2006-09-11: join at least 43 other 43Ters in posting reflections on the anniversary this coming Monday

A moving editorial cartoon – click on the picture so you can see what she is seeing (the reflection in her eyes)!

I was interviewing a woman by phone from my cubicle at the office in which I was working. She was psychotic and the interview was difficult, long, and unfruitful. When I hung up, Gene came over and told me a plane had hit the WTC. I assumed that it was a tragic accident, or at worst a pilot of a small plane had some suicidal intention. By the time I got to the break room, the TV was on and my coworkers were standing, unmoving, unspeaking and shocked. We quickly knew this was no accident. Then the towers fell. One of my coworkers left – his nephew was a fireman in NY, in a firehouse very near the WTC, and my coworker knew that his nephew might very well be dead (he was killed there).

We heard that the Pentagon was hit, that perhaps other sites were hit too (rumors) and then that a plane crashed in Pennsylvania. When the flight paths of the planes were announced we realized that some of these planes had flown almost over our heads, and being in Pennsylvania, it felt very close, very threatening.

I wondered if some site in Philadelphia would be hit, something historical perhaps. I wondered who I knew downtown and how could I reach them and warn them.

Our office was closed mid-afternoon, and at that point I was interviewing a woman face-to-face, someone who was brain-injured and was having a harder time than the rest of us comprehending what had occurred. I stayed with the managers another hour as I didn’t want to go home to an empty condo. Finally Gene and I left the office and I asked him for a hug, so we held each other in the parking lot.

I still cannot imagine deliberately killing a plane full of people, innocent people, or all the workers in the towers, in the Pentagon. Hatred killed so many, but love is stronger and enduring. We saw love, in its most vivid form, in the lives and deaths of all the fireman, policeman, paramedics, port authority workers and civilians who risked, and lost, their lives to rescue thousands and thousands of strangers.

I honor them now.

In special memory of William E. McGinn, New York Fire Department, nephew of my coworker. He and six of his brother firefighters from Squad 18 died at the WTC where they went to save others.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/memorial/people/2291.html

After 9-11
Before going to church the following Sunday, I had gathered up the names of some 17 people in my county (Bucks County) who had been killed during this crime. I printed them, and added some prayer requests that I had received by email from members of a church in Manhattan. We distributed copies of these lists to the members of my church at a prayer session after the service.

That day a visitor from Egypt attended, and came to the prayer session. He said he was amazed at the way Americans did not break out into riots of one group (ex. Christians) attacking other groups (Muslims) over this, and that in other places, revenge would have been taken. He was impressed. (I know incidents occurred, but we can be thankful that retaliation against neighbors was rare here.)

I took a few of these prayer pages, with the names of our local families who had lost loved ones, to work and gave a few of them out to coworkers that wanted them. Later that day someone came up to me and said the supervisor wanted a copy, because, as a government agency, we had to prepare to serve these families in the days to come, and felt the list (with its prayer requests) would be useful. We prepared files and information ahead of time, knowing there would be widows, widowers, children and parents of those killed turning to us at some point. We were honored to serve those families, even in the small ways that we had been equipped to do.

And I want to honor those who were lost, those who lost others, and those who grasp life now, and move on to, hopefully, a better and virtuous future.

My reflections:
http://www.43things.com/things/view/990285