Pace on Earth

Five long years

On September 11, 2001 I woke up on the couch at mom's house on Charlotte st. with the TV on. I awoke to a breaking news story showing smoke billowing from the World Trade Center's North Tower. The newscaster assumed it must have been an accident and although it was an incredible scene it did not keep me from turning the TV off and going back to sleep.

Shortly thereafter, the phone rang and I answered to hear mom urging me to turn the TV back on because another plane had hit the World Trade Center. I distinctly remember the concern in her voice. When I turned the TV on both towers were now ablaze and they this time had footage of the second plance slamming into the South Tower. Incredibly (and this shows the innocence) the reporters were still asking questions about how navigation systems could have malfunctioned so badly, twice. An aviation expert that they were interviewing was the first to make it clear - commercial airliners would be nowhere near the area, visibility was perfect, basically that this was no accident. And then the towers fell and the unthinkable became reality. The potential deathtoll was astounding.

As the morning played out I remember calling a few people to get them up. Other then that I remember being glued to the coverage for 8 straight hours. At 6 o'clock I went to rugby practice and I remember thinking, as I crossed the bridge, that we had just witnessed the biggest event of our lifetimes and that everything would change from this point on. To some extent that's true, and to some extent not so much.

At the time it meant that I wasn't flying to Victoria as soon as I had expected. As the days went on the extent of the tragedy was realized it meant the world had changed. That's still going on...the fallout continues and a good friend of mine will be heading to Afghanistan at the end of October as a result. I'm not going to get in to the politics but I took the time this morning to watch the footage from that day and it's absolutely stunning. They really had no idea that terrorists could attack the US. In some ways it was the end of innocence...although maybe ignorance is the better word.

The world has changed since that day but when I crossed the bridge this morning that was the furthest thing from my mind. All I could think of was how nice of a day it was for September 11th.

L-i-v-i-n.

posted by Vitamin S @ 7:40 p.m.