“Honey, wake up; a plane just crashed into one of the Twin Towers in New York!”
Throughout our lives, we come across moments that are forever engraved in our individual minds. We will either experience them first hand or hear about them through the media. But then there’re those moments that are so large and far-reaching that will be globally and collectively remembered.
“What kind of an idiot pilot would do that?” she asked in a sleepy voice, still not fully comprehending what I had said.
A short while ago, I celebrated my 39th birthday at a hidden-gem Greek restaurant called New York New York. Against the back wall of the restaurant, and well hidden from the main entrance, there’s a wall-to-wall picture of New York City skyline with Twin Towers well placed in the centre. This picture is approximately 12 feet in height and about 15 feet in length. But the image of the infamous towers appears to be larger than life.
“Honey, wake up… seriously, another plane just crashed into another one of the Towers!” I said this as I was standing in the kitchen, trying to make sense of the live images as it passed through our 21 inch Sears brand television set that was a wedding gift from my parents.
As we walked to our tables at the end of the restaurant, Isabella, our 5 year old daughter, could tell that I had a saddened look on my face while staring at the picture on the wall. She turned her gaze to the wall and asked what’s going on.
Suddenly, one of the towers collapsed and I felt an empty feeling. May be up until that very moment I was hoping for the best. After all, the towers seemed to be holding well. They had gobbled up the planes and survived it. But now, suddenly, all was lost. And moments later, the second tower collapsed and lives changed forever.
Ah, sweetheart! Some very bad people destroyed those buildings and many people died. I didn’t want to tell her that thousands of people died: Parents, Children, Siblings, Friends, Family Members and Colleagues. I didn’t want to tell her that she’ll never be able to see the Twin Towers in person; and if she does, it will most likely be in documentaries that will rehash those horrific images of people jumping out of the buildings to save their own lives, albeit knowing that there’s no chance of survival. I didn’t want to tell her that someone somewhere was so full of hate for mankind that was willing to kill en-mass.
Ten years later and I’m still in shock of what I witnessed in those two hours. I thought hatred stopped when Nazis and Fascists were stopped decades ago. I thought we had peace parades in the 60s and 70s. I thought we were better than killing each other because we don’t agree on something. I thought we were better than that!
Thanks for reading and let us not forget what hatred and evil is capable of, ever!!!
Armin
PS. I can’t wait for our trip to New York so I can pay my respect to those that lost their lives and those that carried on! “Start spreading the news / I am leaving today / I want to be a part of it / New York, New York” ~ Frank Sinatra’s lyrics to New York, New York.
 |
| Image courtesy of Google |
Armin, Another very powerful blog. "Where was I When...?" I was rushing out of my dorm at university, late for class, when I bumped into another resident who I never met before. We were the only two out front of my building. She needed to talk to someone - to me - the only person in the vicinity... she ask me whether I heard what happened in New York. I said no, kind of annoyed that she was making me even more late than I already was. She said her mother called and told her that this is the day she will never forget. Told her that today is the day the world will change as we know it. I looked at her confused until she told me what literally happened. Thank you for sharing Armin
ReplyDelete