The Day Our Nation Saw Evil

17 Years ago today started as a beautiful Sunny Tuesday morning, 7:30 am September 11, 2001, I was walking past Madison Square Garden headed to work at DoubleClick. Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 just had their reunion show the night before and the neighborhood was covered with the King Of Pop

Everything was very normal, I was at my desk, getting ready for the day. I saw a random image online of what appeared to be plane accident by the towers. No headline, just an image. As I told a few coworkers, we walked out onto to the DoubleClick rooftop which faced south towards the towers to see what was going on. We saw a small hole in one of the towers.

At first, we thought it was a random commuter plane that had a terrible accident. It was approaching 9 am and many coworkers started to come out to the DoubleClick roof top. This was a huge sprawling rooftop deck that had just amazing views of the west and south city. all of us were looking with lots of questions. Very calmly, How can this of happened?

Our thoughts were that this was a very random accident which we couldn’t believe had happened. We were hoping most people weren’t at their offices down in the towers. At the time, we just didn’t know the severity of the situation.

It was around 9 am and what was about to happen has been cemented in my mind as if was yesterday. As I was looking towards one side of the tower, I saw another plane. In my mind it seems like this lasted for a while. My first thought was it’s our military protecting the airspace headed towards the tower. And then this plane disappeared for a quick moment. Before our eyes, we witness the unthinkable, the biggest fireball. The 2nd plane crashed into the other tower. At this moment, I remember hearing a silence that lead to many people crying when we realized what was happening. Not so calm at this point. We all knew what was happening, we were being attacked. We shared the building with the NY Post and US News World Report. The alarms all went off, everyone had to exit.

Someone of us didn’t leave. Thinking about it, we were stupid. We just stared at what we were witnessing. We didn’t know what to do. This is not something we are trained to react too. We just stayed on this roof top watching, very, very concerned.

30 minutes later, one of the towers just fell. It just collapsed. Like a deck of cards right in front of my eyes. Words cannot explain. I remember thinking, life as I know it is going to change. It was a very helpless feeling. At that moment, we left immediately.

We went to a local bar where the other clickers ( a term we used for our co workers at DoubleClick ) were watching the reports on TV. At this point we knew we were being attacked, and didn’t know what to do, so we just stayed at the bar. Just as you thought it couldn’t get worse, the second tower goes down. We were all in a daze. We couldn’t really communicate with each other. We didn’t know what to say. We were mute at this point.

I tried to call my Mom and Dad to tell them I was ok, but cell service was crippled. Everything in NYC was shut down. We decided to walk back home to the Upper East Side. Walking uptown, we saw many countless people who were covered in what appeared to be ashes. Like zombies. The air was thick. There was a large cloud of dust covering Manhattan.

It took hours to walk uptown. Parked Car doors were all opened with the radio on so we can all hear what was happening. There were groups of people surrounding each car, trying to console each other and get more information. Deli store owners were handing out water to everyone on the streets. People were all coming together to help each other, to console each other.

I was walking with a coworker. She was 7 months pregnant. I wanted to get her home safely. While she was very upset, I remember talking to her about what she did at Doubleclick to get her mind off of things, and try to assure her she would be fine. Although, like all of us, we had no clue if this attack was ever going to end. We all felt helpless.

I knew at this point I lost friends, or knew many people who lost friends who worked at the towers. I knew many of my Coworkers lost friends and loved ones. A lot of emotion, a lot of fear, a lot of unknown at this point.

My coworker got home safely. Like all of us, we just sat in front of the TV all day, just thinking this is all a very bad dream. Out of all things during this crisis, I remember thinking about the Billy Joel song Miami 2017. Miami 2017 was a song written by Billy Joel in 1976 as science fiction. It was point of view of an old man who moved to Florida in the future year 2017 after New York was destroyed in an apocalypse. Clearly, this song took on new meaning after these attacks.

Looking back, it doesn’t get any easier. It’s a very painful day for all of us. Almost 3,000 innocent lives were taken from us. So many brave men and woman sacrificed everything to help. Such true American hero’s. The first responders, The Police, Firefighters, EMT, Paramedics, Nurses, Doctors, those brave men and woman on the plane in PA, and everyone who risked their lives, many who gave up their own lives to save another

Looking back, I remember everyone, and I mean everyone coming together. It didn’t matter who you supported politically, what color your skin was, what religion you were. What mattered was that we bonded together, and we got thru this together. Nothing else mattered.

As for my pregnant coworker. She had a beautiful healthy baby weeks after. To this day, on September 11th day every year, she sends me the kindest email updating me on her family and her appreciation for my kindness. I don’t believe I was being kind at all. I was just being a caring human helping someone out in need. Her son is now 16 years old. Amazing. I appreciate this emails I get every September 11th from her and show my children these letters to remind them of this tragic day in our history.

Just like anything, life goes on. 17 years later, I have a wife and 2 beautiful little girls. On this day, I grieve like all Americans, We remember those we lost, We will Never Ever Forget. 

Today, we come together as a community simply because we are better together. Together we shed our tears as we reflect on the consequences of evil and hatred. Together we recall selfless acts of heroism and bravery. Together we renew our love of this country and the freedoms we hold so dear.

An old friend and DoubleClick Co-worker said this morning. " In one of the darkest moments in my life, I suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of Pride and Love"

Couldn't agree more.

 I love NY

 I love New Yorkers.