HISTORIC ISSUES
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Vol.17
No.2 - 7/15/1882 |
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Courtesy of the New York
State Historical Association Library, Cooperstown, N.Y (.PDF files)
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April 2009
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February 2009
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New York Canal Times -
Online newspaper
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Mercury Media Group
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9/11 reminds us to live
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It was seven years ago today that we, as Americans, suffered an attack on our homeland. That whole day, and life following that day, seems almost surreal at times.
Just like my parents’ generation with John F. Kennedy’s assassination, it is easy to pinpoint what we were doing when we found out the World Trade Center had been hit. Many of us dropped everything to tune into CNN or Fox News as we watched our country come under siege.
Since then, I have come to reevaluate the whole concept of grasping life. Living less than 60 miles as the crow flies from the World Trade Center my world was turned upside down. There were many people we knew who went missing until midnight or the next day. Many friends responded as EMS or worked in the vicinity. Many had to return to work in the city the days following the tragedy, when armed guards patrolled the subway and bomb threats occurred daily.
While we did not lose anyone, many friends did, so we were one layer away from the full impact and had to deal with the grief people we cared for or knew in the community were experiencing.
Many vignettes are forever etched in my mind. Cuddling on the couch with Allie Rose as we waited for her first day of pre-k to begin. Reading the CNN news alert email about a commuter plane crashing into the WTC. Watching CNN as the building burned. Watching another plane fly behind the burning tower, watching it disappear, believing it to be some unlucky jerk trying to get a better look at the burning building.
I never dreamed it was deliberate.
| | Janine Giordano | |
My friends in Australia were messaging me online, telling me what was happening before it was on TV. They told me a good two minutes ahead of time that the second plane had hit, that there was a plane heading for D.C., that it was a terrorist attack, that jet fighters had been sent out, that the buildings were collapsing. They told me everything before CNN reported it. The BBC was getting the news to the people faster than our own news networks were.
My husband, who worked 40 miles from New York City, could not leave work to come home and be with his family. I told him I was taking Anthony out of school for the day. He reasoned that Anthony was probably safer at the school. I reasoned if we were going to die I wanted us to be together.
After the second building was hit, he told his superiors his department was closing regardless of company policy. Many of his employees had loved ones who worked at the WTC.
So I picked up my son, going through four check points before I was allowed to enter the school. We went home and I sent him and Allie Rose inside to play, and called my sisters, my mom, and my best friend. We cried as we watched NYC firemen on camera march into the burning buildings knowing they were never coming out again. You could see it on their faces.
We were only an hour away from what was happening. A jet, bombs, you name it, could easily have destroyed Long Island. We had no idea what was happening.
There were endless vigils for weeks that I either covered as a journalist, attended or hosted. Lighting candles and praying for the dead became a daily occurrence. Then it became praying for our officials, our workers, our servicemen and women being deployed, our country. The world.
On Sept. 11, 2001, my concept of life changed. I realized the home I had known all my life, Long Island, was no longer a haven for me and my children. By Christmas, my house was packed even though we had not even put our house up for sale or knew where we wanted to move. By March, we had found upstate New York. By May, we found our house in Herkimer. On July 25, we closed on our home. Less than a year after terrorists attacked our country.
Since then, life has been a whirlwind, full of changes that can be classified as neither good or bad. Just different from life as I’ve known it. I’ve survived cancer again, a divorce, financial hardships, a new job, my son’s teen years, the dating scene, my sister’s death, a new love of my life, my ex finding a new partner and now my daughter hitting the ‘tween stage.
Much of this would have happened without 9/11, but it would have happened on Long Island, not here, nestled in the hilly farmland of Herkimer. Not here, where the mountains embrace me and my family like a mother’s arms after a long day. Not here, where a cool breeze whispers promises of a better life. Not here, where people argue with you at a four-way stop to let you go first, not because they wanted to go first.
Sept. 11 changed our world forever. But sometimes it’s important to let go of the bad memories and focus on the positives. And when we say, “Let us never forget,” mean it. But also, let us remember...
Life is for the living...so live it.
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Reader Discussion
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