I was driving to my office in downtown Lansing. I worked for the state Legislature at the time, and had a nice corner office on the top floor of what was, at the time, the second tallest office building in this cow town.
I was just pulling in to the parking lot where I parked and listening to NPR. An announcer came on at the tail end of the news and said something about a plane hitting the World Trade Center in NYC. But they didn't have a lot of details. It was 9 a.m. and the BBC News would always come on at that time on the NPR station I listened to every morning. So, as the BBC came on their presenter was in hysterics on the air about the WTC being hit by a jetliner. WTF? I walked quickly the 4 blocks to my office building, went up to my office and flipped on CNN. I had a small TV in my office to monitor news broadcasts. Several of my colleagues started gathering, and we watched the news until about 11 a.m. That's when they evacuated my building because we were one of the tallest buildings (and chockful of politicians) in the city. My partner at the time had already called me begging me in tears to come home. I left with the rest of my staff.
When I got home, we spent the entire day watching the news. We watched the news for the next several days non-stop. I remember by that Saturday, I couldn't take watching the news anymore. And that's saying a lot because I am a total media junkie. The story that really got to me was the one about the woman trapped in the restaurant at the top of the towers, calling her husband in San Francisco and leaving him a message on their answering machine because he was sound asleep. They played the message on CNN and the fear in her voice coupled with the total devastation on his face...that really got to me. They were young, only married a few months, I think. That Saturday, I went birdwatching. September is not the greatest month for birdwatching in Michigan, but the air was crisp, the day was sunny and I needed to be outside. The nature area where I went birdwatching was completely empty of people. Planes would fly over me, and I would stop and look up at every one. It took me months to stop that behavior.
On Sept. 12, my partner and I went out to dinner. We made it a point to go to our favorite Middle Eastern restaurant in East Lansing. We were saddened to read a note on the door that the owner put up saying, yes, he was Muslim, but he was appalled by the terrorist attack. We made sure we ate there once or twice a week for several months. We didn't want him to go out of business (he's still open today). I remember being in Detroit a few times for work in the months after 9-11 and sensing the anxiety in the city, which is home to the largest Middle Eastern population outside of the Middle East. All the talk of "sleeper cells" in Detroit and being stopped for "driving while Muslim." Scary times.
This past June, I had the honor of visiting the WTC site and the 9-11 Memorial Center in NYC while I was there on vacation. What a poignant and powerful place. I wept in the memorial center, in the room filled with photos of all the people who died. The enormity of it all is what stays with you, I think. Even when you are far removed from NYC, living in Michigan, that day and the aftermath are so indelible.
Jake
|