I live in the NY/NJ METRO AREA and on 911 I was home since I had recently been laid off my job. I looked out the window and it was sunny and looked like a gorgeous day to get out of the house and maybe go to the park and try to do something constructive, but I made the mistake of switching on CNN news and they said a small plane had hit the World Trade Center. From what it looked like it was burning fast and my first thought was how are the firefighters going to put this fire out and my second thought was how are they going to rescue all those people? CNN commentators were going back and forth on what they thought was happening which apparently was based on pure conjecture when just as I was watching a huge jumbo jet smashed into the other tower and everybody knew at that point it was terrorism and not some small plane accident. And I was like, "Holy shit!" CNN was stirring the chaos with other terrorist reports and conjecture and I was losing it.
I could not control myself and since I was alone I called my wife who was totally clueless and without emotion. So I decided to call my mother who said basically, "Yeah I know. What do you want me to do about it?" After I hung up the phone, I decided to call my father in law who was also home alone and he got really upset and emotional and did what most Jews do when they get upset and emotional, he invited me to brunch at the diner. Since I did not get any better answers or offers, I accepted.
Nobody in their right mind went to the diner on 911 except me, my father in law and some Israeli guy who sat at the next table while the television showed the Twin Towers burning. I think I ate eggs and bacon, but that is as much conjecture as a CNN correspondent would spew. Frankly it was hard to eat anything watching the monumental tragedy unfolding, but it was something to do instead of run around screaming.
It just so turns out that our waiter who we had seen before took our order just as the Israeli guy shouted at the top of his lungs, "They should kill all Arabs, men, women and children. All Arabs should die!"
The waiter replied that he was Egyptian and not involved, but it was eventually found that one of the hijackers was Egyptian and one of the leaders of terrorist organization Al Qaeda was Egyptian as well. Things had gotten out of control at the diner with the Israeli screaming and I think the owner served us as the Egyptian guy decided to leave.
And just before we finished our meal, I remembered thinking, at least the towers are standing and then one tower collapsed. We decided to leave the diner and I went home to my empty apartment and I was in a funk with all the horrible news on television so much so that eventually I decided to turn off the television altogether and try to block out the tragic and depressing turn of events. A few days later, I volunteered to help assist giving supplies to firefighters in a warehouse in Jersey City, but the firefighters just wanted new boots as they said their regular boots were melting off in the heat. They also said there were no survivors found in the rubble. I was so distraught that I made sure I found a job quickly so I could get out of the apartment. It just so turns out the job I found was at a company forced to move to New Jersey as their previous building was next to the World Trade Center and had been destroyed.
For the next year I avoided news, violence, and Heavy Metal Music and even waited more than a year to listen to the new SLAYER album which coincidentally dropped on September 11th. The title of the album was God Hates Us All. I thought the world was coming to an end, but somehow we survived.
No comments:
Post a Comment