Random Thinking

[ Mood: Very Sad]
[ Currently: Listening to the quiet of the house]

It’s after midnight… and I’m tired. For the last few days I have been avoiding reading or watching anything about the WTC. It is still too painful for me… because of that day but even more because of the memories it brings back of the attack in 1993. I was with Dean Witter, working on the 70th floor of Tower 2 for 10 years but I had left in early 1997 to find something closer to home.

But on February 26, 1993 I was on the 70th floor when I felt a gentle shake and heard a distant murmur. It felt and sounded like a big machine shutting down in the distance. Although I didn’t know it, six people, including a pregnant woman had died in that moment. The first indication that there was a problem was when the power went out and when smoke started coming up through the stairwells. Without power, it was those smoke-filled stairwells that were our only way to safety. The stairwells were pitch black because the Port Authority, who ran the buildings, had decided that since they had their own backup power supplies they didn’t need battery powered lights in the stairwells. But the explosion had destroyed all the generators and the power had to be turned off to protect the firemen who were spraying water to put out the fires.

We trudged down the 70 floors in the dark, with the only light being from the small pocket flashlights that some women carry in their pocketbooks. It took us 45 minutes to get down. When we finally exited the building, the news crews were there to film us and talk to us. It was only then that we saw that we were covered in soot. Traveling down the darkened stairwells, there was no way for us to see how much smoke and ash were in the stairwells. Because of their design, the stairwells had acted as chimneys, sucking the smoke out of the basement garage.

Even then we did not know the seriousness of the attack or even that it had been an attack. We were told there was a fire in the parking garage and that no one was hurt. With that we went off to a neighborhood bar to get cleaned up and have a drink. I remember washing up in the bathroom and when I thought I was finally cleaned up, I gently wiped my hands on the front of my suit and my hands came away completely blackened. The suit, my coat, my tie were all beyond hope and were thrown in the trash that night.

Ten people who worked for Dean Witter (it was Morgan Stanley by then) died in the attack on 9/11 even though Morgan Stanley occupied 22 floors. A good part of the reason so few died was the head of security, Rick Rescorla, who made sure that everyone evacuated even before the second plane struck. He died while checking to make sure everyone was out when the south tower collapsed. I remember Rick leading the evacuation drills that he insisted upon. After the attack in 1993, Rick was sure that another attack was going to occur and he insisted on us being prepared for it.

I will never understand the kind of evil that can plant a bomb in a parking garage in hopes of knocking down a building. Or the kind of evil that flies a jetliner into a building. But there is evil in this world, an evil that enjoys the suffering of others. We must find THAT evil and destroy it. We can never destroy all the world’s evil but we can and must destroy the evil that wishes to destroy us.

I didn’t know any of the people who died on 9/11. I didn’t know any of the people who died in the attack in 1993. I used to sit by the fountain/memorial that was erected in the plaza to commemorate the 1993 attack and try to come to grips with the evil in the world while thinking about the six people who lost their lives.

I made a page to remember the Twin Towers. http://www.downsyn.com/wtc.html