9/11 three years later

I still remember it pretty vividly. I was driving to work - on a rather scenic backroad - it was always a low-stress commute. I was a little late that morning and just before I got to the office, they broke into the news/talk station I was listening to and said that a small commuter plane had crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center.

I thought that sounded odd but didn't think a whole lot of it until I got to work and DeAngelo came by my cubicle to say that a plane had crashed into the second tower of the World Trade Center - to which I said "you're full of shit". I went down to my car to get the hand-held miniature TV that I occassionally used to watch the Simpsons on the drive home. As I tuned in NBC, they were showing a replay from the second plane slamming into the second tower. It was completely surreal.

So my boss Leo and I huddled around the little mini TV in the conference room trying to get decent reception. The crowd around our little TV would grow, then drop off, as people went to go back to work or try to call people they knew to find out if they were watching.

I remember everyone asking each other how they thought the fires could be extinguished - until the first tower fell. Then the talk turned to estimated death tolls. All this was interspersed with news from the Pentagon and rumors of four more hijacked planes still flying somewhere. I guess we should have known at that point, if those rumors were true, those planes were going to be shot down. Luckily, there was only one other plane, which brave passengers brought down in Pennsylvania.

Somewhere during that time, I was able to catch up with Mrs. Holmes, who was out of town at a conference. She was justifiably upset about the news and was completely aghast that the women traveling with her barely had a reaction to the news. It wasn't so much that they didn't understand the gravity of the situation, it was more that they didn't have the intellect to understand the gravity of the situation. I was glad their conference was cancelled and she was coming home that night.

Eventually the batteries in my TV ran out and I had to go ask Ed the office curmudgeon to give me some batteries from the company stock, which he grudgingly agreed to. As the news died down and everyone pretended to get back to work, I headed home and started my VCR taping Fox News for the rest of the afternoon. I went back to work, but I'm pretty sure I just spent the rest of the day in shock, surfing the web for news and listening to talk radio.

I remember that night turning on Michael Savage and finally hearing someone express the rage that I was feeling - everyone else was calling it a tragedy - Savage was calling it war - which is exactly what it was and what it remains to this day. It was nice to hear someone drop the politically correct charade and tell it like it is.

For quite a few weeks after that, my boss Leo and I, fearing another attack, would ask each other regularly, "are we going to die?" We were only half-kidding. After that, I slipped into a funk that lasted for months, but eventually went away, until only recently.

I still think of the people we lost, the kids without moms and dads, the absolute evil in the eyes of the islamofascists who attacked us. I hope we'll see plenty of images from the attacks this weekend - but I doubt we'll see it from the Old Media. They've been trying to make us forget about it for three years now. Hopefully we will never forget.

UPDATE: Other 9/11 blogging:

Blogs of War - very extensive 9/11 roundup
Right on Red
In The Bullpen - another excellent roundup
Backcountry Conservative
Little Green Footballs
LaShawn Barber
Michelle Malkin - stop sanitizing the killers
Wizbang
Diggers Realm
In Search of Utopia
The Politicker
Glenn Reynolds
Cox & Forkum - excellent cartoon
Say Anything

9/12 10:45 PM UPDATE: Mrs. Holmes and I watched HBO's 9/11 In Memoriam last night on DVD. I was actually trying to watch in clandestinely, becuase I didn't think Mrs. Holmes needed to see it. (Unlike many dingbat, democrat-voting, oprah-watching, NOW-celebrating female voters, Mrs. Holmes understands the war on terror and exactly what kind of evil we're facing - she needs no further reminders).

I had purchased the documentary some time ago, but never watched it. I would highly recommend it if you want to really reconnect with the horrors of that day.

It's extremely well done - no political spin - very factual and brutal. They got top level access to Mayor Giuliani's staff and the Mayor himself - and I was reminded how unbelieveable Giuliani was in his response to the attacks. While I don't like some of his typical northeastern liberal Republican politics, the man is the real deal - a true leader in every sense of the word. His response was to New York City as Bush's was to the rest of the country - focused leadership on both counts, and calm under pressure.

The documentary has footage - both home video and professional - from more than 100 different sources, and puts it all together in a neat 60 minute package that really takes you back emotionally to that day. It's very graphic - you get to see a lot of the video that has rarely/never been shown (i.e. people jumping from the trade center, bodies, etc.) - so if you don't think you can handle it, maybe you shouldn't. However, much like the 9/11 movie that was shown on CBS, this is the kind of historical document that is well worth your time. And, no, I don't work for HBO.