September 11th, 2001, I was 6 months pregnant with Lila. I was working light duty in the office at GCSU in parking. While I was sitting at the desk, one of our physical plant workers came through the door asking if we had heard about the bombing of the World Trade Center. I did not know what he was talking about. He asked if we had a radio or tv in the police department. We had a tv that had cable in the shift briefing room. Pete was working evening shift at the time. I called him at home and told him to turn on the news that our physical plant worker had said that there was a bombing. Pete turned on the news. As I talked to him on the phone, he said "Marci there was a second plane!" They just showed a second plane slamming into the second tower. I went to watch the tv in the shift room. I was in shock. I had not ever seen anything like what was on tv. Terrorism was not a word that ever came up in any conversation that I had ever had, not even in law enforcement.
When there was a bombing of the World Trade Center back in 1993, I dont know where I was. I was about 20 years old and Im sure that I didnt watch the news. I probably had my head stuck under a rock somewhere. According to Wikipedia, here is what happened:
The 1993 World Trade Center bombing occurred on February 26, 1993, when a car bomb was detonated below Tower One of the World Trade Center in New York City. The 1,500 lb (680 kg) urea nitrate-hydrogen gas enhanced device[1] was intended to knock the North Tower (Tower One) into the South Tower (Tower Two), bringing both towers down and killing thousands of people.[2][3] It failed to do so, but did kill six people and injured 1,042.
The attack was planned by a group of conspirators including Ramzi Yousef, Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Nidal Ayyad, Abdul Rahman Yasin and Ahmad Ajaj. They received financing from Khaled Shaikh Mohammed, Yousef's uncle. In March 1994, four men were convicted of carrying out the bombing: Abouhalima, Ajaj, Ayyad and Salameh. The charges included conspiracy, explosive destruction of property and interstate transportation of explosives. And in November 1997, two more were convicted: Yousef, the mastermind behind the bombings, and Eyad Ismoil, who drove the truck carrying the bomb.
The attack was planned by a group of conspirators including Ramzi Yousef, Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Nidal Ayyad, Abdul Rahman Yasin and Ahmad Ajaj. They received financing from Khaled Shaikh Mohammed, Yousef's uncle. In March 1994, four men were convicted of carrying out the bombing: Abouhalima, Ajaj, Ayyad and Salameh. The charges included conspiracy, explosive destruction of property and interstate transportation of explosives. And in November 1997, two more were convicted: Yousef, the mastermind behind the bombings, and Eyad Ismoil, who drove the truck carrying the bomb.
How I missed hearing about this, I will never know. But there was no way around hearing about 9-11. That morning, I was just sick. The thought actually crossed my mind about what the stress might do to my unborn Lila. I just didnt know what our world was coming to. I didnt know if terrorists were going to be able to infiltrate our Nation and wreak unbelievable havoc that we wouldn't be able to defend ourselves from. And truly they did. Im just grateful that it stopped where it did.
For days, we stayed glued to the tv. Pete and I sat on the couch together sobbing. All those families posted pictures on boards looking for missing people. So many of our brothers and sisters in law enforcement and with the fire departments were missing or known to be dead. Service men and women of all types (especially the Port Authority folks) went out to assist in any way possible. Many of those people didn't live.
To this day, I still can not believe what happened. And then for it to happen again at the Pentagon and later still in that field where the courageous passengers took the plane down. I pray that we never, ever have to witness a terrorist attack.
In the last 20 years, our country has taken a beating from terrorists. Some domestic terrorists have caused tremendous devastation including the Oklahoma City bombing, the Centennial Olympic Park bombing (which could have turned out much worse than it did!), Columbine High School shootings and Virginia Tech. And what about those poor Amish people that suffered through the killings of their children in their school house?
I don't know why some people are so evil and feel the need to destroy so much. All I know is that we as a nation need to continue to pray for our soldiers that are fighting a mighty battle. We must pray for a hedge of protection around our nation to protect us from foreign and domestic terrorists. Each person must do their part to keep their eyes wide open to people that make idle threats or that clearly lay out plans to cause harm to our families.
How many plans for school shootings have been sabotaged because someone told? How many potential terrorist attacks has our government averted through investigations and reports made by private citizens? Thank God that some people have made the choice to speak up. Thank God we have a military that protects us.
I still pray for the families that were devastated by 9-11. I hope that its a day that we all continue to remember and to take the threat of terrorism very seriously. I never want to witness anything like this ever again. But just like the threat of terrorism is very real...the threat of apathy is greater!
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