Friday, September 11, 2009

That Morning


I write better when I stay up through the middle of the night. In the early morning hours of September 11, 2001, I was up writing. At about 8 am PDT, my roommate Gianin called from Switzerland to tell me with much excitement and breathless anxiety, “Jim, America is under attack! The World Trade Center doesn’t exist anymore!”

This was the same guy who tried to convince me that baby powder was cocaine, that there were UFOs over Malibu and other assorted practical jokes.

When I refused to believe him, he became exasperated. Then I thought, “Well, why would he be calling me so early?”

He begged me to turn on CNN and I did. I was shocked. Aaron Brown and Paula Zahn were talking and there was a shot from the top of CNN’s midtown headquarters at, I believe, Penn Plaza, showing that the World Trade Center no longer existed.

I do not think it is necessary to write about feelings of patriotism or recall the day in greater detail. I do believe the Twin Towers should be rebuilt, so, allow me to link to the piece I posted on July 16th to
Rebuild the Twin Towers.

Included in the post is a film about how the Twin Towers were built. We all know how they were destroyed. How they were built is, undoubtedly, even more fascinating.