Remembering 9/11 - Rising From The Ashes
Almost no one forgets where they were that morning. Each person has a story - what they were 
doing at exactly what time. This one is mine.
It was a beautiful, clear morning. Not a cloud in the sky.
It was the kind of day you wish for all year, when the air is still warm yet slightly crisp - one of those days when the air almost sparkles. I breathed in deeply and exhaled slowly. The grass was intensely green.
The morning rush was on. I had an 10 AM appointment with a client in the World Trade Center.
Each day, I caught the 8:03 AM train out of Montclair, which arrived at the Hoboken Terminal just in enough time to race down to the PATH train to catch the 8:34 AM to the World Trade Center, where I rode the up the steep banks of escalators into the underground mall at the twin towers at 8:46 AM, and then run to catch the 1/9 NYC subway uptown (exactly one stop) to Canal Street.
On the morning of September 11th, I would meet my co-workers at 9:00 AM at the office, grab what we needed for our meeting, pick up a Starbucks and head 10 blocks back downtown to the to meet with our clients up on one of the top floors of the North Tower of The World Trade Center. Had to get there early to make it through security, which was extremely tight ever since the '93 bombings.
There was only one problem. I was running late. Really late.............................
Plan B
Move to Plan B - skip the train and catch a ride with the hubby. He worked in Hoboken and would drop me at the PATH station whenever I ran late. Friends often joked that I would be late for my own funeral.
Just before we left the house - the local news mentioned that a small commuter plane hit the WTC. I squinted at the image on the TV screen and saw no sign of the plane. It must have been really small. The newscaster's tone indicated it was not an incident that would stop business on this beautiful day.
I was really late now - and would be lucky just to make it to the World Trade Center in time for my meeting.
We made really good time on Route 3 East - midtown Manhattan always looked like Oz in the distance - until we reached Giant's Stadium - cars had pulled off on both sides of the road.
Traffic was at a standstill. It was strangely quiet. People were just standing in silence - looking at something.......... smoke - a big plume of smoke in the sky.
I had goosebumps - I had chills looking down over the marshes of the Meadowlands at the Manhattan skyline - a big plume of smoke was rising into the clear blue sky.
Whatever it was, I knew it wasn't good. Whatever it was - it was in the city - and they would probably shut the subways down if I didn't get there soon. Get back in the car now - get going now - get to the train. I had to make my 10 AM meeting at World Trade.
We reached Hoboken just before the second plane hit at 9:03. Like a Godzilla movie, people were running down the streets - some toward the Hudson - some away from the Hudson. Smoke and dust filled the air.
Now I'm dialing my cell - trying to reach my client at 
World Trade to let her know I may be late.
Busy. Busy. Redial. Shit. Busy. Busy. The recording said, "All circuits are busy now, please try your call again later".
Redial. Busy...... busy........... busy...........busy..............busy ...........
Giving From The Heart
In the days and weeks and months following September 11th, life changed dramatically.
Time - and the world - stood still as we all tried to make sense of what had happened. People and loved ones and the meaning of life came into focus in a painful, mournful way. We were in shock still, our brains doing the logical things, but reality just wasn't sinking in.
The outpouring of support was incredible as volunteers arrived from the four corners of the earth. Search and rescue teams with dogs, and just everyday people who drove across the country just to lend a hand - arrived in New York. Their generosity spurred even more genosity.
Just up the block from my office, a trucker had driven his big rig flat bed up from Tenessee, and parked it on Canal Street where he and his crew fired up what I think was the biggest BBQ I had ever seen - they served the firerighters, police and volunteers around the clock.
Searching For The Missing - Still Hope
Two weeks later I rode the bus to midtown, took the PATH downtown to Christopher Street - now the last stop on the PATH train.
Pictures and flyers of the missing covered every surface of every car of the train. The walls of the train station were papered from floor to ceiling, as were the windows of every store or coffee shop with pink, and white and yellow flyers.
MISSING!!!
Have you seen my Mary, my Harry, my daughter, my husband, my son, my niece, my friend Amy? 
People talked of hospitals - their loved ones must be in a hospital somewhere -unconscious - unable to talk.
Did you check St. Luke's? How about Bellvue? Do not to give up hope - Never give up hope ........................
Snow In September, Machine Guns In Manhattan
As I got closer to my office it started to snow. I looked up at the little flurries as they fell softly, quietly from the sky. It was late September, yet it was snowing - maybe it was a squall. But the sky was again a clear blue and I realized this was not snow. The opening scene of Schindler's List played in my head.
At the corner of Canal Street, groups of men in camouflage outfits with large machine guns and no name tags and demanded to see my identification. You couldn't get south of Canal Street without multiple forms of ID.
The pile - the smoking mountain of debris and ash just blocks away was still smoldering. It dawned on me then and there that our country was changed forever.
There are people so filled with hate for us that they are willing to kill - no, massacre is a bettter word.
They will sacrifice themselves and their children to destroy the American Way of life. Their God is better than our God. Western culture must be destroyed.
The 9/11 terrorists murdered people from many different countries, cultures, different racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds that day. They murdered Arabs, and Christians, Muslims and Jews. They murdered Italians, Chinese, Australians and........
These extremists still plan to take us out - to destroy our freedom , our culture, our democracy. They they forsee a world dominated by their values - their culture - their religion. The rest of the world's people with their beliefs, their religions, their cultures - are meaningless. They will stop at nothing to advance their own righteous political agenda.
Democracy stands in the way.
The Terrorists Among Us
Make no mistake -there are people right here in the U. S. that have much in common with the 9/11 terrorists. These homegrown extremists share the very same sense of righteousness as the 9/11 hijackers - their beliefs just as fanatical.
They too foresee a world dominated by their values - whether it be "religious", "environmental", or "animal protection".
To "save babies", they feel justified in bombing clinics and killing other people. To "save the environment" they are somehow entitled to burn down houses, destroying property. To "protect animals", they feel justified in blowing up research labs.
They use terror - threats, arson and bombs. Thou shall not kill doesn't apply - as they will stop at nothing to advance their own righteous political agenda.
These are the terrorists among us.
Terrorism - A New Threat To Democracy
September 11 th changed us all forever, in ways I will never forget. September 11th opened the door for another evil - an even bigger threat to democracy.
This new threat is insidious - it preys on our fears, our desire to be "safe", our willingness to help.
This threat comes from those within our own government we would use the terror attacks as a means to destroy democracy - all in the name of freedom - in the name of security.
Shall we exchange our freedom, our liberty for "safety"? Will we trade democracy for "security" ? Is that an acceptable compromise?
I refuse to trade my liberty for a false sense of security. I will never trade my freedom, or my privacy to be "protected" from some nameless, faceless, omnipresent threat.
Will we watch democracy be diminished? For if that is the case, then the terrorists will have indeed won. They will have succeeded in destroying the foundation of freedom.
The Clear Blue Sky
Today is September 11, 2006. Today is a beautiful, clear, picture perfect day. The sky is a sparkly blue, the air is clean and warm, even slightly crisp.
Today is the fifth anniversary of the terror attacks. I will wonder to myself, why was I late? I can't even remember what held me back that morning five years ago. I can't remember why I was late, I can't fathom why I was not in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I am not alone - stories or missed buses, connections, appointments abound. Those stories always start with, "Well, I was supposed to be there, but I missed.........."
Remembering the thousands of people whose lives were taken, I will watch the ceremony with the rest of the world. Bells will toll and bagpipes will haunt me - and I will remember the 9/11 victims as the sons and daughters and husbands and wives who were so deeply loved and sorely missed.
The gaping wound in the ground at Ground Zero is not as big as the gaping wounds of the hearts, and the pit in the ground where the twin towers once stood will forever be remembered as sacred, hallowed ground.
We grieve, we mourn, we remember the heroes and the fallen.
Rising From The Ashes
But life has gone on since that day.
Children need to be raised, beds made, dogs fed, jobs taken, gardens watered. Books need to be read, bills paid, dinner made, cookies baked, friends hugged, horses ridden, plays played.
The small and seemingly mundane are not so small or mundane when you think about it. They are the evidence that we live in a free and open society called a democracy.
If we lived in a country devoid of democracy, would we have a choice of which books we read, which cookies we bake, which friends we hug, which plays we see?
And as reader, Jan so aptly points out, if we lived in country devoid of democracy, would we have a choice of which dogs we can own, or would be even be allowed to own a dog?
In a country devoid of freedom, could we to say what we want to whomever we want? Gather with whomever, where ever and when we want? Would there be Girl Scout meetings, or public debate or even blogs like this?
Terrorists, whether foreign or domestic - and those who would use terror as a means to grab power - would do well to remember the spirit of freedom which binds us together.
Rising from the ashes on that sacred ground at the World Trade Center is love, remembrance and a resolve from people all over the world to stand together against tyranny.
Love endures, and so will democracy.
Almost perfect. A very good piece of writing. Moving, poignant, and very true. You write sensitively and with a clear eye on the meaning of that day. Thank you.
One word: The religious terrorists here also want me to go back in the closet in some trumped-up shame. They want me and my partner to do without any of the benefits of marriage, by which they mean pension inheritance, Social Security inheritance, health insurance, hospital visitation privileges, and who knows what.
They want us to live without rights of any kind. They want states to determine whether we can marry--oblivious, or perhaps joyful, that a state's rights approach makes us nomads. If we move to a state that says we're human, and the Right later wins there, where should we move next? How should we deal with a job transfer to a hostile state? Who will protect us?
So you're right. We'd be well advised to fight our own anti-environment, anti-constitution terrorists right here, as we fight their Islamic counterparts abroad.
We owe the victims of 9-11 nothing less.
Posted by: J S Oliver | September 13, 2006 at 10:15 AM
as usual.. Perfect.. thanks for this "reminder'..I would add to books,cookies, friends, and plays.. what kind of dogs we own,,,but somehow I knew you were thinking that already..
Posted by: jan dykema | September 11, 2006 at 07:31 PM
Were any pitbulls or other banned breeds among the search and rescue dogs?
Posted by: alex can | September 11, 2006 at 06:20 PM