Oh, It's Cryin' Time Again

September 12, 2011

Read and watched a ton of 9•11 coverage yesterday. Did not know there were over 17,000 people in the two towers when the planes hit (that is almost double the size of my hometown of Kingman when I was growing up). Did not know that Times emergency dispatchers told callers to "stay where you are" some 62 times. Did not know the hijackers wanted to also hit the Sears Tower in Chicago, a building in LA AND kill all the males on one of the planes and then land, let the women and children go and give a speech on why they did everything. Also, knew but had forgotten that the fourth plane was believed to be heading for the U.S. Capitol building, which would have been the most devastating of all the hits in terms of destroying a symbol.

And for the thwarting of that target, we have the brave passengers ("Let's roll!") to thank.

Cried twice. Once at these two paragraphs:

"That morning, Raffaele Cava, age 80, was working on the 90th floor of the north tower. After the plane hit, no one could open the extis, so he went to another office and sat with dianne DeFontes and Risa Moya. The hall floors were melting. Suddenly, two men in the stairwell pried open the door, walked in and ordered everyone to go. They were Frank De Martinia and Pablo Oriz, Port Authority employees who worked one flight down, and who took it on themselves to climb up and down 14 floors, getting scores of people out. They never left.

"Tirsa Moya walked Raffaele Cava down all 90 floors.

"You could ask no more of human beings."

—Jim Dwyer, New York Times

Do events like this effect our daily work? Oh, I think so. Here is a small study I did this morning before going into work:

"In spite of sniping from behind he continued up the dim trail."

—BBB