September 10: 3 mile morning jog before work. That day I stopped a half mile in to my routine. Felt weak and very anxious. Talked to a friend that afternoon 'I feel like something is about to happen.' I had been experiencing this sensation for a few days: unexplained dread and sadness. Personal health scare, a family death? Something was in the air and it felt very heavy. Obviously I had no idea what was coming.
September 11th: still feeling anxious, but I muscled through morning workout and then came back to home. I had 2 jobs: managing editor of a biz magazine and the local editor for an industrial real estate magazine. That morning I was trying to contact Alicia Keys's publicist in nyc. I called and got a busy signal. Very unusual. But I moved down my list of interview contacts. All NYC and all busy signals. Since I was working from home I usually keep the tv off so that I don't lose my focus. But I turned on the tv to see if there was some report about a downed cell phone tower in nyc. CNN Breaking News reported that a small plane had hit one of the WTC towers. Newcasters were speculating that the plane might've gotten lost or didnt' see the tower. When the camera cut to the scene I saw a) it was a crystal clear blue sky day. Not a cloud in the sky. There's no way a pilot would accidentally hit the largest building on the NYC skyline. The second thing was that whatever hit the tower was not a small plane.
I sat down in front of the tv and called a coworker to explain why I can't contact anyone in NYC right now. As we chatted about work the CNN camera filmed the second plane smashing into the second tower. I jumped up, 'holy shit!!!!'
My coworker: what...what happened?
Me: a plane crashed into the World Trade Center.
Coworker: Are you sure you saw that? How can that be?
Me: it's a terrorist attack.
Coworker (disbelief): Well who would that?
Me: Have you not been paying attention the last 10 yrs? Osama Bin Laden. The guy who bombed the towers in Saudi Arabia and attacked embassies.
I was suddenly aware of how clueless the avg American was about the Mideast and terrorist cells and Osama Bin Laden, and the holy war that was declared against the US in the 1990s. The public's vast ignorance would be used against us later.
Sept 12-19: very strange untethered time. I usually went to a bar after work to meet friends. But bar chats felt very inappropriate on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, on Thursday I went out. My excuse was that I wanted to see if anyone would be out at the usual spots. Empty. Except for one friend (blk older guy.) We sat and talked about the last few days and how numb we felt. He was hearing that Saddam Hussein was responsible. I reiterated my earlier thought: no, this has all the marking of Osama Bin Laden and his previous attacks.
Blk Guy: well thank God George Bush is president right now.
Me: AHAHAHAHAHA...(realizing) wait, you're serious?
Blk Guy: Yes, could you imagine Al Gore being in charge during this.
Me: Yes, I can. Oh my God: are you a Republican?!?
Blk Guy: don't start with me.
Yes, he was a Republican. We still remained friends.
Sept 20th: Bush addresses Congress. I'm getting a bit emotional. Is that strange feeling...pride? Ok, so what do you want us to do, Mr. President. You have all of us united and ready....
Bush: Go shopping.
Me: Oh. Not exactly the marching orders I was expecting.
Bush: take a vacation somewhere. Don't worry about it. Because we know the real villain.
Me: Yes. Osama Bin-
Bush: -Saddam Hussein.
My stomach sank. He was really doing this. He was really using the blind ignorance of the American ppl to get them worked up about Hussein.
And then he lathered that fear with yellow cake rumors and BS lies about weapons of mass destruction. Yes, we invaded Afghanistan first, in slapdash manner as if that was the appetizer to the main course: Iraq. And then we killed hundreds of thousands of ppl on a lie.
9/11 was a turning point that could've been used for good. Instead it was appropriated into a marketing scheme. And even today. It makes me sad b/c so little of it has to do with honoring the ppl who died and our experiences during that time.
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