9/11 — Ten Years On

Can it be 10 years?

I remember the day very clearly. It was a bright sunny warm day. It was wonderful in fact. I was off work that day. I was going to have a physical. I walked up to my doctor's office at DuPont Circle.

I was a little early and stopped off at what is now a Cosi near the office. The TV was on and they showed the top of the Twin Towers. It took me a while to realize what I was seeing. I knew I should know what was on the the TV but it took a while for my mind to understand what was going on. They were on fire. I found out from someone that planes had hit the Towers. How was that possible?

I went to my doctor's office and checked in. People at the office were aware of what was going on. I think it was at this time that someone came in a said the Pentagon had been hit too. A guy sitting next to me asked what was going on. I told him. He immediately got on his cell phone to try and contact someone. I knew he was going to have problems with that one.

I was shown in to an exam room. There was a TV on. Just when my doctor walked in the first Tower collapsed. We looked at each other and I said we can do this another time. He asked if I was sure; I said I was.

I then walked back down to my office. I was walking south; everyone else was walking north. It was not easy. And in a it's a small world moment I ran into someone that I had worked with at the World Bank.

I went back to the office to see if anyone might want to wait out the crowds at my apartment. There was no one there. So I walked back to my apartment in Foggy Bottom and turned on the news. I also tried to get in touch with people. It proved a little tricky but eventually I was able to contact everyone.

Below is the front page of the Washington Post from September 12, 2001. The headline says it all.

September 11: Remembrance and Reflection at the Smithsonian

Last Wednesday I saw this incredible exhibit at the American History Museum at the Smithsonian. There were items from all three sites. They were just on tables so you could get right up to them and look at them. It was very sobering and incredibly moving.

September 11: Remembrance and Reflection at the Smithsonian, Part I

September 11: Remembrance and Reflection at the Smithsonian, Part II

More from this incredibly moving exhibit on 9/11. The pictures speak for themselves.

9/11: Ten Years Later at the Newseum

Also on Wednesday, I went to the Newseum to see 9/11: Ten Years Later. The moderator was Charlie Gibson. The panelists were Victoria Clarke who served as a Pentagon spokesperson. Ari Fleischer who was President Bush's press secretary. Jim Miklaszewski who is and was NBC's Pentagon reporter.

Some of the highlights of the discussion were these:

Gibson said on September 12 before Good Morning America went on the air he checked in with the correspondents that were stationed at New York area hospitals. They taold Gibson that no one was there. Gibson said that you either lived or you died.

In that vein, Fleischer related how Bush was told at one of the military hospitals by doctor wish we had more people here.

Fleischer also told how Air Force One had satelite TV but they only had reception when the plane was over populated areas. Since the plane was on a zig zag pattern because of a percieved threat against the air plane there where periods of time when they didn't see what was going on.

Also from Fleischer, the Air Force One pilot had someone stationed at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the cockpit (Air force One is a 747) with orders to shoot anyone if they tried to rush the cabin. The pilot did this because at the time there was a concern that maybe there was some sort of agent on board the plane.

All of the panel quickly realized they were under attack. The first reports had said a small commuter plane had crashed. But the damage done was far too great for it to be a small plane.

This story from Miklaszewski about his wife getting a suit case going on the Metro to a hotel near the pentagon with 5 days of clothes for him and getting back on the Metro. Metro was essentially empty. Then letting him know they were there and telling him to be safe.

Gibson related how one of his daughters was coming out of the subway when she saw one of the planes hit the Trade Towers. He also talked about getting a call from his wife who was a principal at school asking did she need to evacuate the school and what should she tell her students. Gibson said she needed to get the students out but didn't know exactly how to answer the second question.

There was a question about how the coverage would be different if 9/11 happened today. All of them talked about tweets that would be coming from the people trapped in the towers. There would also probably be video. How would you tell which tweets were real? Would it be right to put the video on air? None of them had answers to those questions.

The Kalb Report — Anchoring 9/11

Friday I went to the Kalb Report. The topic was Anchoring 9/11: The Day and the Decade. The panelists were Charlie Gibson, Dan Rather, Brit Hume and Frank Sesno.

It was interesting to hear from each where they were when 9/11 started. Gibson was of course on the air with Good Morning America. Rather was at home in the shower. He said he literally dressed as he was riding the elevator down to the lobby of the building he lived in. Hume was having breakfast with another reporter. Sesno was at his office.

All told how they had to set aside what they were feeling and report on the story. Rather talked about being an honest broker for what was going on. All talked about how important it was to inform people about what was going on as quickly as possible. At the same time when they knew very little of what was going on.

Each talked about how important it was to be steady when reporting the day's events and the events going forward from that day. It was a very interesting night.

A Note of Hope

A friend of mine is part of of a choral group. They put on this concert for the 10th anniversary of 9/11. All of the songs were about peace. They ended with Let There be Peace on Earth. They asked the audience to join in on the final stanza which goes:

Let peace begin with me
Let this be the moment now.
With every step I take
Let this be my solemn vow.
To take each moment
And live each moment
In peace eternally.
Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me.


I thought it a very appropriate way to end the concert. On a note of hope of what we hope our lives and our world can be. A light to pierce the darkness on the anniversary of a very dark day.

Another Anniversary

So now it is the 6th Anniversary of 9/11. Here are my thoughts from last year.

What's changed?

Are we safer?

More to the point, if this is indeed a conflict the likes of the Second Wold War, why have we not taken more steps to defeat the enemy.

Osama bin Laden is still at large. And it seems using Just for Men to color his beard.

Do we have an energy policy? Our addiction to oil is a national security issue that on one seems interested in addressing.

Are our ports safer?

Is cargo sent by plane screened?

Have the American people been ask to sacrifice anything (other than those in uniform)?

The answer is no.

And that means we really aren't any safer than we were six years ago.

Will next year be any different?

Five Years later

It seems like a long time in some ways and then again a very short time in many others.

I'm trying to recall the time. I'd gone to Lisner Auditorium the night before to hear Carol Burnett speak. It was like an Inside the Actor's Studio type interview and then she took questions from the audience. A very fun and enjoyable evening.

In fact, it had been part of a very enjoyable couple of weeks. I'd gone to my parents for a long Labor Day weekend and Ed and Jennifer had come up Springfield,Mo. We'd all gone to the Labor Day concert at Ravinia.

On the actual day of September 11, I wasn't going into work. I had a physical scheduled for that day. It was a really nice sunny, pleasant morning. I walked up to my doctor's office at Dupont Circle. It was 9ish or so. I stopped in a place that had a TV on. I saw the top of the Trade Centers on fire but I couldn't exactly grasp what I was seeing. I knew I should recognize the landmark but I just could not place it. I couldn't grasp why they were on fire. But I soon found out.

I walked to the office and of course asked if they had heard. I remember telling someone in the waiting room about what had happened. He immediately got on his cell to try and call someone. We hadn't heard about the Pentagon yet. I had a conversation with a woman in the waiting room. We both agreed that New York might not be the last place to get hit. Moments later we heard about the Pentagon. A little after that there was a report that a bomb had gone off at the State Department. Up until that moment the doctor's office had been pretty calm but then people started to get scared.

But my doctor kept the appointment. We started in until the first tower came down. I then said we can do this at another time and my doctor quickly agreed. One of the doctors in the office was talking about going down to GW hospital to see if they needed any help.

I decided to walk back down to my office and see if anyone was still there and to offer a place to stay for awhile incase they didn't want to battle all the chaos going on. In retrospect offering my place at 26th K very much an area that could have been a target, seemed rather silly. I did go back to the office but no one was there. I then walked home.

All you could do then was to watch the news coverage. I also tried to get in touch with people. It took awhile to reach some people. Some friends I just ended up sending an e-mail to saying I was ok. I know several friends from out of town asked if I was scared and I have to say I really wasn't. I was shocked, angry, surprised but not scared. My reaction was one of they(meaning the bad guys) had final struck us.

Later on there would be some scary and unnerving things. Like walking to and from work each day for a month after where there were armed men at each street corner. Or driving past the Pentagon and seeing the surface to air missile battery.

The one thing that scared me the most on that day was something that happened long after the events of the morning. The network news was coming back on after giving local affiliates a break. It was 6 pm. They summarized what had happened and then did reactions from people around the county. They interviews a woman in San Francisco. They asked all the usual questions. How had your heard about it. Where were you and then this one. Are you scared. And without missing a beat she said: Oh no. Because it would never happen here. I almost fell out of my chair. That's what scared me the most that after what had just happened someone thought it could never happen where they live.

I'm not talking about someone living in Peoria or Butte but someone living in San Francisco which has plenty of potential targets. That made me scared and it also made me angry. I wanted to be able to reach through the TV screen and give the woman a swift kick. On that day five years ago, we got to see what evil was. And we got to see it very up close and very personal. But we also saw something else on that day. Something that will remain with me much longer than the horror of that day. It was people doing things to help out. The police, the fireman, the office workers, the ordinary every day people helping each other out.

I also think of the people on flight 93 and there courageous decision to take back that plane. To prevent it from doing any more damage. Because make no mistake, if that plane had reached Washington, the White House or more likely the Capitol would have been hit.

So now we've seen the face of evil. Now our job is to make sure it is defeated. And in the end I know we will do just that.