September 11

Lets take a moment to reflect.

Yes, please. This will be a somber day for almost everyone, especially the emergency responders. Please give an thought and a prayer for those we lost and those who are still dealing with it.

[Robin Garr]

Yes, please. This will be a somber day for almost everyone, especially the emergency responders. Please give an thought and a prayer for those we lost and those who are still dealing with it.

Darn good advice ... and on the side, a little scorn for those who would turn it political.

Hopefully, I can make it through the day without crying.

Was a chilling morning ... I've been working with a guy who is getting ready to make a recording. One of the songs is "Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning" by Alan Jackson. We met this morning and both of us knew that would be the first song we ran through. I had tears in my eyes by the time we finished. We must not forget ....

I read this post this morning just as I had switched on MSNBC which is showing the NBC news coverage as it happened that day. I was in Tarpon Springs, Florida preparing to return home after a family vacation on Sept 11, 2001. I recall tears streaming down my face as I watched both Towers collapse. I turned to my family and said "We just lost alot of my brothers."

Greater love has no one than this, that they would lay down their life for others.........

Thank goodness I was seeing my therapist that day...I sat on the couch and sobbed hysterically for an hour, then went home and sat glued to the tv and sobbed hysterically, where I spent pretty much the entire week...I remember on Sept. 12th, freaking out because my hubby had to go back to work (in a government building, no less) and I called him once an hour to make sure he was still alive. I wasn't alive when Kennedy was assassinated, so I can't relate to that, but I can certainly relate when I hear someone list, in vivid details, exactly what they did on Sept. 11, 2001. I can tell you where I went, what I was doing, even what I was wearing...I'll never forget...

R.I.P. Salvador Allende

That was the week John and I met in person (if you haven't heard, we first met via the internet - gasp!). We'd been on vacation in the Outer Banks and parted ways on September 10th, him back towards Georgia and me back to my parents' in Virginia (not too far from D.C.).

On Tuesday morning, I was packing the car for the trip back to Louisville and my dad was watching TV. As I went back in for the second suitcase, he said "Man, look at this. A plane hit one of the World Trade Center towers." We watched the news for a few minutes, and then I gathered up the last of my things and was saying goodbye to Mom in the kitchen when we heard Dad yell "Another one! Another one hit!"

I'll admit I thought he's mistaken, he's just watching a replay of a tape they just got their hands on or something, but as we ran into the living room we could already see he was right. We were riveted to the tv for a while, and then pretty soon came the news about the Pentagon.

My dad's an ex-Marine, and in Virginia we weren't too far from D.C. He put his hand on my arm and said "Get your stuff back out of the car - you're not going anywhere. Not today, anyway." I called the bank and told them I might not make it back to work exactly the next morning, and my boss said "Doesn't matter. Be safe. No one's doing any work here, anyway."

You know the rest of the story.

It's bittersweet because every time we're reminded of the tragedy we're also reminded that that's the week we met. I was a little panicked until John got home to answer his phone in Georgia. I left the next afternoon to come back to Louisville. It was a particularly eerie drive all those hundreds of miles with NO planes in the sky except military jets (and damned few of those). I'll never forget the first time after they let them start flying again that I saw a commercial airliner flying in over downtown Louisville. Gave me a chill, it did.

We watched a really good "Attack on the Pentagon" special this week we'd never seen before. There are lots of movies and docs about the towers and even about Flight 93, but this was the first in-depth special with interviews I'd seen that was totally devoted to the Pentagon attack (it was on Discovery HD, catch it if you can). There was a lot of drama and tension between soldiers that wanted to go back into the Pentagon after their missing comrades and co-workers and the D.C. fire brigade (I was surprised the Pentagon didn't have it's own dedicated fire dept!). Quite a stand-off between the two groups. Turns out the fire chief was exactly right to forbid them to go back in - only a few minutes later that whole section of the building collapsed.

We saw a lot of flags at half-mast today all over the state. It always reminds me to be sweet to those I love and kind to those I know every day - we never know when we're going to see each other again.

It's so hard to believe it's been 7 years. It seems like only last year.

without a doubt this is the hardest day of the year for me- and I only lost an aquaintance and one friend, which of course is two too many but nothing compared to so many others in NY.
I still shudder anytime a plane flies too low or a helicopter races overhead- there were so many military craft flying day and night for weeks over NYC.

One of the most quietly moving tributes I've seen honoring the uniformed men and women who gave their lives was on the 1st anniversary of the attacks. In the American wing courtyard of the Met museum they put callboards from two fire stations where the firemen had marked themselves present on 9/11. A small placard read that none of the men had made it back to their houses. Crowds gathered around those boards for hours in silent tribute.

Today, I was with an acquaintance from Hong Kong and she lived there when this tragedy occurred. She said it saddened her and all the people she knew. This just didn't affect us in the USA, but people from across the globe. If I'm not mistaken, I believe there were people from close to 100 countries in the WTC who lost their lives that day. This was really a loss on a global scale.

Y'all are giving me goose bunps. Just when I think something like this is beyond me to evoke emotion, tears come crawling down my cheeks. Fancy words here, but not rhetorical. I'm touched by the unity of recollection and sincerely sympathize with anyone who has suffered. Thanks for the sentiments and proper memorial. I remember the day distinctly.