I found out:

I have a friend who was working at a brokerage firm in New Jersey. I was running late for work that day. I was awakened by his message on my answering machine telling me that the first tower had been hit by a plane and no one knew what was going on. I turned on the television thinking that it was just a crash, got in the shower and was ready to go to catch the bus. Then the second tower was hit and I knew something was going on. I wasn't going to go to work. It's a good thing too. The bus would have left me at the Pentagon metro station just about the time the plane slammed in there. The windows in my apartment, about 6.5 miles from the Pentagon, shook like they were going to break. I thought the country was being attacked all over. I went to the vigil at the Capitol and gave out small flags to people. It was quiet with some people singing, but most people I think just still in shock.

Much like everyone else, I felt angry, sad, and helpless. Work was closed for about a month. I decided to go volunteer at the Red Cross by helping to load supplies into a warehouse and then onto the trucks to send to people. The outpouring of support from people was amazing. People would drive up with their car, SUV, or truck full, give us the stuff, and asked what we needed more of - then some would come back within an hour. It still makes me marvel out how great Americans are.

About a month later I was at Ground Zero. It was still ash covered and smelled of smoke. It was a giant hole in the ground with remnants of the towers still there. Cards and hand made signs from people searching for their loved ones were everywhere. There was a line of NYFD and NYPD shirts, signs of support, and other mementos across the street along that little red church that faces the site. It still gets me today. All the signs of people hoping to find their families, they were everywhere. That little Police station thing in Times Square was covered with them; drawings, pictures, and contact info.

If you haven't been there, you need to go before they build whatever they are building there. I think it's everyone's duty to pay respect to all of those people who died just for being Americans. And for all of the people who gave their lives helping to save others.

Then tell me it didn't effect you.