September 11

Ten years ago, I was working for Louisiana Pacific in the Web Department. We had just been hit with the NIMDA virus and all outside internet access had been killed. Additionally, our company was going to through some major changes. At home, I was knee-deep in a "grandmother" situation. The week of 9/10 was going to be super busy and emotional for me. Then on Tuesday, I was getting on the 105 heading to work and the bus driver said, "Did you hear that a plane crashed into the World Trade Center?"

I think that I was lucky. For everyone else, stuff was happening but they could not get out of our internal network to see. As far as I was concerned, my #1 priority became getting as much information that I could to my companies internal sites so that our employees, company-wide, could concentrate on what they were doing and know that their Web Department would share anything that happened with them. It was all on the front page. A week later, our Internet access was opened again so that people could "get out", but that started a trend in what was to become, my department. 9/11 started a lot of things for a lot of people.

NYT Front Page

I remember it like it happened yesterday. For several years, I couldn't even listen to patriotic music without tearing up. Watching that second plane live as it crashed. Feeling such sorrow for the First Responders that gave everything that day. Watching month after month as the volunteers worked on "the pile". It is in all of us who watched it. I try, everytime I see a police officer or fireman, to say something to them. There never seems to be a good opening. It must make them feel as awkward as it does me to say, but it needs to be said.

You are the ones that run toward the fire. You are the ones that catch the man with the gun. On 9/11, hundreds of you ran towards those burning buildings and got those people out. You climbed thousands of steps for the chance at helping just one more person survive. I cannot imagine the fear that you felt down inside when you saw the first building fall, but you did not let it show. You are the ones who put your lives on the line every day to keep us safe. THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU DO.

Victim #1:Fire Chaplain Father Mychal Judge. Killed when the first tower collapsed.

Shortly after 9/11, the comedian, Yakov Smirnoff created a giant mural which hung on a building overlooking Ground Zero for a long time. I would like to share it here. For a long time, this image was a backdrop for LP's Internal Homepage.  We cannot afford to forget the lessons learned that day.

Tomorrow is the 10th Anniversary of this fateful event. The day that we lost 3,123 people representing 40 countries. 

I hope that you all take a moment out of your day and remember where you were, how you felt and most of all, the innocent lives that were lost on that day.

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