Thirteen Years Since 9/11

I meant to post something this morning about the anniversary. Somehow time got away from me.

I saw flags at half mast today, and felt that was fitting. I also read an article on NPR last night which really stuck with me. It was about birds getting stuck in the twin columns of light that are still beamed upward in memorial on 9/11.

It's a haunting article called "Souls Tumbling in the Light"...

Anne,
I've been waiting for someone else to comment on this post. 9/ll traumatized the American mind and soul so much, IMHO just remembering this event is very, very difficult. Seeing fellow Americans' jumping to their death, is an image I'll never get out of my memory. And it's still heartbreaking. Doesn't seem like it's been 13 years but it has.

I know it's traumatic, Jabber. And I hope it never stops being traumatic. I don't want to think that we have forgotten tis day.

If no one wants to talk about it, I understand. But I will remember that day until I die. And I will continue to think about it every September, whether it's the 11th or not, whenever the day dawns clear and sunny and with that special blue of a September sky. Because that's the kind of beautiful morning it was in Iowa, the day I watched the towers fall on morning television.

Sadly, I'll probably also never forget hearing Katie Couric tell the audience that the NBC Today Show News Dept. had tried to call someone in one of the World trade Tower offices, to get a sound bite.

Katie reported that they couldn't get anyone to talk to them. The person who answered the phone had simply said, according to Couric, "We can't talk right now, we're dying up here."

And she reported this to the camera, giving me the impression that she couldn't possibly believe how rude this person was...

I also remember how I was moved to call both of my children, one in Iowa City, IA, one in Milwaukee. I needed to hear their voices, and know that they were OK. Both in the news industry, neither of them had yet heard what was happening. But both ended up going in to work early, because they recognized that it was going to be a major news day...

My Italian granddaughter was flying home that day and flew out of one of the airports involved. She missed being in the midst of that mess by only minutes. My heart sinks thinking about that day. One of the Fox news contributors was on an airplane that went down. She phoned her husband saying that her airplane had been taken over by terrorists. I'll never forget that day either. It's heartbreaking! No other word for it. Heartbreaking!