Voices from the Flats – Rishi Maharaj
Rishi Maharaj is a New Yorker who now calls Alaska home. He was the former morning drive editor and producer at WCBS-AM in New York City. He is the currently Assistant Program Director and News Director for KBYR 700am in Anchorage.
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September 11th – Eight Years Later
Rishi Maharaj
For the first time in a long time, I had been given the chance to sleep in. Working as part of the “morning drive” team at a radio station, I was normally up pretty early; awake by 2am, on the subway by by 3:15 and at work by 4:30.
It was Democratic Primary day in New York City. Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer was challenging Mark Green for the party nomination in the upcoming mayoral race. I was assigned to field produce election night coverage so I didn’t have to be in to work until the afternoon.
At around 8:45am my father ran to my bedroom screaming and shouting. He told me something had happened at the World Trade Center — something about an airplane.
I ran to my living room where plastered on the television was this surreal image: one of the Twin Towers with a huge gaping hole, like it was wounded. My father explained that an airplane had struck the building. I assumed an aircraft lost control and accidentally rammed the tower.
I called the station to find out any information I could, but I could not get through – the phone line was busy. Then, stunned and speechless, we watched the wounded tower, and a second aircraft struck the building’s twin. Eyes wide open. Tears flowing. Speechless. My father, never emotional, was bawling.
I ran outside where I normally could see the towers in the distance. There was nothing but a huge smoke cloud.
Then the panic to make sure everyone was okay. I had two cousins who worked around the World Trade Center; one in the twin towers and one in the World Financial Center. My sister worked in Manhattan along with two aunts and three other cousins. Then realizing so many other people we knew — friends, neighbors, more family members — all worked in Manhattan. The subway had been shut down. People were running to the nearest bridges trying to escape the island — and all I could do was watch it on TV. Not many people had mobile phones then and there was no way to account for everyone we knew. The phone circuits were jammed. Calls were cutting in and out. The sound of military aircraft screeching over the rooftops shook the house. Fear is all I remember.
By afternoon the ‘A’ train had resumed limited service. A co-worker who lived not far away drove over to my home and we took the journey into to Manhattan together. When we arrived downtown, the city was like I had never seen it — like a ghost town. There were soldiers on many corners, something I was not used to seeing. The sky was cloudy and grey. The plumes of smoke from the WTC could be seen in the distance.
While at work, I spoke with family members, trying to make sure everyone was accounted for. By night time — pulling a double shift, I walked to the studio of the CBS Evening News and watched Dan Rather continue his uninterrupted coverage of the tragic event. I was amazed at his energy and candor. I came back to our newsroom and saw someone I knew on TV. It was my cousin and she was being interviewed. But why? I turned up the volume and learned what I had feared.
Goumatie Thakurdeen. Kind of a hard name, well – different to many. We called her “Girly.” She was who was being discussed in the interview. It turns out, she didn’t make it home that day — my dear cousin who worked on the 92nd floor of tower two.
Shock and Awe.
The days went by. Her mother and siblings held prayer sessions from morning to night in their Queens home for the first week.
The week turned into weeks. Then months.
Months later, Girly’s body was recovered. According to accounts and foresnic reports, she had actually made it downstairs but didn’t escape in time before tower two collapsed, trapping her. I was told she helped usher people down the stairs but in the end, no one helped her.
It breaks my heart just imagining the fear and fright she must have felt. I just can’t… imagine.
September 11, 2001; a day that so many will never forget.
Eight years later, I am so angered to see and hear what that tragic event has lead to. Illegal invasions and occupations of foreign lands. The crush of civil liberties in our nation. Increased profiling and racially bias rhetoric. The detention of the innocent (a large number of whom were/are Americans.) There is so much I could mention.
Nearly 3,000 American lives lost on that day. Over 4,000 more in a war justified by our government as retaliation to 9/11. And over a million civilian lives lost because of lies. “Civilian” is a key word. Those who perished that tragic morning were CIVILIANS. Now imagine, the million plus CIVILIAN lives that have been taken in the name of revenge and lies. We mark the loss of civilians yet, in the name of “freedom” our country has taken millions of lives in return, and this is just and accepted?
My dear Girly, I miss you and will never forget you. You were a humble person who worked so tremendously hard and in the end, just barely began to get the recognition you deserved. You took care of and looked after your mother with no hesitation or disdain. You were always smiling and joking. You were such a caring and beautiful person. I am so sorry your last day was filled was such terror. I hope you are at peace wherever you are. You will never be forgotten.
Eight years later… the tears still flow when I think back.
completely with you BigSlick, on HATE especially. terribly sad…
Heartbreaking stories. Healing voices. Hugs to all. Hope lives.
I was in Tokyo on 9/11/01 where I had lived since 1990 and married into a wonderful Japanese family. My wife and I had lived with her family until the year before and had moved into our own high-rise apartment in 1999 with our two sons.
I had just arrived home late after a working dinner with clients when my cell phone rang and a dear friend of mine in Osaka told me to turn on CNN. I told him I needed call him back but he was insistent, almost angry with me, and he said in rough Japanese “look, just do it dumbass!” which shocked me into silence. I turned on the TV to see the first tower smoking on a brilliant clear New York morning.
My family and I watched in horror as 2 minutes later the 2nd plane smashed into Tower 2. My older son, 9 at the time, saw me cry for the first time in his life. My wife took our 3-year old son into the other room and rocked him to sleep, and the older boy finally asked me in a breaking voice “Is this the end of the world?” and began to cry himself. Dinner, baths, homework, dishes…brushing teeth…all daily routine was forgotten.
I told him “no son, not the end, but our world has just changed forever”.
“Why are you afraid? You’re crying…” he asked, tearing up more.
I immediately gained composure, and my resolve became clear.
“Yes son, I am afraid a little, and I should be. This is an act of war.”
I found my voice and continued, my fists clenching and un-clenching.
“But more than fear, I am angry, and these tears are tears of rage because I can’t do anything to stop this from happening right now. But I swear to you I will protect you and your mother and brother and we will be ok.”
I tried in vain to get through to the US on the phone for the next hour, and my son wandered in to sleep next to his mother and brother in our bed. We all slept (what sleep we could get) in one bed that night…and for several more.
The phone lines from Japan were not working to anywhere in the USA until about three hours later when I got through to my brother in Poughkeepsie, then my mother in Oregon. Things were still not clear about who was responsible or whether the US was expecting more attacks. The Japanese government was also on high alert, and my the president of the Japanese company I worked for called to express sympathy and tell me he understood if I didn’t go to work in the morning.
I called my father, who was living in Mexico, something I never would do on a normal day. My father and I did not get along well, but we had at least been on speaking terms since I’d gotten married and he’d made the effort to come to visit us in Tokyo after the wedding. It was the first time since I was a small child that I felt comforted to hear his voice. He told me later that it was the first time in his life he ever felt comforted by mine.
I went in to work the next morning anyway to the most surreal office experience of my life even more surreal than my first day on the job as the only full time foreign staffer in a mid-sized consulting firm near the heart of Tokyo. People I thought I knew well avoided conversation, some even avoided looking at me. People I had never spoken to before came up and offered their nervous condolences.
The company president spent half a day to come all the way from Yokohama to talk to me and tell me that he would give me his “support if I needed any special time to myself” which I assured him I did not. He then urged me to cancel a business trip I had planned the next week to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. I refused to cancel.
The people of Malaysia, mostly Muslims, treated me extremely well on that trip. For unknown reasons, my client in Indonesia canceled our meetings, but the people in Thailand and Singapore were also very very kind. On my return from the business trip I attended a weekly management meeting and discussed my trip and the need to continue as I would have before 9/11.
Life went on. I refused to let fear win. For my sons. For my wife. For my self. For my friends in the office.
But as you all know, things changed after that day, even for me living in Tokyo. People’s responses to me on first meeting were different, measured, cautious. With each news cycle, the Bushies were making it clear that this was to become the excuse for a crusade. Sure I wanted a response. I wanted Bin Laden’s frigging head. But not this. Not the paranoia and the lies. Not the theopolitical prosyletization. Not the racism and the cowardice of the attack on Iraq. Certainly not the curtailment of civil liberties for American citizens. And certainly not the misguided hatred of Americans for other Americans.
Thus far the terrorists have won and Bush/Cheney were their weapon of choice. Sarah Palin and the remaining WingNuts are what remains of their arsenal. The terrorists have co-opted that hatred they incited and scorched so deeply into our collective hearts with the jet fuel of 9/11and made sure that we Americans have channeled the HATE inward in a special political and theological mixture of national self-loathing that has the potential to turn we Americans to violence upon one another, American upon American.
Put the HATE where it belongs. Hate that genocidal maniac Bin Laden and his murderous band of terrorists, but wake up and for the grace and good of the United States of America, LOVE THY NEIGHBOR!!!!
A beautiful tribute to Girley and a reminder of all we lost on 9/11 and after.
May your strength give us strength
I am sorry that your Girly was one of the victims that day. I am so, so sorry.
It was a stunningly beautiful fall day here in Fbks, with a blue sky so like the one in NY; that is what I remember most vividly along with the horror. We lived near a place where the migrating geese flocked up for their southward journeys, and the fields there were full of hundreds of birds, honking and chattering, large groups suddenly taking flight when startled and then settling down again in their gathering. Until then, I had never noticed how much air traffic we normally get, until it was all suddenly grounded for days, silenced, and all we could hear in the deep, empty blue sky was the swirling, honking geese.
Somehow, I always felt that when the geese flew off a few days later, that they carried our grief for the spirits of the lost directly to them through that blue sky, that somehow they were able to reach them directly, and comfort the rest of the nation as they traveled their flyways during that awful time. It is hard to explain why the geese felt like messengers, winging across the continent to whatever places they leave us for, but I believe they carried some comfort to someone, somewhere.
(((Rishi)))
IsyFleur: You’re an inspiration. I have other reasons for anger and fear but will
endeavor to choose hope and trust, as you have. Thank you, and I will hope and trust for you, also. Blessings.
My memory of 9/11 and in particular of The World Trade Centers are something that will never leave me. In 1981, I worked on the 98th floor of One WTC. I worked there for about 2 years before moving across the street to One Liberty Plaza (still spending much time inside the towers). I remember the view from my window on clear days and during storms. I remember the hallways and restrooms. I remember shopping in the stores, having drinks after work, grabbing lunch at the hot dog stand in the lobby. I remember the tourists that drove me NUTS in the gigantic elevator banks all rushing to and fro. I remember the ‘cattle car’ EXPRESS elevator that seemed to have meteoric speed. I remember lunching in the outdoor plaza with the buildings towering overhead. I have been in the stairwells of that building. I know how big they were. On 9/11/01 I was living in GA and was home with my 2 yr old daughter. I had called a friend around 9:05am to confirm some lunch plans and she told me. And when the towers started to topple I just started screaming into a pillow trying not to scare my daughter. I watched in horror as those buildings crumbling thinking about their size, their layout and of course the people….on the roof, in the stairwells, in the lobby and, oh my God, in the elevators. And I just screamed and cried.
Namaste everyone, and thank you all for sharing such personal stories.
Thank you Rishi, and others who have shared their stories today.
Namaste, Gramiam
I was chatting on-line with my oldest son who was at his job in Manhattan that morning. As we laughed and shared a few moments of just being together, The first plane struck the WTC. I thought he was kidding me when he said that a bomb had gone off at the WTC. I turned on the TV and learned it was a plane. My first thought was for my youngest son, who also worked in Manhattan. My older son wasn’t worried because they both lived in Brooklyn and The younger one usually got to his job first. That morning was not usual, however. Mike ran late and the first plane hit the Tower just as hi train passed under the buildings. When he emerged from the subway station, he saw the fires and smoke. All he could think of to do was to run to where his brother worked and find him
In the meantime, it was all I could do to get my older son to stay by the computer until his brother showed up, because his roommate worked in the first building that was hit. Mike showed up about that time and the two of them went to find the roommate. I am happy to say they did find him, but only because he had ignored the authorities who told them to remain where they were in the WTC. He ran for his life and lived to tell the tale.
As for me, I know what it is to lose a child. There is nothing more painful in this world. I faced the real possibility that two more of my babies were in danger of dying that day so I fully understand what Rishi is talking about. I hold all those parents and siblings and spouses who survived in my heart, for I know that in the aftermath of such a tragedy, some days it just hurts to breathe in and out, to continue surviving.
As for those soulless demons who would use this tragedy as a means to promote bigotry and hatred and power for their warped and bitter ideas, I say shun them, turn your backs and give them no power to rule over you. We shall, we MUST overcome!
Namaste, Rishi, and thank you so much for your (and Girly’s) story. I watched the second tower collapse from my tenement rooftop. September 11th was one of the most beautiful days of the year; not a cloud in the sky, a mild breeze from the west, comfortable temperature — then the twin towers, which I’d hated from when they were still a construction site, collapsed. As much as I hated them (they changed the weather in much of downtown, and stole the sky from entire neighborhoods), it was horrific to see them go. And from where I stood on my East 6th Street roof, it was just like watching a controlled demolition. I couldn’t leave the house until I got my mother (RIP) on the phone; though I didn’t live very near the WTC, I knew she would be frightened until she’d heard from me (her relief at hearing my voice was palpable), because although she was originally from 2 blocks from where I live, she’d forgotten her Manhattan geography. I brought extra bags to the supermarket, because I knew they might run out & people had to have provisions (the store and the customers were very grateful). I also had to get calls through to the two friends whose birthdays would not be celebrated that year. No one who didn’t live here could get below 14th Street for days. I was not afraid of “the terrorists,” but I feared what our government would do. Now, let us urge our President to get ALL our troops home from Iraq (where we should never have gone) and Afghanistan, where there’s nothing for us to “win,” where the government (if one can call it that with a straight face) is so corrupt that President Karzai signed a law permitting marital rape, and contemplate a future of health and peace. Rishi, thank you again.
The air was so still and quiet here, 4,000 miles from NYC and DC. No flights in or out, no flight seeing planes or helicopters, no float planes taking hunters or fishers or campers out to remote AK. It was eerie.
**************isyfleur*********beautifully spoken by a beautiful soul. glad to meet you. best wishes and many good thoughts coming your way…b
justafarmer – we drove from New Jersey to Milwaukee, WI, that Wednesday and Thursday. My husband was the best man in our friends’ wedding on September 15, 2001, and obviously, our flight was cancelled. So we got in the car with the kids and drove half way through the continent, and it was indeed extremely spooky to not see a single plane in the sky except for military aircraft circling certain areas.
(((Rishi)))
My 9/11 story is nowhere near as dramatic or heart-wrenching…all of my relatives in NYC survived that day.
That morning, I was at the farmers market at 6 am. I had to be at the courthouse for first day of jury duty at 9:30 am…walked in the courthouse and one of my friends (who worked there) came running to me in tears saying her son had arrived safely in LA on a flight from Boston. I had no idea what she was talking about as I had to run for the third floor courtroom because I was running a few minutes late.
Didn’t find out what happened until I walked the 2 block from the courthouse to the newspaper where I worked part-time and heard on the radio that the towers had fallen.
Walked the mile back to the farmers market where only my husband and another farmer were left. We saw no more customers on any market day the rest of the season.
Although we live in a very remote area, we are under the flightpath for Cincinnati International Airport and also within a huge military flight area.
Spooky to see NO commercial aircraft for days.
Spooky to see lots of military aircraft (we have a LOT of coal-fired electric-generating plants in our area, apparently they were potential targets).
I’m 57 years old, so I’ve lived to see and experience lots of frightening things in USA history, but 9/11 was, quite truthfully, the singular life-changing incident in my life.
And then Barack Obama was elected our President. And hope returned.
Thank you Rishi.
Namaste
IsyFleur , You are in my thoughts and prayers for your health and long life. Your babies need what your great heart and courage can teach them about the world. We need what you can share too. Hugs!
Isyfler: Gawd almighty, your level is one that I want to reach. White light and good thoughts to you.
JaneE
On September 11, 2001, at 8:45 am, we were walking my older daughter to school: she had just started first grade. We lived in Central New Jersey and it was one of those glorious late summer mornings that give you the illusion that New Jersey has more to offer than hellish commutes, asthma-inducing pollution and corrupt politicians – which it does, really: there are lovely people and beautiful beaches to be found in between the traffic jams and Superfund sites.
My little one, just 7 months old, was in the stroller, and my boys were being silly, so my 2 year old tripped off the curb, fell down, and cut his head open. It was nothing dramatic, but enough that I had to turn around, ask a neighbor if she would mind taking my daughter to school with hers, and walk back home to settle the kids down, get in the car and drive to the doctor’s. It was 9:00 am when I got into the minivan, and the BBC World News was on – only it was live and I could not make any sense of what they were talking about. We got to the doctor’s office, just a few minutes away, and with the TV on in the waiting room, I at last realized what had happened. The second plane had just flown into the second tower, and I thought of my husband, who was teaching a biology class at Rutgers University in Newark, NJ, just across the river from the burning towers. He was safe, although he was not able to come home that day, after NJ Transit had shut down all rail traffic. We were lucky enough to not loose any relatives or friends in the attacks, but many around us did, and we grieved with them in the weeks and months that followed.
My doctor was of Egyptian origin, a devout Muslim, and I suspect a very conservative man. He examined my son’s head and determined the cut did not need stitches and would heal on its own. Then we talked about the attacks, which were still unfolding just 45 miles away from us. We were convinced it must be Al-Qaeda, and I said: “What is that idiot Bush going to do now?” My doctor, a true patriot, reassured me that he trusted the US would do exactly what was needed. But even before the third and fourth plane had crashed, I feared how our government would react to the attacks. And like Mr Maharaj, during the following years, my immense sadness for all the lives lost was mixed with nearly uncontrollable anger at Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice for claiming 9/11 as their excuse for making us, the people of the United States, into mass murderers.
Eight years later, I am sitting peacefully at home in Southern Arizona. After we elected Barack Obama as our new president, I was able to weed out most of the anger out of my garden of sadness. This morning, my children all took the bus to school, and are safely learning there now. It is a glorious late summer morning, the Catalina Mountains just east of us are crisp and clear against the Sonoran blue sky, and greening up from recent thunderstorms. Huge puffy thunderclouds are starting to form over them, bringing hope it will once again rain: the Saguaro cacti will stretch their ribs, the glorious Sonoran desert will exude the scent of creosote bush, and with enough rain, it will bloom again this fall.
The rain has a new and different feel for me this September. Added to the sense of relief they bring to all of us people of the desert, the rain drops have a particularly soothing effects as they land on my bare scalp. I have breast cancer, and am just recovering from the third round of chemo/biological treatment – they come every three weeks, and I still have three more to go. After those are done, I will still carry on with the biological therapy for a whole year. I will have more surgery in December, and then start on an anti hormonal treatment for five years. Sometimes, I feel like I will be an old woman by next spring…
People tell me it’s a “battle” I have to win, they say I can “beat” the cancer, as if cancer was an enemy I needed to defeat. But I say it is a serious disease I need to treat systematically and peacefully, and that with time, and with the support of my friends and family, I will deal with it adequately. I have a very good chance of fully recovering – notwithstanding a few missing parts of my body – but there is a possibility I might not make it through the next five years. Whatever happens, though, I will not let anger and fear take over, and I will allow hope and trust to guide me in the years to come.
A website that debunks many of the conspiracy theories that have grown up concerning 9/11 is here. Lots of good information for those willing to read and think.
http://www.debunking911.com/index.html
On 9/11 I think people were so horrified that whatever was put out as fact was accepted. When I saw the first tower come down, I told my husband that it looked just like a controlled demolition. Then the second tower and then #7, that was not hit or even on fire. That was when I started checking and I am convinced it was an inside job.
The mere fact that it took the Bush administration 5 years to create a commission to investigate tells you volumes.
Rishi,
Thank you.
For those who might be interested, the book is linked below.
And according to the blurb, 12,000 people escaped that day!
http://www.amazon.com/102-Minutes-Untold-Survive-Inside/dp/0805080325/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252698059&sr=8-3
Thank you Rishi.
Calling my Uncle Bob, a WWII veteran, on that day. Asking him if he ever thought he would live to see a day such as this.
Agreed, that many illegal and horrific actions ensued.
Hopeful, that we will be able to learn.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y2SIIeqy34
JaneE
As I do every year, today I watched the MSNBC rebroadcast of NBC’s coverage in live-time. What hit me – and what hits me every year – is the realisation of just how many people WEREN’T killed in the Twin Towers that day.
One of the conversations between the anchors that morning was about how many people worked/visited the WTC each day. They were saying upwards of 10,000 people could be in each tower. I’m sure they – and we at home watching horrified – were expecting at least 10,000 deaths of people unable to evacuate the buildings before they collapsed.
The final number of 3000 – which in itself is completely unacceptable – deaths was amazing because of all the people who managed to escape the buildings. I think we all thought the death toll would be much, much higher.
A few years ago I read a book about the evacuation of the towers. It was a well-written book, called, I think, 102 Minutes.
Thanks for your account, Rishi, and all the others who wrote in to this thread.
H*ll, even Scarah thinks it should be re investigated, course maybe she just said that to get votes. I wonder if she was being a Maverick, lol. Gee, don’t ya just miss her word salad, lol. I wonder if her cult knew this.
It’s at the 1:29 point.
Question: Will you support the victims family members and first responders of 9/11 that are calling for a new investigation?
Scarah: “I do. I do, cause I think that helps us get to the point of never again, and if anything that we can do could still complete that reminder out there.
Were you affected?”
Questioners Answer: “Yeah, I have friends that were affected, I know people, and a lot of them are still sick and dying from the EPA because they lied about the air quality like that.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPDbmQmV6O8&feature=related
Yes Rishi, it bring tears to my eyes too. It should never have happened.
I had just come in from a morning walk, turned on the tv right after the first plane had hit, I couldn’t believe it, I kept watching in shock when the second plane hit, then to make everything worse the frickin buildings exploded and collapsed. Gawd, it was so terrible, I was beside myself, it felt like our world was coming unglued. I kept screaming NO.
And then we find out it didn’t have to happen, they knew those planes were coming, they didn’t intercept them, they knew those building were going to collapse before they did. We need answers and we need justice.
Fake Noise is scoffing at Charilie Sheen for asking President Obama to reopen the 9/11 Commission. I’m not sure our country can handle it right now, but certainly those who perished, their families, all US citizens and the world deserve the truth and those who failed them or conspired to do harm need to be brought to justice.
here is a you tube that Charlie put together for President Obama…… http://tinyurl.com/mh3ynl
John Michael Foti a young firefighter ran into South Tower that achingly beautiful fall day. the sky a deep perriwinkle blue that new york sometimes is blessed with. i watched that sweet child grow into manhood. a handsome man. a good man. i stood in front of my apartment building that morning and watched anxiously for my neighbors and their children to come walking down Madison street many came out of that hell but many did not. i stood and watched those fires. i stood and watched as men and women held hands and jumped from those towers. today is a day for deep prayer for me. a quiet day. a hurting day. out of all that is said and done by politicians and religious leaders, when my neighbors and i meet whether in the lobby or in the streets of this huge city, we clasp hands or kiss. we know it may be for the last time. love b
A day of remembrance for all. My heart goes out to the families who every year
relive that tragedy.
Two years ago, I googled 9/11 for a photography project. I spent two years researching this. The facts simply don’t add up. Why is everyone so afraid to admit this?
Thank you Rishi for sharing.
People all across America and the world went into depression for months afterwards. It was horrifying and life-changing. People started using their favorite china everyday, that they use to bring out only on special occasions. Everyday became a special occasion.
Thank You Rishi for sharing with us.
Thanks AKM for the platform.
Thank you for this tribute to the 9/11victims as well as the civilians lost in the Illegal Iraq war.people are so worried about losing freedoms now and I can’t believe they do not realize they already lost a lot with the patriot act that passed while fear and hate were running rampant..We at work listened to the radio and our boss bought a TV into our lunch room so on our breaks and lunch hours we could keep up with the news.
Janet # 14 I have often thought the same thing.I thought about the Japanese Americans that were sent to camps sometimes for years even though some in their families were serving in our armed forces.That also was a big shame for our country and thinking of that made me wonder if Cheney and his shadow government has some Muslim Americans in those same kinds of camps or if someone tried to do the same.Hate that is coming from the talking heads seems to be the thing of the day.
I went to CT for a vacation Oct 2001 and took the train to NYC. The company I work for has a sales office across the street from where the Towers had been. It was overwhelming for me to look at the remains of the bldgs. People on the street were trying to hand me their cameras so I could take a picture of them in front of the fence. I told them I would not, and could not. It just deal feel right to me to take pictures so they could show people at home where they had been. I felt it to be a blow to all those who perished.
every year i watch the replay of that fateful morning. i was crying (as usual) and my 4 year old daughter came downstairs and said momma whats wrong?
i pointed to the tv and told her something sad happened a few years ago but momma was ok. she sat there a minute watching the tv and she turned and looked at me wither her big brown innocent eyes and said we fix it momma? for a moment i didnt know what to say. i smiled at her and said not yet but we are still trying. sometimes its the little things that let you remember how wonderful and short life is. i will never forget that day, because i watched it happen on tv and because i will make sure my daughter carries my memories so the next generation will never let those memories fade away into a history book.
Thank you. May we remember all the individuals who lost their lives, the heroic and the ordinary. It is good that those who are reading the names of the fallen include family members- and people who serve through volunteerism. Service to others is more effective that threatening words and weapons.
I don’t have a story for the day 9/11 happened. My story is about what happened to us and our country after 9/11. I watched with a horror and a fear greater than the day I saw the towers fall at the people we became: vindictive, isolationist, war hungry, xenophobic and afraid. Not all of us certainly but enough to tip the balance so that those wanting to understand 9/11 were excoriated as anti-American or worse enough so that we invaded and destroyed another country for no reason, enough so that we curtailed our own constitutional freedoms, enough so that we approved torture and accepted hate as a positive cultural characteristic. We became a people so irrational, so aggressive, so hateful that most of the world looked, not at the terrorists with horror, but at us. And I wept that we had lost something great and good about ourselves.
Thank you, Rishi.
We will remember – both *our* civilian dead as well as the untold hundreds of thousands of civilians in uninvolved foreign countries that had to pay with their lives so our ‘leaders’ could stay in power for eight long years…
Thank you Rishi.
Thank you for helping us to remember the importance of an individual life.
My heart goes out to you and your family, Rishi. “Girly” sounds like somebody it would have been nice to know. A big mudpuppy hug to our favorite radio producer.
“…..evilness keep US from doing good.”
Thanks for sharing Rishi, and, although I did not lose anybody, I still feel angry too, in what happened in the aftermath.
My main remembrance of watching the news that day, two months pregnant with my first baby, was “What have I done? How can I bring a poor innocent baby into such a cruel world?” And she is now a second grader, and is joined by her younger two siblings, because, after all, we cannot let the evilness keep up from doing good.
Peace.
Beautifully written. This really expresses my feelings also, looking back on that horrific day, and also on the much more horrific results that continue to this day. As you say…a million civilian deaths. How can we justify our response? Do we feel like we got ‘even’ yet?
Thank you, Rishi. Other words fail me. So thank you, again.
tears came to my eyes just reading. Thank you for sharing.
It was just a few hours and eight years ago, that I first heard. It was terrible in many ways. The one I think of now is how it destroyed my hopes for the 21st century being the one where we get it right, the one where we figure out how to keep the peace. And the reactions, plus the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq, ground every last glimmering of that hope into the ground.
On the 4th of November of last year that hope rose again like a phoenix from the ashes and I remembered that the last calls made by those lost in the Towers and on the planes, were those of love. They called their loves ones and said goodbye and I love you. When facing their last moment that was the only thing worth holding on to: Love.
Thankyou so much for your writing. I can feel your love too.
Thankyou.
thank you, rishi.
i know that tears came with that writing.
Wow. Thank you for this piece. It’s both beautiful and sad.
We will never forget…