The morning of September the 11th, 2001, I awoke to see fire flowing from one of the towers. At first glance, I could not see what was going on; I did not have my glasses on.
My college roommate and I had left the TV on all night, and when I woke up I remember noticing the fire and then hearing the words “attack.” I jumped out of bed, ran to the TV and screamed. My roommate then jumped up and said, “What?” I remember saying, “Somebody has flown an airplane into the Twin Towers.” At the time I thought it was just a twin engine plane; as I stood looking at the one tower in smoke, I remember seeing the other plane strike the second tower. By this time my room mate and I were in total shock.
We stood there looking at one another trapped by the moments that were accruing. We could not conceive what was happening, it felt like a bad dream. Within minutes, the whole hall had converged to our door way. We went waking everyone up telling them what was going on. We were all wiping the cold out of our eyes, hoping to wipe the reality away.
The closest I had ever come to the Twin Towers was on a family trip to New Jersey. I could see the towers as we traveled to a family member’s house. I had no clue that five years later, I would be watching these building collapse to the ground. I tried to call other friends of mine, but no one’s cell phones were working. Being that I was attending Morehouse College, there were a lot of guys who had family in New York and even some that had family who worked within the Trade Center.
Later that day, we heard of a guy who lost both his parents. That was a tuff moment. No one knew what to do or what to think. Each one of us speculated what other buildings would be targeted. Maybe the Sears Tower in Chicago or CDC in Atlanta. That was a day that no one left campus. We all desired to learn as much information as we could. This was just before blogging really took off, there was no Twitter, Myspace was the king of the mountain, and Facebook was a fraction of what it is now.
Needless to say, the nation has never recovered from these attacks. For about a month, though the nation was united: there was no two-party system, there was only were do we go from here. That was the only time I supported George Bush. I wanted vengeance, I wanted retribution, I wanted the leaders of the attack to be captured and killed. Yet, the leaders of 9/11 are still at large, and all we have done is gotten ourselves stuck in Iraq for far too long.
The pain of this day will never go away. I will always remember what happened and the lives we lost on this day. Yet, in some form or fashion, those that died that day are in the memories of their loved ones, they are still getting up to go to work at the towers, and some are boarding planes. They will never be forgotten by their families, nor will they be forgotten by the rest of the nation. Because no matter which side of the fence you are on in politics, this is a day where the nation is one.
Written by Jimmie Fair.
