A 9/11 Retrospective...

As the 10th anniversary of September 11 looms, I'm sure there will be more and more people writing about their experiences and feelings on the subject and I thought I'd add my own two cents.  For some reason, the events of 9/11 have been on my mind a lot lately, perhaps due to the remembrances on every channel for the past few days. There are things that I will never comprehend in my lifetime, among them are:  The Holocaust, George W. Bush's two term presidency, the 2001 World Series outcome, and the events of 9/11. I cannot understand the level of hatred that would cause a person (or 19 people) to fly planes into buildings in order to kill thousands of innocent people due to their disagreement on the foreign policies of another country. I disagree with the policies of many countries, but I wouldn't go to such lengths. Perhaps those of use who are rational human beings are never meant to understand these events.

The memorial at the US Embassy,
London (Sep 2001)

On the evening of September 10th, I was sitting in a plane on the tarmac of JFK International Airport, waiting to see if my plane would be able to take off in the torrential downpour. I was heading to London for a week's vacation with my mother.  Already it was starting out to be a terrible vacation between my annoying mother and the horrendous weather. But as luck would have it, a small window of opportunity opened up with the weather and our plane took off for Heathrow.  We arrived in London the following morning and made our way to the hotel.  A little before 2pm London time/9am NYC time, we finally got into our room and I was in the process of unpacking my suitcase.  I had turned the telly to CNN just to have some background noise and a distraction from my mother.  It was about 10 minutes after the first plane had hit WTC 1.  I was confused by what I was seeing.  At first I thought it was some sort of drill or a doomsday scenario that the news was presenting - a "what would happen if..." scenario.  Five minutes later, it became abundantly clear that this was reality as I watched the 2nd plane hit the tower 2.  What do you do when you are 3,500 miles from home 'on vacation' and one of the worse man-made tragedies in your lifetime occurs in your home city?  There is nothing you can do but feel unbearable sadness and guilt over not being there. We attempted to continue our vacation, but it was difficult to sightsee and enjoy our stay in London during these events.

I will say though that if I had to be in a foreign country during this time, I couldn't have asked for a better location.  The support and love from the British people toward the Americans who were visiting or living abroad was astounding!  Wherever we went in England during that tortuous week, there were the kindest sentiments and support toward the US and its citizens. Whoever decided that the British were cold and standoffish was completely mistaken, which I had known decades before September 2001, but can confirm how wonderful they are during a crisis.  Perhaps those erroneous judgments were made from observing the royal family, but we should give them some slack.  After all, there are consequences to thousands of years of inbreeding. 

The worse part of being in London during the terror attacks was not being able to reach friends and family to make sure everyone was okay.  The second worse part was not knowing when (or even if) we'd be able to fly home from London.  My mother proposed taking a ship home.  Uh, I think not.  Too costly and too long, plus she would have been fish food half way across the Atlantic. 

There are some moments in time which will live with me forever. The emotions triggered by the events of September 11th (and the weeks and months following) will never leave any of us. After arriving home a week later and seeing the still smoldering crash site, I experienced those emotions all over again.  The city that I loved and lived in was hurting and I was away and couldn't help.  Friends had said that there wasn't anything anyone could do but the horrible feeling of guilt lingered for a long time. I was fortunate that I was spared losing anyone in the attacks.  For those who lost loved ones, my sincerest condolences.  To the first responders, you are our hereos and deserve our eternal respect and support.  For the nearly 3,000 victims, you are in our minds and hearts always. Rest in peace!

 

This sweet little boy was at the
memorial in London the same
day I visited!