09.11.2010 07:27 AM

September 11 and my son

Almost ten years.

Hard to forget that day, that week.

9 Comments

  1. I was listening to the radio on my old wooden lobster boat[pleasure] at the Renforth wharf when I heard about the Trade Centre being struck by a Plane. I drove home and watched the TV and saw a plane strike the Tower and did not realize at this time that it was the second plane to strike. It was a terrible feeling to see this happening. The following day I read online from one of the NY Papers about a group of people across the River in New Jersey filming what had happened on Sept. 11. I was never able to find that article again as the inference was that this was being filmed for overseas interests.

  2. Sandra says:

    I was home that day and watching the news thinking that a terrible plane crash/accident happened and then the second one hit.

    Later that day I got an email from a friends saying that one of our own needs help. My girlfriend lost her only son (one of the 24 Canadians) was on the 106th floor at a breakfast meeting.

    I’m thinking about her today and how strong she was during the whole thing. She is amazing. She doesn’t go on TV or talk about it. She has put her energies into helping the disabled – MS and fighting for wheel chair access.

  3. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    Warren,

    It’s comforting to see that the power of Good was also at work on that terrible day.

  4. Sandra says:

    Sorry Warren, meant to include that I’m happy things worked out for your son. Now, is he the one with the many questions?

  5. Cath says:

    I had just sent my kids off to school and within a half-hour wished that I could go grab them and bring them home. My husband called to tell me to turn on CNN that some “nut just few his plane into the WTC.” I turned on the TV just before the second plane hit. Over the course of the morning a group of neighbors sat in my living room trying like hell to make sense of it all. We cried and broke out the Baileys to calm us. I remember that awful feeling of “so now what do we do” as is it was happening to us in that very living room. Years later that feeling comes back in spades.

    Just attended a wedding on Stony Lake this past August.

  6. allegra fortissima says:

    President Barack Obama about moderate Muslims around the world and millions of Muslim-Americans in the United States:

    “They’re going to school with our kids. They’re our neighbours. They’re our friends. They’re our co-workers. And, you know, when we start acting as if their religion is somehow offensive, what are we saying to them? As someone who relies heavily on my Christian faith in my job, I understand the passions that religious faith can raise. But I also respect that people of different faiths can practise their religion… and they are still good people.”

    Aga Khan IV about Canada:

    “Canada is today the most successful pluralist society on the face of our globe, without any doubt in my mind… That is something unique to Canada. It is an amazing global human asset.”

    Remembering the atrocities of September 11, we should not forget that those terrorist acts were executed and approved by a radical minority.

  7. Ronald O'Dowd says:

    Allegra,
    Warren,

    Kathleen Parker’s column in The Washington Post:

    Dear Muslim World,

    I am writing you today as an American citizen who is deeply embarrassed by current events in my country.

    First, let me say that I am not representing anyone. I can’t claim to speak for anyone but myself, though I am certain that many others feel as I do.

    I want to address the current controversy over the proposed Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero and the so-called pastor “pastor” in Florida who had been threatening to burn a Koran.

    I’ll begin with the easier of the two: Please ignore Pastor Terry Jones. I wish we had. He may live in the United States. He may have a building with a cross on it and call it a church. And he may know 50 or so people who care what he says, but he’s nobody. His threat to burn a Koran was a desperate attempt to get attention and nothing more.

    Anyone can call himself a pastor, but there’s a reason Jones leads such a tiny congregation. We have a long tradition in this country of letting people speak their thoughts in public, but we don’t take many of them very seriously. We laugh at characters like Jones but figure it’s better to let fools reveal themselves in the light of day than to let them fester in the dark.

    I know this is hard to understand. We have trouble with it sometimes, too. Freedom is a messy affair, and sometimes people get their feelings hurt but we think the trade-off is worth the aggravation.

    What we hope you understand is that most Americans were appalled by Jones’s proposal, too. Many of us would like for him to crawl back under his rock and stay there, never to be heard from again. Alas, our laws do not forbid stupidity. A few decades ago, Jones would be standing on a fruit crate on a street corner, where children would point at him and be scolded by their parents: “It’s not nice to make fun of crazy people.” Today, thanks to the miracle of mass communication, he can command a broad, if undeserved, audience.

    What our laws do not require, of course, is that we give him our attention, and that’s where we have failed each other and ourselves. As a member of the news media, I am sorry that we handed him a megaphone, and I apologize. Please be patient. In a few days, he will be forgotten.

    Of more pressing concern, and less easily resolved, is the controversy in this country about the proposed Islamic cultural center in Manhattan. I understand the sensitivity, as I’m sure many of you do. When we were attacked by terrorists nine years ago, our hearts were broken. They still are.

    Nevertheless, we don’t hold all Muslims responsible for what happened any more than all Christians should be held responsible for what Pastor Jones has been saying. Muslims also died when the World Trade Center towers collapsed. To say that an Islamic center can’t be built near Ground Zero is to say that all Muslims are to blame. I don’t think that most Americans believe this, even though a majority now say that they would prefer the center be built elsewhere.

    This can’t be explained rationally because this is purely an emotional response. Obviously, Muslims have the same right to worship when and where they please, just as any other group in America. The same rules of tolerance that allow a Florida pastor to preach his message also allow Muslims to preach theirs.

    We may never be able to agree on some things. That is life. But let us all agree to some terms. Let’s agree not to tolerate hatred — toward Muslims, Jews, Christians, atheists or any others. Let’s agree not to use inflammatory language. Let’s agree to call out and condemn those who would incite riot, whether it’s an imam who orders the death of a cartoonist or the preacher who wants to burn another man’s holy book.

    Let’s agree that sometimes we will disagree but that none of this makes any sense if worshiping the creator means we must destroy each other in the process. Anyone who believes in God can’t also believe that his divine plan included his creation’s mutual destruction.

    Peace be upon us all. Or as we say around here, God bless.

    Sincerely,

    An American

  8. auntie-em-m says:

    We watched the planes fly into the towers with a policewomen friend who had alerted us. Our Danish cousins visiting with us ,Kjeld and Susanne, watched with us; all of us realised that they would not be flying home that day as planned. Our son’s childhood friend, David, was killed that day in New York.
    In 9/11/08, our schizophrenic son stabbed my husband to death. None of this makes any sense and I do not believe in God or a divine plan. Some days, like today, I wish I had that consolation of religion.

  9. Matt Shorter says:

    A truly wonderful and touching piece Warren.

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