Weekly Mail September 11th Special
September 11, 2006
Looking back five years ago, the first thing I remember about that morning was walking to the train station listening to Imus in the Morning. The mayoral primaries were supposed to be that day, and Imus producer Bernard McGirk was interviewing people on the street about who they were going to vote for. Bernard was speaking to a woman who said she was a teacher who was badmouthing Mayor Rudy Guiliani. Bernard asked her "what she had against guys with bad hair who spit when they talked" The woman said she didn't want to talk to Bernard because "he wasn't axing her serious questions," to which Bernard responded, "I'm not axing you and you're a school teacher?"
It would be the last good laugh I'd have for a while.
The ride in to work was uneventful. I got in and started making phone calls on a closing that was supposed to go that day. My boss at the time, Jim Woods, had been representing some Korean clients who were buying houses in Coram, NY. This one particular woman, had been extremely pushy. I was going to be happy to get rid of this case.
A little before 9:00, I got a call from a girl who had worked for us during the summer, and whose Mom ilona, worked in our Brooklyn office. Ilona was home sick that day, and she told Lorraine that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I went to our Internet computer and saw a picture one of the Twin Towers on fire. I thought it was just a small plane.
In the conference room, some of the other people in the suite were watching this on TV. Jim's secretary, Rosie, was asking me if she should interrupt a meeting between Jim, Nancy and Serge to tell them about this. I didn't think it was that big a deal.
All of the sudden, Maria, a secretary for one of the other firms started yelling, the other tower's been hit. There's another plane."
"OK Rosie, we better tell him."
We kept the TV on and found a radio. In the meantime, the woman who we were doing the closing for was starting to call. As the morning wore on, I started to tell her that we probably weren't going to be able to do the closing today. Yes, she knew what was going on, "But we have to crose!" she insisted.
I was about to blow a gasket. While I was on the phone with this lunatic, I heard on WOR radio that 1) The Pentagon had been hit, 2) There was a fire in the Capitol, and 3) that one of the towers had fallen. When I got off the phone, I called my father, who was working on William Street at the time. "They're locking us in, he said "I'll probably be here for a while." The thought of him being trapped in a building, knowing that he had trouble walking as it was, got me all choked up.
I managed to keep it together for a few minutes, but then I nearly lost it again. Erik Gray was one of Jim's associates, he was a former cop who had become a lawyer. He was about as tough a man I had ever met. He came out of the conference room in tears. "There's no more Twin Towers. It's like, they're all gone."
Meanwhile, the guys on the radio were talking about a plane crashing into Pittsburgh, and that there were 4 more hijacked planes in the air. It was time for us to make a run for it.
Our office was on Madison between 40th and 41st, so we had to figure out where to go. Jim suggested Bryant Park, somewhere open.I suggested we start making our way towards the 59th Street Bridge, but to avoid going near Grand Central and the United Nations, where I figured the next two planes would hit. So we walked down 40th Street to 3rd Avenue and up Third till we got to 47th Street. That's when we decided to wait out the attacks at Conolly's Bar.
Jim, Nancy, Serge and myself, all got beers which we barely touched. Rosie ordered herself a hamburger which she demolished. (Rosie was allergic to many foods, didn't each much on normal days, I guess she figured she could chow down)
President Bush came on the TV (I can't even remember what time it was) He was at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. There wasn't a sound in the bar besides some guy yelling "Everybody shut the f-ck up!" Bush went on to talk about how he had alerted the military and been in contact with congressional leaders and leaders around the world. He concluded with this line: "The resolve of our nation is being put to the test. But make no mistake, America will pass this test." Strange as it may sound, I felt somewhat reassured after he said that.
There was no train service so there was no way for us to get home. Jim lived in CT, Nancy in Rockaway, Serge in Brooklyn, and Rosie in the Bronx. I could have walked home over the bridge, but I didn't want to leave my coworkers. (I would later run into Karl at the same bar, who said the only reason I didn't want to leave was because I was getting free beer--LIES!) Thankfully, I had heard from my father, who they were allowing to leave, and my sister Katie, who was in school on 71st and 2nd. They were both fine. Earlier I had told my dad that I thought Kate should stay where she was. In my state of panic, I figured we should stay apart, better that only one of us got killed rather than both of us. It sounds crazy now, but I figured I was in walking distance of three potential targets: The UN, The Met Life Building (which would take out Grand Central) and The Empire State Building. She was safer uptown.
At 3:00 I was walking to the bathroom at Conolly's when I passed by a TV that had NBC on. Tom Brokaw began giving the rundown "At 8:45 this morning, a plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. About 15 minutes later a second plane struck the other tower. At 9:40, a plane struck the Pentagon... " All I could think at that time was that Dan Rather had become famous because he was in Dallas when President Kennedy was shot. What was going through Brokaw's mind as he was reporting this. Was he scared because the nation was under attack, or was his blood pumping because he was covering the biggest story in years?
There were some reports around 4 O'Clock coming over that some trains were up and running. So I walked over to Grand Central and got the 7 train. I'll never forget the feeling I got as that train came out of the tunnel at Hunters Point, seeing the huge cloud of smoke down where the Twin Towers used to be. It was at that moment I went from being scared to being humiliated. That's the overwhelming feeling I had as I headed home that day. Anger and humiliation.
I had never been so happy to get home and see everybody as I was when I got home that night. But I was dreading finding out about who didn't make it. I was able to account for my close friends and family that were down there, but I knew several of my high school classmates, with whom I had celebrated my 10th year reunion were firemen. Amazingly, there were very few people of the nearly 3,000 that died that I knew personally. It didn't make me any more comfortable or any less angry.
Later on, I was on AOL. There were plenty of chatrooms devoted to 9/11. Many like me, were calling for nuclear retaliation. Others were taking a wait and see approach. Others were starting in with the "we have to understand why they did this." Then, as now, I had no patience for people who were saying that.
The next few days were remarkable for several reasons. Mainly the volunteers that came forward to help in the recovery efforts at what was now being called Ground Zero. Also there had been so many people donating blood, that the blood banks were turning people away. Donations poured in from all over the world. Just about every house in America was displaying an American Flag. As horrible as the events of September 11th were, the unity that prevailed in the days after attacks was amazing, and something we may never again see in our lifetimes.
New York Magazine had an interesting special last month. They put together a hypothetical "What if the attacks of 9/11/2001 had never happened?" There was a main story as an introduction, followed by a blog by Andrew Sullivan chronicling events from September 2006 till September 2007, which will make you wonder if no 9/11 may have made things worse. Several other writers and social commentators chime in as well.
The one universal idea that all these people have is that George W. Bush would have lost the 2004 election, unable to use a terror war as a rallying cry, he would have had to rely on his economic plans that would have buried him. What's more, almost every writer who predicted Bush's loss, said that said loss would not have come at the hands of John Kerry, but rather those of Al Gore, who would have won a rematch from 2000.
The other thing that seems to run constant in every one's tale of a 9/11 less world, is an acknowledgment that al-Qaeda would have struck somehow anyway. If it wasn't on 9/11/2001, it would have been some other date. Nobody doubts that these guys were up to no good, and no one is dumb enough to think that one foiled plot wouldn't have led to another.
The series of articles makes for fascinating reading, but the facts remain that September 11th 2001 did happen and that the world changed and that 5 years later we are still coping and still trying to make sense of something that is so unbelievably senseless.
Life went on, it sure did. And there was a lot of good that happened. Several of us became parents, grandparents. Some of us got married. Despite the crappy economy some of us got better jobs. Looking back over these past 5 years personally there was a lot of sadness, but also lots of good times too.But we all had to cope. Even if we didn't lose a close friend or relative every single one of us knew someone who died that day, and all of us lost a huge symbol of our city and all of us lost a sense of security.
There's a lot still wrong too. Five years later, there is still a huge hole where the Twin Towers used to be. New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, not the brightest of bulbs, said the same thing a couple of weeks ago, and he got slammed for it. But while he tone and attitude were wrong, he was right as far as what's been done at Ground Zero. There's plenty of blame to go around too.
Five years later, Osama Bin Laden is still unaccounted for. We've heard lately that Osama probably isn't calling the shots as he had before 9/11, and that there are other people that need to be dealt with in this war on terror. Horsesh-t. We all know al-Qaeda is not a one man operation, but Osama is still the leader, and he still needs to pay for what he has done. That five years later he is still at large, is the biggest failure of the Bush administration. Bigger than the lousy economy, and yes, even bigger than the mess in Iraq.
Today may not necessarily be the day to get into all that though. Today is a day of remembering who and what we lost. Five years ago today, a day that redefined us. A day burned in our souls forever.
The New York Magazine Special
http://newyorkmetro.com/news/features/19147/index.html
Regular Weekly Mail returns Friday.
Looking back five years ago, the first thing I remember about that morning was walking to the train station listening to Imus in the Morning. The mayoral primaries were supposed to be that day, and Imus producer Bernard McGirk was interviewing people on the street about who they were going to vote for. Bernard was speaking to a woman who said she was a teacher who was badmouthing Mayor Rudy Guiliani. Bernard asked her "what she had against guys with bad hair who spit when they talked" The woman said she didn't want to talk to Bernard because "he wasn't axing her serious questions," to which Bernard responded, "I'm not axing you and you're a school teacher?"
It would be the last good laugh I'd have for a while.
The ride in to work was uneventful. I got in and started making phone calls on a closing that was supposed to go that day. My boss at the time, Jim Woods, had been representing some Korean clients who were buying houses in Coram, NY. This one particular woman, had been extremely pushy. I was going to be happy to get rid of this case.
A little before 9:00, I got a call from a girl who had worked for us during the summer, and whose Mom ilona, worked in our Brooklyn office. Ilona was home sick that day, and she told Lorraine that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I went to our Internet computer and saw a picture one of the Twin Towers on fire. I thought it was just a small plane.
In the conference room, some of the other people in the suite were watching this on TV. Jim's secretary, Rosie, was asking me if she should interrupt a meeting between Jim, Nancy and Serge to tell them about this. I didn't think it was that big a deal.
All of the sudden, Maria, a secretary for one of the other firms started yelling, the other tower's been hit. There's another plane."
"OK Rosie, we better tell him."
We kept the TV on and found a radio. In the meantime, the woman who we were doing the closing for was starting to call. As the morning wore on, I started to tell her that we probably weren't going to be able to do the closing today. Yes, she knew what was going on, "But we have to crose!" she insisted.
I was about to blow a gasket. While I was on the phone with this lunatic, I heard on WOR radio that 1) The Pentagon had been hit, 2) There was a fire in the Capitol, and 3) that one of the towers had fallen. When I got off the phone, I called my father, who was working on William Street at the time. "They're locking us in, he said "I'll probably be here for a while." The thought of him being trapped in a building, knowing that he had trouble walking as it was, got me all choked up.
I managed to keep it together for a few minutes, but then I nearly lost it again. Erik Gray was one of Jim's associates, he was a former cop who had become a lawyer. He was about as tough a man I had ever met. He came out of the conference room in tears. "There's no more Twin Towers. It's like, they're all gone."
Meanwhile, the guys on the radio were talking about a plane crashing into Pittsburgh, and that there were 4 more hijacked planes in the air. It was time for us to make a run for it.
Our office was on Madison between 40th and 41st, so we had to figure out where to go. Jim suggested Bryant Park, somewhere open.I suggested we start making our way towards the 59th Street Bridge, but to avoid going near Grand Central and the United Nations, where I figured the next two planes would hit. So we walked down 40th Street to 3rd Avenue and up Third till we got to 47th Street. That's when we decided to wait out the attacks at Conolly's Bar.
Jim, Nancy, Serge and myself, all got beers which we barely touched. Rosie ordered herself a hamburger which she demolished. (Rosie was allergic to many foods, didn't each much on normal days, I guess she figured she could chow down)
President Bush came on the TV (I can't even remember what time it was) He was at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. There wasn't a sound in the bar besides some guy yelling "Everybody shut the f-ck up!" Bush went on to talk about how he had alerted the military and been in contact with congressional leaders and leaders around the world. He concluded with this line: "The resolve of our nation is being put to the test. But make no mistake, America will pass this test." Strange as it may sound, I felt somewhat reassured after he said that.
There was no train service so there was no way for us to get home. Jim lived in CT, Nancy in Rockaway, Serge in Brooklyn, and Rosie in the Bronx. I could have walked home over the bridge, but I didn't want to leave my coworkers. (I would later run into Karl at the same bar, who said the only reason I didn't want to leave was because I was getting free beer--LIES!) Thankfully, I had heard from my father, who they were allowing to leave, and my sister Katie, who was in school on 71st and 2nd. They were both fine. Earlier I had told my dad that I thought Kate should stay where she was. In my state of panic, I figured we should stay apart, better that only one of us got killed rather than both of us. It sounds crazy now, but I figured I was in walking distance of three potential targets: The UN, The Met Life Building (which would take out Grand Central) and The Empire State Building. She was safer uptown.
At 3:00 I was walking to the bathroom at Conolly's when I passed by a TV that had NBC on. Tom Brokaw began giving the rundown "At 8:45 this morning, a plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. About 15 minutes later a second plane struck the other tower. At 9:40, a plane struck the Pentagon... " All I could think at that time was that Dan Rather had become famous because he was in Dallas when President Kennedy was shot. What was going through Brokaw's mind as he was reporting this. Was he scared because the nation was under attack, or was his blood pumping because he was covering the biggest story in years?
There were some reports around 4 O'Clock coming over that some trains were up and running. So I walked over to Grand Central and got the 7 train. I'll never forget the feeling I got as that train came out of the tunnel at Hunters Point, seeing the huge cloud of smoke down where the Twin Towers used to be. It was at that moment I went from being scared to being humiliated. That's the overwhelming feeling I had as I headed home that day. Anger and humiliation.
I had never been so happy to get home and see everybody as I was when I got home that night. But I was dreading finding out about who didn't make it. I was able to account for my close friends and family that were down there, but I knew several of my high school classmates, with whom I had celebrated my 10th year reunion were firemen. Amazingly, there were very few people of the nearly 3,000 that died that I knew personally. It didn't make me any more comfortable or any less angry.
Later on, I was on AOL. There were plenty of chatrooms devoted to 9/11. Many like me, were calling for nuclear retaliation. Others were taking a wait and see approach. Others were starting in with the "we have to understand why they did this." Then, as now, I had no patience for people who were saying that.
The next few days were remarkable for several reasons. Mainly the volunteers that came forward to help in the recovery efforts at what was now being called Ground Zero. Also there had been so many people donating blood, that the blood banks were turning people away. Donations poured in from all over the world. Just about every house in America was displaying an American Flag. As horrible as the events of September 11th were, the unity that prevailed in the days after attacks was amazing, and something we may never again see in our lifetimes.
New York Magazine had an interesting special last month. They put together a hypothetical "What if the attacks of 9/11/2001 had never happened?" There was a main story as an introduction, followed by a blog by Andrew Sullivan chronicling events from September 2006 till September 2007, which will make you wonder if no 9/11 may have made things worse. Several other writers and social commentators chime in as well.
The one universal idea that all these people have is that George W. Bush would have lost the 2004 election, unable to use a terror war as a rallying cry, he would have had to rely on his economic plans that would have buried him. What's more, almost every writer who predicted Bush's loss, said that said loss would not have come at the hands of John Kerry, but rather those of Al Gore, who would have won a rematch from 2000.
The other thing that seems to run constant in every one's tale of a 9/11 less world, is an acknowledgment that al-Qaeda would have struck somehow anyway. If it wasn't on 9/11/2001, it would have been some other date. Nobody doubts that these guys were up to no good, and no one is dumb enough to think that one foiled plot wouldn't have led to another.
The series of articles makes for fascinating reading, but the facts remain that September 11th 2001 did happen and that the world changed and that 5 years later we are still coping and still trying to make sense of something that is so unbelievably senseless.
Life went on, it sure did. And there was a lot of good that happened. Several of us became parents, grandparents. Some of us got married. Despite the crappy economy some of us got better jobs. Looking back over these past 5 years personally there was a lot of sadness, but also lots of good times too.But we all had to cope. Even if we didn't lose a close friend or relative every single one of us knew someone who died that day, and all of us lost a huge symbol of our city and all of us lost a sense of security.
There's a lot still wrong too. Five years later, there is still a huge hole where the Twin Towers used to be. New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin, not the brightest of bulbs, said the same thing a couple of weeks ago, and he got slammed for it. But while he tone and attitude were wrong, he was right as far as what's been done at Ground Zero. There's plenty of blame to go around too.
Five years later, Osama Bin Laden is still unaccounted for. We've heard lately that Osama probably isn't calling the shots as he had before 9/11, and that there are other people that need to be dealt with in this war on terror. Horsesh-t. We all know al-Qaeda is not a one man operation, but Osama is still the leader, and he still needs to pay for what he has done. That five years later he is still at large, is the biggest failure of the Bush administration. Bigger than the lousy economy, and yes, even bigger than the mess in Iraq.
Today may not necessarily be the day to get into all that though. Today is a day of remembering who and what we lost. Five years ago today, a day that redefined us. A day burned in our souls forever.
The New York Magazine Special
http://newyorkmetro.com/news/features/19147/index.html
A video to remember those we lost
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRjqNnrO2K0&search=U2%20Halftime%20Show
Regular Weekly Mail returns Friday.
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