My Memory of 9/11
My daughter was 9 months old when 9/11 happened. My wife received a call from her mom frantically telling her to turn on the TV to CNN. The live video we were watching of both World Trade Center towers in New York was surreal. By the time we tuned in the various news organizations had just received confirmation from the government that this was a terrorist attack. When my wife heard that she broke into tears and asked "why do they want to hurt my baby?" I think any parent who had just witnessed terrorists fly two jetliners into the most iconic of America's twins must've felt the same way.
About 15 minutes later surreal was piled on top of surreal when the first of the two towers crumbled to the ground. I looked at my wife and asked her "did that just happen?" I thought maybe it was a computer rendering of what COULD happen or maybe video from earlier but no, I was watching a 1368 foot skyscraper fall to the earth. It was the sickest to my stomach that I've ever felt before or since. I just imagined the horror all of the families of the people trapped in floors above the fire felt as the phone calls they were sharing with their loved ones were abruptly cut off. I prayed that the 2nd tower wouldn't come down but to no avail. It was at that exact moment I really began to doubt the existence of God. What purpose could this possibly serve?
As you think about where you were and the effect 9/11 has had on you remember this could easily happen again. It is a testament to our government, no matter how screwed up you think congress or the President is, that there hasn't been another terrorist attack on this scale in the United States since then. I just imagine the thousands of men and women in our intelligence community that must be working day and night to prevent this from happening again. They're on a 13 year winning streak... let's hope they can keep it up so our grandchildren won't have these kinds of first hand memories.