plez sez: this day will always be indelibly engraved in my mind and more so today because this is the first time that 9/11 has fallen on a Tuesday since 2001.
i happened to be home from work that day, because it was the day that my daughter came home for the first time: she was only 12 days old... two weeks ago, we had a BIG A** 6th birthday party for her at my subdivision's pool and clubhouse. twenty-five of her close friends from school and the neighborhood were in attendance. they splashed in the pool. they ate pizza, cake, and punch. and they hammed it up on my daughter's karaoke machine.
like millions of Americans, i watched in horror as the very symbols of our way of life first stood lifeless with smoke billowing from their windows and then witnessed them crumble into piles of rubble at the feet of New York City.
my stomach churned as accounts of the Pentagon attack and the plane that went down in Pennsylvania surfaced.
the "war on terror" was subsequently launched. we sat and watched as our civil liberties were restricted. we sat and watched as our president demonized an entire religion and then invaded a sovereign nation. we continue to sit and watch as over 3,700 U.S. troops have given their lives to our "war on terror."
Tuesday, September 11, 2001 will always be remembered as the most joyous day of my life as i started my life: a new father holding my beautiful daughter for the very first time... and i will always remember it as the day that we became more callous and hateful as a nation, like when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor or when James Earl Ray assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr.
I feel you.
ReplyDeleteI posted about this a while back.
"http://sullsblog.blogspot.com/2007/03/where-were-you-when.html
Wow - that's so powerful. Thanks for sharing this. My memory is leaving work early (rumors at the time were that Chicago could be a possible target, particularly the Sears Tower) and riding home on the "L," a much more subdued ride than usual except for some brothas in the back making crude jokes about people being unable to escape ("I would outrun the fire," one of them said, foolishly). When I got home, my wife, who taught fifth grade at a nearby private school, called. She was in tears, because despite how harrowing the images were, the teachers were told not to tell the students about it.
ReplyDeletewow, that's a parallel. my son was 2 days old, born premature and in the intensive care unit. the hospital had its own bomb scare thanks to 9/11 and they evacuated everyone EXCEPT the premies in the ICU!! like you, we also had a BIG A** birthday party just the other day, with tons of his neighbors and friends and our own 9/11 feelings will always be mingled with joy and horror. My wife and I both knew, as we watched events unfold that day on the hospital TV, that some poor brown nation was going to suffer for that.
ReplyDeleteI just got back from NYC was there 10-12, and at airport, sitting by gate to return, i was able to pick up entry code pilot used to get in - we still aint safe but i aint scard
ReplyDeletei am just now reading this post - b'cuz i don't like the images that we've been flooded with of 9/11.
ReplyDeletei had just started my first nyc teaching gig ...i taught UPTOWN 7 or so miles from the WTC...it was so surreal. i remember catching a ride home & looking thru the back window of the car at the smoke...
Glad that U have something to celebrate on that day that was so tragic for so many, Plez.