Updated
September 16, 2001
One song keeps
playing over, and over in my mind, and this time, it's not a Buffett
tune:
In a New York
minute
Everything can change
In a New York minute
Things can get pretty strange
In a New York minute
Everything can change
In a New York minute
-- (Don Henley)
And that's exactly
what happened on Tuesday.
TUESDAY, SEPT.
11, 2001
7:48 a.m -- American
Flight 11 crashes into north tower of World Trade Center.
8:06 a.m. -- United Flight 175 crashes into south tower of World Trade
Center.
8:43 a.m. -- American Flight 77 crashes into Pentagon.
8:49 a.m. -- FAA bars all aircraft takeoffs across United States.
8:55 a.m. -- South tower of World Trade Center collapses.
9:10 a.m. -- United Flight 93 crashes in Pennsylvania field.
9:29 a.m. -- North tower of World Trade Center collapses.
(Times central,
since that's where I am)
The truth of
this terrible tragedy is that it touches deep in the heart of every
single American. I am frequently at a loss of words when I think about
this attack on our homes, our lives and our families -- The only real
words I can form are ones of anger and hatred against the people that
brought this into our lives.
I was out of
town again this week, spending my now normal 4 days in Tulsa. On Tuesday
morning, I got up a little later than normal since we had worked until
about 10 the night before. As I was getting dressed, I had the Today
show on, and Matt Lauer was interviewing the head of GE about his
new book, and his impending departure from the company. Pretty light
stuff. It was 8:00 exactly.
Shortly after
that, I got in the car and drove to work. We got there abut 8:10 and
I headed up to the 46th floor to plug in, check my email, double check
the schedule for the day and get off to my Tuesday status meetings.
That's when I found out that the first building had been hit.
Of course, news
was sketchy at the time, so I headed on over to my meeting and figured
I'd get more info later -- During the meeting is when we found out
that the second building had been hit. I went back upstairs, called
Katie and tuned into the tragedy, just like everyone else in the country.
Work ground to a halt.
The rest of the
day was a blur of news, anger, denial, support and tears. Most of
the people at Williams (where I was) went home, but many stayed to
watch the news on the trading floor, or in the large auditorium. We
stayed, too. Where was I going to go? I couldn't go to be with my
family -- I even had a hard time getting Katie on the phone many times.
The rest of the team was much the same.
We stayed and
we worked -- as best we could -- to get through it all. I'd say that
about half the time we were actually doing something productive, and
half the time we were passing information among our own ad hoc info
center. Some of us were hitting CNN; some international sites; some
local news in Houston, Dallas, Denver, and of course Tulsa.
By the end of
the day, we knew more than we needed: Airports closed indefinitely;
thousands dead; President calm and safe; Act was an 'act of war'.
We tuned in to the President's speech at 7:30.
Afterwards we
went to eat as a team, but our normal Tuesday night trivia trip wasn't
the same. Everything was surreally subdued, and while I tried to stay
the off-base, joking person I am, it felt strained. Of course, there
was plenty of beer to dull the senses.
I stayed up all
night watching news and making trips to the fridge. I ran out before
the beer did, at about 2:20 in the morning.
Now it's Sunday
-- Day 6 of the attack.
I got home on
the first plane that was allowed to leave Tulsa for Houston. That
was Friday afternoon. Many people were afraid or at least concerned
to travel, but I knew it was something I had to do. Flying that day
-- as soon as I could -- was my own, personal act of defiance against
the bastards that changed our world.
The first thing
I did when I walked into the house was hug Jackson, hug Katie and
look in on Porter asleep. Then I thanked God that my family was still
here for me to hold, love and have.
I'm going to
get on a plane again tomorrow morning and show once again that they
can't stop America. We've got families to love and people to grieve,
but we also have lives to live and work to do -- and Freedom means
doing that in the face of all of this horror.
What do I feel?
I think that America is in its finest hour. We struggle so many days
to find common ground in our cities and towns -- and sometimes we
don't always get there. We hate eachother for the color of our skin
and the beds we choose to sleep in. We kill eachother for money, or
for none at all. But when it comes down to acts like Tuesdays, we
wake up to the fact that none of that matters when our lives are under
attack.
I hope the hate
that has become so normal in life will change to action in defense
of our families. I hope that the sense of pride and determination
I feel now will be shared by all of the good people of the world.
I hope that my children -- too young to know about what they are living
through -- will not have to live through this when they are old enough
to know.
I hope we can
change this horrible tragedy into a time of peace and prosperity for
our world.
God Bless
America.
