For the past three nights, I have been obsessed with Nat Geo TV’s 9/11 series, Voices from the Air & Zero Hour. I have watched these documentaries in their entirety, even staying up one night until 1:30am, not the best lullaby before bed, that’s for sure. I also recently read Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and the ending just brought me to my knees. I cried for 2 hours straight, it was absolutely devastating.
This reminds me of when I was little and my parents always reminisced where they were when Kennedy was shot and how that shook our country to its core. For our generation, this is our 9/11. Do you remember where you were? I can tell you exactly where I was. It was 9:00 am and I was nursing my newborn baby who is now 11 years old. I religiously watched the Today Show and saw Matt Lauer and Katie Couric scrambling to figure out what was going on. At first, they thought it was a private aircraft that hit the first tower. I thought to myself – that seems a bit large for a small aircraft. And I can remember it like it was just yesterday when I saw the second jet liner hit the other tower. At that very moment, I knew the world that I was bringing up my newborn baby was forever changed.
The stories that resonate with me are the heroes who didn’t even think twice about where they were headed to rescue more people. The photos that are nothing short of amazing capture firefighters going up 100 flights of stairs, while everyone else is frantically trying to go down. The worst are the voice mails that are now made public – voices from the air on hijacked airplanes telling their loved ones their last good-byes. I cannot imagine anything worse on this earth. These people are true heroes, I personally think 9/11 should be a national day of observation and reflection.
Smarties, on this day, we fly our pink & green Smarty flag at half-mast in honor of all the heroes on 9/11/2001: the victims, the families, and our country that will never ever be the same. Terrorism will never prevail. God bless the USA.
