Sunday, September 11, 2016
Lest We Forget The Heroes Of That Day
We all remember where we were when the world changed. You would think things would be better after 15 years but it only feels like everything is worse. We learned nothing from that day. I was on my way to teaching at the Outreach School in Ponoka and heard the news on the radio. I couldn't believe what was happening until I saw the footage for myself. It was the second time in my life that I really believed we were headed for a world war. All those things they taught us about nuclear weapons during the height of the Cold War came flashing back to me and I realized that hiding under my desk wasn't going to save any of us.
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I had just gotten to work when the first radio reports came in. I tried to get more news online on the news sites but they were all scrambling because the news was breaking too fast to get it up on the web in any kind of coherent fashion. So I told my boss I was going home because I couldn't be without TV while this major event was going on. I was glued to the TV for the next 10 hours until I just had to take a break and go outside for a walk to get over it.
The horror of seeing that footage for the first time of the planes flying into the twin towers. I'll never forget it.
One of my Law School classmates died in the towers. Jeffrey Cloud, a nice guy, a good lawyer, who deserved a long and successful life. It was stolen from him and he from us and his family. And those monsters danced and celebrated in the streets when he and so many others died so horribly.
I was in court that day; I had no idea what was happening around us. The Chief Judge came out an asked for a moment of silence for everyone at the WTC. We had NO idea. Then she said another plane hit. We looked at each other puzzled. We finally were dismissed at noon. We went outside and downtown Philadelphia was deserted. It looked like the opening scenes of "I am Legend." We still had no idea. We finally found a place that was still open and went in to get some lunch. Only other people in there was the guy behind the counter and a waitress. We sat and ordered our food and that's when I saw the TV. Somehow I already knew and said "Osama Bin Laden is a dead man."
Somehow I got home, I don't remember how. I watched the coverage all day and night. I didn't know Jeff was in the tower then. I didn't find out until I saw the list of names in the paper.
To this day, I can't watch anything about it, showing the images of people jumping from a hundred stories; of crowds running from the collapse. It breaks me inside all over again.
There is no justification for what happened that day. Yes, innocents are killed in war and in airstrikes -- usually because the terrorists deliberately use them as shields and put them in harm's way. They are not the targets. And everyone mourns their deaths as a tragedy. No one is dancing in the streets when they hear that a wedding or a school was mistakenly hit. We cry along with everyone else.
These bastards, however focus on killing innocents everywhere they go. Men, women, children doing nothing but living their lives, going to work, traveling through airports, shopping at the market. And they DARE call US evil!
I saw what true evil looks like on September 11, 2001 in living color. I went to the WTC site in July 2002, when it was still just a big hole in the ground. I saw the beam cross and the tributes to the dead for blocks all around. I've been back several times. I saw Jeff's name on the plaque above the worksite. Those monsters have no idea what true evil is -- probably because it looks back at them from every mirror every day.
It would have been so easy to turn the Middle East into a smoking radioactive hole. If Trump was President then, it probably would have happened. But that is not who WE are. As much as they try to paint us differently, we ARE better than they are.
And that's all I have to say about that.
Well said. It was kind of the moment we realized that we were not untouchable.
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