Tell Your Story and Read Others

Its getting to that time of year again when the television networks start airing the 9-11 retrospectives, mercilessly forcing us to relive the horrors of that day over and over again. Some include images so graphic (people jumping from the building), that I cannot watch. But some, like the story of the people stranded in grounded planes in rural Canada (or was it Newfoundland?) who were embraced by the community and given beds, food, and toiletries by locals until they could resume flying, give me a sense of hope. And the firefighers and law enforcement, whose bravery and courage was overwhelming. There are others like that too, and those are more of the kinds of things I want to pass on to my daughter when she inevitably asks me and her father, "where were you and what were you doing on September 11, 2001?"

It's sometimes a cliche' thing to ask people where they were and what they were doing during some of our most notable historical events. We know the other events from our parent's generation (Kennedy) and our parent's parent's generation (Pearl Harbor) and at that time, those events joined a nation together. For my generation, it was "where were you when the Challenger exploded?" or less fortunately, "where were you when the OJ Simpson verdict was announced?". The Challenger explosion was an intangible thing for me, since I was only an adolescent, and it took place in space, more or less. The loss of life was not observable, but you knew it happened. However, it was still a tragic loss of life and still impacts us today. The Simpson case, well, that actually divided our nation. Not much more to say about that. When it was announced, I was working at Media Play. The black folks cheered and the white folks were angry. It was a sad day for different reasons.

But as much as those events, and my thoughts and surroundings at that time, are imprinted in my memory, none can edge out the incredible fear and sadness I felt on 9-11. And I hope none greater and more horrific ever will.

The link takes you to the 911 digital archives, which as it notes is "no longer posting new contributions to the public website, however your contribution has been accepted (if you post) and will be preserved in the September 11 Digital Archive collection at the Library of Congress". After posting, you can opt to have what you posted sent back to you as an email, and if you like, you can copy it here. We certainly would like to read your story...We will post our story on September 11, 2001.