In a New York state of mind.

Today is September 11. Here in Tucson, it's pretty much been a standard day. I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary, except my favorite coffee shop was patriotically decorated.

That still makes me sad. I first noticed the apathy my sophomore year of college here, and I am sure Tucson is not the only place in the world where it feels like no different day. I bet even in London or NJ people are acting normally. I wonder if there was even a speech given by Obama or anything in celebration/remembrance. It's a shame how disconnected I am to the news world. I really only read what I am interested in. . I think that's one of the biggest curses of the availability of information on the internet today.

At any rate. It's September 11. I remember exactly where I was when our middle school principal came in and told us that a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers (the second one hadn't been hit yet). It was about 8:45 in the morning, if I remember correctly. He didn't make a big deal out of it, at all, probably on purpose, and I didn't realize the magnitude of what was happening. I remember thinking if my Mom knew what was going on - I wasn't sure that she already would be, that this would be one of the most defining events of our generation. How could I have known? When the second plane hit, kids started going home. I am from New Jersey, quite close to Manhattan, people often work in the city and live in the suburbs. Our area is full of such suburbs. That's when I first realized that this was something much bigger than just planes crashing into towers. Our science teacher put on the news against the principal wishes, but he was in there watching too - the desire for knowledge is natural in all humans, especially in time of crisis obviously, so there we all were. The imagery I saw that day has always stayed with me. The videos were re-played throughout the day, no one talked about anything but and although school had just started, we were totally rightfully unfocused.

I finally made it home and I really remember seeing the magnitude of this event around 4, when the news became too much for us and my Mom let me have the remote. I automatically turned to MTV, only to see that all broadcasting had been cut off and they were acting more like a news channel than anything else. Their offices are pretty far away from the Twin Towers, but being in the same city, they had to do something. Then, my Dad came home and showed me pictures he had taken from where the ferry to the financial district of Manhattan (only 45 minutes from Atlantic Highlands) comes and goes. It literally looked like a line of teeth with two badly broken, and smoke as far as the eye could see. He took panoramic and normal pictures and since this was before the advent of Photoshop their value was really quite shocking. I was only in eighth grade, but again, this has stayed with me since. I kind of avoided the politcal aspect of the planes hitting the towers BECAUSE I was only in eighth grade and focused on the people I knew or knew of that could have been affected.

The personal stories were endless, it seemed everyone knew someone who knew someone who had just avoided it. I really understood the event through these stories, understood what true hatred was because of this and learned a lot about America's international perception. I never knew ANYONE could hate America. I didn't really think of the world outside America, or the world outside New Jersey even. Looking back on that now, it seems comical, but like I said, I had just turned 13 at the time.

As time went on, I understood more and more what led up to this event, how New York rebuilt itself and what we were doing in retaliation. Although my levels of agreeing with each of those is varied, I at least began to see the reality of the situation. I can recall two events really solidifying the actuality of the event: the first, when the dust and ash settled, the Towers cleared away, what the same New York skyline I had been seeing my entire life now looked like: remember the tooth image? Think a perfect smile with the two front teeth missing. It looked so, so incomplete. The designs of what they had decided to do after that are still in motion, I think, but I remember in memorial they often lit two huge lightbeams from where the Towers would have stood, and that's always quite powerful. But seeing the skyline like this, suddenly every image I had seen or taken of the skyline before September 11 became so much more important because it was in a sense, complete. The second event was the first time I visited "ground zero" after September 11. It was some years after, maybe three or four, and I was taking the PATH train from I think Elizabeth? into NYC and our stop was the bottom of the Twin Towers. The memorial they had made in that ground below "ground zero" was stunning - it was kind of like a museum exhibit, with words on the walls, pictures, etc. It was kind of humbling to walk through that, it really made you think. I liked it too because people went about it with a sort of regularity. I guess that's a kind of New York City attitude - nothing is too shocking, you've been there, done that, etc. But I saw buisnessmen and the like shuffling about, going to work, stop and look, actively slow down their pace, even if for just a second, to see this exhibit type thing. That was nice. I am sure now people walk through it like anything else, if it's even still there, but at the time I found the slow pace of apprecaition somehow comforting.

I am lucky I didn't know anyone directly involved in the crashes. I knew people who had just avoided it or who knew others who had somehow been involved, but everyone I could think of was generally safe. That doesn't mean much though, because so many people WERE affected. Especially after the war started, which it took me about two years to realize was pretty far removed from September 11, and more people died, this became the cornerstone of my generation.

I will never forget September 11 and I hope none of you do, either. I know you won't.






On a much lighter note, which now seems almost absurd in comparison to what I have just written about, another thing that makes me think of NYC is the Spring/Summer 2010 Fashion Week happening now, September 10-17, 2009. I have seen some pictures and collections and it looks pretty inspiring. http://yvanrodic.blogspot.com/ is a good source of that.

It's good to see that the city doesn't shut down over this day, I just think there needs to be more of a balance between remembering and forgetting, if that's possible.


Alright. On that note, I am going now.