A day remembered.
I know I have posted on this blog that 9/11 was indirectly one of the reasons how I ended up in New York, but I have never really recounted how I remember the events of that day. I just posted my recollection to another site and thought it would be remiss not to put it here on the anniversary of that dreadful day.
I was working for a broadcast facility in London at the time and in fact it was my first day off shift. I came off night shift that morning and fell asleep on the sofa. When I woke up it was 1pm’ish local time ( I don’t remember exactly) and I turned on the TV and the first tower was there - just smoking that awful black cloud into the bright blue sky. The TV had literally been on about ten minutes when I watched the second aircraft strike the second tower. To this day I remember thinking to myself - ridiculous thought that it was - “There can’t have been people on that plane. No-one would fly a plane load of people into a building.” It was just too surreal.
I immediately picked up the phone and called work. Our job was to transmit video feeds around the world and I knew it was going to be a miserable day to work - the phones would be ringing off the hook. I spoke to one of my co-workers who told me every other one of my colleagues had called in and offered to help. He had watched the whole thing happen there and immediately said to someone - “That’s a terrorist attack.”
As it happened we had an American working with us at the time. He was producing a show for one of the outdoor networks, covering the Tour of Portugal cycling race. He wasn’t the most popular guy - a loud, brash man - the classis American stereotype - but we all pitied him that day, wondering how it must have felt watching your countrymen be attacked like that while you worked in a basement in a foreign country.
Our work area had an entire wall of monitors, probably 40 screens, so we could monitor all the incoming and outgoing feeds. Over the next month, we all watched those planes striking those buildings over and over again, and in the months that followed we had a birds eye view of ground zero (there were cameras on the site 24/7) and we pretty much saw everything that happened there, short of actually being there ourselves. I have to say, it was probably the most depressing time of my life. You never get desensitized to those images. Never.
Probably as surprising to me as the attack itself was the response of my government. Personally I think the “War on Terror” is a ludicrous endeavour. We had already fought our war on terror - and we’d done it for over twenty years without a satisfactory result. I grew up seeing the bombs in London, at Harrods and in the City. I grew up seeing the violence in Ireland - the bloody mayhem at Enniskillin. Sure, the Prime Minister of the day took credit for the Northern Ireland peace process, but it was the prevous PM who’d done all the legwork. So when he stood up and committed us to war I really couldn’t believe it. He claimed we didn’t negotiate with terrorists when in fact we did, and as anathema as it was to the population at the time, it had lasting and positive results.
He who forgets the lessons of history is doomed to repeat them.
I don’t believe the perpetrators of 9/11 “despise our way of life” or “our freedoms” as we’ve oft been told. I have my theories but that’s not for this entry.
I live in New York now and I have a young family. I fear for my daughter, knowing that I live in a place that is a prime target - but life goes on. It always has and it must if we are to honor those who perished that day.
I left work tonight and looked toward ground zero where two search lights send twin columns of white into the night sky above the city. It is a sombre and beautiful sight. I wish I had a camera. It’s a fitting tribute to those who died. Brilliant in its conception, respectfully muted in its execution.
9/11 is truly a sad day, because it reminds me of just how awful man can be to his fellow man.
I was working for a broadcast facility in London at the time and in fact it was my first day off shift. I came off night shift that morning and fell asleep on the sofa. When I woke up it was 1pm’ish local time ( I don’t remember exactly) and I turned on the TV and the first tower was there - just smoking that awful black cloud into the bright blue sky. The TV had literally been on about ten minutes when I watched the second aircraft strike the second tower. To this day I remember thinking to myself - ridiculous thought that it was - “There can’t have been people on that plane. No-one would fly a plane load of people into a building.” It was just too surreal.
I immediately picked up the phone and called work. Our job was to transmit video feeds around the world and I knew it was going to be a miserable day to work - the phones would be ringing off the hook. I spoke to one of my co-workers who told me every other one of my colleagues had called in and offered to help. He had watched the whole thing happen there and immediately said to someone - “That’s a terrorist attack.”
As it happened we had an American working with us at the time. He was producing a show for one of the outdoor networks, covering the Tour of Portugal cycling race. He wasn’t the most popular guy - a loud, brash man - the classis American stereotype - but we all pitied him that day, wondering how it must have felt watching your countrymen be attacked like that while you worked in a basement in a foreign country.
Our work area had an entire wall of monitors, probably 40 screens, so we could monitor all the incoming and outgoing feeds. Over the next month, we all watched those planes striking those buildings over and over again, and in the months that followed we had a birds eye view of ground zero (there were cameras on the site 24/7) and we pretty much saw everything that happened there, short of actually being there ourselves. I have to say, it was probably the most depressing time of my life. You never get desensitized to those images. Never.
Probably as surprising to me as the attack itself was the response of my government. Personally I think the “War on Terror” is a ludicrous endeavour. We had already fought our war on terror - and we’d done it for over twenty years without a satisfactory result. I grew up seeing the bombs in London, at Harrods and in the City. I grew up seeing the violence in Ireland - the bloody mayhem at Enniskillin. Sure, the Prime Minister of the day took credit for the Northern Ireland peace process, but it was the prevous PM who’d done all the legwork. So when he stood up and committed us to war I really couldn’t believe it. He claimed we didn’t negotiate with terrorists when in fact we did, and as anathema as it was to the population at the time, it had lasting and positive results.
He who forgets the lessons of history is doomed to repeat them.
I don’t believe the perpetrators of 9/11 “despise our way of life” or “our freedoms” as we’ve oft been told. I have my theories but that’s not for this entry.
I live in New York now and I have a young family. I fear for my daughter, knowing that I live in a place that is a prime target - but life goes on. It always has and it must if we are to honor those who perished that day.
I left work tonight and looked toward ground zero where two search lights send twin columns of white into the night sky above the city. It is a sombre and beautiful sight. I wish I had a camera. It’s a fitting tribute to those who died. Brilliant in its conception, respectfully muted in its execution.
9/11 is truly a sad day, because it reminds me of just how awful man can be to his fellow man.
Labels: 9/11 remembered
posted by An Englishman in New York at 12:15 AM
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