REMEMBERING 9/11

I’ve spent a lot of time today watching CNN and their reminiscences of the events of 9/11/01. For those of us old enough to remember November 22, 1963 there is at least one parallel. I don’t think any of us will forget where we were when we first heard what was happening in New York City and Washington DC that day.

I was unemployed five years ago today and was sound asleep in my safe little bed when the phone rang and shocked me awake. It was Son #1, Aaron, calling from Michigan State University. He fairly shouted over the phone, “Dad! Turn on the TV. A plane just crashed into the World Trade Center. You won’t believe it!”

I jumped out of bed, just a little embarrassed to have been caught asleep at that time, and turned on Peter Jennings. There were the Twin Towers and one of them had a big hole in it near the top. There wasn’t much smoke yet but the image riveted me to the TV. The news was still confusing. Some said it was a small private plane. Some said it was a plane in distress that couldn’t avoid the giant tower. No one was really saying anything about a terrorist attack yet.

Then as I sat there watching I saw the second jet fly into the other tower right before my eyes! I couldn’t believe it! It happened so fast that I didn’t even notice what kind of plane it was! I had to wait along with everyone else for the slow motion replays to realize that it was a full-sized passenger jet!

Being unemployed at the time, I had the luxury of not having to go anywhere. In fact, I didn’t go ANYWHERE! Except for trips to the frig and the bathroom, I stayed glued to that TV for two days. It was so weird because it was apparent that this was a well-orchestrated attack against the United States and no one knew when or where it would end. How many other cities were targeted? I was living in far southwestern Michigan on the shores of Lake Michigan. It seemed so far away from us. Except for the fears that something was in store for the Sears Tower or Hancock Building in Chicago.

I remember getting pretty nervous when the plane crashed into the Pentagon. It was all too easy! Why WOULDN’T these people have targeted scores of buildings around the country? I was wondering what Peter Jennings was going to tell me next. I couldn’t come to grips with the feeling of detachment I was experiencing. Why was I feeling so darn safe in my little house in the dunes?

So much has happened since that day. I saw a survey report on CNN this morning. There has been a huge rise in the number of Americans who blame George Bush for the events of 9/11. Can you help me out with this? What are they thinking? Didn’t the government of South Africa have Osama in custody and offer him to the United States when Clinton was president? I heard Hillary Clinton say that the way this has been handled has put us in greater danger today than we were in on 9/11.

I’m really getting sick of politics. (I know, I just said that in my last post.) This five year anniversary is being used for political advantage all over the place. Do these people have no shame? Does anyone really care about what is right and wrong anymore? Good or bad? Beneficial to the people? Our two political parties need to get down off their high horses and quit finger pointing and start doing something so that this “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”