Diminish? Again are there special words that one has to use when discussing 9/11? If i just says 9/11 is that enough or do i have to specify about the horror of it.
Does that apply to Pearl Harbor? Do the words āday that will leave infamyā have to be used all the time? At ehay point is it lip service?
Sure, she can talk about it. She can start with, āI apoligize for what a bunch of terrorist ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā did in the name of my religion. Thank you for giving me a home. And thank you for sending your troops to keep my family from starving.ā
I was actually in Fairbanks, AK during the attack, working for the BLM at the time. 9/11 was supposed to be my very last day on the job; I had taken a 6-month temporary assignment in DC that was supposed to start about 2 weeks later.
The evening before, I had moved out of my apartment, which left me homeless for that last night, with plans to get on the road heading south in the afternoon of 9/11. My girlfriend and I drove to the top of some unnamed peak outside of town and slept int he back of my Pathfinder for the night. I woke in the morning to watch an amazing sunrise, putting and ear-to-ear grin on my face at the beauty of it all, and the new adventure I was about to beginā¦ it was only a short while later that it all dawned on me. At the time I was watching the sun rise, it was the same time the first tower was hit. Of course, I did not realize this until I got to the office. Being a Fed agency, they shut the building down. I was allowed to go in to get what few belongings I had. That was the first moment I actually saw the attack. I walked in through the main entrance and passed a series of conference rooms on my way to my cubicle. Passing one of the doors, I saw some of the staff in there huddled around a TV as I passed byā¦ I only caught a quick glance, but it stopped me dead in my tracks. At this point, both towers were still standing. I was told I had to quickly get my belongings and vacate the premises, so I did. Not having a place to go to, I went to the a friend of mineās parents that lived nearby. Maybe 2-3 minutes after walking in and staying glued to the TV is when the first collapsed occurred. Iāll never forget that moment until the day I dieā¦ my blood just literally turned cold. I was absolutely consumed with anger, with sadnessā¦ thereās really only been one other time when Iāve been so overwhelmed with emotion.
A few years later, I was on a temporary assignment with the USFS. Another guy maybe 5-6 years younger was on assignment with me. We were in the car heading to a field site with one of the full-time resource managers who is maybe 20 year solder. Somehow we got on the topic of 9/11 and he asked how it affected us, coming form a younger generation than him. I relayed my experience to him, which actually set my life on a completely different unanticipated path (thereās a lot omitted here ;). When the other kid replied, he said it didnāt really change himā¦ as in, no aspect of his life. I really had no words. Im not sure how you could experience such an awful attack on our own nation and somehow utter the words that it had no affect on you.