For the past ten years people like to share where they were at on September 11, 2001. I made the two hour drive to Lansing and showed up for work at the Anderson House Office Building around 8AM. I was about an 50 minutes into my usual hour or two of web surfing I like to get in at the start of every work day when I went to cnn.com (this is so long ago that I didn't even know what Fox News was yet). The front page showed one of the World Trade Center Towers with a huge hole in it with smoke billowing out. I was quickly scanning the article and it said a plane flew into it. I yelled to Brian in the next cubicle to go to CNN because "some dumbass flew a plane into the World Trade Center." I quickly pulled up one of the House video streaming channels on my computer that was broadcasting CNN. By this time a few interns had gathered in my cubicle to watch. At 9:03AM we all saw a shadowy plane disappear behind the towers and then a fireball. We were all silent for about three seconds until Beth, one of the interns, pointed on the screen and said, "Did a second plane just fly into the other tower?" I rejected the thought. I said it had to be video of the first plane hitting even though I could clearly see the hole in the first tower with smoke already billowing out of it and that it was no where near where that fireball just came from. My brain wasn't allowing me to process the fact that the United States was under attack. I just didn't want to believe it. As I'm sure with most, I'll never forget where I was, what I was wearing, and I'll never forget Brian and Beth.
What I don't hear from many people is, what did you feel like the next day? We all remember seeing just about every single house with a new American flag waiving proudly. We remember everyone being kind to each other; get cut off in traffic, no biggie, a simple wave and we're all on our way. But what did you feel personally?
For me, I didn't sleep well at all that night. My dreams were full of planes crashing, planes being hijacked, sometimes I was on them, sometimes I wasn't. It isn't too big of a surprise that I would dream of that after watching replays of it all day long. When I would wake up, I would only think about how different things were going to be, how sad I was that so many lives were lost, and how pissed I was that 19 cowards were about to change the way we lived. Back then, I used to get up early on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to go for a 3 mile run (yes, I was in much much better shape back then). When my alarm went off at 4:24AM, I was already awake. I thought, well, at least you can get some of this nervous energy burnt off. I laced up my shoes, stretched, and made my way out the door at 3816 Hoiles. I started my run and got to about here when I noticed a dark figure to my left out of the corner of my eye. And I mean, directly to my left. I started veering right, but it was staying right with me. I have never been so scared/frightened/terrified in my life. In my head I was thinking that these effing terrorists were now just roaming the streets today and were killing people. This thought process took place in the span of about .00006 seconds. I stopped, turned to my left while cocking my right arm ready to throw down with this shadowy terrorist. The only problem? Nobody was there, it was just my shadow from a street lamp or the moon possibly. I was literally afraid of my own shadow. I finished up my run which felt like nothing with all that adrenaline running through my veins. I was flat out scared. That's how I felt for the first part of the next day. Eventually I got to the point where I was just pissed. I felt a lot like this Nolan Finley article and I still do. I wasn't a person that got terribly excited about finally double tapping bin Laden's head. Don't get me wrong, I think it was great; I'm proud of the brave team that pulled it off, I'm proud that our President didn't ask for permission to enter another country to kill an enemy, and it made us safer, but it wasn't anything that made me want to jump up and down for joy.
Got a little off track there, but that's basically how I felt the next day. I don't know if I shared that with anyone before. I'm not ashamed in any way. I just don't think it is something that is talked about a lot.
I don't have to get on a plane today for once. I do have to later on this week. I won't be afraid one bit. If anything, I think it is the safest place I could be from any terrorist act. The only way I'd get hurt is in the stampede of other passengers wanting to beat the hell out of anyone that steps out of line in the least bit. Whatever caused those four cowards on Flight 93 to delay their plan was there undoing. Once those people on that plane knew what they intended to do, they stopped at nothing to derail their plans even if it meant their life. And they didn't do it with the thought of getting 72 virgins on the other side. They did it because they loved their country and their fellow citizens.
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