9/12/13, Post 9/11 Reflections: Sitting here with welled up eyes after watching a 9/11 memorial video posted by a friend. As a younger man almost three decades ago visiting NY on a business trip I stayed at The Vista Hotel at 3 WTC. I remember standing between The Twin Towers on a sunny day and seeing them soar skyward on either side of me, how small I felt and how much I stood in amazement at that architectural engineering marvel. Later, going to the top and looking out over Manhattan from WOW: Windows on the World, restaurant and observation area, soaking in the unique marvel which is the NY skyline. A few years later I recall how impacted I felt when I learned about the first attack on the WTC, on Feb 26, 1993. when a truck filled with 3/4s ton of explosives was parked in The Vista Hotels underground parking just below the ballroom I had exhibited at, doing extensive damage to it and the sublevels of the WTC complex. Feeling relieved and renewed by the spirit of those who rebuilt her and reopened it in Nov of 94. They did not defeat us then, we rebuilt and went on. The utter disbelief, dismay, sadness and grief as I watched the events unfold from the television as I was preparing for work the morning of 9/11/01, watching those man made marvels come crashing down and the thousands of lives that were lost that day as war was brought to mainland American soil for the first time in our history. Starting a new job, training in Princeton NJ for three weeks later that fall, making a pilgrimage to The City, Halloween weekend, to pay my respects. Coming out from the train station under Madison Square Garden and just happening to come out onto the side facing the fire dept. and the church where Father Mychal Judge, the chaplain of the NYC Fire Dept. and first recorded fatality of that day were. Touring in reverent silence the fire department and seeing the pictures of all the firemen who had died and the flowers and candles laying in front of the easels holding their pictures. Walking all the way down Broadway through the neighborhoods to the site of the bombings and recalling how the smell of death increased and how fewer people were on the streets. Coming up on the cordoned off 4 square blocks that they had managed to work the rubble back into and seeing what was once the mighty WTC reduced to stories of smoldering, dust evoking rubble over the 8 foot fencing and tarp that had surrounded the area. Shimmying up a streetlight pole in order to view over them and watching the rescue dogs and workers dig tirelessly through the rubble in recovery, long past the rescue mode. Having old people and others who could not make the climb, hand me their cameras to shoot over the top of the fencing.. dozens of them and they kept coming as I was climbing down. Amazed again at the human spirit involved in this recovery and reclamation effort. Sitting in silence on a window ledge of a building across the street, praying for the lives lost, the bodies yet to be reclaimed and for the workers that were trudging on. The people of NYC were not defeated. Recalling how in the fall of 08 taking a train in from Princeton, on 9/11/08. where I was interning in the marketing dept. of a company I was working for at the time, coming into the city to meet with the ad agency and seeing the gaping hole in the skyline where the Towers used to be, like seeing Manhattan smiling missing its two front teeth. How somber yet about business NYC was that day and again marveling at the American Spirit that will not be defeated and life in The City going on. Watching with pride as the indomitable American spirit rebuilt on Ground Zero the amazing and further reaching Freedom Tower complex and Memorial. The city was not defeated that day, it rebuilt and goes on. The night of 5/2/11 when news hit that a Navy Seal team had finally dealt the long sought after death blow to Osama bin Laden. We were not defeated...he was. Remembering packing up care packages for my son Jason who was deployed to Afghanistan and praying daily for his safe return to his wife and family and recalling how proud I was of him, his commitment and his patriotism.13 years later, watching the current news about the terrible atrocities and beheadings being committed by ISIS to the innocent religious in the middle east and the commitment given by our POTUS to escalate the effort in Iraq and expand it to Syria: Our objective is clear: We will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counterterrorism strategy, he said. The American Spirit of Freedom will continue to rise up and fight this enemy until it is defeated. We were not defeated then, and we will not be defeated now. God Bless America!
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 12:13:06 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015