Twelve years ago, on this day, the unthinkable happened.
Does anyone who witnessed the events of Sept. 11, 2001, not remember that day in vivid clarity?
It sounds cliché, but … It's true. It started out as a normal day just like any other. A weekday … I was getting ready for work – my job as a reporter at The Sheridan (Wyoming) Press. At around 6:46 a.m. mountain time, 8:46 in New York City - about the time the first plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center, I had just turned the TV off.
I didn't learn about the first strike until I arrived at The Press some 20 minutes later.
The rest of the day felt simply surreal … the building in flames … people trapped on the upper floors, jumping from windows, seeming to choose death from falling over death from fire … a second attack, this one on the South Tower …
Maybe a made-for-TV movie, but it couldn't really be happening. It couldn't actually have happened ...
But it had ...
The Sheridan Press publisher had a TV in his office, and during the course of the day, people would take breaks from their work to go watch the unfolding of a grim, unprecedented history in our lives.
Of course we at The Press had our assignments: stories on the reactions of the people – everyone from city and county officials to business people to the guy on the street; a story about the one Muslim family in Sheridan, how they were reacting, how others were reacting to them. To the community's credit, people recognized the difference between a single family of a particular faith, and the radical terrorists who had forever changed our society.
Today all across the nation, people are gathering to remember 9/11 – not only the loss of friends and family, but the heroism and dedication of so many … the police and firefighters, the search-and-rescue people, all of those who rallied in the hours and days that followed, rendering aid to survivors, searching for answers amid the wreckage …
Sept. 11, 2001, made us aware as perhaps we had not been before, of our vulnerability. But it also brought out our strengths. In the aftermath of 9/11, we came together as a nation, for at least a little while remembering that all the disparate peoples and cultures who make up the United States, divided though we are on many issues, still can find much to unite us.
We have lost some freedoms since 9/11. We have lost an innocence. But we have survived. Today is a day to remember.
Does anyone who witnessed the events of Sept. 11, 2001, not remember that day in vivid clarity?
It sounds cliché, but … It's true. It started out as a normal day just like any other. A weekday … I was getting ready for work – my job as a reporter at The Sheridan (Wyoming) Press. At around 6:46 a.m. mountain time, 8:46 in New York City - about the time the first plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center, I had just turned the TV off.
I didn't learn about the first strike until I arrived at The Press some 20 minutes later.
The rest of the day felt simply surreal … the building in flames … people trapped on the upper floors, jumping from windows, seeming to choose death from falling over death from fire … a second attack, this one on the South Tower …
Maybe a made-for-TV movie, but it couldn't really be happening. It couldn't actually have happened ...
But it had ...
The Sheridan Press publisher had a TV in his office, and during the course of the day, people would take breaks from their work to go watch the unfolding of a grim, unprecedented history in our lives.
Of course we at The Press had our assignments: stories on the reactions of the people – everyone from city and county officials to business people to the guy on the street; a story about the one Muslim family in Sheridan, how they were reacting, how others were reacting to them. To the community's credit, people recognized the difference between a single family of a particular faith, and the radical terrorists who had forever changed our society.
Today all across the nation, people are gathering to remember 9/11 – not only the loss of friends and family, but the heroism and dedication of so many … the police and firefighters, the search-and-rescue people, all of those who rallied in the hours and days that followed, rendering aid to survivors, searching for answers amid the wreckage …
Sept. 11, 2001, made us aware as perhaps we had not been before, of our vulnerability. But it also brought out our strengths. In the aftermath of 9/11, we came together as a nation, for at least a little while remembering that all the disparate peoples and cultures who make up the United States, divided though we are on many issues, still can find much to unite us.
We have lost some freedoms since 9/11. We have lost an innocence. But we have survived. Today is a day to remember.
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