This year, when time feels like some sort of abstract concept, September 11th kind of snuck up on me. It wasn’t until this morning when I logged on to social media, that my brain connected what today actually is. I can’t believe that it’s been 19 years since that awful day. I remember it so clearly that it doesn’t seem possible that it was almost two decades ago.
That morning, I was on my way in to work at the radio station in Connecticut, listening to the morning show. The news director broke into their normal programming to share the news that a plane had flown into one of the twin towers. This morning show was known for their practical jokes, and at the time, I was sure that this had to be one of them. I actually remember getting extremely angry because I thought the joke was in such poor taste, and I sped even faster to get to the radio station to reprimand them for making such a bad decision. When I got to the radio station, I walked through the newsroom to make sure that I had my facts straight. Just as I walked in, I looked up at the TV monitors hanging at the end of the room and saw the second plane flew into the second tower.
The entire newsroom went silent for about 15 seconds as we stood there in shock. Then, everyone flew into a frenzy of activity. The reporters were trying to get more information, and I sped to the morning show studio to tell them what I had seen. Pretty quickly, we made the decision to scrap our regular programming and go wall-to-wall covering the news as it came in. Little did we know how dark the news would get as the day wore on.
It would be easy to focus only on the lives lost or the destruction that was levied, and we certainly need to remember and honor those that we did. However, one of the main things that stands out in my memory was that in spite of the immensely tragic news we were reporting, over and over, we started to get information rolling in of people jumping in to help. In those early hours and days, there was no coordination or group driving the activity. Instead, it was normal, everyday citizens that were standing up to say, “how can I help?” It was citizens standing up to say, “this is my country and I will honor those that have fallen with my service.” People showed up in droves to help with recovery efforts or to donate supplies. Stores ran out of flags to sell because everyone wanted one for their front yard. There were impromptu prayer vigils and long lines at blood drives. We were all trying to find a way to take action to show support or as a outlet for our grief or rage.
One of the other main things that stands out for me about that time was the sense of unity that we felt. We were one country, united by tragedy. We sought out connection, reaching out to neighbors, friends and family to show care and concern. We changed our priorities and how we spent our time. We had meaningful and deep conversations about what it meant to be a citizen of this great country and what it meant to us to have suffered together through one of the worst days of all our lives. We leaned in, held hands, and stood together. In a time when so much was dark, we were the light to each other – and that’s what I want to #neverforget.
Comments