We Remember

Today is a day that will not soon be forgotten by Americans. I thought a lot about what was the right thing to post today, I saw many different political position pieces that I considered reposting here in relation to 9/11 and what we should have done or what we currently should be doing in regards to terrorism and Iraq. There's also plenty of news about who is suing whom for what. But the reality is that none of that will bring back the fallen and none of that will make up for the sacrifice. So instead, today I have decided to share with you my experience from the events of that day.

It was early in California about 6am; so early in fact that I had not gotten up yet to get ready for work when I got a phone call. "Are you watching the news!? I was listening to the radio and they said the World Trade Center was hit by a plane." I immediately turned on the TV just in time to see a plane fly into the south tower. It was the second tower to be hit. I could hardly believe my eyes. I kept thinking this was some bad joke like in 1938 when Orson Welles pulled his "War of the Worlds" stunt. It seemed surreal to me. This could not be the same place that I had meetings in just a few years earlier. I continued to watch in horror as the events of the morning unfolded and the two towers collapsed. I was in a state of shock. I finally got to work and the office was eerily silent. Our morning meetings were cancelled and instead we spent time in a conference room around the television listening to the news. I kept wondering how many of my former classmates from Boston worked in the World Trade Center and if there was anyone that I knew that had been killed. It turned out, that none of my close friends were in the towers that day. My friend Kevin; however, was not so lucky.

His close friend and former MBA school roommate, Mike Pescherine, worked on the 89th floor of 2 World Trade Center. He had called and left a message for his pregnant wife, Lynn, when the first plane struck the north tower. That was the last that anyone heard from him.

Days later the COO of our company who was a Muslim, extended an offering to anyone in the company who wanted to attend a memorial service held at his mosque. About a dozen of us went to what turned out to be a very nice inter-faith memorial. It was good to be a part of something healing.

Looking back on that, it just seems that it is so incomprehensible to us that something like that would happen to us in our own country. And yet, the reality is that atrocities like these happen every day all over the world. It is sad when one group or another commits these types of acts supposedly in the name of some religion. Whether you are religious or not, we all know the basic laws of human kindness and decency. And no religion, Eastern or Western, upholds tyranny and destruction.

So on this day, I would like to remember all those that we have lost in the 9/11 tragedy and all those that we have lost in this war. And I would like to thank those who have the courage to stand up for their convictions and what they believe is right, and those who sacrifice so much, so that we may enjoy the priviledges that we do. I would also like to look toward the future where I hope for peace and recovery. We are rebuilding our tower and I hope we can equally heal the scar that these tragedies have left in our hearts.