Here's my 9/11 post

I don't pretend that the horrible, horrible events on Sepember 11, 2001 weren't felt around our country in deeply personal ways, but I seriously doubt that people outside of the Metro NY area felt it the same way that New Yorkers did. The casualty impact was heaviest here. There was one woman from our city who was murdered that day. In the surrounding towns, there were 5, 6, 8 people (mostly fathers of young children) murdered that day: people who went to work and didn't come home.


I live about 15 miles from Lower Manhattan as the crow flies. I remember that day was supposed to be the day NYC elected a new mayor. It was Rudy's last term and it was a bitterly fought election to see who would succeed him. I was watching the news and they came on saying a plane had hit one of the twin towers. Then the second plane hit and I distinctly remember thinking (Because I am extremely naive), "Boy, someone at Newark Airport really messed up." Then I talked to my mom who enlightened me, "This is no accident." I spent the whole day just walking around in a daze. This doesn't happen in the US. Scott was thinking I should try to get out of town with our 9 month old Primo. Go further west in the state since there are oil refineries in our city. What if those guys hit them next?


September 12 dawned a beautiful day. Except for this haze. This haze that hung over our city was from the still smoldering rubble of the towers I used to be able to see against the sky from the Parkway overpass near our house. This haze had a smell that has burned itself into my nostrils: death. The death of thousands of innocents. Thousands of people who showed up on time for work that day and the hundreds of people who tried to save their bodies and their souls from the fire.


Please remember those who gave so much that day: those who died and those who were injured and those who are still walking around in a daze, all these years later. Please pray for those who are working so that we can once again say,"This doesn't happen in the US."