I can't believe that September 11th is coming again soon. Yes, I know, it's once a year, but this is the 15th anniversary. I was a dewy-eyed new college graduate waiting to start a new job in New Jersey and turning on the TV after my parents called to see only the North Tower. Where was the South Tower, lost in the smoke? Then I saw the North Tower crumble and knew the truth.
Most people thought there had to be survivors, even the first responders who had seen it all, all but something like this. The minute I saw the tower disintegrate I knew that not only wouldn't there be survivors, there wouldn't be bodies unless they were outside the towers. Something like that you don't survive, let alone in one piece.
I wish I'd been wrong. I wish that there were hundreds pulled from the rubble and able to be saved. But I was right. For days I followed the news but within 24 hours it was a certainty; this wasn't going to be a rescue operation, only a gruesome recovery. I never set foot on ground zero since I had no qualifications or material ability to help but I can only imagine what it must have been like. I don't think there's any word in any language to describe it, and I have nothing but immense respect and sympathy for those who experienced it.
On the tenth anniversary I kept anxiously checking news and looking out the window of our office that overlooked downtown, afraid to see smoke or some other indication of another disaster. On Sunday I'll be home, but likely will be obsessively checking news again, just in case. The memorial is completed, the museum is done, WTC 1 has risen again in a new incarnation. Yet there's that lurking fear, especially now that I am in the city for so long and feel so much more connected to the unique energy that is NYC and what made it a target in the first place. I don't pray often, but this time I do pray that we never go through something like that again as a city, a nation and as individuals. Not just here, but worldwide.
Some things are too awful to bear, and should not have to be borne due to ideologies or actions that are fueled by fear and hatred. I hope I'll never see anything of this magnitude in my lifetime, but we've all seen it's a horrific possibility. It changed me and millions of others. Please let it be the last time.
Most people thought there had to be survivors, even the first responders who had seen it all, all but something like this. The minute I saw the tower disintegrate I knew that not only wouldn't there be survivors, there wouldn't be bodies unless they were outside the towers. Something like that you don't survive, let alone in one piece.
I wish I'd been wrong. I wish that there were hundreds pulled from the rubble and able to be saved. But I was right. For days I followed the news but within 24 hours it was a certainty; this wasn't going to be a rescue operation, only a gruesome recovery. I never set foot on ground zero since I had no qualifications or material ability to help but I can only imagine what it must have been like. I don't think there's any word in any language to describe it, and I have nothing but immense respect and sympathy for those who experienced it.
On the tenth anniversary I kept anxiously checking news and looking out the window of our office that overlooked downtown, afraid to see smoke or some other indication of another disaster. On Sunday I'll be home, but likely will be obsessively checking news again, just in case. The memorial is completed, the museum is done, WTC 1 has risen again in a new incarnation. Yet there's that lurking fear, especially now that I am in the city for so long and feel so much more connected to the unique energy that is NYC and what made it a target in the first place. I don't pray often, but this time I do pray that we never go through something like that again as a city, a nation and as individuals. Not just here, but worldwide.
Some things are too awful to bear, and should not have to be borne due to ideologies or actions that are fueled by fear and hatred. I hope I'll never see anything of this magnitude in my lifetime, but we've all seen it's a horrific possibility. It changed me and millions of others. Please let it be the last time.
posted by AnonymousX at 10:32 PM
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