Learning More About 9/11

Tomorrow is the 20^th anniversary of the September 11^th terrorist attack on the US. I’m sure there will be stories all over the news today and tomorrow, reminding us of what happened in 2001. We will hear over and over again, “We will never forget.” Right now I’m more interested in what we don’t know.

Yesterday I read an email that addressed this very issue. The CEO of a life-coaching school put out her newsletter with two stories from 9/11 that I never heard before. The largest marine evacuation in history took place that day after the US Coast Guard put out an open alert to all water vessels to help move people out of New York City and into New Jersey, to safety. Ferries and personal boats answered the call. For the remainder of the day they transported people out of the city. The estimate is that half a million people were assisted that day after the bridges and tunnels were shut down and the city became locked in panic, fear, and destruction.

In the small town of 10,000 in Gander, Canada, a community came together to host 6,759 strangers. The passengers and crews of 38 jumbo jets and 4 military flights were diverted to Gander to land when the airways into the United States were shut down. For security reasons, most of the people on those planes sat on the aircrafts for 24 hours waiting for information and approval to exit. Then, for the next five days, the residents of Gander put them up in hotels and in their homes, providing shelter, food and clothes for the stranded, before they could re-board their flights and continue on their journeys.

I am positive that there are other stories out there like these. There was s/heroism that day in New York, Washington DC, Virginia and Pennsylvania. Now we know there were acts of selflessness, empathy, and kindness in areas where the tragedy was not actually happening, but people were being affected. It had never occurred to me until yesterday to think about the other ways in which this country and our neighbors came together on that day. You don’t know what you don’t know.

I remember where I was and what I was doing on September 11, 2001. I was scheduled to go in to work later that day at Framingham State (College) University for a training session of my student tour guides. As I enjoyed the morning at home with my one year old son, I was literally doing airplane rides with him on the family room floor as I watched The Today Show. I already knew that the first plane had crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan. As Jake’s belly balanced on the soles of my feet, his tiny hands in mine, I turned my head towards the TV just in time to see the second airplane crash into the South Tower. I remember hearing Matt Lauer get flustered as he tried to explain to the viewers what we were all seeing live. It was still being assumed that there was an error or issue with air traffic control. Within the next several minutes the whole country would know that we were indeed, under attack.

I know I will never forget. But this year I am going to do a little research and see if I can find some other stories about 9/11. I know what I know, and I also want to know what I don’t know. And then I want to remember that, too.