Where were you on September 11, 2001

Sept 11 2001 Remembered

9-11, 2001. I was in my office working with my secretary Liz. My wife JoAnne called me and she said, "George, turn on your TV, turn on your TV.!"

I turned it on and one of the Trade Center towers was on fire. An announcer said that the trade center had just been hit. And then another plane right in front of our eyes hit the other tower. I said, "Liz, we're at war. I don't know with whom, but we're at war." One of my employer's subsidiaries was housed there and I prayed for their escape. I fretted about that that day, lost in disbelief.

The next day I found out that all my friends had gotten out! About three months later, I was at a charity golf event and the president of the company there that was at the trade center.  I asked, "What happened, John?"

He said, "I was sitting at my desk planning the day and suddenly the building shook. I saw kinds of debris falling from the building. And then I got a message from the New York Port Authority. All the managers and CEOs in the World Trade Center, we have this box on our desk. And the man from the Port Authority said, "Your building has just been hit by a small airplane. (Of course, we found out later that was a big jet airliner.) But the voice said, "Standard operating procedure is now in place. Stay where you are. Help is on its way up."

I said, "Obviously, you didn't do that, John." He said, "no, I pushed a button that went to every phone of our 1,000 people there. I said, 'This is John. Our building is in danger. I'm leaving. I'll be out in one minute. If you're on video after I've left, your career here is over. I swear to God, you're fired. Anybody who's here after I leave that door.' A lot of the others had heard from the Port Authority to stay where they were. But when they heard they were going to get fired, they all left."

I said, "John, that was heroic. You saved everybody."

He said, "No, not really. We had to take stairs all the way down. You couldn't use the elevators. And when I try to go to sleep at night, all I can see are the faces of those beautiful young men on their way up to rescue us. And it's hard. I can hardly keep from crying every night I go to bed. I'll never forgive the Muslims for what they did to us. We invited them into our country, and we're still inviting them into our country. And they're coming to destroy us. I'll never forgive them."

So that's my take on 9-11. We've invited people in whose total intention was to destroy us. And we have to stop this. Are we in a slow-motion suicide? It appears we are.

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