FAITH, HOPE, & LOVE
9/11 Part 1….I am scared of heights….
Where a person was on 9/11 seems to be the common denominator that goes in to account when we think of or talk about 9/11. My parent’s generation had the same commonality when they spoke of when President Kennedy was killed.
It starts out the same way…Oh I will never forget I was…… When, after we state our location and what we were doing, we all use the same additives and adverbs to describe how we felt seeing the images of horror that flooded our screens from the round the clock news coverage.
Disbelieve & shock, were the first initial responses everyone had. With in a few hours it turned to outrage, anger, and maybe even a little madness had crept in our hearts.
First we or at least I could not believe such a big hole in the South Tower could come from a commuter plane, as had been reported early on. Second we could not believe that a second plane stuck the other tower as so many of us watched LIVE. The Towers then collapsed before many of us had time to process what had even happened.
~I often wonder if anyone of the first responders on site speculated that those buildings would come down. Seriously, in their wildest dreams would that have been a possibility?
I was perplexed, never being to a big city or in a building like that on just how you put a fire out on the 70th something floor, how could you ever get a ladder truck or water to spray that high? I don’t know if many folks really had time to contemplate how to put out the fire before the buildings collapsed or was it all about getting as many people out the buildings as possible.
How bout the person who was responsible for making the call in the North Tower over the buildings intercom system not to evacuate, but to stay put that everyone would be safe…. Then minutes later have second plane come crashing though…..
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For many like myself it was surreal, like it wasn’t happening that even though you or I had set up watching T.V. till the late hours it was like when we finally could not take the images any longer, the replays of people who jumped to their death to escape the fire, heat and smoke. That when we set our heads down to the pillow to go to sleep it was as if we thought we would wake tomorrow and it all would have all been a strange dream that it would have never happened ….. That was not the case.
I can’t get past the images of those people jumping… over and over I keep asking what was the alternative if this was the better of options that were available? Anyone who knows me will clue you in… I have a fear of heights … and bridges but that story is for another time. I’ll get back on message… what were these folks thinking? Was there a hope in their mind… even a thought they might survive? Did they fall? I just know this was awful and all I can do is ask God why?
The night of 9/11 we all stayed glued to our televisions following every word that came from the news anchors mouth, hoping with every tick of the clock they would tell you about finding another survivor. Or relieved to hear stories of because this person or that person had missed there train or cab and were late to work that day or a father and business man had changed his ticket at the last minute.
A nation stood stunned, but what was amazing to me was how many people from across the country showed up to dig for survivors… so many that the news started reporting that folks needed to stop coming, that there was no where to stay and the city was basically at a stand still. I know in my mind I pondered loading some tools in the back of my truck and making the trip. What is it about tragedy makes a person desire to help his fellow man? Why don’t we have that same desire on days without tragedy?
We listened to the President Bush tell all of us to be reassured our country would stand resolute and those who struck this blow would be dealt with. That resolve he stated for our country made me swell with pride.
I had some reservation if our country and the Supreme Court had made the right choice to be President of the United States. While I wasn’t necessarily a huge fan of Al Gore, I thought he would have been a good president…. Ok my real thing was he showed Angus cattle as a kid…. I figured he could have been all bad…. Right? Right?
Again I digress… As President Bush spoke that night from the Oval Office I knew we had the right man behind that desk.
What one thing did the nation do?
We prayed….. We prayed…..
We as a country begged God to let us find survivors, to watch over us, to keep our family safe, and to ease our pain.
Ten years later and we have people who protest prayer at 9/11 Memorials
To be continued........
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