From Bruce Springsteen, for everyone who's missing someone today, 9/11/2009. I just listened to this and it sent chills up and down my spine, brought back memories of that horrible day as I took the silent Metro train home from the Department of Energy (where we had all been sent home after watching the towers burn and hearing that the Pentagon - just a couple of miles away - had been hit as well), as I wondered if my wife was ok (she works a couple of blocks from the White House), as I thought about the city where I was born (New York), and as I tried to imagine what our country would be like in the aftermath...
P.S. I wrote this on RK a year ago and still think it's relevant.
Just a short - but I think powerful - anecdote from this morning. I was picking up my car from a repair shop in Arlington, and as we were finishing up the paperwork, the woman at the counter wished me a "Happy 9/11." I was kinda taken aback at first, muttered something like, "uh, thanks, but I don't think there's too much happy about this day." The story then got more complicated, as the car repair shop woman went on to tell me that her sister was working as a security guard at the Pentagon on 9/11 and SAW THE PLANE HIT THE BUILDING. Her sister also heard the screams of people in the burning Pentagon. My god. Anyway, seven years later, the car repair shop woman's sister has serious PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), and really has never recovered from the horror of that day. Needless to say, that totally changed my perception of the initial comment, "Happy 9/11." Wow.
UPDATE: Creigh Deeds has issued a statement on 9/11.
Eight years ago today, our Commonwealth and nation were struck by a tragedy unlike any we had ever witnessed. Those tragic attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center are still fresh in the memories of Virginians.
On this day of remembrance, my thoughts and prayers go out to those Virginians who lost family and loved ones on September 11, 2001. Today, we salute the American men and women defending our freedom overseas and honor those first responders who keep us safe here at home. We will never forget their service to our nation.
