Today

It was harder watching the memorial ceremony at the World Trade Center on TV than it has been being there. I’m not sure why: Perhaps it’s the separation, perhaps the closer view one gets through a TV lens.

I watched the beginning of the ceremony and then had to go to church. I returned and it was still going on. It took so much longer to read the names of the dead than it took to murder them.

I looked at my watch all day and retraced not my steps but my hours: when I arrived at the World Trade Center… when I witnessed the worst of it… when the fireball of the second jet roared… when the first tower fell… when I found my refuge… when I left that refuge… when the second tower fell… when I came to this landmark and that landmark on my walk uptown… when I arrived at Times Square and wrote my story….

And still, they were not finished reading the names.

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9 Responses to “Today”

  1. Chris G. Says:

    I will never forget that day.

  2. Angelos Says:

    You didn’t miss much
    http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/09/what-if-you-threw-wargasm-and-nobody.html

  3. Angelos Says:

    Of course there were arrests for people expressing their freedom of speech, on a day celebrating freedom.

  4. John Says:

    My son was Baptized yesterday in Houston. With all of the problems associated with the aftermath of Katrina in Houston it was barely noticed here. My father mentioned that he had foregotten that it was the fourth anniversary and didn’t remember it until the priest mentined it in his homily.

  5. Angelos Says:

    “One protester [of the march], Rik Silverman, 27, of Arlington said he was holding a sign that said, “Shame on You” when a marcher leaned over the railing and punched him in the stomach. A U.S. Park Police officer wrote a report but no arrests were made.”

    And where are the aerial photos? I want turnout numbers!

    Freeeeeedom!

  6. Anthony Says:

    Thanks for sharing that, Jeff. I went back to Ground Zero again this year and wrote about how I felt on my blog. I can still remember almost every detail of that day four years later…

  7. BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Five years on: Tragic proportions Says:

    [...] On the six month anniversary, I wrote a sermon struggling with the meaning. On the first anniversary, the jahrzeit, I wrote another sermon about memory and soaked in the details of the day. I was, of course, more emotional about it then. In 2003, I was sorrowful. In 2004, angry. Last year, when I could not be there, I was uncharacteristically quiet. And this year? I will see how I feel after the bell rings and the names are read and then I rush up to work and then to a train (note: not a plane, not on 9/11, even is that is more a decision of superstition than fear) to Boston. [...]

  8. Alaska Says:

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  9. Massachucetts Says:

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