I Will Always Remember

I will always remember where I was on 9/11 when I heard the first reports and then watching those planes going into those towers. I will never be able to wash away the vision of human beings, in one last desperate, futile attempt to live, jumping from those towers. The horror.

I will always remember watching in real-time hundreds of NYPD officers trying to help people who were dazed, stunned, hysterical and confused, away from those buildings as hundreds of NYFD firefighters headed towards and into those same buildings, into the gates of hell; 343 of whom lost their lives that day.

I will always remember passing the Middletown, NJ Train Station that evening as I drove to my home from work, seeing the un-retrieved cars. 37 residents of that town died that day. And I will always remember seeing their cars day in, day out for weeks.

I will always remember passing the Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island, twice a week, driving on the West Shore Expressway towards my Brooklyn office. There, for all to see for many months after, so many emergency responders, law enforcement, sanitation workers, civilian volunteers, working together in mournful sobering silence, sifting through tons of debris in the heartbreaking attempt to find human remains and personal affects of the victims. And I will always remember the American flag planted there, attached to the top of the largest crane I've ever seen. You could see the flag for miles.

I will always remember how instinctively, almost robotically, even in rush hour, the usually fast-paced, always-in-a-rush-New Yorkers would slow down just long enough to pass that site in reverent respect, as if in silent homage to the patriots there and to the magnificence of that wavering, majestic and poweful symbol of freedom. And I put my right hand over my heart as I approached that flag, every time.

I saved, and still have, all the New York Post articles from those days, and from the first anniversary, to show my daughter, then just 4 years old, when she got older. I wanted her to see what heroism is, and to understand why we stand for our anthem, put hands over hearts for our flag, and why this is the greatest country on the face of the Earth.

God Bless America, home of the free because of the brave.

#ProudToBeAmerican #AmericaFirst #NeverForget #MAGA2020