Remembering 9/11

I should have been in the office that day. I had planned to stay a little late and complete my work but for some reason I thought I didn't want to do any overtime. I needed some rest after all.

It was 4:15 or 4:30 pm by the time I reached home and saw my family watching CNN. No one said a word but were just sitting there transfixed to the TV screen. I sensed something odd because it was unusual for them to switch on TV at that time, and more so, watching CNN at that hour.

As I joined my family I was stunned by what I saw and so many thoughts went through my head. Who could have done this? Why? What cause was so important that it required murder of innocent people?

I have lived in the middle east all my life, and so I had a hunch who the perpetrators of this deed could be. But nevertheless... it didn't make sense. None of the Middle East's pet causes will benefit from this action, and it was bound to complicate an already complex situation here.

My parents phoned my brother in Michigan who was still sleeping when we called. He was shocked and found it hard to believe. I called another friend in Baltimore whose husband worked as a pilot with American Airlines. She said that he was on leave that day and could have been on one of the planes. Thank God that didn't happen. I later contacted another friend in New York but his wife told me that he had gone out. I asked her if they were ok and she said they were just fine and was puzzled by my concern. Since my friend, her husband, was outside and she had no clue what had happened I felt it was best that I did not tell her and make her unduly worried.

It's hard to forget that day. It will be remembered among other fateful news events that have occured in our lifetime.

It's a pity that my generation has many such dates to remember.

Comments

Dak-Ind said…
i got a phone call at about 530 am on september eleventh here in Oregon from my mother. turn on the television she crys, cnn. i do as she askes because, frankly, my mother crying frightens me, even now, when i am 30. her and i watch with silence between us over the phone as first one then the other tower falls. and we ask ourselves and each other, and many other people in the days months and years since "Why?" my mother said that our government is representitive of our people (and i suppose it is supposed to be) and there are some people who hate our governments policies so they hate the american PEOPLE by extension. i personally dont hate anyone. i dont understand how anyone could hate me never meeting me or knowing anything about me. how could they hate my infant son who is all smiles and laughter? or my teenage son who is all akward shyness? or my mother, who gardens passionately, and saves the lives of even spiders... setting them free in her garden. I KNOW not everyone from the middle east hates me. i KNOW not everyone from the middle east is a terrorist. I KNOW the not everyone from the middle east supports the horrible events of 9/11. i just wish everyone else KNEW that there really are innocents here. that neither kennedy nor bush, nor kerry nor rice speaks for all of us. we all have different dreams and lives and loves. as you are different from one another in your countrys we are also. i thank you for your commemorative post. it just reaffirms my beleif that good people exist everywhere, no matter what the media says.

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