Five Years Later

There have been a few days over the past century in the United States in which an unimaginable event has happened, a tragic event that affects the whole country, a day on which everyone remembers exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. December 7, 1941, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, is one of those days, for example, and November 22, 1963, the assassination of President Kennedy, is another.

September 11, 2001 is also one of those days. And now, five years later, the events of that day have led to patterns of life that affect us every day … like bomb-sniffing dogs at train stations and removing our shoes to board an airplane. And go bags.

You probably remember your story from that day and might be thinking about it today.

This is mine: I was stuck in traffic on the way to a 9:00 am doctor’s appointment. When I arrived, no one at his office had heard the news till I mentioned it. Two hours later I stepped into the sun-drenched gridlock of Bethesda, Maryland, a few miles northwest of Washington DC.

By that time all federal and local government offices had been evacuated, resulting in the gridlock. Most other businesses closed over the next few hours. The drive back to my office, usually 15 minutes from Bethesda, lasted more than an hour. It took most of that hour to get a cell phone call through to my wife, who was working from home that day and had not yet heard the news. She turned on the TV and confirmed the horrible facts my mind could not accept from hearing about them on the radio: hijacked airliners had been intentionally crashed into the World Trade Center towers, the two tallest buildings in the world had indeed completely collapsed and another plane had hit the Pentagon.

The first two paragraphs of this post also open an hour-long radio special I wrote, produced and hosted. I interviewed someone who was on duty at the Air Traffic Control System Command Center when the hijacks were first called in, a cognitive behavior therapist who discusses how children deal with disaster and two officials from a local homeland security department who talk about emergency preparedness then and now.

My guests at the beginning and end of the special are two colleagues with compelling stories from that day, a communications consultant who hosts some of the shows I produce (she’s known in the blog world as Diner Girl) and the radio personality I was listening to as the news broke that morning.

Two questions I asked each guest: what does 9/11 mean to you now and are we prepared for another attack? You can download the show to hear their thoughtful answers.

Here are my thoughts:

I think we’re more prepared to combat terrorism than we were five years ago, both as a country and as individuals. But I’m concerned that we might forget how vulnerable we still are.

September 11th serves an important purpose: it’s an annual reminder that in the face of unspeakable tragedy, Americans can set aside differences and egos and unite to help each other out. There were thousands of heroes that day and we must never forget them and their actions. The one singular good thing that happened that day, in my opinion, is that we as a nation of both friends and strangers came together like family. That is a feeling I want to remember.