Remembering September 11th, 2001
My 20th birthday was a Tuesday. It was the beginning of my sophomore year at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music.? Like most days that year, and most days since, the first thing I did that morning was check email and news. The top story scrolling across the screen at 9:00am that morning was “Plane crashes into World Trade Center.”?
My first thought was of the B-29 that crashed into the Empire State Building in 1945. I imagined that perhaps a pilot of a small plane had gotten lost in poor weather or overnight and hit one of the Twin Towers.?
Before heading to my 10:00am class, I went up to the lounge in our dorm and found other students there, all gathered around a television. That was the first time I realized that this was an event that would change the course of my life. As the morning unfolded, the reality of 9/11/01 was much, much worse than an isolated plane crash. Thanks to YouTube, you can now go back and re-watch as news outlets learned about what was happening in real-time. The chaos, fear, confusion, and shock come rushing back.?
The rest of that day was like a bad dream. Floating from place to place and not fully processing the events. By the time I was out of class for the day, the scope of the attacks was known. The world changed that day.?
I grew up in New York State. As a kid, I visited the big city often. Back then, because of the height of those towers, you could tell where you were in New York City. On a field trip in 8th grade, we visited the observation deck in the south tower.? I remember looking out at the city, at the river, at the people, and feeling so small. All of these images flashed through my mind as I considered what happened that morning in 2001.?
I had trouble reaching my family in New York by phone, as circuits were overloaded. Thankfully, no members of my family or close friends were victims, though we did know people from our hometown who died in the attacks. We later learned that Flight 93 flew directly over my (future) wife’s workplace in Cleveland and near Oberlin. My roommate’s father sent an email from New York City that night describing what he could see from his office windows. Everything was surreal.
The event affected me more than I thought it would. Even today, it is difficult for me to watch video coverage of the event, though I allow myself to do it annually to remember how sharp and shocking that day was. I know that day, in part, motivated me to enter a career in law enforcement.?
It took me a long time to visit Ground Zero. Truthfully, I avoided it. I had been to New York City in the years after 9/11,? but I didn’t visit lower Manhattan until January 2015 when I attended a police funeral for NYPD Detective Wenjian Liu, along with another member of our police department. After attending the funeral in Brooklyn, we thought: “Let’s go down to the World Trade Center.” We were still in full dress uniform, which felt like the kind of armor I needed to go to such a place.?
And we did go. It was an incredible honor to be in that place while wearing my uniform, probably one of the highlights of my career. After milling around the outdoor memorial for a while, we wandered over to the 9/11 Museum and went through that also. The experience there was simply overpowering. If you ever get the chance to go there, do it.?
Over the past year, I was fortunate to read “Ordinary Heroes” by Joseph Pfeifer. I cannot do his 9/11 memoir any sort of justice here, so I encourage you to buy his book and read it yourself. I do, however, want to share a quote from him:?
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“From unthinkable tragedy and deep reflection, I came to realize that the courage of ordinary heroes is in each one of us. We have the power to make a difference by doing ordinary things in life’s most challenging times. Each of us, sooner or later, will be presented with a moment to be an ordinary hero.”?
His book, here:?
?I’ve written about heroes of 9/11, and you likely know the names of many others. People like Rick Rescorla, Stephen Siller, Todd Beamer..there are many, many more. Consider all of the ordinary heroes of the 9/11 Boatlift:?
The events of that day profoundly changed the course of American history, and the lives of many people. Even though it happened 22 years ago, the emotions still profoundly affect me and thousands of other people. They should.?
9/11 inspired me to live a life of service to others, to celebrate the small things, and not to ever leave “I love you” unsaid. As painful as the memory of that day is, even more so for the victims and their families, I’m determined to use it for whatever good I can.?
As we reflect on that day, I encourage you to do the same.?
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