September 11th Open Thread
Many of us, I think, had our lives changed and perceptions of the world altered by 9/11. Some, of course, were affected in very direct personal ways, often tragic ways. For many of us, we were just observers, but still found the events momentous and unforgettable.
On Sept. 11, 2001, I was a manager in the Ventura County Star's online department. On that morning, my wife was up early getting ready for work and I was snoozing through my second alarm when Billie walked in and told me Dave Smith was on the phone. Dave had never called our house before. He was the editorial page editor. He had no reason to call me ... unless something very big was going on.
"Two planes just flew into the Twin Towers in New York," he told me.
I jumped out of bed and turned on CNN. My job was to get the news on our Web site. I tried to hit other major news sites to grab an Associated Press story, but all the major news sites had crashed due to the heavy traffic. I had to write the initial story for our own Web site from what I was seeing and hearing on TV. It would be 30 minutes before an editor with access to our online system would be in the office and could post the AP story.
And so began perhaps the longest news cycle in my adult life -- a news cycle that would last for a couple of years, carrying us through the invasion of Iraq -- and it is a news cycle that in many ways, still isn't over, even though most individuals have found ways to move on with their lives.
Sept. 11 is a long shadow that hangs over world affairs and personal lives. It effects our foreign affairs and figures into nearly every aspect of our national politics.
Even if we would rather forget, we can't forget and perhaps shouldn't forget 9/11.
What are your 9/11 thoughts?