The LuLac Edition #57, Sept. 11th, 2006

RECALLING SEPTEMBER 11th

5 years ago today.

I was getting out of bed on the morning of September 11th, 2001. I was working the night shift as a trainer at the Call Center on South Main Street in Wilkes Barre. My shift allowed me some extra time to sleep and hang out at home before I started work. It was a beautiful September morning and I turned on my newest radio obsession, Mike and Mike In the Morning on ESPN Radio. Grabbing a TAB, the morning drink of choice for me since the age of 15, I tuned in to hear Digger Phelps, former Notre Dame basketball coach talk about his son in law, Jamie Moyer, a major league pitcher with the Seattle Mariners. All of a sudden, Mike Greenberg said that it appeared that something struck the World Trade Center in New York City. As I listened intently, I knew this was going to be more than a radio event. My inclination was to tune in to the radio station Kevin Lynn worked at, (I always liked the way he put big events in historical perspective) and then realized he was no longer working there. Knowing that the TV cable channels were already on this story, I ambled into the living room to turn on the TV and at least see if there was any information.
My late father was amazed by TV. He would look at the landing on the Moon, the funeral services of John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King and mutter, “Television is a wonderful thing, it can take you places you never thought you’d go to”. He had died in 1980, just before the launching of CNN and long before the explosion of Cable News channels and 24 hour news coverage. As the network coverage of the events of 911 began in earnest, I thought of him that day.
I turned the TV on long enough to see the second plane go into the tower. Then events started to transpire quickly. My wife called me shortly after the news that the Pentagon was bombed and simply said, “We’re either being attacked or the world is coming to an end”. She was right on both counts. A foreign enemy had breached our borders and well fed sense of security and taken out one of our biggest landmarks of commercial success. Ironic that little, mean men who live in caves could actually concoct a plot like this. And to an extent, the world did end for America because things did change. We were forced to confront the fact that we were not universally loved but vilified. There were people who meant to do us harm. The way we did business also changed forever. Our approach to basic freedoms that we took for granted so long would never be the same. Five years later, after the attack, we wrestle with these changes. While there is general agreement that the attack changed us, there are varying degrees as to how we should react to those changes in both our government and citizenry. Perhaps the testament to the attack, five years later, is that instead of being united in our efforts to understand and fight terrorism, we are divided by it.
Later that day, I drove to work. Popped the top and drove silently through the streets of Wilkes Barre. In the early afternoon, it was eerily quiet. Just the humming of car motors and sounds of traffic. My new hire class for Cendant Membership Services waited for my arrival. A former student of mine from Hanover Area School District sat silently in the class. There was no way this class was going to learn the nuances of computers and membership sales techniques. We turned the TV on and watched. In silence. I saw the pictures of New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani. I was concerned and impressed at the same time. I had long been a Rudy fan. During the summer of election year 1993, I went down to his box seat at Yankee Stadium, introduced myself, had my picture taken with him and chatted about New York, the Yankees and the great steaks at Smith & Wolensky’s in the city. A year later, when he was Mayor, I wanted to get the picture signed but could not get near him. He was the new Mayor and my access was not the one I had when he was a candidate. Two sections over, I asked a native New Yorker if he’d pass the photo down like a hotdog or soda. He did and I watched my photo go from fan to fan until it reached the Mayor. An aide yelled across the seats, “What’s your name?” I yelled back, “David!” The fans yelled to the aide to make certain he heard, “David!!!” And the signed photo was returned to me in the same fashion. It was in pristine condition. I thought of the Mayor and those native New Yorkers and wondered how many were firefighters, how many were police, how many had families in that rubble that was the World Trade Center. At 7PM there was a candle light vigil on the Square and at the behest of my former student, I allowed the workers to attend it. The student, a gangly, goofy eighth grader when I knew him who had a propensity for passing wind and belching at will had to my surprise become a young adult. A taxpayer. An interested American. When the class returned we watched more of the news on TV until the word came that the class could be released. The work of the Call Center on South Main Street and its commerce would have to begin anew on September 12th.
I returned to my desk and checked my e mails. A co worker of mine from the Salisbury, Maryland location e mailed me with her outrage. In a strange juxtaposition of fierceness and tenderness, she wrote that she planned to save everything about this day so her youngest daughter would never, ever forget the tragedy of September 11th. I checked in with a cousin who lived in New York City. She was devastated. Her husband who has a mail order business saw the chaos from his office window. My friend from Colorado sent a short e mail. Both of us, political junkies refrained from the crass election implications of the news event for this day.
As I gathered my things, I threw my brief case over my shoulder and even though it was 1AM, opened up another can of TAB. I wouldn’t be getting much sleep this night. I walked to my car in the parking lot off of South Street. Walking down the sidewalk, there was a lady of the evening sitting on the curb with a man. He was her pimp, a homeless guy or a customer. Don’t know which. All I knew was on this night, we were all citizens. They were both smoking cigarettes and drinking Genesee Beer. The man looked up and said, “Tough day at work today”? I replied, “Tough day in America today, never mind work”. The woman, used and worn but at one time most likely young and pretty once said to no one in particular, “Don’t worry hon, the sun will come up tomorrow and shine brightly. No matter what bad things happen, it always comes up”. And she was correct. It did. But for most of us, since five years ago, it just doesn’t shine as bright.