Hello BDD,

I watched 3,000 people die on live television.
This wasn’t a well-scripted, big-budget Hollywood production. Nor was it a dramatization with special effects depicting events. This was as real as it gets.
I had an early morning conference call that day, so I decided to take it from home. After my call, and after my shower, I started getting dressed for work. I never watch tv in the morning, but for some reason I turned it on while getting ready. As the dark screen resolved into a picture, I saw the first tower on fire.
The news was reporting that a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers… we called them the Twin Towers. I assumed that it was a small, private aircraft. My next thought was: those towers are huge; how can a pilot fail to avoid them?
Just as that thought finished, from the left side of the tv screen, I saw the second plane: a large commercial airliner in level flight. It flew right into the second tower, exploding in a ball of fire that blasted out of the other side of the building.
The instant I saw that plane… even before impact… I knew this was not an accident. I did not need the tv to tell me this was a terrorist attack. And I was in shock.
I did not go into work. I opened my laptop and “tried” to work, while watching the events unfold in front of me. I watched both towers collapse. I saw the wreckage of the plane in front of the Pentagon. I saw the wreckage of the plane that was destined for The White House. My son, Ian, was just 5 months old. What kind of world was he born into?
Eight years later, I feel September 11 has already slipped into history. While the memories of the event still linger for many, the patriotic feelings that were aroused have long subsided; displaced by our wants and our day-to-day routines.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, killing 2,400 sailors and civilians and dragged us into WWII. While this occurred long before I was born, I remember the event and its significance in history. On its anniversary every year, I greet people with a very bland, “Happy Pearl Harbor Day.” Most people have to think for a few seconds before they realize what I’m saying… and that’s sad. (Remember this: if you don’t learn from history, you are destined to repeat it.)
I fear one day that, like Pearl Harbor, people will forget the events of September 11, 2001.
They may not remember… I’ll never forget.
Today, I’m remembering the 3,000. – doug