My oldest daughter was living in New York at the time. She had just moved from Lower East Side to Brooklyn two weeks before 9/11. She worked in midtown, near Grand Central. She often went to the WTC for her work. I was asleep of course when she called and said “Mommy, they’re flying planes into the WTC”. I turned on the tv and watched in horror. I asked her where she was and she was at work and saw it all from a window. She couldn’t get home to Brooklyn for at least a week and stayed with Manhattan friends until she could. Thank god she called that day or I would have been in my car driving to NYC to find her. No matter how old they are, parents are going to be worried and fearful under those circumstances.
I am heartsick over the fact that tomorrow, every Republican in politics, will be going on and on about 9/11, never forget, blah, blah, blah, while working tirelessly to convince people to forget the insurrection on 1/6. I agree that 9/11 changed us, not for the better. It didn't take long for the Bush administration to lie us into war, politicize that horrible day, especially towards the Muslim community. It brought out the worst in us, politicians, in particular. We had already been seeing an "us" against "them" attitude in this country, courtesy of Republican brainwashing their base, especially evangelicals, into hating everyone not exactly like them. 9/11 gave them a whole new enemy. Our country was attacked, not just on 9/11, but, everyday since. Once the shock of that horrible day wore off, the cracks in our country only widened, resulting in what we're dealing with today. Millions of people believing outright lies about not only about the election, but, about a global pandemic. How many 9/11's worth of deaths have we lost over the course of this pandemic because of those lies? We have a lot to deal with in this country. Our very survival as a democracy is on the line. In that sense, the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 may have already won, sadly. The terrorists who attacked us on 1/6 are winning every day they get away with it, especially trump and the rest of the instigators. Voting rights are being stripped away. Women's rights to control our own bodies, stripped away. Did we really even need terrorists to attack us to destroy our country? We seem to be doing a pretty good job of doing that ourselves.
How terrible to be separated from your loved ones at that horrible time. The drive from San Francisco to L.A. must have been nerve wracking. No planes, lucky you got a car, those hours of driving, your wife home with your precious children.
I was in my kitchen in Houston that morning, making coffee. Bryant Gumbels’ panicked voice caught my attention: the picture of the first plane to hit the Towers is seared in my mind. All I could think of was how did they manage to hit anything on such a beautiful blue sky day?
Then I watched in astonishment as the second plane hit, then I was scared. This was deliberate. I feared we were next, Houston is surrounded by a major port, oil refineries and chemical plants. I didn’t leave the house that day, riveted to the news coverage.
San Francisco and L.A. are surrounded by major ports, oil refineries and chemical plants, too. Did it ever enter your mind that the West Coast could be a target?
May the memories of those innocents be a blessing always.
Everyone has their story of where they were and what they were doing. If you will allow me, here is mine.
I was 42 and had been working for Boeing in its Wichita Ks manufacturing plant for exactly four years.
So mid morning news starting buzzing, word of mouth, that a small plane had flown into a skyscraper in New York City. Now in a manufacturing setting they don’t shut everything down so everyone can go find a TV to watch. The din of drills and especially rivet guns means a radio is out of the question too.
The pace of the news, still word of mouth, picked up. It gradually got quieter and quieter as more machinists took time to try and take additional breaks to gather more information as it became apparent that the plane was a commercial airliner. One of OUR BOEING airplanes had hit the WTC. How could this happen? Then the second one hit the second tower. This could not be!
Soon the entire went mostly quiet. Radios that usually were used only during breaks were turned on. The Pentagon was hit. A few of us continued to try and stifle our curiosity and try to work. A few bursts of rivet gun sounds for awhile then pretty much all fell silent. News filters around that maybe a fourth plane had crashed in Pennsylvania. Was this somehow related?
I usually ate my lunch at a picnic table set up in my work area with coworkers. This day I went into a designated break room that had a crummy little television set. I saw my first images of the planes hitting the towers. The towers crumbling into dust. Wondering, naively, how many would find pockets to survive in. Only to realize later that anyone inside was doomed.
In just days we realized that Boeing would be laying off enormous numbers of its workforce.
A normally joyous milestone, the rollout of the 200th 737 Next Generation aircraft fuselage, the airplane I worked on, on its way to Washington State for final assembly was a somber affair.
Nice work, Steve. I posted an essay on Twitter today that appeared on Medium. It’s called ‘Against Closure’ & it was on my blog first Then on Medium. Hope you’ll read it. Be well. Karen
My oldest daughter was living in New York at the time. She had just moved from Lower East Side to Brooklyn two weeks before 9/11. She worked in midtown, near Grand Central. She often went to the WTC for her work. I was asleep of course when she called and said “Mommy, they’re flying planes into the WTC”. I turned on the tv and watched in horror. I asked her where she was and she was at work and saw it all from a window. She couldn’t get home to Brooklyn for at least a week and stayed with Manhattan friends until she could. Thank god she called that day or I would have been in my car driving to NYC to find her. No matter how old they are, parents are going to be worried and fearful under those circumstances.
I am heartsick over the fact that tomorrow, every Republican in politics, will be going on and on about 9/11, never forget, blah, blah, blah, while working tirelessly to convince people to forget the insurrection on 1/6. I agree that 9/11 changed us, not for the better. It didn't take long for the Bush administration to lie us into war, politicize that horrible day, especially towards the Muslim community. It brought out the worst in us, politicians, in particular. We had already been seeing an "us" against "them" attitude in this country, courtesy of Republican brainwashing their base, especially evangelicals, into hating everyone not exactly like them. 9/11 gave them a whole new enemy. Our country was attacked, not just on 9/11, but, everyday since. Once the shock of that horrible day wore off, the cracks in our country only widened, resulting in what we're dealing with today. Millions of people believing outright lies about not only about the election, but, about a global pandemic. How many 9/11's worth of deaths have we lost over the course of this pandemic because of those lies? We have a lot to deal with in this country. Our very survival as a democracy is on the line. In that sense, the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 may have already won, sadly. The terrorists who attacked us on 1/6 are winning every day they get away with it, especially trump and the rest of the instigators. Voting rights are being stripped away. Women's rights to control our own bodies, stripped away. Did we really even need terrorists to attack us to destroy our country? We seem to be doing a pretty good job of doing that ourselves.
How terrible to be separated from your loved ones at that horrible time. The drive from San Francisco to L.A. must have been nerve wracking. No planes, lucky you got a car, those hours of driving, your wife home with your precious children.
I was in my kitchen in Houston that morning, making coffee. Bryant Gumbels’ panicked voice caught my attention: the picture of the first plane to hit the Towers is seared in my mind. All I could think of was how did they manage to hit anything on such a beautiful blue sky day?
Then I watched in astonishment as the second plane hit, then I was scared. This was deliberate. I feared we were next, Houston is surrounded by a major port, oil refineries and chemical plants. I didn’t leave the house that day, riveted to the news coverage.
San Francisco and L.A. are surrounded by major ports, oil refineries and chemical plants, too. Did it ever enter your mind that the West Coast could be a target?
May the memories of those innocents be a blessing always.
Everyone has their story of where they were and what they were doing. If you will allow me, here is mine.
I was 42 and had been working for Boeing in its Wichita Ks manufacturing plant for exactly four years.
So mid morning news starting buzzing, word of mouth, that a small plane had flown into a skyscraper in New York City. Now in a manufacturing setting they don’t shut everything down so everyone can go find a TV to watch. The din of drills and especially rivet guns means a radio is out of the question too.
The pace of the news, still word of mouth, picked up. It gradually got quieter and quieter as more machinists took time to try and take additional breaks to gather more information as it became apparent that the plane was a commercial airliner. One of OUR BOEING airplanes had hit the WTC. How could this happen? Then the second one hit the second tower. This could not be!
Soon the entire went mostly quiet. Radios that usually were used only during breaks were turned on. The Pentagon was hit. A few of us continued to try and stifle our curiosity and try to work. A few bursts of rivet gun sounds for awhile then pretty much all fell silent. News filters around that maybe a fourth plane had crashed in Pennsylvania. Was this somehow related?
I usually ate my lunch at a picnic table set up in my work area with coworkers. This day I went into a designated break room that had a crummy little television set. I saw my first images of the planes hitting the towers. The towers crumbling into dust. Wondering, naively, how many would find pockets to survive in. Only to realize later that anyone inside was doomed.
In just days we realized that Boeing would be laying off enormous numbers of its workforce.
A normally joyous milestone, the rollout of the 200th 737 Next Generation aircraft fuselage, the airplane I worked on, on its way to Washington State for final assembly was a somber affair.
I was laid off June 2002.
Nice work, Steve. I posted an essay on Twitter today that appeared on Medium. It’s called ‘Against Closure’ & it was on my blog first Then on Medium. Hope you’ll read it. Be well. Karen