Silent, Sobering, Somber

The following is my account of visiting the site of the attacks on September 11, 2001.  I was in New York in late summer, 2008.  

On a recent trip to New York, I visited most of the tourist attractions that everyone does when they're in the city: The Empire State Building, 5^th Avenue, Times Square, etc.  I enjoyed the lights, the commotion and the general fast paced mode into which all the locals seemed to be locked.  I rode the subway, took my first cab ride, spoke to many people that didn't speak my language very well, got lost, looked stupid and still managed to have a good time. 

            Despite all of the things I saw and did, one thing will stand out in my mind forever.  In a part of the city away from the bright lights and the noise, is a place that packs an emotional force like no other I've ever visited.  It was once the sight of the center of trade for the entire country, the entire world.  It is now a memorial.  A place all Americans know as Ground Zero. 

            On September 11, 2001, the worst attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor was put in motion.  Everyone remembers where they were, what they were doing and how menial any task set for the day became.  I was in school, and it was a day like no other I've ever experienced.  The feelings I had at the time bear no weight in comparison to what I felt looking at the site of what once had been the World Trade Center. 

            I was there late at night, long after the crowds of the day had moved through.  There were no people talking, no car horns blaring, no music playing.  There was nothing but the distant hum of machinery working to rebuild the destroyed foundation and the weight of an event so terrible, that despite the fact I had to personal connection to anyone directly involved, it still brings tears almost seven years later. 

            The group I was with all felt the same I believe, standing there looking up at the plaques that contained the names of all those lives that had been lost.  To look over name after name after name and wonder what it was like to be in the city the day it was taken over by a cloud of dust and debris.  To be able to look both directions and see nothing either way is a devastating thought.

            I can't drag from the recesses of my mind what it was like to sit and watch those tragic events unfold on TV, and there is no way I could ever imagine what it was like to be able to look up and see them happening right in front of you.  A place you called home, where you should feel safe, had just been changed forever.  I can't put in to words what it was like to stand there and look out over the rebuilding process.  Illuminated by spotlights, surrounded by noise, and yet still so peaceful, it was a place like no other I've ever been.  It felt as though one could still here every one of the victims of that day cry out. 

            We only spent a short time at the site, staring through the chain link fence that surrounded the construction, but it felt like much longer.  I don’t think I’ve ever felt a similar sensation by just visiting a specific location.  Arlington National Cemetery, Civil War battlefields, locations that were once the site of some violent act, none of them have ever had an impact on my emotions as did this once bustling location. 

A true musical artist captured the thoughts of the entire country in a song he released late in 2001.  Alan Jackson asked "where were you when the world stopped turning?"  During a late April evening in 2008, the world didn't stop turning for me, but something definitely made it slow its pace and made me wonder…how do we get back?