10 Years
// September 11th, 2011 // No Comments » // General, Personal
There are a few moments in everyone’s life which were so huge that they will always remember where they were and what they were doing. For example, when JFK was shot, when John Lennon was shot, the Dunblane massacre, the London bombings of 7/7, the Glasgow Airport attack.
On 11 September 2001, I was at home, on a day off from university. For the past 10 years, I’ve been a bit of a news junkie. This day was the catalyst. Like most people, I heard about the North Tower being struck and switched to the rolling news. I was horrified and astounded that a pilot could have suffered any kind of system failure which could have led to an accident of this magnitude. Then the South Tower was struck. This was not an accident. It was a terrorist attack. I was watching something which was changing the world.
At some point during all of this, I received a phone call asking if I could come into work as they got very busy all of a sudden. I worked for a phone company which did cheap phone calls to other countries. Everyone was trying to call the US. We were told that the authorities in the US had turned off all the mobile phone networks in New York and that landlines were incredibly congested. This led to a swathe of calls from American ex-pats who were incredibly rude to my colleagues and I. There was, of course, nothing we could do to get these people through to their loved ones. This was anger due to panic, due to concern for loved ones, due to an attack on their homeland. I couldn’t blame them for that. These callers didn’t realise however, that I too, had lost friends and colleagues that morning. You see, the company I worked for had its New York switching equipment in World Trade Center.
Its hard to understand exactly how I changed after these events. I’m more suspicious, certainly. I’ve learned a bit more about other cultures, and religion in general. I’ve decided for some, religion is a comfort, but for me, and many others, its about control. Trying to get people to think and behave in a certain way.
The events of 9/11 changed the world. For everyone. The world is now a more dangerous place. I just accepted this as a fact of life, but now, as a new father, I need to help reverse this. We need to change the world for the better. If we all do at least one good thing every day for a fellow human being, things will change. We can all change the world for the better.
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