Scribblings

Five Years After

How can it really be five years? I have the same surreal feeling about 9/11 as I do about the anniversary of Rich's passing. Did this really happen? And now five years ago? Except for those who were very young or impaired, I'm sure that most of us know exactly where we were when we first heard that the World Trade Center had been attacked. I was at work and had just finished interpreting for a client. Now I was free to surf the 'Net--except that no one could get access. What was up? When I finally was able to connect to yahoo, I just could not believe my eyes: the north tower of the trade center was burning. Out of nowhere, a second plane appeared and crashed right into the south tower. Other than the shock and disbelief I can only remember two thoughts. One was for all those people lost, all the newly widowed and grieving. The second was: I'm glad Rich is not here to see this.

For weeks and probably months afterward, I felt angry. How could such a horrible thing happen? After losing Rich, this loss was especially hard to bear even though I didn't know anyone who'd been in the towers or at the Pentagon. I remember feeling hopeless and depressed and thinking that we were all just falling into a deep black hole that would just end in everyone's death and the world's destruction. It took a long time for that black feeling of despair to lift.

I don't think we've accomplished much since the attacks on New York and the Pentagon. In spite of what officials tell us, I don't believe we are any safer now from terrorist attack than we were then. I won't live my life in fear though. One day it will happen again, somewhere else because there is still too much hatred in the world. So it goes.

I got this from The History Channel:

ATTACK ON AMERICA: September 11, 2001

At 8:45 a.m. on a clear Tuesday morning, an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded
with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel crashes into the north tower of the World Trade
Center in New York City. The impact left a gaping, burning hole near the 80th
floor of the 110-story skyscraper, instantly killing hundreds of people and
trapping hundreds more in higher floors. As the evacuation of the tower and its
twin got underway, television cameras broadcasted live images of what initially
appeared to be a freak accident. Then, 18 minutes after the first plane hit, a
second Boeing 767--United Airlines Flight 175--appeared out of the sky, turned
sharply toward the World Trade Center, and sliced into the south tower at about
the 60th floor. The collision caused a massive explosion that showered burning
debris over surrounding buildings and the streets below. America was under
attack.The attackers were Islamic terrorists from Saudi Arabia and several other
Arab nations. Reportedly financed by Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda
terrorist organization, they were allegedly acting in retaliation for America's
support of Israel, its involvement in the Persian Gulf War, and its continued
military presence in the Middle East. Some of the terrorists had lived in the
United States for more than a year and had taken flying lessons at American
commercial flight schools. Others had slipped into the U.S. in the months before
September 11 and acted as the "muscle" in the operation. The 19 terrorists
easily smuggled box-cutters and knives through security at three East Coast
airports and boarded four flights bound for California, chosen because the
planes were loaded with fuel for the long transcontinental journey. Soon after
takeoff, the terrorists commandeered the four planes and took the controls,
transforming the ordinary commuter jets into guided missiles.As millions watched
in horror the events unfolding in New York, American Airlines Flight 77 circled
over downtown Washington and slammed into the west side of the Pentagon military
headquarters at 9:45 a.m. Jet fuel from the Boeing 757 caused a devastating
inferno that led to a structural collapse of a portion of the giant concrete
building. All told, 125 military personnel and civilians were killed in the
Pentagon along with all 64 people aboard the airliner.Less than 15 minutes after
the terrorists struck the nerve center of the U.S. military, the horror in New
York took a catastrophic turn for the worse when the south tower of the World
Trade Center collapsed in a massive cloud of dust and smoke. The structural
steel of the skyscraper, built to withstand winds in excess of 200 mph and a
large conventional fire, could not withstand the tremendous heat generated by
the burning jet fuel. At 10:30 a.m., the other Trade Center tower collapsed.
Close to 4,000 people died in the World Trade Center and its vicinity, including
a staggering 343 firefighters and 23 policemen who were struggling to complete
an evacuation of the buildings and save the office workers trapped on higher
floors. Only six people in the World Trade Center towers at the time of their
collapse survived. Almost 10,000 other people were treated for injuries, many
severe.Meanwhile, a fourth California-bound plane--United Flight 93--was
hijacked about 40 minutes after leaving Newark International Airport in New
Jersey. Because the plane had been delayed in taking off, passengers on board
learned of events in New York and Washington via cell phone and Airfone calls to
the ground. Knowing that the aircraft was not returning to an airport as the
hijackers claimed, a group of passengers and flight attendants planned an
insurrection. One of the passengers, Thomas Burnett, Jr., told his wife over the
phone that "I know we're all going to die. There's three of us who are going to
do something about it. I love you, honey." Another passenger--Todd Beamer--was
heard saying "Are you guys ready? Let's roll" over an open line. Sandy Bradshaw,
a flight attendant, called her husband and explained that she had slipped into a
galley and was filling pitchers with boiling water. Her last words to him were
"Everyone's running to first class. I've got to go. Bye."The passengers fought
the four hijackers and are suspected to have attacked the cockpit with a fire
extinguisher. The plane then flipped over and sped toward the ground at upwards
of 500 miles per hour, crashing in a rural field in western Pennsylvania at
10:10 a.m. All 45 people aboard were killed. Its intended target is not known,
but theories include the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Camp David
presidential retreat in Maryland, or one of several nuclear power plants along
the eastern seaboard.At 7 p.m., President George W. Bush, who had spent the day
being shuttled around the country because of security concerns, returned to the
White House. At 9 p.m., he delivered a televised address from the Oval Office,
declaring "Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings,
but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but
they cannot dent the steel of American resolve." In a reference to the eventual
U.S. military response he declared: "We will make no distinction between the
terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them."Operation
Enduring Freedom, the U.S.-led international effort to oust the Taliban regime
in Afghanistan and destroy Osama bin Laden's terrorist network based there,
began on October 7.