10 years ago

On this day ten years ago, I was working for Jostens as a yearbook associate.  I heard about a plane flying into the tower when I visited one of my schools that morning.  I remember thinking that it must have been some kind of accident.  I didn’t really know what the World Trade Center was – other than it was a building in New York.  I usually didn’t listen to the radio in my car, but after that visit, I turned it on as I was driving to my next school.  That’s when I found that it was not simply an accident.  I visited my other school and though they were aware of the events, they were going on as normal.  I briefly visited with the yearbook adviser about the events, but that’s it.  I only had those two schools to visit that day so I listened to the radio as I headed home.  When I got home, I turned on the t.v. to watch with the rest of the world as we found out that America was being attacked.  I watched in horror as the news replayed people jumping from the upper floors of the building to their death. 

I felt the strong sense of national pride that came within the next few days and weeks of this tragedy.  I’m wondering, though, why it takes a tragedy of this magnitude to bring people together in support of our country.  Certainly nobody will ever forget this event, but sadly, our patriotism seems to have waned in the last few years. 

Josh and I visited New York City two years ago in 2009.  It was an amazing trip.  We did explore the financial district and didn’t see much of the rebuilding efforts as it was fenced off.  One of the most moving experiences, however, was the ground zero museum that we went to.  It is nothing more than a small apartment building, but it is filled with photos and items recovered from the site after the towers fell.  With each item or picture, you could listen to a brief story behind it.  I thought I would share some photos from the event.

Gary Suson (guy in Gray T-shirt) was the official photographer of the recovery efforts.  He did not profit from his pictures until after the recovery and clearing of the debris was complete.

Clock that was in the subway station area stopped at the time the tower fell.

The photographer took this picture briefly in the midst of the rubble before being called back out.  Only later when he developed the film for this picture, did he realize that the passage that the Bible was open to was the fall of the tower of Babel.  It was because of this incident that he continued his work as photographer.

Miscellaneous items recovered.  The fireman is holding a book that his son (another firefighter) used to read to his grandson. The son died when the towers collapsed.

Josh at the museum listening to one of the stories.