I was getting ready for work and the radio announcer broke in to say that the TV was showing one of the World Trade Center towers on fire. One report was indicating it might have been a small plane.
I remember how the weather in the Chicago area matched the weather in NY and Washington D.C. with the cloudless blue skies. I remember driving with my wife to work and hearing radio reports that kept escalating the bad news. I remember feeling my hair stand up on the back of my neck when I learned that the Pentagon was on fire and the false reports of other explosions near the State Department and the Capital. At one point the announcer (I believe it was Dan Rather simulcast on a local CBS station) said basically let's slow down here and take a breath. The events of that day didn't let us do that. I remember pulling into work and finding all of my co-workers watching TV.
Seven years later I think of how much has changed. The world is different now (two prolonged American wars) and I am different too (two beautiful children).
The stakes for me now with a family of my own have risen. The stakes for the world have risen too.
I remember how the weather in the Chicago area matched the weather in NY and Washington D.C. with the cloudless blue skies. I remember driving with my wife to work and hearing radio reports that kept escalating the bad news. I remember feeling my hair stand up on the back of my neck when I learned that the Pentagon was on fire and the false reports of other explosions near the State Department and the Capital. At one point the announcer (I believe it was Dan Rather simulcast on a local CBS station) said basically let's slow down here and take a breath. The events of that day didn't let us do that. I remember pulling into work and finding all of my co-workers watching TV.
Seven years later I think of how much has changed. The world is different now (two prolonged American wars) and I am different too (two beautiful children).
The stakes for me now with a family of my own have risen. The stakes for the world have risen too.