September 11th, 2001


I was in a sexual harassment seminar at work that day, and the lawyer running it had a sister who worked in the WTC. An executive interrupted the seminar to tell her that her sister had called, she was okay. After the Pentagon was attacked the meeting was broken up prematurely and we went back to our desks numb. A co-worker said a plane had been hijacked and crashed in Pittsburgh (where my brother lives). I called my mother and left a message on her machine to turn on the news. I used the internet on my work pc to check out the news sites. The whole company closed down early, at 2 p.m. and I drove home using a “backway” through local roads since we had heard the parkways were closed or clogged. The Long Island Expressway was closed on the westbound side all the way to Suffolk County (60 miles or more). This was to allow emergency vehicles to get to the city. While going home the local route, which I often took, I turned onto Oak Street which runs by Hofstra University. I remember being shocked to see dozens of cars parked on the concrete island right in between the two sides of the street. They were all parked haphazardly and there were 2 people, in full military dress, running across the street towards the ROTC/Reserves center. That is when it hit me - we are under attack. When I got home, all the channels were out, since the antennas were on the WTC. I had just bought a satellite dish a couple of weeks before so I was able to watch Foxnews. I remember Bill O’Reilly broadcasting his show from the Channel 12 studios on Long Island because he could not get into the city. I remember Rudy Guiliani, (who had recently become such a jerk most of us were glad he was leaving office), walking down the street saying “Put your mask on, put your mask on”. His press conferences showed him to rise to his better nature, calm, determined, reassuring, compassionate. I remember MSNBC showing the attacks and the collapse and the people running and screaming over and over again. To this day I hate MSNBC for that, they showed it constantly, relentlessly. I remember hearing that there may have been hundreds of firefighters in the collapsed buildings. I also remember the press announcing that 5000 people may have been killed. The funerals were everywhere, the first one I saw was at the local place where we had had my father’s wake just 10 months before. I remember seeing people lining up for a block to get in to pay their respects. For months, everyday, there were obituaries and for months there were funerals everywhere. I went food shopping one Saturday and had to turn back because the whole street was blocked off for a firefighter’s funeral. One day while going to the bookstore for a relaxing time, I had to wait behind a motorcycle cop, at the entrance to the Southern State Parkway for a funeral procession to pass. I remember seeing an article in the local paper about my high school, and learning for the first time the name of a classmate who was killed. All over the island, there were flags, and banners hung. Sheets with messages “ God Bless the NYFD and NYPD” and “We will never forget 9-11” and “God Bless America” hung on every overpass on every parkway. This is more amazing when you realize NY is the cynicism capital of the world. Every car around had a message or flag on it, something I have never seen before, even during the Gulf War. That week, I had a ticket to fly to my niece’s second birthday party, which could not be used. Instead, I drove with my mother across Staten Island, American flag taped to the side window, pass the recently closed Fresh Kills Landfill, where the sight of crushed firetrucks on top of the hills was just surreal. I watched the O’Reilly Factor in Pittsburgh and heard the guest William Bennett mention Chaminade High and all the people connected to the school that were lost. (O’Reilly is a graduate). I will never forget the feeling in New York after the attack. I wish America had capitalized on the incredible unity of the time. Two years has not been enough time to forget, to forgive or to calm down.