On 9/11/01, I was doing the midday show on WFNX. On my way in, it all started to unfold. I will never forget where I was when the news came. No one was prepared for the mayhem, confusion and misery that day would bring. The morning show stayed on to cover breaking news and to try to make sense of the minute to minute events while myself and others made frantic calls to town, city and state officials, the Red Cross, various news outlets, even CNN. No one was answering. If someone did, they had nothing to offer. The world as we knew it had stopped.
In the days and weeks following, people were unhinged. Having been on the radio everyday, I fielded calls urging me to tell people not to over react as Middle Eastern-appearing citizens were being harassed and attacked. I got a lot of requests for "Killing an Arab" by The Cure. I got calls from girls pleading with me to tell their boyfriends not to go into the military. It was beyond heavy. It took me years to be able to articulate anything regarding the events of that day or what I dealt with after it.
It wasn't until later that night that I actually saw clear images of what everyone was glued to all day. For that, there are no words.
I will never allow myself to not feel the enormity of that day.
It was as powerful as it was horrible. I will remember.
Now, all these years later, I still look at the news pages, still study the photos and flight plans and think of those people and what it must have been like.
Even today, I think about the woman who may have left her laundry in the washer to deal with when she came home from work. Laundry that never made it to her dryer. Or the dad who kissed his kid goodbye before a business trip out west, a dad who never dreamed it would be the last time.
I can't get into an elevator and hit a floor without thinking about the people in the towers who routinely climbed up those floors. And died there.
I will think of you.
And the families.
Well said.
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