Remembering 9/11

I was a little hesitant to post something on 9/11. The media hoopla has been in full force these past couple weeks and I can only imagine how this constant diet of 9/11 discussions could dig up deep emotional scars and issues that still have not been dealt with yet. But we all do have a story of that day, and it profoundly changed us, one way or another.

Ten years ago it wasn’t all to typical for me. Just a week prior I was working for Porivo, a “last mile” performance metrics company in the Raleigh/Durham area of NC. I had a bad vibe that we were about to be let go. Management called a mandatory Tuesday AM meeting (we never had morning meetings) and soon enough 50% of the company was laid off, including myself. So I was still not used to the idea of not having a job. I had slept in a little and woke up for some reason a little uneasy. I hadn’t paid much attention but I had left the TV on and it was on CNN and they were talking about the first plane hitting the towers. I remember the time was 8:55 at that point. I jerked out of bed and was just astonished at what I was watching. A few minutes later my heart just sunk, a feeling I don’t think I had ever felt had come over me. Profound shock, anger, confusion, I almost felt paralyzed seeing the second plane hit live.

I remember scrambling to call my then-girlfriend (now wife) who was at college. It went right to voice mail so I knew she was in class, but I felt uneasy just not being able to get a hold of her. I jumped online and saw that ArsTechnica had two threads on it already. I started jumping on IM, SMSing my friends in NY and other places to make sure they were OK. Soon my wife got a hold of me and I told her to hurry home.

The next couples days I was still in shock to a certain extent. After a quick discussion with my wife we had decided if in the next couple days I did not have a solid job lead we would head back to NY. Before you knew it I was informing the complex we were leaving due to me losing my job and uncertainty of what the future really held at that point. We traveled to Kingston NY where I spent the next two months trying to find a job. I started my web design company, Paris Creative, and had a few leads that helped us to pay the bills. Soon after I had landed a job just before Thanksgiving 2001 just 4 blocks from the White House on Pennsylvania Ave. working for the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance.

I will admit I felt a bit uneasy at first working so close to a prime target. I remember numerous discussions with my co-workers that someone could walk right down Pennsylvania Avenue with a suitcase nuke and take a good couple blocks out, and we would be right in that contamination zone. But we pressed on. As days and weeks went by the uneasiness subsided. Things really started to gain some level of normalcy.

Of course this is just what is on the surface. So many things had indeed changed in this post 9/11 world. Massive security changes at the airports. Random bag checks at the subways. Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Wiretaps and extraditions. All in the name of security, all using the precursor of 9/11.

I have remained steadfast in my political beliefs. As a progressive I had always been opposed to things like the PATRIOT ACT, opposed to the Iraq war, opposed to the “policification” of our way of life. Security cameras are as commonplace as stop lights. Police over exaggerating threats like a tourist taking a picture. When viral marketing from ATHF can shut down the city of Boston, you know that we might have misplaced our fear with massive overreaction.

9/11 has indeed changed everyone in some way. Some for the good, some for the bad. It is up to us to not only hold in remembrance of that tragic day ten years ago, but to also remain vigilant not only of impeding threats to our nation from the outside, but also remain vigilant of our duties to ensure our way of life has not changed so much that our way of life pre-9/11 becomes irrelevant.