9/11

Scoble reminds us of the events that happened on this day six years ago, 9/11/2001.

I had slept late that day, since I was laid off from Teaching Network the previous Friday, along with more than half of the company. I awoke when FedEx knocked on my door, delivering my CodeWarrior upgrade. I turned on the TV and was glued to the screen for the rest of the day. I spent much of the day calling & emailing my friends in New York to make sure everyone was OK.

Here’s what I wrote on that day:

What happened on this day was by far the worst thing I’ve seen in my life.

I’ve been through a major earthquake, and while it was scary, it was only a local disaster and didn’t come anywhere close to the destruction caused by this attack.

I was born after Pearl Harbor, so I don’t really know how people felt at the time, but I’m pretty sure this will go down in history as being much worse. Pearl Harbor was a military target and less than 3000 people died. This attack was on a civilian target in the largest city in the US and another attack was on one of our government’s offices. Over 50,000 people worked in the WTC and I’m sure the death toll will be many times higher than Pearl Harbor.

I can’t believe the WTC is gone. I’ve been in those buildings many times and I’m familiar with that area. New York’s skyline is permanently changed and tens of thousands of people are out of work. Many children lost their lives and even more lost their families.

I grew up during the 60s & 70s at the height of the Cold War, and when I turned on the TV and saw the WTC on fire I immediately flashed back to that time and thought “the Russians bombed us”. It was so much easier during that time. We knew exactly who our enemies were. It was like a Western with good guys & bad guys – “Us” & “Them”. Now it isn’t so easy. We don’t know who our enemies are and there isn’t one big “Evil Empire” any more. There are hundreds or thousands of terrorist groups all over the world and we can’t possibly wipe them all out. Even if we do, there’ll be so much resentment that more will spring up. There will be more attacks in retalliation and we’ll be targets of terrorists all over the world.