A Bad Memory Cause for Annual Promise of Understanding and Hope

I stood watching blackened figures against the sky and as I focused, they were actually people escaping out the windows of the World Trade Center. At times I still see them.?I hoped their families found peace. A minute before that horrible view, the 9th Floor conference room at 99 Church Street shook with books falling off shelves. I had felt a hot breeze and a ball of?fire?flashed by. Something was horribly wrong. I then went back down the hall to my office got what I could and went down 9 floors of a darkened stair well and out into the street and into a river of people. A few blocks away a cloud of dust was headed my way. I tried to pause to think maybe I should stay to help out but the momentum kept moving down Church Street the opposite way from the Trade Center. Later,?on a news program I saw a clip of the mangled airplane engine at the corner of Church and Park that I had passed. I have always wondered if I had gone out the building door closer to the Trade Center if I would have lingered to help. I should have but I can’t nor want to go back now.

September 11 still haunts me when I dwell. Even after 20 years.?Everyone near or far has their?story. I first wrote much of this article in 2019. I admire those who were first responders and who have kept up the memory of remembering those who died. Also I appreciate the government and military who found those responsible and dealt with justice if there can be such a thing.

I had no choice that day but to continue on to leave New York City to get to my wife and family. It was like a mission with stories at many stops. Port Authority bus terminal closed just after I purchased a bus ticket to home so I continued on.??I took a cab around 33rd street which took me back five blocks to a hotel which had no rooms and I then had to walk the 5 blocks back to 33rd street.?I realized the gravity of the day when walking in a brownstone filled residential street near Central Park. An elderly lady was walking her poodle and then above 3 fighter jets screamed by. We both glanced at each other. I wondered if she knew. The sun was out and there was a nice breeze as if nothing happened. I got to the George Washington Bridge and was on the last bus to go over. There had been a report of a suspicious white van parked in the Meadowlands so they stopped buses going over the bridge. I had never been to Ft. Lee, New Jersey and with many others then figured out how to get to a phone to get home. My brother and brother-in-law picked me up.

I couldn’t get to my office for several weeks after 911 because there was Marshall Law. That was incredible. Weeks later I participated on a corporate task force to consider where to move Moody’s Investors Service. Of course I chose an office complex 5 miles from home, but I admire Moody’s management that chose to locate right at ground zero in 7 World Trade. That was a strong statement about America and its strength.

While there are many stories to relate, one I remember most was a meeting a year after 911 with officials of a Texas electric utility I conducted at 99 Church Street which was across from St. Peters on Barclay. After introductions we began to discuss the utility’s credit rating and then the bells sounded. A bell was rung for each person who perished on 911. The conference room windows were right across from the church. The utility was represented by all men and one lady. To each tears were flowing. I remember one big burly guy who couldn’t control his sadness. I understood that while this happened in New York, people everywhere were affected. Even now the visitors come and remember.

I decided to re-circulate?this as 911 approaches. I decided how to commemorate the loss of that day. I had often scheduled something to be out of office on 911. The madmen of 911 I could never understand. Yes there are root causes but such madness has to be understood and resolved. Maybe again as I have done in my small way I will reach out and act to strengthen the understanding of our differences and try to better understand. Do a small act of kindness, too.

>

This year for promise and understanding I have donated to the US Iraq and Afghanistan?Veterans Fund to help in a small way thank them for keeping the peace and their work was very important. I also made a donation to the Westfield Fun Club, an organization helping refugees to settle after having to run for their lives.?