On a day to never forget, too many have overlooked what happened on 9/11
It started as a gorgeous late-summer morning in New York City.Then everything went straight to hell.Where were you when you knew?Twenty-five years have passed as if in a heartbeat.
On the morning of Sept.11, 2001, I was sitting on the deck atop my Brooklyn brownstone with stunning views of lower Manhattan, preparing to take my daughter to her first day of preschool when a small plane appeared to fly into the north tower of the World Trade Center.
Or so we thought.Minutes later, a second, deafening crash.A second plane, a jetliner, joined the first, which turned out to be another jumbo jet, and struck the south tower, setting the two buildings on fire, high above the ground.
A sick feeling hit the pit of the stomach as everyone in the nation and around the world, fixated on the twin, burning buildings, whether watching on TV or in person, simultaneously came to the same, horrifying realization: Suddenly, we all knew this was no accident.America was under attack.And nothing would ever again be the same.It goes without saying, preschool didn’t happen.The rest of the day unfolded as if in a nightmare.
Before our eyes, the grand and imposing towers fell, one by one, brought to their knees by the fires of hell.A smoke cloud billowed over Brooklyn, blotting out the brilliant sunshine and spewing ash, singed paper, the mangled detritus of two, destroyed buildings, onto our deck, covering it like a blanket of snow.We had no clue that the ash, toxic and deadly, would sicken countless people, killing untold numbers for years to come.Then reports dripped of a hit on the Pentagon.
A plane down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.Where would it end? Would it?I walked down the street, past a subway stop bearing pictures of missing locals, their eyes searching, begging for help.I passed a man.
He was sobbing.I joined him.Over the next few days, I ventured daily to Ground Zero.Searching, hoping, praying, to find even one survivor.
Something that would bring hope.Joining rescue w...