So tomorrow marks five years since the day that changed all of our lives. Here is my story, one day early since I don't know that I'll feel like writing about it tomorrow:
On the morning of September 11, 2001 I and a number of other newly hired attorneys were due to have our picture taken with then Mayor Rudy Giuliani on the steps of City Hall. We were all supposed to meet on the second floor of the Law Department and then proceed to City Hall as a group. I was running late that morning and didn’t get to 100 Church Street until shortly after 8:30am. The first plane must have struck the tower when I was in the elevator because I don’t recall hearing any explosion. When I arrived on the second floor, I was somewhat surprised that no one else was there yet. Apparently the folks who were on the floor at the time the first plane hit had immediately gone downstairs to see what was happening. I grabbed a co-worker and went back to the lobby of my building. As I was pushing through the front door of the building the second plane hit the tower. There was a tremendous explosion and flash of light reflected in the windows of the building across the street which promptly shattered due to the explosion. A piece of the plane’s engine (I could see the flywheel clearly) tore through a section of roof of the next building north of 100 church and landed with a tremendous thud about 20 yards from where I was standing. It was still there, smoking, when I ran up Church Street later on that morning.
Immediately after the second plane hit I bolted back into the lobby which was already full of FBI agents who were screaming at everyone to evacuate the building because it was about to collapse. I remember thinking at the time that this fact was kind of curious since only about 20 minutes had passed since the first plane struck the tower. To my knowledge the only tenants of 100 Church Street at the time were the Bank of New York, the City Law Department and a private law firm. At this point I still didn’t know what had happened; my first thought was that someone had blown up the Federal building next door. It was only when I exited the lobby into the street that I saw the towers burning for the first time.
Instead of leaving the area immediately as many of my colleagues did, I bummed a cigarette from a co-worker and stood in front of my building watching the tragedy unfold. I saw many, many people jumping to their deaths from the holes where the planes went into the tower. Fortunately, the Federal building blocked any view of them landing. The streets were full of paper blowing from the Trade Center offices like it was a perverse ticker-tape parade.
There were a lot of people on Church Street and the rumor mill was grinding out information every second; there was a third plane, the Met Life Building had also been hit, etc. At some point before the first Tower collapsed a fighter jet appeared in the sky which started a panic because people thought it was another hijacked plane. When the first Tower collapsed I was standing on the corner of Church Street and Chambers Street. I remember very clearly thinking and telling a number of friends and family that additional explosives must have been placed in the Tower because I saw puffs of smoke emanating from several stories below the fire just prior to the building collapse. I also thought I heard an explosion but I can’t be sure if this is a real memory or not. I watched the implosion and then ran for my life up Church Street with thousands of my fellow New Yorkers to try to avoid the cloud of ash.
I was much further away when the second tower collapsed; on Canal Street actually and I could only see the top of the building as it disappeared.
We were shut out of the building for eight months as it was inside the frozen zone. We returned in April of 2002. Meanwhile life changed for me and for everyone else in the world. Anyway that’s the outline of my story. Hopefully many of you were a lot further away and only had to watch it on TV because, frankly I have had a difficult time processing all of that destruction. The fact that our government has seen fit to expend all of the world’s positive feelings toward the United States by waging war on the entire world saddens me beyond all description. Peace.
5 comments:
Everyone thinks I've gone mad too, I just ignore them. I have to say though that it is relatively easy to poke holes in a lot of that conspiracy stuff, although there are many, many facts that need explaining. I remember wondering on 911 how the FBI had gotten in my building's lobby so quickly. At the time I passed it off at overly competent law enforcement. Ha! A friend I had dinner with the other night has a very good friend whose father worked for the CIA. Out of the blue he calles her on 9/10 and tells her to stay home from work the next morning (lower Manhattan)despite not haveing spoken to her in months. There are too many stories like that floating around for my comfort.
And don't forget the 4000 Jews who didn't go to work that day.
That allegation has been proven completely untrue. There is a vast difference between the US conspiracy theories which are based in science and rely on logical analysis, and the theories of a few uneducated anti-semitic terrorist cranks in the middle-east. (Watch it buddy.)
I didn’t know that there was empirical evidence disproving 4000 Jews didn’t go to work on 9/11. If you could direct me to the evidence it would be appreciated. I doubt there is empirical evidence because the claim is so preposterous that no one would take it seriously enough to bother and disprove it. So really, there is no vast difference between a US conspiracy and a Jewish conspiracy; neither is based in science or logical analysis.
The fuzzy thinking of the US Government conspiracy nutz is not based on science but rather on a disturbed desire to place blame for 9/11 on the doorsteps of the current administration. Regardless of how angry one is at the current Administration, one must completely suspend belief, critical thinking, history, etc to think that the US Government played a role in 9/11. The 9/11 nutz are like the bible thumping snake handlers who insist dinosaurs existed 5000 years ago because the bible says that’s how old the Earth is, unable to to jibe the truth with their worldview they create a totally fictious one to support their oddball beliefs.
I'm not sure what you are talking about regarding your theory that there was a Jewish conspiracy involving 911. That theory was originally proposed by Islamic Mullahs in the wake of the attack to place the blame at the feet of Israel. It was based on nothing but political self-interest. In contrast, those in this country who are asking what in my mind are legitimate questions about what the government knew and when. are motivated, for the most part, by a sincere desire to allocate responsibility for the attacks to the appropriate parties. From looking at this "movement" for lack of a better word, over the last couple of weeks, the theories run the gamut from off the wall allegations of drone planes to plausible accusations that the government had advance notice of the attacks and failed to act. In my mind, having advance notice, which I believe is provable if the government was forced to account for itself, is as reprehensible as if they had a hand in the attacks. Either way a lot of people died. The government has no one to blame but itself. You cannot govern by keeping the people in a state of constant fear and paranoia, deliberately encouraging a culture of government secrecy and then expect the people to swallow your explanations for events. The Republicans want people to check their brains at the door and follow daddy Bush because he knows what's best for us all. Had this administration not expended all of its public trust by lying about everything under the sun perhaps this movement never would have gotten off the ground in the first place.
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