Remembering

[george moromisato]

Ten years is not that long, sometimes.

I remember driving to work in the morning and listening to the first reports of a plane hitting the World Trade Center in New York. I hardly listened, distracted by the mundane thoughts of an average Tuesday morning. Over the radio, without the iconic images of flaming towers, it was easy for me to believe, at first, that only a small plane had hit--an accident of navigation--and that soon the news would turn to something more important. By the time I reached the parking lot at work, airliners--not small planes--had struct the second tower and the Pentagon. A fourth plane was unaccounted for. And even still, the enormity of that day was not apparent and worse was yet to come.

The first day of 9/11 was all adrenaline. We watched the news, refreshed CNN.com, traded stories, and tried to sift the unimaginable reality from the unfounded rumors. More planes were said to be heading for other cities and F16 were deployed to shoot them down. A fourth plane had crashed in Pennsylvania. Had the Air Force brought it down? When the first tower fell, I remember being shocked at the image of a single tower in a skyline that only looked familiar with two. Then the second tower collapsed on top of it.

The second day of 9/11 was about horror and sadness. We watched over and over again the images of the towers billowing blackness . We saw people throwing themselves off the 80th floor, choosing one death over another. We saw the number of the dead ebb and flow. We realized that hundreds of the dead had been the first responders who rushed up the stairs into the sky to save others only to end up sharing their fate. We felt shame at learning that Boston had been one of the airports from which the hijackers boarded. And we heard the reports about Flight 93 and the passengers' decision to take their destiny into their own hands.

The third day of 9/11 was numbness.

I remember traveling to the City not long after that Tueday. Makeshift memorials lined the streets around lower Manhattan--flowers, notes, but especially photos. They were like missing persons flyers, but instead of asking, "Have you seen...?" they asked you to remember. And I remember that indescribable smell, the acrid smoke that lingered for blocks, reminding us of the black smoke that we saw on TV.

But I also remember the determination of everyone there. We mourned, but we did not despair. We didn't know then whether or not we would be attacked again. Certainly I would not have believed that we could go ten years without another. But no one doubted that we would rebuild. No one doubted that we would move on. And even then, when we thought that we would never be the same, we also knew that we would, someday, go back to normal.

9/11 reminded me that horror exists, but so does the will to confront it. And ten years is not too long.

[Nill]

I feel like reading a Self Biography of a 9/11 victim but other then that this was beautiful,Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us

[Ttech]

I remember i was in Florida at the time, on vacation, supposed to fly home the next day. I was with some friends and we were in front of the tv. Everyone was yelling about what happened and at first i thought it was some horrible joke. But then the tower fell will never forget that sight on a tv watching it happen, hoping the second tower would last.

[erik dela cruz]

9/11 was the most shocking day(night in our shores) on tv that I saw LIVE. CNBC was reporting in Wall Street then they flashed the burning Tower I. I thought it was an ordinary fire but then.....a passenger plane was shown hitting Tower II....

....then the sight of people trying to call for help sticking their bodies out to be seen but.... I saw them fall to their deaths in real-time.
....the collapse of Tower I....
....then Tower II...
....the reports of another one hitting the Pentagon was too much.

My cousins in California got the news from us(via text) here in the Philippines and they were not even aware what was going on back then.....

A decade past, it's still saddens me and my heart aches for the lives wasted by the inhuman work of those misguided creatures.