Where Were You when the World Stopped Turning?

WinoBlues

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5000 Post Club
I was sleeping in. I woke up grabbed the remote and turned on the TV.

My family's life and direction changed.

The thought of September 11th still brings tears to my eyes. Tears of sorrow and tears of Rage.
 
I was living in a Spanish speaking country. A friend called on me and in Spanish suggested I get to a TV quickly. ("Los Torres Gemellos estan cayendo!") I watched the events unfold in a Laundry Mat. It seemed so hard to believe. (I had just been on top of the towers just years before as a tourist) It certainly was a different experience watching it all unfold from another country and to see another countries citizens respond to it and to Myself (the American in their country) in Mature and Immature ways.

Some said some very hurtful things. Others said some very moving things. Coming back to the states long after 9/11 was different too. Something changed while I was gone. Maybe I grew up, maybe 9/11 changed it, but something was different.
 
My then girlfriend/now wife woke me up (in Denver) with the ominous sentence: "You better come take a look at this..."
I remember being bummed when I went to bed the night before when Ed McCaffrey broke his leg in the Broncos season opener (don't even remember if the Broncos won or lost). Needless to say, my priorities were quite a bit different come that next morning. The most haunting thing I think I've ever seen or heard was when people were jumping from the WTC.
 
I was driving my kid to school listening to the local morning show when they interrupted the show to say the World Trade Center had been attacked. I looked at my kid and turned around and went back home, turned on the TV and sat there hugging him....
 
I was a few miles away in college. 2 class mates had fathers that didn't make it out. I went into the city for weeks after that for fund raisers. I remember coming out of the subway and seeing hundreds of "have you seen me" posters and the smell of death. I remember seeing the city that never sleeps, where I would go at least once a week, dark and completely silent, with police officers from all over the country standing on every single street corner. I remember seeing a van full of middle eastern man driving around terrorizing people. Worst of all, having worked as a firefighter long after that day, I can't imagine what it was like to have to leave a letter to your wife in your locker saying goodbye, because you knew that you probably wouldn't make it out alive. Very dark times. 343 never forget!
 
I typically turn the TV on CNBC in the mornings. That day was no different. I jumped in the shower and was getting ready to head to my office (back then I wasted money on an office - isn't necessary for my business model). I walked into the room where the TV was and saw the first tower smoking. They were reporting that some type of plane may have crashed into it.

So I sat there watching when I saw the second plane crash into the other tower. We all knew at that point that the first one was no small plane and it was no accident.

The ironic part was that I had a second meeting that day with a potential client who is from Egypt. Two weeks prior we had a meeting and spent some time talking about our faith (his being Muslim). He was kind and thoughtful. At that point he had lived in the states for 28 years and both of his children were in different branches of the military.

After the events played out I called him and said in light of what has happened maybe we should reschedule our meeting. He agreed. We met the following week and became a client. He was as disgusted as I was that someone would commit such a terrible act.

Needless to say, the events of that day changed this country. It really is difficult to understand the mindset of someone willing to do such things.
 
I was sitting in my office when my boss called to tell us. Our company had JUST gotten the internet and within a couple of hours it was shut down because so many agents across the county were opening up too many email virus.

The next day I had to attend a regional meeting in Charlotte beside the airport and it was so scary not seeing the planes flying in and out.
 
Not to forget also that the enemy made a direct attack on the military headquarters of the United States as well that day.

In earlier days, my father was a Marine and my mother in Army Intelligence and they met when both were assigned to the Pentagon.

My father had some choice words to say that day. He was definitely "valuing differences" - if you accept the fact that a negative number is also a value.
 
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