Everyone in their lifetime will have one significant day that will live within their heart and soul for the rest of their life. I'm not talking about a joyful day of memories of the birth of a child nor your wedding day. These days hold a different more meaningful place in the heart. I'm talking about a day in history that not just one or a few people shared or experienced but hundreds of people shared the in same event.
Some generations would say the attack on Pearl Harbor, while others may say when the Berlin Wall fell down or when the Challenger exploded. A lot of people may have more than one significant event in history that effected them. I have 3.
The OKC bombing was the first significant event to somehow shock me into realization that we as Americans are not so special after all. That we are not safe here on our little side of the earth away from everybody else. In fact were not even safe from our own. I was a junior in high school at the time in a little town just outside OKC. I had friends who were playing in a tennis tournament in downtown and literally experienced the blast as it was just a few blocks away. I had another friend who's Aunt was working in a building nearby and her car was trapped in the garage due to the explosion. I knew then that no one is safe and really secure.
Fast forward a few years later on a quiet morning doing my normal morning routine watching the Today show while the kids finished up breakfast. I literally witnessed every bit of live coverage of the plane hitting the first tower. I was there watching when Matt Lauer and everyone else speculated that it was a commuter plane hitting the tower. I remember how intrigued I was that I was witnessing it live, much to my dismay how much more it really was. When they realized that no this was not a commuter plane but a commercial jet plane, I raced up stairs to tell the hubs. C. was supposed to fly out that day. I've never seen him jump out of bed and race downstairs in my life. As soon as he got down the second plane hit. We sat in disbelief drinking in every bit of information we could, to figure out WTF was going on. I don't remember how many times I re winded the Blue Clues tape for the boys that day.
C. also knew that he wasn't flying out that day. As he was making his calls with clients and work, letting them know there was no way he was going to fly out, the first tower collapsed. I literally was numb. I didn't know what to think, but knew it scared the beejeebies out of me. What kind of world am I raising my kids to live in?
The unsettling thing about this dooms ville day besides the tragedy that it is, was that the hubs and I were in that very tower 6 months prior vacationing in NYC. The attacks were supposed to be carried out 6 months prior to 9/11.
The third worldly event I experienced was the explosion of the Columbia shuttle that literally happened right above our heads. Hubs and I were in bed that morning and he heard what he thought was a car back fire. Hubs didn't think it quite sounded like a car back fire and went outside to check it out. He looked all around and didn't see anything. I didn't take it as a big deal but for some reason C. has this weird 6th sense about things and he said something just didn't feel right. He said later that it sounded similar to the "boom" he felt when the OKC bombings happened. He turned on the T.V. and a good 10 minutes later they announced the shuttle explosion that happened over East Texas. Although it didn't impact hundreds it was still a significant event that happened too close to home.
We should all feel a little secure and safe in our own homes and yet there's always that little bit of insecurity within and the question of are we really safe? Will our country, our leaders, come through for us and promise to keep us safe and secure in our homes, in our own country? I really hope so.
No comments:
Post a Comment