I don't know what frame of mind I'll be in on 9/11/12 so, I am blogging about my 9/11 memories today. On 9/11/2001, after my husband left for work in Manhattan, I turned on the TV downstairs and started my day. I sometimes liked the background noise while Cookie played and we began our day. That morning I recall standing in front of the TV, and news broke across the screen and there they were, the twin towers. One, was smoldering at the top and a news broadcaster from a helicopter, exclaimed with excitement that he wasn't sure what was going on but, he thought that the North Tower was hit. Given all the spoofs on late night TV, for a split second I asked myself whether or not this was real or was this a rerun of a spoof from last night's late night line up. But, it couldn't be, because the bottom of the screen said that the footage was "live", I thought to myself. As I listed to the commentary, I immediately grabbed my phone and called to D's office and asked him was he okay, did he make it to work fine. I told him one of the twin towers was smoldering, they believed that a plane accidentally hit it. As we were talking suddenly I saw a plane glide across the screen, and *POW*!!!! IT HIT THE OTHER TOWER!!!!!!! I said,"Oh, NO! the other tower has been hit!" Soon after the televisions were put on at D's office and we then got off the phone.
This was a special place for us. D asked me to marry him at the World Trade Center Marriott. We even stayed there on the night that we were married. We had planned to stay there once a year on or around our anniversary. It was now gone too! In shock and disbelief, I left the house with Cookie, to grab a few things from the store, not knowing what to expect in the next few days let alone the next few hours. I made a pit stop to the post office, where an older woman in front of me was crying and asked, how could they do this? and kept referring to "they" and "them" as she shook her head. I stood there paralyzed in silence-until it was my turn. I remember then jetting over to the grocery store to get a few things and then someone made an odd announcement over the intercom. The announcement was that if you had children in the local elelmentary school please go there now, the school will be shutting down for the rest of the day. I didn't know what to think. I felt that this is really bad and not even school kids are safe. After I got home I turned on the TV again and talked to D again. He said that he and a group of people are leaving and are going home. This began a nightmare. He then walked 30 city blocks with a huge crowd headed toward the George Washington Bridge. When he got there, officials turned them around. The bridge had been shut down. No one was allowed into New York City, No one was allowed out- at least not across the GWB This day was long, and I was glued in front of the TV. Shocked that my country was high jacked, shocked that the pentagon was high jacked, shocked that yet another plane went down in Pennsylvania. Someone came into my country, and carried out a detailed plan to bring America to its knees.
D arrived home 8 hours after he told me that he was on his way home. A trip that would have normally taken 20 minutes took 8 hours. In the days to come, there was just an eriee feeling, a feeling of violation and fear that it still hard to put into words, even after 10 years. D did not feel safe returning to work. I didn't feel safe with him returning either. He took public transportation from New Jersey to New York everyday and even went through one of the tunnels to get to his job. In all my years, we have never known any safety measures, metal detectors of any kind to be on the transit buses. We have never known New York City or NJ to do a sweeping security search of the tunnels and for the next 2 years following then 9/11 horror, there was always concerned if one of these nut jobs were going to bomb a bus, bomb my husbands bus, or bomb any of the tunnels or my husbands tunnel he used to get to his job. What were the officials going to do to protect us now?
2 weeks after the attacks, I went to the pier in Weehawken NJ. I stood on the pier and looked across the Hudson River and watched the smoldering still blooming in the sky after 2 weeks. It was overwhelming. The thought that so many lives were lost saddened me deeply. I remember eating lunch at a town nearby my home at the time and walking down the street there were "missing" posters everywhere. My heart sank into my stomach. I told D that these people aren't missing, they're dead! They are not coming back! i did not know these people but, looking at the posters made my stomach feel sick. The people who posted them only wanted hope that perhaps their sons, daughters, mother's fathers, sisters, or brothers were somehow lost in the rubble or in a hospital getting treatment, and not able to contact them. That little bit of hope that they were holding on to gave them the courage to post "Missing" posters. Although some may have been found, an overwhelming majority, were not. And they were not coming home.
10 years later, watching all of the accounts, testimonials, and documentaries on TV, tears begin to well up in my eyes again. None of those people who woke up that morning could even fathom that that day would be there last and that they would die a horrible death. No one could ever imagine that the hatred for America was so strong that a group of terrorists, would come on our soil, try to take her down. My country has never the same for me again. As i still watch who we let in, who we give rights to, who we give liberties to all in the name of political correctness, it angers me! So I say to those that it applies to and those that work hard to protect our country, shut down the borders, deny visas, deny passage into our country-even if they paid for a stupid plane ticket. Tell them to seek amnesty elsewhere! Study elsewhere! "Vacation" and hide out elsewhere! And please officers, by all means continue to racial profile and when you're added to it make sure your not concentrating on old grandmothers who pose no threat, while shoe bombers and the like are slipping right pass your security check points. Target whoever you have to, and thank you for all you do to keep America safe.
