Memories of September 11

I don’t have anything profound to say about September 11. I’m not a good enough writer or original enough a thinker to add to what others are saying. However, below are a few links to things that most powerfully bring back the memory of that awful day. I’d rather not dwell on images of the Pentagon and especially the Twin Towers. After all, to see the planes hit is to witness murder. Rather, I prefer to focus on how people responded during and after the attacks.

NPR’s coverage of Bush in Florida, before the attacks.

I think I had a slightly different experience than others. I don’t have television. (Well, I do, but the reception is really bad so I never watch it.) So I listened on the radio and read CNN.com when I could (though it was terribly slow). So for most of the morning I actually just continued business as usual in my home office, occasionally pausing to listen to NPR. Finally around lunchtime I decided to try to pick it up on my television.

The understated, reassuring competence of NPR’s Bob Edwards on Morning Edition: Part I, Part II

I got a snowy but passable view of things on the ABC affiliate. When I saw footage of the actual collapse of the towers, I totally lost it and cried my eyes out. At that point they had no idea how many people were still in the towers, but there were estimates that each one could hold up to 50,000 people, so there were believable estimates that up to 100,000 people had died. For perspective, that’s roughly the population of Boulder.

Photos showing support from around the world in the immediate aftermath

For the rest of the day and until about midnight I watched Peter Jennings anchor the coverage. I thought he and ABC did an amazing job at conveying the magnitude of the tragedy without turning it into an orgy of blood and recrimination. A couple of times I got the impression that Jennings himself was about to break down and cry – a slight hitch in his voice, a pause between sentences – but he stayed calm and professional until he went off the air at around eleven or twelve (mountain time). I have no idea how long he’d been in the studio, but he looked exhausted. I was exhausted just from watching it.

This has a “happy” ending, but it hints at what was to come over the next five years: Video of protesters arguing in Union Square

The first time I laughed after the attacks:

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