Who Were They?

One morning, one beautiful, sunny, dry morning, I was sitting in my cube at Spaceleys when my friend came in to the office and said, “Turn on Stern!”

I didn’t have a radio, but someone did, and then someone remembered there was a TV in the workout room down the hall. We all went there to watch and wait and pray.

I remember driving to one of the branch buildings – it was a blood drive day, and I always gave blood. As I lay on the table, knowing that my blood would definitely be used that day, rumors abounded. It was because the pilots couldn’t see; it was an accident. Well, maybe the first plane was, but the second?

What? There are nine un-accounted-for planes in the sky? A bomb just went off at the White House?

A plane hit the pentagon?

Then the towers fell. We saw all the people in the windows, begging for help. We saw all the rescue personnel run into that building. We watched it from the exercise room.

All of those people.

I have the Philadelphia Inquirer from 9/11 and 9/12, 2001. What a difference a day made. The first thing we wanted to know was: who did this? Why?

Then, we started reading the lists.

There was the family going to Australia. The little girl’s name was Zoe.

And there was that remarkable boy who had won the science fair.

How about the South African man who made sure all his people made it out of the building, then went back to help others out?

Or the native New Yorker who had laughed through the earlier bombings, and stayed at his desk until the buildings fell.

These are the stories we need to hear. We don’t need to hear “approximately 2,400 people died.” Numbers mean nothing. We know millions were killed by the Nazis in camps, yet Anne Frank is who we remember, because we know her story.

The current plan for the 911 memorial has the idea to just randomly list peoples’ names. No details, no groupings, just random names. I think that’s crap. As the save the memorial folks have said, the only people who think of the victims as a random group of 2,400 are the terrorists who killed them.

If this is going to be a true memorial, it should tell some truth – it should memorialize these people.

Tell us their stories. Tell us their ages. Tell us why they were there that beautiful day that so quickly turned to hell. Don’t tell us numbers. Don’t give us random. Give us the truth.

(*)>