I could probably tell you how my day started that day as it was school day. My alarm disrespectfully had gone off for third time and my mom yelled at me “ Are you getting up? Or Am I going to have come in there?!” She was doing daily morning reading and prayers and hadn’t turned her radio on to the CBC. However it was while I was brushing my teeth that I heard Mom gasp out “No!” And then the tv which hardly gets turned on in the morning told us the fate of that morning. I can’t tell you if MCBride had crisp fall sunny morning with clear blue sky as New York did, I just remember seeing how that smoke cloud looked against that vivid blue sky and how eventually every thin looked dusty..
That’s right the images I remember seeing is the dust and smoke. People running being frantic and then realizing my world twenty years ago was changing. I remember seeing from the tv screen how the first responders charge toward the towards whether or not if they were on duty and how twenty years later how for many their health was still affected, but know they would do it all again in a heartbeat. I remember people reaching out for people helping them to safety with no regards of ethnicity, race or creed. I remember seeing rescue dogs doing their jobs and within a couple days hearing how responders had to lie in rubble because the dogs were getting discouraged that they weren’t doing their job correctly because they hadn’t rescued anyone in hours/days. I remember seeing that night love ones starting to show up with pictures and signs of their missing ones. I remember hearing how 40 people (crew and passengers) deciding their fate and choosing to crash a plane which might have been descend to the Capitol building. I remember hearing how Canada opened it doors and houses to to diverted flights that day, “ hello and welcome to Newfoundland, Yukon etc.” Or how over across the world you could see people praying at the Vatican and wailing Wall for America. But I remember most is seeing the towers fall and all that dust and smoke and realizing that for the first time New York looked so small.
It now twenty years later but one thing I still remember is that it humanity and unity played a key role that day. For it didn’t matter your social class, that day and following days no one was great than anyone else. Being resilient and strong meant something different then as it does now. Mostly I remember that Mr. Rogers say something along the lines of “In any situation or circumstances look for the helpers..” on 9/11 we learned who the helpers were. Sure in the coming weeks America would go to war and people of Middle Eastern decent would face racial and prejudice ridicule. However it’s twenty years later and unfortunately the Taliban have regained Afghanistan so it may mean another war to fight again. It will mean their youth who twenty years signed up to serve because of events of that day again young people will signup for duty because of the fall of Kabul. Twenty years will not take away the memories or the stories of the victims or events of that day. The only thing horrible is is to forget that day which I pray never happens.
Yes, all I remember is seeing people covered in dust and that smoke blowing the sky. I remember how Mom and I like many other families held ourselves close. I still could fathom how someone could have taken a bite out of the big apple just like that. No matter how you view the politics that surround that day, Military involvement, etc. It’s days that should be honoured and remembered. So do you remember that day when it felt that world stopped turning?
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