Weekly Mail September 11th Special

                                                     September 11,2016


15 YEARS AGO TODAY----I was walking to the train station that morning listening to Imus in the Morning. The mayoral primaries were supposed to be that day, and Imus producer Bernard McGirk was interviewing people on the street about who they were going to vote for. Bernard was speaking to a woman who said she was a teacher, and she was badmouthing Mayor Rudy Guiliani. Bernard asked her "what she had against guys with bad hair who spit when they talked" The woman said she didn't want to talk to Bernard because "he wasn't axing her serious questions," to which Bernard responded, "I'm not axing you and you're a school teacher?"

It would be the last good laugh I'd have for a while.

The ride in to work was uneventful.I took the 7 train to Grand Central and walked two blocks over to the office I was working at, 292 Madison Avenue. 


A little before 9:00, I got a call from a girl who had worked for us during the summer, She said that her mom told her  that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I went to our Internet computer and saw a picture one of the Twin Towers on fire. I thought it was just a small plane. It was the cover photo on AOL and it didn't do it justice. 


In the conference room, some of the other people in the suite were watching this on TV. We had a small black and white TV with just good enough reception. The people on TV were saying maybe there was a malfunction at the air traffic control tower, after all, how could this of happened. One of the ladies I worked with said "This was no accident." 

I was just heading back to my desk when I heard someone yell from the conference room,  The other tower's been hit. There's another plane."

Now we knew it was terrorism. 


We kept the TV on and found a radio. I heard on WOR radio that 1) The Pentagon had been hit, 2) There was a fire in the Capitol, and 3) that one of the towers had fallen. When I got off the phone, I called my father, who was working on William Street at the time. "They're locking us in, he said "I'll probably be here for a while." The thought of him being trapped in a building, knowing that he had trouble walking as it was, got me all choked up. All I could think of was that I'd never see him again. 


I managed to keep it together for a few minutes, but then I nearly lost it again. One of the attorneys I worked for, a former cop who had become a lawyer, came out of the conference room in tears. "There's no more Twin Towers. It's like, they're all gone." I couldn't even wrap my head around that. They're all gone? How was that even possible? 

Meanwhile, the guys on the radio were talking about a plane crashing into Pittsburgh, and that there were 4 more hijacked planes in the air. It was time for us to make a run for it.


Our office was on Madison between 40th and 41st, so we had to figure out where to go. .I suggested we start making our way towards the 59th Street Bridge, but to avoid going near Grand Central and the United Nations, where I figured the next two planes would hit. So we walked down 40th Street to 3rd Avenue and up Third till we got to 47th Street. That's when we decided to wait out the attacks at Conolly's Bar.



President Bush came on the TV (I can't even remember what time it was) He was at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. There wasn't a sound in the bar besides some guy yelling "Everybody shut the f-ck up!" 


"Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward, and freedom will be defended. I want to reassure the American people, that the full resources of the federal government, are working to assist local authorities to save lives and to help the victims of these attacks.  Make no mistake, the United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts. I've been in regular contact with the Vice President, the Secretary of Defense, the National Security team and my cabinet.  We have taken all appropriate security precautions to protect the American people. Our military at home and around the world is on high alert status  And we have taken the necessary security precautions to continue the functions of your government. We have been in touch with the leaders of Congress, and world leaders,  to assure them that we will do whatever is necessary to protect America and Americans. 

I asked the American people to join me in saying a thanks for all the folks who have been fighting hard to rescue our fellow citizens. And to join me in saying a prayer for the victims and their families. 

The resolve of our great nation is being tested. Make no mistake we will show thew world we will pass this test. God Bless. "

I had managed to get in touch again with my dad, He was asking about my sister Katie, who had just started college at Marymount Manhattan on 71st Street. I had called up there before we left our office and the lady who answered the phone said that everything was fine, the kids were fine and no classes were being cancelled. Dad was saying maybe we should hook up along the way, but I told him that we should stay apart. She was safer uptown than I was in midtown surrounded by the UN, Grand Central and the Empire State Building. 15 years later, I still get chills that I even had to think like that. That better one of us make it home than both of us getting killed. Even early that afternoon, there was still a chance that more was coming. 

Thankfully there were no more planes that day. At 3:00 I was walking to the bathroom at Conolly's when I passed by a TV that had NBC on. Tom Brokaw began giving the rundown "At 8:45 this morning, a plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center. About 15 minutes later a second plane struck the other tower. At 9:40, a plane struck the Pentagon... " All I could think at that time was that Dan Rather had become famous because he was in Dallas when President Kennedy was shot. What was going through Brokaw's mind as he was reporting this. Was he scared because the nation was under attack, or was his blood pumping because he was covering the biggest story in years?

One thing I wished I had done was walk over the 59th Street Bridge. Showing the world that we survived and were still standing by defiantly walking over the bridge. Instead, the trains were once again running and I walked over to Grand Central to catch the 7 train. 

I'll never forget the feeling I got as that train came out of the tunnel at Hunters Point, seeing the huge cloud of smoke down where the Twin Towers used to be. It was at that moment I went from being scared to being humiliated. That's the overwhelming feeling I had as I headed home that day. Anger and humiliation. 15 years later, its still there. 


Coming home and seeing Mom and Dad and Kate was the greatest relief. I picked up the newspaper that was on the table and realized that anything that was in there was now irrelevant. 

 I was dreading finding out about who didn't make it. I was able to account for my close friends and family that were down there, but I knew several of my high school classmates, with whom I had celebrated my 10th year reunion were firemen. Amazingly, there were very few people of the nearly 3,000 that died that I knew personally. It didn't make me any more comfortable or any less angry.

The President came on the TV again at 8:30 that night to address the nation from the Oval Office. The lines that struck me was A great people have been moved to defend a great nation. These acts shattered steel, but they cannot shatter the steel of our American resolve. "

And then later that night, Mayor Rudy Guiliani held a press conference of his own. In the weeks and months before 9/11, I had little use for him. I found him to be a bully and a tyrant. In the years since 9/11, I have found him to be a huckster, cashing in on a tragedy.

But that day, that night, those first few days after the attacks, he was everything NY needed at that time. The press conference that night, he was humble and compassionate. He was honest, even if being honest meant saying "I don't know." And while his staff was urging him to wrap it up, he firmly but politely said "No, it's OK. I want to answer as many questions that I can." There were many moments that day that people have remembered Rudy for. Charging back downtown when everyone was trying to get him away from the scene, leading people out of the destruction. But for my money, his standing there and taking every single question from the press and doing so without a hint of aggravation was the thing I'll remember about him that day the most.

Another regret that I have about that night was that I started flipping around the TV to see what else was on. Many cable stations suspended programming and encouraged viewers to turn into the news networks for information. I turned into Sports Center and instead of the usual familiar theme song, they quietly put up a picture of Shea Stadium's parking lot. It was there that a staging area for relief supplies had been set up. Part of me regrets that I didn't walk over and hop on the 7 train to Willet's Point to lend a hand.

Instead I got on my computer and wrote. And wrote, and wrote. I wanted to make sure that I accounted for every second of that day. Of course most of what I wrote is gone now, and maybe that's for the better. I know that on several occasions, I suggested that Afghanistan be turned into the world's largest parking lot. I saw no reason why nuclear weapons should not be deployed. In hindsight I probably shouldn't have written all that. Not that there aren't times I still wish that we had.

The next few days were remarkable for several reasons. Mainly the volunteers that came forward to help in the recovery efforts at what was now being called Ground Zero. Also there had been so many people donating blood, that the blood banks were turning people away. Donations poured in from all over the world. Just about every house in America was displaying an American Flag. As horrible as the events of September 11th were, the unity that prevailed in the days after attacks was amazing, and something we may never again see in our lifetimes.

It's now 15 years later. It seemed to take forever to get construction started to rebuild the World Trade Center site, but now a beautiful memorial and the Freedom Tower stand where the Twin Towers once did. 

It took nearly 10 years, but Osama Bin-Laden, generally regarded as the evil mastermind of al-Qaeda, the terrorist group that carried out the attacks, was killed by US Navy Seals in Pakistan. 

And this year, just like it was for the 10 year anniversary, 9/11 falls on a Sunday. Which means many of us will be emotionally torn, between the creature comforts of a lazy Sunday, and the sad memories in our hearts. The first full slate of NFL Games will take place, there are pennant races in baseball. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will hopefully take a day off from clobbering each other (though with them you never know) There are church services, picnics, parks etc.  Maybe you'll watch them read the names in the morning and treat the rest of the day as a usual Sunday. 

Of course there is no right or wrong way, everybody deals in their own way. One thing is for sure, it's a good day to give your kids an extra hug, to call your mom and dad, to remind your spouse or significant other how much they mean to you. No day is guaranteed. There were more than a few people who were convinced the world would end on January 1, 2000. I remember thinking that the end of the world probably wouldn't fall on a round number like that.

A random Tuesday in September on the other hand..... that was a day I thought we might be done for.

15 years later. Seems longer, yet it seems like yesterday.

Never forget.


Weekly Mail Returns Next Week