Five Years Ago Today..........

[Teacher's Pet]

I passed out after a late Monday night waiting tables at the Applebees I worked at. I was so thankful that I had the next day off, since my feet were killing me.

 

I set my alarm clock for noon, so I could get some much-needed sleep.

 

At about 8:45, my phone rang. It was Billy, a college student whom I was mentoring in comedy.

 

"DUDE," he said, "PUT ON YOUR F'ING TELEVISION!"

 

I rolled over and grabbed my remote. I turned on the TV to see some horrible disaster film about a plane flying into.......

 

This wasn't a movie.

 

What I witnessed over the next 2 hours has haunted my heart and mind ever since. I sat glued to the TV. New York City, the city of my birth, the city of my career, the city I love with all my heart, was on fire. It wasn't just the Twin Towers. It was NEW YORK CITY, the greatest city on Earth, not on fire, but crying for help. While the skies above were filled with acrid smoke and flame, it's streets were strewn with more than just bits of debris and broken glass, but people. People covered in dust, glass, and blood. Not only their own blood, but the blood of others as they rallied to help carry the injured and dead from the site.

 

I watched in horror as ambulances began carting away people in business suits, who, just a few minutes earlier, were on their way to earn a buck to save up for college tuition for their kids, and a good home for their families. They were living the American Dream, which, on national television, was quickly turning into the American Nightmare.

 

"...it is apparent that The United States is under attack," said the newscaster. You could hear the fear and shock in the voice of the commentator.

 

Then, the unthinkable happened. As millions of people stared in horror at their TV screens, the Twin Towers came crumbling down, one at a time. As the South Tower collapsed, you could almost hear the first Tower cry, crying as if it was trying to save it's twin brother. As the smoke began to clear, you could almost see the other Tower losing it's own will to live, and shortly followed in it's own death.

 

Tears began streaming down my face as I watched the drama unfold. But they weren't MY tears. They were America's tears, as at that moment, we all cried as a nation.

 

How? Why? Who? No one could answer these questions yet. For those brief moments, America was dying. We were all witnesses to the greatest tragedy this country has ever faced. But this was different, too. It wasn't a military base being bombed. It wasn't an embassy being attacked. It was a pair of office buildings. "They", whomever "they" were, were not attacking our troops. They were attacking US.

 

Lawyers. Accountants. Bankers. Janitors. Secretaries. Police Officers. Fire Fighters. Whites. Blacks. Heterosexuals. Homosexuals. Asians. Middle Easterners. Hispanics. Jews. Christians. Athiests. Muslims. Republicans. Democrats. Young. Old. Mothers. Fathers. Sisters. Brothers. Children. Friends. Wives. Husbands. Lovers.

 

All gone in the blink of an eye. While their actual deaths were, for the most part, swift, one can only cringe at the horror going on inside the buildings as these poor souls tried to escape, and at the fate of the rescue workers going IN the buildings to find survivors.

 

I was motionless for at least 3 hours as they replayed the impact of the hijacked planes over and over on TV.

 

I remember snapping out of it, and then I realized something...

 

My mother works in Manhattan.

 

I remember trembling as I picked up the phone to call her office. "...all circuits are busy...please try again..."

 

I tried. And tried. And tried. And then I threw my phone on the ground and broke down crying. WHERE THE HELL IS MY MOTHER?

 

I quickly logged on to the Internet to see if there were any new details. My email box was brimming with emails from long distance friends who know I live near, and sometimes work in NYC. Begging me to call/email them to let them know I'm ok.

 

I'm here, but I'm not ok. Not until I find my mother.

 

I continued to try to call my mother into the afternoon. At about 2pm, I got through. She was fine. Her office was far from the WTC, but just knowing she was in NYC at the time was enough to send me into panic. She told me she was going to be coming home as soon as any transportation back to New Jersey was available.

 

At this point, I needed some fresh air, so I went outside, but there was no fresh air to be found. The wind had carried the scent of burning metal, dead bodies, and broken dreams across the Hudson River, and into my suburban New Jersey neighborhood, just about 3 miles in a straight line from Ground Zero. Never before have I experienced a scent so horrible, both in smell, and in meaning. I was breathing in death, destruction, and an impending war.....

 

At about 7pm, my mother called me to meet her near the George Washington Bridge. She was able to get a ride to the Bridge from someone in her office building, and then was able to take a bus home.

 

I remember driving to the bus stop, and seeing dozens of people, still in shock, waiting to pick up their loved ones. When I saw my mother, I broke down crying as she got in my car, and kissed and hugged me as she cried.

 

As soon as we got home, she turned on the TV. She had still not seen the actual attack, as most of us did in the morning. Before I could tell her maybe she shouldn't see it..... they replayed it yet again. My mother turned white as the planes exploded against the buildings. She began to hyperventilate, so I had to calm her down.

 

She spent the next couple of hours describing what happened from her point of view, though her office is far from the WTC, they could FEEL it happening. Eventually, I got her to relax and go to sleep.

 

I didn't.

 

I was up all night answering emails from concerned friends, reading Internet articles with new information, watching press conferences on TV, and just wondering WHY. Who hated my beautiful birth place so much as to want to destroy it?

 

The answers came soon enough. The next morning I picked up the newspaper. It's headline: ACT OF WAR - WORLD TRADE CENTER DESTROYED; MANY DEAD" At this point, we know the attacks were conducted by Middle Easterners. I paid for my paper, and could see the sadness in the eyes of the Middle Eastern man who operated the 7-11. I could see in his eyes that even though he may share a heritage with the terrorists, he wasn't one of them. He was here for the same reason the Irish, the Italian, the Russian, and the millions of others emigrated to this country. Like so many others, to have a better life, but for 3,000 people, it was all over.

 

Over for them, and for them, we grieve, and pledge our vengeance as a nation.

 

But not over for us.

 

We must never forget 9/11. This country affords it's people every opportunity in the world, sometimes even when we don't deserve it. We are not a perfect country. We have high taxes, pollution, crime, disease, poverty, and hunger, just like any other nation. But we have something else - the spirit to fight back against all odds.

 

We've done it so many times before.

 

More than ever, we need to do it again.

 

Do yourself a favor, today, and every day.

 

THANK a policeman.

 

THANK a firefighter.

 

HUG a neighbor.

 

TELL the one you love how much they mean to you.

 

SAY you're sorry, no matter how petty the squabble.

 

ACCEPT someone else's apology.

 

But never, and I mean NEVER, forget the horrors of 9/11, or the bravery of it's heroes, and the sacrifices of those who are in harms way as we speak, fighting to make sure it NEVER happens again.

 

Don't HATE your President.

Don't HATE his political rivals.

 

HATE our enemies. And not "those people" in general, but those who specifically want to cause death and destruction to Americans, for they didn't single out any one group when they attacked us.

 

They attacked us as a NATION.

 

We need to fight back as one, too.

 

God Bless America.

 

-tp

[boshemia]

Thank you... That was truly beautiful, and very well written.

 

It breaks my heart. In just five short years we have forgotten haven't we? For a short time we were one again, we supported each other, we were willing to overlook the little things, we had something so very important that united us as a country again...

 

We remember the losses, but Dear God what will it take to remind us of what we found that day?

[Teacher's Pet]

This is for you..... and for everyone...

 

"Have Your Forgotten" - Darryl Worley

 

I hear people saying we don't need this war

I say there's some things worth fighting for

What about our freedom and this piece of ground

We didn't get to keep 'em by backing down

They say we don't realize the mess we're getting in

Before you start your preaching let me ask you this my friend

 

Have you forgotten how it felt that day?

To see your homeland under fire

And her people blown away

Have you forgotten when those towers fell?

We had neighbors still inside going thru a living hell

And you say we shouldn't worry 'bout bin Laden

Have you forgotten?

 

They took all the footage off my T.V.

Said it's too disturbing for you and me

It'll just breed anger that's what the experts say

If it was up to me I'd show it everyday

Some say this country's just out looking for a fight

After 9/11 man I'd have to say that's right

 

Have you forgotten how it felt that day?

To see your homeland under fire

And her people blown away

Have you forgotten when those towers fell?

We had neighbors still inside going thru a living hell

And you say we shouldn't worry 'bout bin Laden

Have you forgotten?

 

I've been there with the soldiers

Who've gone away to war

And you can bet that they remember

Just what they're fighting for

 

Have you forgotten how it felt that day?

To see your homeland under fire

And her people blown away

Have you forgotten when those towers fell?

We had neighbors still inside going thru a living hell

And you say we shouldn't worry 'bout bin Laden

Have you forgotten?

 

Have you forgotten all the people killed?

Some went down like heros in that Pennsylvania field

Have you forgotten about our Pentagon?

All the loved ones that we lost and those left to carry on

Don't you tell me not to worry about bin Laden

Have you forgotten?

 

Have you forgotten?

Have you forgotten?

 

 

I haven't.

 

-tp

[burning 4 revenge]

I can't hate our "enemies". And it isn't that I don't have enough hatred within me. I think hate has become an even more fundamental element of my being than sadness. I feel hatred strangling me.

 

It's this hatred directed at abstract ideas and unknown groups that I can't tap into. I try ,but it feels so bland. It's just not there.

 

Hatred to me is much too personal a thing, much too precious a thing to waste on people I don't know. I can only feel true hate toward individuals. And it's always mixed with love. And it always involves betrayel. I think I have enough hate within myself to perpetrate ten thousand holocausts if only I could perpetrate them against certain people. There are black parts of my soul capable of horrific and despicable things and I'm aware of it. But I never could feel that intensity for a stranger who's my enemy, because I'm part of some group.

 

I wonder sometimes if people project some of their inner anger outward at easy targets. But maybe I'm getting too Freudian here.

[boshemia]

After 9/11 I saw colors in the world again. People were willing to let go of the black and the white and see the world in full technicolor. It almost seemed like everyone was going to stop fighting about what was right and what was wrong, maybe we were going to stop fighting all together.

 

I hate war, I am a pacifist for the most part... but at first we all knew what we were fighting for, and who we were fighting with. Now we are all fighting with each other again, people have started in with the stupid lawsuits again.

 

I'm a pacifist, but even I have to fight some battles. I have to do the right thing no matter how much I've had to sacrifice it is the right thing and I know it... I've got a lot of people telling me to just let my personal battle go, it's really not that big of a deal, but to me it is... and that is the true nature of war...