Here we are, ten years after that fateful September day when the World Trade Center and Pentagon were attacked by terrorists hijacking commercial planes. Like millions have done today, I took time to think about the events of 9/11 and where I was (both physically and figuratively) in my own life. I also thought about how a significant date becomes a marker in time for annual reflection.
On September 11, 2001, I was working as a Web Developer at my first technology job, an eLearning start-up. My morning routine consisted of arriving at work shortly after 9:00am, reading a bit of news, grabbing an almond vanilla coffee, then doing research or web programming until lunch. The first website I would launch was Slashdot. I typed their URL into Mozilla (yes, I was an early adopter of their fledgling browser) and waited for the website to load. Sensing something was wrong with our servers (given Slashdot's established uptime reliability), I asked a co-worker if our company Internet connection was having issues. He said a plane or missle had hit the World Trade Center and rumours of it being a terrorist attack was causing extreme Internet congestion. Slashdot eventually loaded with some brief snippets of news about the attacks. Google's home page was the only other online source for small tidbits of news. Every other major website was down.
For the previous five years, the eleventh day of September had a different meaning for me than most people. My Mom died on September 11, 1995 after a short battle with cancer. For the next five years, I would wake up on that date with thoughts of her heavy on my mind. I would lose concentration throughout the day reflecting on my life with her in it and the gaping wound her absence had created.
But now, the bastards had stolen the date from me.
The bastards stole it from thousands that day. They created grief and loss where it didn't have to exist. Family members were lost in the attacks when they should have come home that night. Kids needlessly lost their parents. As David Letterman put it (during his first Late Show episode after the attacks): "if you live to be a thousand years old, will that make any goddamned sense?"
There was no stopping the cancer that took my Mom from us. It was heartless, savage and unrelenting. It proceeded with one goal in mind - to destroy life. When medicine gave up, my Dad stepped in and did everything he could to stop the cancer. There were a few successes, but eventually she lost the battle and we were left to pick up the pieces.
The people that suffered during (and after) 9/11 shouldn't have had to endure the same sense of loss and tragedy as myself and my family.
Humanity is capable of such amazing things. In 2008, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was directed to photograph the Phoenix Lander during its descent onto to the Martian surface. This is what we're really capable of accomplishing.
Creative Options in Waterloo, my location during the 9/11 attacks. I returned here today to grab a photo.
10-22mm, handheld HDR, f/8.0, ISO 100
