I have to say that because honestly it is what I believe. Who in their right mind or even their wrong mind could forget something so unbelievably horrific as this? I remember exactly how I spent the day, I should after-all I was three months pregnant with my first child and woke to Howard Stern on the alarm saying that a plane had went down. By the time I arrived at work it was a mad house and that was putting it lightly. No one forgot 9/11 unless they are completely absent minded to the world around them or they care more about themselves than the state of a country that effects how many others?
Everyone was in tears that day, it was not just the pregnant woman in the room and the phones were blaring. It was the first time in any job in my entire life that I really did not know what to say or do to make it through the shift. When you work in the travel industry for any amount of time you pick up on many things. One main topic is politics especially when you have a worried parent on the line wondering how their teen will do on a study aboard, with locals who may or may not like the “Americans” at the time of travel.
I only worked in this field for a few short years and while I came out of it a better person with some amazing friends, I will never in my lifetime forget where I was when these attacks took place. I will not forget that my family near DC were in close range, that my sister should have been at the Pentagon that day, any of the stories I heard from my passengers and their families, the tears all co-workers shed while we had TV’s going in the work office or the fact that while this was happening I wondered what type of world I was bringing a child into.
Today I was speaking with what I can only think was a very over worked and underpaid young woman. She was finishing up some filing for me and it actually dawned on her of what today was. I doubt she forgot what happened eleven years ago and I highly doubt that she meant to have a customer on the line during an awkward moment but it did happen. She sighed a breath of relief when I told her it is okay. I did not want her to feel bad, she had been exceptional up to that point but I did not want to end the call on a bad note either.
Nothing can ever replace the lives that were lost or destroyed, the towers that were gone or the man hours it took to rescue those whom were thankfully saved. Many moons ago I remember taking a quick family trip to New York, though oddly enough it was not with my family but other (again, more amazing people in my life). The trip was quick and I will say I truly disliked the ferry ride but being able to see the Towers changed everything. I would love to know if anyone snagged some great images from that ride (hint). I also remember while leaving the travel industry a great image of the towers that I snagged from a friend and still have to this day, it is sitting in a frame in my office now as a reflection back from what we all went through then to make us stronger now.
It would be amazing if people realized that hate breeds hate, it is an infectious disease that too many people have and it is spreading further than I think even Hitler could have imagined. People are lost, lives torn and by the time it is done and done we are all at war with one another. No one forgot 9/11, some people are just unsure what to say or how to say it. As a returning entry here I will not be happy-go-lucky and tell everyone to hold hands and make peace signs, but something has to give before we are become the destruction of the only world we have. How can so many other countries live in peace yet we are still at war?
