Where were you on September 11, 2001?
I had returned from a semiconductor tool installation in Taiwan only a week before and my television was still in storage due to ongoing remodeling of my home, not that I watch it on workday mornings anyway. I also do not listen to commercial radio while driving my car, or at any other time. So it was only after I had arrived at my job that people came running into the process engineering area exclaiming that a passenger jet had collided with one of the World Trade Center towers.
In a daze of disbelief, I went to the company's cafeteria just in time to see footage of the second jet's impact. As news began to trickle in about flight 93 and how this was an intentional plot and terrorist attack, a feeling of stunned anger began to overcome me. I'll freely confess that not a lot of work got done that day. I doubt many others in my department accomplished much either. Upon arriving home I briefly considered hauling out my television and then then thought better of it. Quite simply, I refused to have more of the same horrific images etched into my mind. The subsequent newspaper stills of people jumping to certain death were quite enough to further fuel an already burning fury in my soul. It is a rage that has never dimmed since then and I wonder if it ever will.
Three years later and I've yet to turn my television back on.
Posted by: Zenster 2004-09-11 |