So Many Lives Unfinished: Remembering 911
There are times in our lives when an historic or tragic event happens and we find that no matter how many years have passed, time doesn’t seem to diminish those memories. I was living and working in New York at the time our national came under attack. All of us who witnessed the evil of that day will remember where we were that morning of September 11.
I was at my office in Albany, N.Y. that morning. I and my Director of Professional Affairs (Selig) were getting ready to go downtown to the NYS Department of Health for a meeting that morning when he suddenly came out of his office to tell me he heard on the radio that a small plan had crashed into one of the World Trade Towers. We quickly turned on our television to the news to see a camera zoomed in on the area high up on the tower where the plan had gone in. Having been to the World Trade Center many times for state government meetings and meetings with the Governor’s staff, my first sentence was: “That’s not a small plane.” I said that those towers are very wide and you can see the engine nacelles and wing span clearly. That was either a commercial passenger plane or a large cargo plan. The nearly precise entrance into the building didn’t look like the plane was trying to miss. I said that it looked like the plane was purposely steered into the building. Just minutes later from the time we turned on that television, I said “Look, there’s another plan and it’s turning toward the towers. I turned to Selig and said, “We’re under attack!” Then it happened. The second commercial airliner crashed through the second tower and a ball of fire and debris came flying out the other side. I turned to Selig and said that they are going to close down the NYC area airports for what could be days. I need to call Larry right away.
Lawrence Mokiber was the Executive Secretary of the NYS Board of Pharmacy at the time. I phoned him and all I could say when he picked up the phone was, are you watching this? He said yes. We discussed what needed to be done and that an emergency rule had to come out in case pharmacists needed to fill prescriptions early for people evacuated from their businesses or homes or may be stranded at the airports with their medications in still their luggage that may have already been checked. Larry requested that I make the request in writing via email and I did. That set in motion a critical emergency regulation that we had no idea how impactful it would turn out to be.
Selig and I had to drive into downtown Albany for a meeting in Corning Tower, part of the state government complex adjacent to the Capitol building. We had a meeting with Medicaid officials and as we walked into what should have been a noisy office full of people instead, the quiet of the room was deafening. People stood around looking up at a television hanging from the ceiling in what was a surreal event unfolding before their eyes. As we entered the room a woman rushed by us in tears. We found out that her daughter worked in one of those towers. No sooner did we arrive for the meeting when it was announced that the building was being evacuated as was the entire Capitol building complex as thousands of planes were still air born and the Pentagon was also struck. From this point forward, our nation would never be the same. No one, since the duck and cover days of the Cold War and the potential for nuclear annihilation, would feel safe again. As the towers trembled from the impact of those planes, so too did a nation.
Just two months earlier at our Annual Convention in June, our association had included a multi-hour continuing education program entitled: “A Professional’s Response to a Terrorist Attack.” Some of our members scoffed at the program but most felt it relevant after the first bombing of the towers several years earlier. This initiative was led by a Dentist who felt that health professionals needed to be aware of the symptoms and signs of biological attacks and how to protect themselves and their staffs should someone present with these signs. One of the main speakers was a retired Army Captain who specialized in germ and chemical weapons. Our goal was to take this training around the state and include law enforcement and first responders. Little did we know at that time that evil would use airliners as weapons of mass destruction?
Our association had scheduled another one of these programs at the School of Dentistry in Manhattan. We invited law enforcement from around the region and health care professions for this four hour program. It had to be postponed because it was scheduled just four days after 9/11. We held that program a week later in NYC. As we drove through Manhattan the following week, it was like a ghost town. No cabs, no endless honking of horns, few people on the streets. When we arrived to the event, it was packed. Law enforcement and first responders in uniform, pharmacists, dentists, doctors and nurses. A new reality gripped the nation.
I spoke to my brother Derek that evening knowing that he worked as a professional photographer in a studio near the twin towers. He told me that when he heard what had happened, he went outside with his zoom lens on his camera and began to scan the towers. High up in the burning tower he spotted a man and a woman standing in a smashed out window holding hands. He said he watched them jump to their deaths. He said in a quiet voice, I didn’t take a picture out of respect for those two people. He then said that he was overwhelmed by nausea and dropped to his knees at the curb thinking he would vomit. He said that he wished he had never left the studio because that was a sight he could never un-see. Too many New Yorkers that day saw sights that they could never un-see.
As the days after 9/11 passed, all of us would come together as a nation and watch in sorrow as the names and faces of all those killed in the attacks were shown on our televisions night after night. Many of us knew people who lost sons and daughters, husbands and wives, moms and dads that day. A nation mourned and a world would mourn with us. That day, when the first plane hit, hundreds of lives were dismissed in an instant. By the end of that morning nearly 3,000 lives lost. Our nation rose up as one in defiance of the evil that struck that day. Why is it that today we are a nation divided? Why do we dishonor those brave first responders and law enforcement who perished while trying to save others? Why do we dishonor the innocent who died that day? Those of us who witnessed 9/11 have memories we will never forget. Why do we forget the unity of our nation that came from that tragedy? The evil that killed that day did not discriminate based on the color of one’s skin, their gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnic background or politics. They struck a Nation. The City of New York and a shaken nation would rebuild and begin the long and painful healing process. For those who lost loved ones the pain still burns deeply for so many lives unfinished.
The unselfish actions of so many in both the rescue, recovery and rebuilding stages of this tragic event have made me a strong advocate for working together and listening to all stakeholders to get things done. People’s attitudes across the nation were, “What Can We Do? “ How Can We Help?” How does this nation get there again without having to suffer another national disaster? We are not really that far apart. We need to come from a position of understanding and that can only be done by sitting down and having a conversation that starts with respect for each other. There isn’t anything this nation can’t do.
Our thoughts and prayers remain with those who lost their lives and for their families who continue to mourn the loss of their loved ones. This nation promised to Never Forget! Let’s start by remembering when we stood as one.