9/11

Eight years ago on 9/11 I had an early neurology appointment.  The secretaries behind the counter were talking about a plane hitting a building in NY and I thought it was some sort of rumor.  Then I got to school (I was a high school teacher) and found out what had happened.  This was a private school with tuition $13-$14,000 dollars.  The kids parents were "big shots" (my words) and might be traveling anywhere without the kids necessarily knowing about it.  The kids were panicked and we had to let them use their cell phones to reach their parents.  Then we put it on TV. My wife and I knew 3 people who were at ground zero, all longtime friends of our kids.  One of them was arriving to work late, got out of a cab and saw the first plane hit.  He called his Dad here in Florida to tell him about it and his Dad's advice was simple:  get in a cab NOW and leave.  The second one worked across the street from the towers and saw it happen.  When she was evacuated she had to walk out of Manhattan, covered in a choking grey cloud of ash, over a bridge.  She was really traumatized and probably will never be willing to go back to New York.  Her company transferred her to San Francisco.  The third one was her cousin.  He was trapped in an elevator and called his Mom to say goodbye.  My father's family were pretty tough people who would rarely back down from a confrontation.  One thing I was taught - never hit a woman.  This is what makes terrorists cowards.  They don't attack Marine Corps bases, they attack women and children, unarmed people who can't fight back.