911: A Day to Remember, Recognize & Reflect

Country singer Alan Jackson asked in his song, "Where were you when the world stopped turning on that September day?" Sometimes when I think about it, that day in 2001 seems very near. How about you? When you remember 9/11/2001, what comes to your mind? I suppose most of us, if not all of us, will ever forget where we were that day, and in that very moment, when we learned of the tragedy that made its mark on Americans here at home and around the world.  It's now one of those memorable days. Like the day you got your first job or your child was born or you told her you loved her for the first time. That memorable but without the happiness, hope and joy. That memorable, but with a bitter twist of fate.

911 is a day to remember the fallen, recognize that we need to stay alert to keep this from happening again, and to reflect on what's come out of the ashes. On that day, a guy named Adam was working at the World Financial Center. He says that his office was on the 24th floor just across the street from the Towers. When the first plane hit, he felt it, and ran to the window to see what had happened. Looking down onto the parking lot, he saw a few things on fire and his first thought was a car bomb (just like it was in 1993). When he looked up that's when he realized it was one of the Towers. "It looked like 10 stories were burning. The fire seemed to crawl around the tower. The winds were so high it caused the smoke to spin in a large swirl." Adam could not believe what he was seeing. And, at that point, didn't know what had happened. Within another minute, the phone was ringing. Family members were calling to see if he and his coworkers were all right.

Do you remember that moment? When just after the first plane crashed, how it felt? I remember I was at my desk listening to the radio and I thought, oh no, how tragic. Thinking it was a horrendous accident. One of my coworkers was telling some of the others in the office that a plane had crashed into one of the Towers. And in what seemed like no time at all, another plane crashed into the second tower. Now, I was thinking, that was no accident. But they were 'our' planes, passenger planes, and I just couldn't wrap my mind around the situation. And I had no idea what it meant or how much worse it would get.

When the second plane hit, Adam says, "It felt like a big earthquake. I stumbled with the hit. People started yelling. One man in my office saw the plane go in and screamed it was another plane. We ran to the window." Later he would find out that people on the street could feel the heat of the fireball. Adam's manager yelled for everyone to get out. Now! Adam did what I can imagine I would do. He grabbed his bag, palm pilot and juice and headed for the stairs. For me, it would have been my phone and my purse.

When he reached the street he saw people carrying an odd assortment of things. There was a crowd starring up at the burning Towers. Adam looked up to see the fire climbing up, down and around the Towers. As people in the crowd cried out, Adam looked up to see people falling to their deaths. Some were jumping. "I wish I could say there was only one," says Adam. "It got worse as the fire spread." By this time Adam had called his family and left messages. It was amazing. As we, all the way in North Carolina, watched the events unfold, we did the same thing. It was like nothing else mattered except our family and friends.

Adam said, "I then came upon a guy with a telescope aimed at one of the towers. The picture I will never forget. At about the 60-70th floors, people were hanging out windows trying to get air. They were literally holding onto the side of the building waving t-shirts to get someone's attention. I couldn't watch any longer. I kept walking, and about 10 minutes later I was about a half mile away and talking with someone and we heard this sound that can only be described as a thundering crack. I then saw what I thought was just a chunk of the World Trade Center. It was actually the whole tower. I couldn't believe it."

As a nation, we watched as the tower collapsed. And as a nation, we felt our hearts break. I know mine did. I remember watching on television as the people began running, just running to get away. It seemed that a wall of dust, smoke and ash rolled out and overtook them. People were covered in ash; you couldn't see the differences in skin color, hair color, clothes. It was like they were all separate part of one whole, and indeed they were, just like we are, separate parts of the human race. And my heart went out to these people, my people, my America.  

Now, for me, when it all started happening, back when I was sitting at my desk, listening to my radio, it was unnerving. It was scary. And I can't imagine how much more those folks in New York (and those who had friends and family there) must have been feeling. And then something happened, right here in North Carolina, that I'll never forget. Our manager came through our department. He asked us to gather around and his words brought a measure of comfort to us.

Now, these 11 years later, I don't remember his exact words but I do remember the impact. He talked with us in such a way that we knew that he was feeling the same way we were. We also knew he was concerned about us. And that's when I realized that even if you work for a large corporation, you can be surrounded by people that really care. I think we all felt that, even as our world was turning upside down.  Like me, you may have heard Alan Jackson's song and maybe the lyrics spoke to you as they did, and still do, to me:
Where were you when the world stopped turning on that September day? 
Did you call up your mother and tell her you loved her? 
Did you dust off that Bible at home? 
Did you go to a church and hold hands with some strangers?
Did you stand in line and give your own blood?
Did you just stay home and cling tight to your family,
Thank God you had somebody to love? 

When I hear that song now, it still brings tears to my eyes. And I remember those who sacrificed so much to save others, the emergency personnel, the victims who left their families to go to work that day and never came home, the families who still live with their loss even to this day. Lives that were forever changed. And I think of this man whom I've never met but only read about, Adam.  

After walking home, he roller-bladed from his apartment five miles to his parents' home. "It was so quiet," he says, "Thousands of people were just walking home from everywhere, the silence was deafening. I even tried to give blood at four different locations, but they were overloaded with volunteers." The next day, after a 5 1/2 hour wait, Adam gave blood.

Today, as our town remembered, as the emergency personnel turned on their sirens this morning in honor, in remembrance, of 911, I stood on the sidewalk, listening, a lone tear running down my cheek. And I wasn't alone. Alongside were my coworkers. And we remembered.

Where were you when the world stopped turning? Where are you now? I hope you're in a place where you're not alone. Where you are a real and vital part of this human race, separate yet standing together. Just as the motto on our Nation's Great Seal says: E Pluribus Unum: Out of many, one.

USA. Standing together.

Jean

Read Adam's account in his own words here.