Wow, it’s hard to believe that it’s been 12 years since that beautiful morning turned into one of the most horrible events in recent history. I’m still stunned and overwhelmed with a sense of Déjà vu on each anniversary day as I find myself stuck in traffic with almost identical weather as 9/11/01 and flash back to my time on the Pile in New York that has forever changed me. I’m not a sentimental/weepy person but I still seem to get emotional on each anniversary. Sometimes it’s because of the blast of news/replay coverage that is being broadcasted 24/7 for a week before (most of which I’ve never seen) or just the sobering memories. Over the years I’ve delivered my ‘9/11’ story as a presentation to various groups. The goal of this presentation it not to dwell on what happened, why it happened or what our response was. It doesn’t focus on the destruction but instead it tries to tell the story of my 4.5 days in NYC working the pile and more importantly how I witnessed one of the greatest moments in our countries history (at least in my opinion). For a brief time, this country came together. We weren’t White/Black/Hispanic - Christian/Muslim/Jewish or UGA/GaTech. We were ALL Americans! In light of recent current events, we as a country have seemed to drift so far away from what we briefly achieved in September and October of 2001. I really wish we could find a way to recreate that harmony and patriotism, but without the horrific price that we paid on 9/11/01. God bless you all, our brave troops and the United States of America. -T
Posted on: Wed, 11 Sep 2013 14:55:17 +0000