9/11, I do remember too…

9/11, I do remember too…

Note: I meant this post to be the first one but did not have a chance to write it till today.

9/11 was the day when world has changed irreversibly when the second airplane hit the towers. Not the first airplane, but the second one changed the definition of terrorism in the world history when it crashed into the North Tower @ 8:46 A.M. Until then, everybody, including myself, was thinking of it as an unfortunate accident.

I remember every minute of the 9/11 morning.

I was sipping my coffee in my office at One Penn Plaza, and checking my emails when my older brother from Turkey called me to give the bad news. My immediate and most natural response was, "OK, but nothing to worry about, it must be an accident" then we hung up. Within seconds, before even I stepped out of my office, I heard a colleague at the isle, breathing heavily and saying, "Did you guys hear? An airplane hit the World Trade Center towers"? By that time, I assume everybody in New York City had heard about the incident.

After a few seconds of silence, everybody in the office started talking about how sad they are and whoever responsible for this mess should be punished, etc. But no one, literally no one, has thought of the possibility of a terrorist attack. That change, when we heard another colleague saying another plane crashed into the south tower. This time, not only were people angry and upset but also scared. One Penn Plaza has known to be in black list of terrorist, as it is standing above Penn station where couple of million of commuters arrive at every morning. Just when we were arguing if we should evacuate the building or not, we heard building management on the speakers, "please stand still till next announcement". We had waited for some time, but surely not long enough to hear the second announcement.

The scene outside of building was unforgettable; panicked people was flooding the streets, vehicle traffic was not moving at all, no signal on the cell phones, Port Authority Bus Terminal, Penn Station, Grand Central, subway lines and all tunnels were shut down. There was no way out of New York City, except one thing that I could not think of, until the moment I noticed people rushing towards it. Ferry Terminal! Ferry service across the river was still operational.

By the time I reached the end of ferry line, it was at around 42nd street - port is at 34th street. It took me 6 hrs to reach my apartment in Jersey and I consider myself lucky, as the end of the line was at 70s even after 7 hours.

In the aftermath of 9/11, I volunteer for engineer squad, commissioned to work at ground zero, to supervise the debris removal. I do not think I would ever be able to describe how I felt when, for the first time, I entered the site at around midnight. Till the end of my shift at 8 a.m., I have thought of a lot of things that I can’t remember right now, except one thing.

"This should have never happened..."

I worked at ground zero for about two months. I was the only Turkish and only Muslim person on the site. Although, my service in the field was related with my profession, I did not see it as a job. I rather wanted to see it as an expression of respect to those who had died at World Trade Center.

I can write about 9/11 and afterwards several pages long, but I would like to conclude with how this day changed the world around us.

-With the attack of World Trade Center, terrorism has been seen, by majority of people in the world, as a global problem rather than a regional issue, frequently associated with Middle East.

-People have started thinking that, if this could happen in US, most powerful country in the world, it could happen anywhere.

-Americans for the first time in their history felt how it is like to live with fear of terrorism.

-Americans came out of 9/11 as a stronger nation.

-Al-Quedia and Osama Bin Ladin (no one has ever heard of them prior to 9/11) were named as the world's biggest and most powerful terrorist organization and its leader by CIA.

-Last but not the least; What we know or have been told about the attacks is just top of the iceberg. Stand by for more facts and speculation in next five to ten years.