As with life's high intensity events we experience, we remember exactly where we were when they occurred. I remember distinctly what I was doing when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. I was at a water fountain in the Microbiology Department at the University of Arizona when a nun walked around the corner of the hall to tell me the President had been shot. I recall the first landing of U.S. astronauts on the moon. I watched it on television in Tucson, AZ with friends, as our children played on the floor. We were sitting on the couch, all four of us adults, seeing Neil Armstrong take the first step onto the moon's surface.
Ten years ago on September 11, 2001, I was packed and standing in our kitchen preparing to leave for Reagan National Airport to fly to Denver to provide training for employees of the Department of Transportation. Around 9:00 am, my daughter called us and told us to turn on the television. Every channel had the same picture of a plane burning on the side of one of the twin towers in New York city. I remember how unreal the image looked. It was surreal, like in a movie. She pleaded with us to leave our house to drive away from the U.S. Capitol. She said that the newscaster in Takasago, Japan knows a third plane was headed for the Capitol. In reports, you hear that that the plane was targeting either the White House or the U.S. Capitol. I side with the Japanese newscaster that the primary target was the Capitol -- a much easier, visible, and iconic target.
My daughter was teaching English in Japan and was able to make the telephone call to us in Washington, DC. In retrospect, I marvel that her call made it through the phone traffic. We live five blocks from the U.S. Capitol on what would be the flight path for a plane to come from the east. If it were not for our daughter's call, I would have driven to Reagan airport, unaware of what was happening. I do not believe the plane that crashed into the Pentagon had happened when we received her call.
Even with the twin towers burning, I was still getting ready to leave for the airport. That's how my mind was processing this -- stay normal and do what I was going to do. This must be have been my mind coping with what seems improbable. It wasn't until I heard that roads were closed to and from the airport that I had no choice but to stay home. My wife and I stayed glued to the television the rest of the day. We will never forget the pictures, nor the tragedy it represents as we remember the day.
Yes, I bought a book on the tragedy of 9/11. We never left the house as our daughter asked, believing that the third plane that was brought down by heroic passengers would not have missed hitting the Capitol if it came our way. I'm grateful for the passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed in Shanksville, PA for taking action to thwart the highjacking. Shanksville is 167 miles by car from DC. With the jet traveling at 580 miles per hour (when it crashed into the earth), it would have taken less than 17 minutes (if it were a car), or more likely less than 10 minutes to fly to the Capitol! We are eternally thankful. I have no doubts that the plane would have found the Capitol had it not been stopped.
What does 9/11 mean to me today? 1) Be grateful for everyday, 2) There are good people in the world, 3) There are evil people in the world, 4) The world is changed and life is not the same as before 9/11, 5) The world is truly interconnected and a global community, 6) Whether we do good or do harm locally, the potential for global ramifications is very real, and 7) We need to protect and defend what we believe is good because there will always be some who want to destroy it.
© Baldwin H. Tom CMC
www.tbgroupconsultants.com
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