by Paul Gibson
Home >> Trading Cities
“Good morning, Sir. Where are you off to?â€? “I’m running late, off to Morgan Stanley, next to the Sears Tower. Wow, it’s really just beautiful out there today.â€? “It sure is!â€? Ten minutes pass in the heavy Chicago traffic.
Looks like we’re almost at the door. “Did you hear that?â€? “What?â€? “Looks like some plane just hit the trade center in New York.â€? (Thinking of the small planes —the only ones allowed to fly that low) “ I hope the pilot is okay! Have a nice day!â€?
I was running into the office at 222 W. Monroe Street in Chicago, just west of 175 W. Monroe, known as the Sears Tower (110 storiebuilding). I just got into the elevator and we made our way into the office to punch in. I first ran into my friend Dean, wondering what was wrong with him… looking at the floor..wondering if he was okay. He says to me… “Did you see what just happened in New York?â€? … I told him I heard that a plane hit the tower but nothing more… (He knew it was a commercial jetliner but didn’t bother to tell me). I went on to rush to my desk and grab some coffee before the busy day…
Just then I was stunned by the sight of a plane hitting one of the trade towers…via television… while I was filling up my mug, the second plane hit and I, like most of us, were trying to figure out how they had got such close-up pictures of something that they didn’t know was going to happen…the second plane had hit. The reporters were stunned as well…some thought it was a tape of the first… It was bad. It was really bad.
I rushed to my phone to call my friend in New York…she worked in Trade Tower 7. She answered the phone and says that she has been hearing fire trucks all around her building…they tell her they need to get out as a precaution, so she has to hang up.
Within minutes, I receive a phone call from our offices in Minneapolis, Minnesota. “Paul, is that you?â€? “Yeah, it’s me, who’s this?â€? It’s me, Deborah. What’s going on… I just saw two planes crash into our offices in New York and they say there are three more planes that are floating around that were hijacked. They think it’s heading for Chicago. You better get out now!â€?
I can’t remember exactly what I first thought, I guess the immediate reaction was to look through the window at the Sears Tower, learing next door and up at the sky to see what was going to happen next. The president had ordered all aircraft to be grounded immediately…and within 10 minutes there were only 4 planes left. Amy began crying and asking whether we could evacuate. She was scared the plane was going to knock the Sears Tower right on top of us. Like her, some began to panick.
Mike Donahue, office manager, tells us all that he hasn’t received word yet from New York on anything. (Mike always follows the chain of command.) If you want to leave, I will understand. I tried to console Amy and our other two friends, telling them that nothing was going to happen…that it was absurd to try to get close to Chicago with the Air Force base so close.
While I was going on and on to Amy about how she had nothing to worry about, Mike comes back to speak to the now 25 or 30 of us there. “I have a friend of mine who works in the Federal Building here in Chicago (two blocks away from us) who says they have found four bombs in the basement. I want you to leave quietly. But please get out of downtown and stay home.â€? There was a lot going through my head. It was only 9.30 AM and I had just got to work. I waited with my friend Jake. We decided to stay back to give Mike a hand with everything so if he wanted to leave early he could. Jake and I finished up and started down the elevator. We arrived at the lobby and that was a scene I will never forget. The lobby was jammed, every office had evacuated. The streets were full of people walking and Jake and I, both having lived abroad and fearing the worst, decided to avoid all public means of transportation just in case. We decided to walk downtown to where we attended business school and that’s when our nightmare just began…
We were walking along the bridge on Clark street when we saw it….two F-16 jetfighters flying in between the highrise buildings in downtown Chicago. We thought for sure that this was going to be war… but we didn’t know who was attacking us…and this was in Chicago, not New York.
It was now close to 10.15 AM and right when we got to the university we see a television set up in the lobby and suddenly we see an airplane has drilled the pentagon. We saw the plane go right into the building, then moments later, the “less fortunateâ€? flight in Pennsylvania drilled into the ground. Jake’s relatives from California were calling him and then, Dan, my friend from business school calls me to tell me he can’t find his sister. She used to rent an apartment directly in front of the towers in New York and now all and I mean all the cell phone communication etc. was completely out – not only in New York, but also where we were in Chicago.
I visited Dan and his wife Monika – they were both crying…not knowing where Dan’s sister was… just watching the images over and over again, people crying, distraught…
After leaving Dan, Jake and I both walked home… an hour and a half walk – normally a 15- minute train ride. Then it all came back again, this time even worse.
Just before going home alone, I stopped in to see Amy Stein, one of my neighbors… she answered the intercom and simply stated, “Paul, thanks for stopping by, I am okay… I have lost 4 of my closest colleagues, each one on a different airplane of the four that crashed that day… but I’ll be okay… I can’t talk to you right now.â€?
When I got home Tower 2 was just beginning to fall… I started to think about all of my colleagues I speak with every day in New York…you see, I was working from Chicago for Morgan Stanley in New York…and the newspeople repeated that they were the hardest hit by the attack … 52 floors of the trade centers were theirs. I feared the worst for my colleagues… Then it was as if the world stopped, and the images just did not do it justice… Tower 1 fell to the ground and it seemed as if the entire downtown Manhattan area had gone up in smoke.
That night, all of us slept one or two hours as the warnings of bombs, terrorists and arrests poured in… and the silence in every city of the country was so deadening… there were absolutely no airplanes in the sky and it was as if we had all gone back to our childhood.
The following days were spent watching television, learning of friends and friends of relatives that had died… the first victim, a Catholic priest, was the spiritual director of my older brother John… That night, seeing President Bush stating that we had been attacked… and that we would bring the fight to them, funerals…at least 12 televised everyday, memorials, masses, and the fight against time…and discovering that there was just nobody alive… and the death toll was going up…
At work we took over all of the New York area offices, and everyday it was speaking with a family who had lost a loved one, sometimes a brother or sister… all of them crying on the phone, …they had just called to try to get on with life and couldn’t. I think I had it worst, I had offices from the Pentagon, New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania… all four crash sites with almost 3.000 victims. People crying on the phone while you had to talk to them about the money of their relatives… the most heartwrenching experience.
Terrorism? More like pure evil that should and will be stopped.
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Posted on http://www.weeklyletter.com at 2005-09-16 02:00:00 +0200
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The U.S. was justified in entering a country like Afghanistan that harbored Osama Bin Laden, as a response to the September 11 attack.
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I really wasn’t doing nothing special this day . I’d came back from my holidays two days before, and in this moment I was in a manager course (I’ll never forget what was doing in this moment) when someone in the course received a sms , “aeroplane crash into one tower of the World Trade Centre”. In the room we had a tv and we were able to appreciate the importance of the event. I couldn’t understand what was happening. I thought It’s not a real situation. It was like a movie!!! This kind of thinks can not happend in a real life!!! it was a nightmare !!!!
Always during your life, these kind of events get you think about your life, your family, your work, ... and what is really important in your life!!!
Probably If I knew I was going die, I’ll try to remember the good thinks I lived in my life.
I think the problem of the death is in the people close who have to continue living without their relativies or friends.
Fantastic description of one of the most important events in this century, Paul.
That day I was in holidays. After to eat I received a short message in my mobile phone about the event and I went to look for a TV to watch it. Everything it was strange and it liked the movie script.
On the TV the images was tremendous, I began to watch the images when one Tower was falling down. On the TV told that there was had ordered all aircraft to be grounded and the flights wasn’t possible in several days, also it was telling that it was a terrorist attack. After it was continued telling everything about the chaos of the New York city.
I remember that days was difficult, the people was worried because it wasn’t possible to say what would it happen and change in the world from this event.
If I know that I’m going to die, maybe I would think about the nice things of my life.
I’ll never forget how I heard about it was happened in New York this day.
I had just awoken and I started to watch Tv.
I watched the newsreader explaining was it happening in New York. He was describing how the first plane hit in the first tower when I can see in live the second plane hitting in the second tower.
I could not believed it! I didn’t understand anything because alls this was like a terror movie!!
I think i’ll never forget the television reports on the terrorist attack! It was an authentic nighmare!
I don’t know what thought the people who lived this horror!!
With regards to this week’s poll…
President Bush said ” If you are not with me- you are against me in this.”
The population of the world is 6,467,435,316.
The population of the US is 297,204,326.
Do the maths.
The US is certainly not alone in their fight against terrorism, and in fact Mr. Bush’s message is clear… to his credit. I think he likes to “lead” his nation and isn’t afraid to say what he thinks..even though you may not like it. There’s absolutely no doubt in anyone’s mind what this phrase means: you can’t remain in the middle on issues of life or death, good or evil. There is no more Mr. Nice Guy who can remain indifferent confronted with these violent situations, ...not Just sept. 11, but the 11th of March, the bombings in London, the countless bombings before Sept 11th (A lot of people forget about these!)
Paul
But is violence the only way to fight against violence? Is any sort of violence ethical?
This is a very interesting observation and one that merits good thought…Most people agree that if one’s life is threatened, that such “violence” which you are citing, is not actually violence, but “self-defense”. In fact, referring to the actual topic introduced, in each and every moment, Mr. Bush has alluded to the right of self-defense…so if we were to take him at his word, there is no “violent response” here, but rather self-defense…
Paul
Thank you for your personal account as well, Alberto and also for the complement. I’m glad you enjoyed reading this article… Very profound observations! Your thoughts echo the words of someone I can’t recall right now who said,” Some people are bent on living, others on dieing.” It basically means that every day, we either “live” life or spend time trying to “avoid it.” (abusing drugs, abusing sex, etc.)
As a Catholic, I believe in the after-life, so I find consolation in the fact that we have the chance of being together – family and relatives – in Heaven. If not, I don’t know what I’d do..
Thanks again for your observations…
Paul
Thanks for your comments Adolfo. You made a very interesting observation that is worthy of analysis…”I don’t know what the people who lived this horror must have been (must be) thinking…”
Most doctors will agree in calling their reaction a state of absolute and almost unconscious confusion and shock. Several people will try and explain how they felt that day, but it’s interesting to note that the very state of shock which many of them suffered implies that they were not conscious of their thoughts or actions. Most of them express the emotions they feel as a consequence of that which has ocurred.
I can not speak for those who were in New York, but suffice it to say that I suffered the usual symptoms of post-traumatic syndrome: insomnia, anxiety and in general, nervousness. I especially remember walking to work the following days looking to see if airplanes were flying overhead in between builidngs..and wondering what dieing must be like… Quite scary indeed!
Paul
This day I was eating and watching TV at my home. At three o’clok it began the ‘Telediario’ and the first image was the Tower 1 in smoke. I though ‘A little aircraft with a pilot and maybe several passengers has crassed against the tower. Poor people’. Several minutes after that I could see another aircraft (not small!!??) fliying near the tower. I thougth that it was a replay, but the smoke was already there…
It was a day of fear and doubtness. Here, in Spain at the distance, I couln’t think in other thing, it was the year news. That night I had nightmares with the images, for me it was incredible, like a movie where the director was crazy. But not, it was really, somebody, somewhere, could plan this terrible attack and make it true. It has been the more terrorific experience that I never had, and I wait that it continue this way forever.
I don’t know that I would do if I knew I was going to die. It is terrible, and in these seconds, minutes or hours, people must get crazy.
Sometimes special or tragic events such as these are a wake-up call, ConcepciĂłn. As I think back on this tragedy and my experience, I can’t help but think about the other positive things that came out of it. I must say, the mentality of many Americans changed that day and I think a lot of “superficial” people started to think about things that really matter: family, friends, life, religion, etc.
That’s one of the great lessons of Sept. 11th: not everything is a question of safety and security… I believe that we have a lot of work to do in helping convince these fanatics that they are really sick people in need of serious medical attention.
Hi Paul, thanks for your emotive letter.
That day I was having lunch and seeing TV and suddenly the image of the first airplane drilling a Tour appeared. It greatly impressed me and I could not leave off wasching the TV. The mewscaster was reporting when I saw the second airplane drilling the second Tour.
Oh!!!! I couldn´t believe the images I was seeing .
I had to return to the office but it was impossible for me to leave watching TV.
If I would knew I was going to die I don´t Know what I would do.
Tina
I don´t think Bush is talking about self-defence at all. When US authorities talk about terrorism they distinguish two kind of terrorism: when they invade countries without any defensible reason shooting whatever they find in front, and then, get off from there leaving behind starvation, diseases, crippled people,... they call it “self-defence”; when poor countries try to defend themselves, these are TERRORISTS (Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Iraq,...).
I don´t totally agree with any kind of violence, no matter where it comes from. However, there is a saying in spanish which says “donde las dan, las toman”, and it became real and cruel truth on September 11.
USA was (in 2001) and is still killing (directly or indirectly, helping corrupt governments) a lot of people in many different countries everyday, but this is not news. As most of them belong to the so called “Third World”, nobody is interested in them, and if anybody was, “they are TERRORISTS and we need to defend ourselves from them!” would say somebody. Unfortunately, fear is such a strong weapon!
If in that fatidic day the attacks had been the other way round, then that day wouldn´t have changed the world. But for the first time the small country attacked the bigest one in its own land, and it hurted a lot. (But isn´t it fascinating to observe how USA takes advantage of the pain?!)
25,884 innocent Iraqi civilians have been killed in their own country since the Iraq war began. Nobody has provided any proof that Saddam was linked to the September 11 attack or that he had any weapons of mass destruction.
It is interesting that the US don’t attack China, a communist dictatorship, in their fight to bring democracy to the world.
25,884 innocent people!*
Where’s the outrage? Where’s the anger? Or they less dead? Less valuable? Less loved?
__
Thanks for your comments Alfonso. I don’t think anyone deserves to be shot down for going to work… They certainly didn’t deserve to die. Defending freedom has its costs and I believe that innocent people should be defended.
When 6,000 kurds were assasinated in Iraqu, nor the Spanish nor any other government in Europe moved a finger to help them. Before you can criticise, you have to at least take a stand to defend people. It’s hard to point the finger when we may have been able to negotiate this better with Iraq. I agree with you that “war” is not the answer… but at the rate that the UN and Europe responds, we may as well forget civilisation as we know it…
Thanks again for your comments.
Paul
One is too many, and we don’t need political activists like Dardagan tallying up the dead in wars that he has never been in.though he is free to do so. ..Dardagan accuses people of taking political and monetary advantage of wars…while doing the same himself with his research reports and staging protests around the world.
The extremists are also known to kill their own in suicide bombings and it’s unfair to chalk all these up to Americans as if they are bloodthirsty murderers, which is what Dardagan would have you believe.
As far as China goes, I think we all agree – one thing is to go where you can actually do something and quite another is to commit suicide.
-PG
This day I was working like every day. I received a phone-call, it was my mother and she was watching TV when the first news began. She said to me that something extrange was happenig in NY but doesn´t know what. I was very busy and I told her not to phone me only to talk. Later, she phoned me again and explained me everything. In the office my collegues and I were listening news and couldn´t belive it IN NY!!!!!
Two years later I went to spend my honey-moon overthere and realized that untill that day nobody could imagine what was going but the possitive thing is that although you think nobody is looking at you that is false, if you need help you will get it in any place of NY, because the solidarity has become a principal value.
Romans kill Jews.
Muslims kill Hindus.
Americans kill American Indians.
Americans kill Germans.
Germans kill French.
Germans kill Jews.
Germans kill British.
Japanese kill Chinese.
Chinese kill Japanese
Iranians kill Iraqis.
Chinese kill Tibetans.
Albanians kill Serbians.
Protestants kill Catholics.
Jews kill Romans.
Basques kill Spaniards.
Whites kill Blacks.
Turks kill Arabs.
Iraqis kill Kuwaitis.
Kurds kill Iraqis.
Kuwaitis kill Iraqis.
Chinese kill Indians.
Indians kill Pakistanis.
Americans kill Afghanis.
Hindus kill Muslims.
Arabs kill Turks.
Pakistanis kill Indians.
Indians kill Chinese.
Turks kill Greeks.
Kurds kill Turks.
Israelis kill Palestinians.
Palestinians kill Israels.
American Indians kill Americans.
Chechens kill Russians.
Arabs kill Jews.
Jews kill Arabs.
Christians kill Muslims.
Blacks kill Whites.
Iraqis call Iranians.
Sunnis kill Shiites.
Kurds kill Iranians.
Americans kill Iraqis.
Turks kill Armenians.
British kill Germans.
Serbians kill Albanians.
Russians kill Americans.
Tutsis kill Hutus.
Iraqis kill Kurds.
Turks kill Kurds.
Americans kill Russians.
Catholics kill Protestants.
Japanese kill Russians.
Russians kill Japanese.
Americans kill Arabs.
Arabs kill Americans.
Americans kill Muslims.
Muslims kill Americans.
British kill Indians.
Iranians kill Kurds.
British kill Africans.
French kill Indians.
Muslims kill Christians.
Kurds kill Armenians.
Armenians kill Turks.
Spaniards kill Basques.
Greeks kill Turks.
Arabs kill Kurds.
Russians kill Chechens.
Hutus kill Tutsis.
Kurds kill Arabs.
The opposite is also true…don’t forget:
Romans love Jews.
Muslims love Hindus.
Americans love American Indians.
Americans love Germans.
Germans love French.
Germans love Jews.
Germans love British.
Japanese love Chinese.
Chinese love Japanese
Iranians love Iraqis.
Chinese love Tibetans.
Albanians love Serbians.
Protestants love Catholics.
Jews love Romans.
Basques love Spaniards.
Whites love Blacks.
Turks love Arabs.
Iraqis love Kuwaitis.
Kurds love Iraqis.
Kuwaitis love Iraqis.
Chinese love Indians.
Indians love Pakistanis.
Americans love Afghanis.
Hindus love Muslims.
Arabs love Turks.
Pakistanis love Indians.
Indians love Chinese.
Turks love Greeks.
Kurds love Turks.
Israelis love Palestinians.
Palestinians love Israels.
American Indians love Americans.
Chechens love Russians.
Arabs love Jews.
Jews love Arabs.
Christians love Muslims.
Blacks love Whites.
Iraqis call Iranians.
Sunnis love Shiites.
Kurds love Iranians.
Americans love Iraqis.
Turks love Armenians.
British love Germans.
Serbians love Albanians.
Russians love Americans.
Tutsis love Hutus.
Iraqis love Kurds.
Turks love Kurds.
Americans love Russians.
Catholics love Protestants.
Japanese love Russians.
Russians love Japanese.
Americans love Arabs.
Arabs love Americans.
Americans love Muslims.
Muslims love Americans.
British love Indians.
Iranians love Kurds.
British love Africans.
French love Indians.
Muslims love Christians.
Kurds love Armenians.
Armenians love Turks.
Spaniards love Basques.
Greeks love Turks.
Arabs love Kurds.
Russians love Chechens.
Hutus love Tutsis.
Kurds love Arabs.
1) I remembered I was working with my father before starting my university classes. We were having our lunch when the radio started telling the news about the Twin Towers. It was like a movie, I we were shocked.
2) I have phoned to my family and just wait, I don´t know how I have felt in such circumstances.
3) No, I have had more fear in 11-M here, in Madrid